Sex and the City
The Real Me
TV Flash files “The Real Me” as a desk essential hour — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 4, episode 2, aired 2001-06-03, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E02: listed hour 50 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, hour 2 of 18 in season 4. It aired 2001-06-03 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Agony and the 'Ex'-tacy” (S04E01). Next is “Defining Moments” (S04E03).
Essential hour: “The Real Me”. The fashion-show hour. Looking becomes the plot, not the garnish.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Carrie faces a bit of an identity crisis when she's asked to be in a big fashion charity show featuring both models and real people. Samantha, on the other hand, has no problem baring her body beautiful, and decides to have nude photographs taken, insisting they're for herself, not for men. Utterly unaware of her sex appeal, Miranda is shocked when Dave, a guy from Crunch gym, tells her she's sexy and asks her out. Carrie realizes we can see our friends perfectly, but we can't seem to see ourselves clearly. After some convincing from her friends - and when she finds out she can keep the outfit - Carrie decides to be a "model." Meanwhile, Charlotte discovers that she has "vulvodynia" and that she needs to take anti-depressants - not for her mind but for her vagina. The girls are surprised when Charlotte reveals that she's never looked at herself up-close because she finds herself ugly down there. Miranda's first date with Dave is a success and she starts enjoying feeling sexy. However, when she exhibits her self-confidence on their second date, Dave doesn't respond. Samantha brings in her nude photo to be framed and is dismayed when the framer doesn't react to her body. On the night of the fashion show, Carrie is informed there's been a wardrobe change and she has to wear a tiny pair of jeweled underwear. She freaks, but all done up and looking fabulous, Samantha assures her that she is a model. Carrie starts her walk down the runway only to fall flat on her face. Faced with a choice, Carrie gets back up and finishes her catwalk to cheers. Her act of bravery inspires the girls. Miranda confronts Dave about why he hasn't called her and finds out he thinks she's full of herself. Samantha's night is made when a take-out delivery guy sees her photo and comments on her "nice ass," and Charlotte grabs a mirror and takes a good, hard look.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Real Me sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S04E02 is listed hour 50 of 94 — hour 2 of 18 in season 4, season 4 episode 2.
When did Sex and the City S04E02 air?
The Real Me aired 2001-06-03 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…