Sex and the City
Where's There's Smoke...
TV Flash files “Where's There's Smoke...” as the first listed hour of season 3 — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 3, episode 1, aired 2000-06-04, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E01: listed hour 31 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, first listed hour of season 3. It aired 2000-06-04 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Ex and the City” (S02E18). Next is “Politically Erect” (S03E02).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Carrie and her posse venture across the river to Staten Island for the New York City Fire Department's "Calendar Contest." It's not long before Samantha locks eyes with her dream hunk, Ricky, and even less time before she finds out just how hot he is. But on a surprise visit to the firehouse, Samantha's red-hot fantasy is shattered when she encounters a back room of average men eating popcorn in front of the TV and even worse, when her romp with Ricky is cut short by a real fire, leaving her naked and aghast. Meanwhile, Bill Kelley, an older local politician, makes the moves on Carrie, but doesn't get very far. Drunk on the ferry ride home, Charlotte declares that this is the year she will get married. Rehashing the night over brunch, Charlotte blurts out that the reason firemen are so hot is because they fulfill women's fantasy of being rescued. But Miranda refuses to be rescued, and when her doctor says she needs someone to take her home after her laser vision surgery, she tries to manage on her own. Steve insists, showing Miranda that being rescued isn't always a sign of weakness. Charlotte goes on a date with Arthur, her latest prince charming. But after Arthur gets into a few fist fights, Charlotte realizes he's a bully, not a prince. Politician Bill campaigns for Carrie's attention, and eventually she gives in to a coat room kiss, but not more...
Viewer FAQ
Where does Where's There's Smoke... sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S03E01 is listed hour 31 of 94 — first listed hour of season 3, season 3 episode 1.
When did Sex and the City S03E01 air?
Where's There's Smoke... aired 2000-06-04 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Season 1, episode 1. The voiceover and the four-silhouette contract are the whole machine.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as the original big-city look book: four women, a voiceover, and shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Manhattan is a lighting setup. The reboot noise is later; this run is the template every brunch-core series still copies.
The first thing you see is a woman on a street that is really a runway. Carrie Bradshaw’s voiceover is a fashion dispatch with dating as the alibi. HBO at the end of the 1990s did not accidentally invent the look book as comedy-drama. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon made Manhattan photograph as a weekly fitting: four silhouettes, four theories of sex, one city that never dressed casual unless the casual cost more. Style is the plot. The shoe is not a punchline. The shoe is a…
Filed against
- Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw typed Manhattan desire into a global lifestyle franchise — Sex and the City as fashion, friendship, brunch as appointment TV, and shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Reboots…
- Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones
Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones made brunch into a press strategy on Sex and the City — four women, a voiceover, shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Skin as branding, Manhattan as a campaign. On TV Flash she is the…
- Kristin Davis as Charlotte York
Kristin Davis’s Charlotte York is Sex and the City’s corporate sheath — architecture in a brunch quartet, shoes as character work, Manhattan sidewalk as campaign. Four women and a voiceover; her column is the manners. On TV Flash she is…
- Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes
Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda Hobbes was Sex and the City’s sharpest counterweight — lawyer skepticism, Brooklyn realism, friendship as lifestyle franchise. A practical coat doing more character work than half the boyfriends. TV Flash still…
- Chris Noth as Mr. Big
Chris Noth’s Det. Mike Logan helped launch Law & Order’s dun-dun empire before Mr. Big made him Sex and the City’s emotional cliffhanger machine. Sparse Manhattan cool and endless will-they discourse built a dual-brand career. TV Flash…