Ally McBeal
Sex, Lies and Second Thoughts
TV Flash files “Sex, Lies and Second Thoughts” as a desk essential hour — Ally McBeal (1997–2002) on Fox, season 4, episode 1, aired 2000-10-23, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E01: listed hour 68 of 112 in the Ally McBeal guide, first listed hour of season 4. It aired 2000-10-23 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Ally McBeal: The Musical, Almost” (S03E21). Next is “Girls' Night Out” (S04E02).
Essential hour: “Sex, Lies and Second Thoughts”. Sex, Lies and Second Thoughts: late-run firm soap, hemline discourse included, still refusing to be only a case.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Brian asks Ally to move in with him, but she questions the entire relationship mostly because their sex life is lackluster. She turns to Renee and a new therapist, who has oddly taken over Tracy's office, for advice. At the firm, Cage and Fish represent a woman who wants her six-year-marriage annulled because she suspects her husband married her for her money. The woman, who is unattractive, says she and her husband were always great friends and she believed he just had no interest in sex. However, after she catches him cheating on her with a model, she changes her mind about him.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Sex, Lies and Second Thoughts sit in the Ally McBeal guide?
S04E01 is listed hour 68 of 112 — first listed hour of season 4, season 4 episode 1.
When did Ally McBeal S04E01 air?
Sex, Lies and Second Thoughts aired 2000-10-23 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Is it a comedy or a drama?
A hybrid legal dramedy with heavy fantasy and musical elements; it won Emmys in comedy even while wearing courtroom clothes.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Young lawyer, Boston firm, inner monologues that literally dance into frame. David E. Kelley's Fox hybrid made fantasy cutaways, unisex bathrooms, and Vonda Shepard's jukebox into a weather system. Calista Flockhart became a late-1990s Rorschach test for gender politics and hemlines. Watercooler TV that argued with itself in public — dancing baby included.
The look is a short skirt and a dancing inner life. Young lawyer Ally joins a quirky Boston firm where cases matter less than exes, longings, and monologues that literally dance into frame. David E. Kelley's Fox drama-comedy premiered September 8, 1997 and made fantasy cutaways, unisex bathrooms, and Vonda Shepard's soundtrack into a cultural weather system. Calista Flockhart's Ally became a late-1990s Rorschach test for gender politics, workplace desire, and skirt-length discourse. Greg Germann, Jane Krakowski,…
Filed against
- Calista Flockhart as Ally McBeal
Calista Flockhart became a late-1990s Rorschach test as Ally McBeal — young lawyer, Boston firm, inner monologues that danced into frame. David E. Kelley's Fox hybrid: fantasy cutaways, unisex bathrooms, Vonda Shepard's jukebox as…
- Greg Germann as Richard Fish
Greg Germann's Richard Fish turned Ally McBeal's Boston firm into a greed-is-good punchline — David E. Kelley fantasy cutaways, unisex bathrooms, Vonda Shepard's jukebox as weather. By any means necessary, said with a smile. TV Flash…
- Jane Krakowski as Elaine Vassal
Jane Krakowski’s Elaine Vassal made Ally McBeal a secretary with Broadway voltage — 1990s catalog dancing inner monologues, then 30 Rock stretching the sparkle into Jenna’s sketch-show narcissism. TV Flash files her as the assistant who…
- Peter MacNicol as John Cage
Peter MacNicol played John Cage on Ally McBeal, David E. Kelley’s 1990s Fox hybrid — young lawyer, Boston firm, inner monologues that dance into frame, unisex bathrooms, Vonda Shepard’s jukebox as a weather system. Calista Flockhart as a…
- Lucy Liu as Ling Woo
Lucy Liu iced the unisex bathroom as Ling Woo on Ally McBeal — David E. Kelley’s Boston-firm fantasy, inner monologues dancing into frame, Vonda Shepard as weather, Calista Flockhart as a late-1990s Rorschach. Sharp tongue, sharper…
- Gil Bellows as Billy Thomas
Gil Bellows played Billy Thomas on Ally McBeal — the old-flame gravity in David E. Kelley's Boston-firm fantasy, unisex bathrooms, Vonda Shepard jukebox, inner monologues that danced into frame. Late-1990s Fox hybrid weather. TV Flash…