The HBO series Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) as they balance their careers, friendships, and romantic relationships. Because they are all in their 30s when the original series takes place, the show navigates a lot of adult milestones, like career setbacks, marriage, and having children.

Where Sex and the City truly flourishes is in its showcase of female friendships as they navigate their own lives. The four women at the center of their show have their own storylines, their own romances, and their own conflicts to overcome, but they are there for one another when it counts. They go out to have a good time, one another when others critique their lifestyle, and have frank discussions about relationships, health, and sexuality. The best episodes of Sex and the City are the ones that allow all of those aspects to be explored.

10 The Baby Shower

Season 1, Episode 10

...the only episode of the first season to land among the best episodes of Sex and the City...

In the first season of a show, a series usually takes some time to find its footing. It takes a few episodes for writers to get the characters fully established and understand the full dynamics of the ensemble they’re writing for. That’s the case in the first season of Sex and the City as well. Many of the stylistic choices in the first season, like Carrie frequently breaking the fourth wall, would end up abandoned. What is firmly established in the season, however, is the friendship between the four main characters.

“The Baby Shower” helps solidify that dynamic in what is easily the best episode of the first season. It is the only episode of the first season to land among the best episodes of Sex and the City because it is the episode that feels like it truly establishes who the characters are and how they relate to one another. The episode sees the four friends on a trip to a Connecticut suburb to visit a former party girl who is starting a family. They’ve been invited to her baby shower and are clearly out of their element while there.

The episode includes such gems as Samantha standing up for Charlotte when the dynamic between them was still shifting and all four women confessing their fears to one another while out. It’s the kind of episode that shows the potential of the show and what it would become.

9 They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?

Season 2, Episode 4

One of the throughlines of the show is just how four women in their thirties approach being single when everyone just outside of their social circle is getting married and starting families. In sitcoms and dramas alike centered on this age group, coming-of-age is often equated with marrying and having children, and people not ready to do that are seen as something “other” or shameful. This episode takes on that idea head-on.

The episode sees Carrie head into a photo shoot for New York Magazine cover story in which they celebrate being “single and fabulous,” but the magazine turns Carrie’s status into a question mark as they use what were supposed to be test photos of her clearly hungover, makeup-free, and smoking as their final images. The article and the cover shoot are used to shame her instead of celebrate her.

Carrie and her friends all start focusing on relationships that are ill-fitting in which they fake being happy to see if the relationships can be what they want anyway. Carrie, ultimately, embraces her single status and goes out to dinner alone, enjoying herself, and trying not to let the magazine article cause her to spiral further. It’s one of the first demonstrations in the show that reminds the audience being single does not have to be a bad thing, and it’s something the series should have celebrated more instead of focusing so hard on romance as it continued.

8 Coulda Woulda Shoulda

Season 4, Episode 11

“Coulda Woulda Shoulda” is one of the best episodes of Sex and the City because it handles what is often considered a taboo topic with frank discussion, realistic circumstances, and a whole lot of grace for the characters. In this episode, Miranda has revealed her pregnancy to the group - and that she does not plan on keeping the baby. It’s a change of pace since television will often avoid discussions of pregnancy termination completely, preferring to pretend that abortions do not exist at all.

The episode is able to be realistic about Miranda’s circumstances and the past circumstances of her friends. Both Carrie and Samantha open up about having abortions in the past, and Carrie even decides to seek out the man she had a one-night stand with to see what he is like now. As it turns out, he is still a waiter at the same place and does not even her. While she has been carrying around shame about her experience, Samantha has not, and talking about it helps Carrie let go of the shame and accept that she did what was right for her.

Miranda ultimately decides to see the pregnancy through and to tell Steve, as fans of the show know, but this episode is really a landmark television episode because it allows Miranda to truly consider her choice and get the benefit of the experience of her own friends. Unwanted pregnancy is not swept under the rug, and the characters feel all the more real for that.

7 Frenemies

Season 3, Episode 16

While Sex and the City is an ensemble show, more often than not, it is really telling Carrie’s story. As a result, episodes that allow the other characters to shine a little brighter than her are welcome. “Frenemies” is one of those episodes. While Carrie is busy hilariously teaching a class on how to pick up men, Charlotte and Samantha get more of the spotlight.

Charlotte and Samantha’s friendship does not get highlighted as often in the show. They feel like they are worlds apart because Samantha sees herself as truly liberated while Charlotte often feels more prudish. Here, however, they bond and find they really are not that different. Charlotte spends the episode learning to embrace her inner Samantha while Samantha begins to it that she does have her own limits.

It’s such a fun time to see Davis and Cattrall work together more, especially when Davis gets to attempt to embody how Cattrall plays Samantha.

6 Critical Condition

Season 5, Episode 6

Because season 5 is a truncated season compared to the rest of the series, the stories tend to happen very quickly. That means that not all of the episodes provide great looks at all of the characters, and Miranda raising her son and avoiding her feelings gets the biggest story arc. This episode, however, is a great showcase for all four of the main characters because they each have their own smaller storylines to play out.

Charlotte has it out with her ex’s mother, Miranda its she needs a break from her son, Samantha steps up to help Miranda, and Carrie owns up to some of her past mistakes. It’s a great blennd of hilarity and heartfelt moments since Charlotte’s scenes are so funny and Miranda’s sell the realism of being a new mom. Even Carrie, who seemingly can never it that she is at fault, grows a bit in the episode as she understands how badly she hurt Aidan in the past.

5 Hot Child In The City

Season 3, Episode 15

Because shows about characters in their 30s usually come with the sense of a ticking clock, or reminding the audience of all the things they “need to do” by a certain age, there are also a lot of episodes that seek to put age and youth in perspective for both the audience and the characters. “Hot Child In The City” is all about youth, especially in regards to Samantha and Carrie’s storylines, which are the standouts of the episode.

Samantha is hired as the Public Relations representative for a very rich 13-year-old girl who wants PR for her bat mitzvah festivities. Samantha is surprised by this child who appears to have already skipped the years of her youth and gone straight to being a little adult. The experience of working for her makes Samantha realize that, though she might initially be jealous of the young girl’s wealth and privilege, she got to experience a real childhood instead of being ushered into adult responsibilities. It’s a great emotional storyline for her.

Carrie, on the other hand, gets a slightly more comedic storyline for the hour. She connects with a younger man who owns a comic book store, takes her on dates to the arcade, and helps her indulge in a little substance use on the balcony of his parents’ apartment. While Carrie initially likes being with him because she feels like she’s recapturing her youth, she also realizes that maybe she does not need to recapture it with him.

4 A Woman’s Right To Shoes

Season 6, Episode 9

Happy endings are not the same for every woman, and they should not be the same for every fictional character.

When Sex and the City showcases the independence of its main characters from romantic partners, family, and societal conventions in general, the series is at its best. By the end of the show, a lot of that independence is gone, and there’s nothing wrong with characters experiencing a journey in which they learn to lean on other people, like Miranda parenting with Steve or Samantha in the wake of her breast cancer diagnosis. Becoming a mother and experiencing a drastic change in health are realistic storylines for the show, but so is remaining single and without children.

That’s something that it’s important for Sex and the City to showcase. Happy endings are not the same for every woman, and they should not be the same for every fictional character. So, this episode, in which Carrie’s lifestyle is called out by a woman who does not believe Carrie’s life holds as much meaning as a woman who becomes a mother, and Carrie gets to explore exactly why her life does have meaning, is an important one. It’s fantastic that the show allows Carrie to celebrate not being a mom in the same way that Charlotte is able to celebrate being one.

These two women are very different from one another, and the series does a great job at explaining that without feeling like it is advocating for one life path over another.

3 The Real Me

Season 4, Episode 2

This particular Sex and the City episode is most likely ed as the episode in which Carrie walks the runway in a fashion show and falls flat on her face. While that sequence is certainly visually memorable, that’s not all that happens in the episode. It’s a head-on look at insecurity among the main characters.

Though Carrie falls during the show (and ittedly has immense stage fright despite baring her soul in the pages of her column on a regular basis), when she is home that night, she puts on her heels, gets up, and struts around her apartment. Carrie demonstrates that she is determined not to allow her fears and insecurities to stop her from living her life to the fullest, which is one of her best character traits.

Aside from Carrie, Miranda grapples with what it means to be sexy, Charlotte becomes more introspective, and Samantha focuses on her body. Each of the women deals with their insecurities differently, and the episode offers a great examination of each character through those insecurities and flaws.

2 An American Girl In Paris: Part Deux

Season 6, Episode 20

The series finale is a very divisive one for Sex and the City fans because very few fans of the show, at the time, wanted to see Carrie go back to Big. They wanted to see Carrie embrace her independence again. The last season, however, is marred by Carrie’s involvement in relationships that attempt to tie her down, so it does make sense that Carrie would choose to find the person she feels is really hers at the end of the show.

Part of the fun of the episode, however, is that it goes all out for the cheesy romantic comedy happy ending for Carrie, allowing her to fully embrace that side of herself (again) with Big. It also strives to find satisfying conclusions for every member of the ensemble, not leaving anyone’s stories hanging.

It would have worked great as a true finale for the show, but, of course, the stories of these characters have been revived in movies and the revival series …And Just Like That since.

1 Ex And The City

Season 2, Episode 18

...the perfect blend of humor and heart and growth...

Big might be one of the biggest love interests that Carrie has throughout the Sex and the City franchise. Her breakup with him, however, makes for the best episode of Sex and the City. That’s largely because the episode features some of the most iconic moments of the friendship between the women in the episode. It is also the best Carrie episode of the series.

Carrie and Big fall in and out of a relationship with one another several times throughout the series. Here, it seems like they’re done for good when Carrie is the one to quote “The Way We Were” to him and end things for herself after learning he’s engaged to someone else. It’s a moment that feels like Carrie is truly growing and moving forward with her life, and that’s why so many fans are frustrated when Big returns later in the show.

Of course, the episode also has fun storylines like Samantha dating someone who is just too well endowed, Miranda and Steve sleeping together again after already breaking up, and Charlotte trying to overcome one of her fears. It is the perfect blend of humor and heart and growth that Sex and the City is able to do so well when the show and its writers are on their A-game.