The 10 best episodes about sex in Sex And The City

It’s been 23 years since the show premiered, but the discussion around Sex And The City has never really died down—especially as new generations of viewers consume a show that once offered some of the most candid depictions of sex on TV to go with its celebration of female friendships. The pendulum has swung between plaudits and criticism, but even with all the sexually frank series and women-led comedies that have premiered since Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis first strutted around New York City together, there’s still a lot to enjoy about Sex And The City.

SATC’s portrayal of sexual encounters and conundrums, which could often be retrograde, still yielded many memorable moments. With a revival, And Just Like That…, premiering on HBO Max on December 9, the quartet-turned-trio will have a chance to make amends for the past and greater strides. But for our latest Inventory, The A.V. Club revisited the original series and found 10 episodes about sex that still hold up more than 20 years later.

“Three’s A Crowd” (season one, episode eight)

“Threesomes are the blow job of the ’90s,” Samantha Jones declares in SATC’s eighth episode. Directed by Nicole Holofcener, “Three’s A Crowd” does an inspired job of manifesting the week’s sex theme—in this case, threesomes—in a variety of intriguing ways. Surprisingly, Charlotte comes the closest to inviting a woman to join her and her adventurous boyfriend Jack (Joseph Murphy), only to discover that it’s just Jack’s way of sleeping with someone else. Independent Samantha is not interested in mending the marriage of her lover and his wife by joining them in a tryst, however, and Miranda once again gets the dregs of the episode focus when she feels rejected by her friends because none of them wants to have a threesome with her. Carrie’s triangle, of course, is emotional, as she finds out Big (Chris Noth) has been married before, leading to his ex-wife’s unwanted phantom presence in her bed. [Gwen Ihnat]