Sex and the City
Belles of the Balls
TV Flash files “Belles of the Balls” as hour 58 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 4, episode 10, aired 2001-07-29, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E10: listed hour 58 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, hour 10 of 18 in season 4. It aired 2001-07-29 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Sex and the Country” (S04E09). Next is “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda” (S04E11).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Steve is feeling insecure, less manly and lopsided with only one ball left. Trey's manhood is also challenged when Charlotte tells him he needs to get his sperm tested since she hasn't gotten pregnant yet. Big is depressed because his new movie star girlfriend is dissing him and he calls Carrie for support, which angers Aidan. Carrie realizes that Aidan still feels threatened by Big. She wonders: Are men just women with balls? Samantha gets an appointment with ball-buster hotel magnate Richard Wright and tries to win an account. He tells her she would need to work with a partner - a male partner. Samantha realizes he just doesn't want to hire a woman. Up at Aidan's country house, Carrie gets another call from Big, who is so distraught he says he'll drive up there to talk with her. Aidan fumes when he finds out. Big arrives, gets drunk and has to spend the night. The next day, Carrie tells Big he has to make friends with Aidan. When he goes out to apologize to Aidan, the two end up wrestling in the mud. With the testosterone tension broken, the two bond as Big confides in Aidan about his girl problems. Samantha returns to Richard Wright and though Richard admits she's the best person for the job, he says he won't hire her because she slept with his architect. Samantha tells him off and then runs into the elevator as she's about to start crying. The next day, Richard hires her, saying he's impressed with her "balls." Steve tells Miranda that he's interested in getting a testicle implant and they visit a specialist. They find out the procedure is still in clinical trials and Miranda tells Steve to forget about it. Miranda tries to help Steve heal emotionally but she realizes that what Steve needs is a woman who wants to have sex with him. So, she takes him to bed.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Belles of the Balls sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S04E10 is listed hour 58 of 94 — hour 10 of 18 in season 4, season 4 episode 10.
When did Sex and the City S04E10 air?
Belles of the Balls aired 2001-07-29 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…