‘Sex and the City': We Need To Talk About Timothy Olyphant’s Cameo

Who even needs coffee filters anyway?

Timothy Olyphant may currently be known for his recent stand-out turns on TV shows including the likes of smash hit Daisy Jones & The Six and the subtly epic The Mandalorian, but he also stole the show in an episode of the seminal show which has seen a recent reboot, Sex and the City. Playing the carefree and affable character of Sam in the first season of the show, this is a youthfully unkempt Olyphant you may have not seen before — or at least since the likes of his villainous turn in Go just over a year after.

Soon to appear in a Steven Soderbergh crime thriller series on Max, and of course, the long-awaited sequel series Justified: City Primeval, Olyphant has proven himself to be a chameleon throughout his career, with his role in Sex and the City being a small but memorably enjoyable addition to his on-screen credits.

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Appearing in Season 1 in the wittily titled episode "Valley of the Twenty-Something Guys," Olyphant plays Sam, Carrie's (Sarah Jessica Parker) current fling. During this episode, through her own experiences and those of her friends, Carrie explores the reality of dating men in their twenties whilst being in their thirties themselves. At first, she finds it both a fun outlet and a distraction from the mixed signals that the on-again-off-again Mr. Big is sending. Olyphant enthusiastically embodies the role of a fun, uncomplicated, and refreshingly guileless love interest, and it is enjoyable to watch him in such a carefree role, charming Carrie in the coolly dingy Manhattan club with his youthfully tousled hair. Engaging with Sam in numerous spontaneous make-out sessions, Carrie easily becomes swept up in his infectious exuberance.

Many A-list stars including Bradley Cooper, Vince Vaughn, and Justin Theroux all played Carrie's short-term love interest at one time or another in Sex and the City. While they are all entertaining to watch, and they all embody widely contrasting characters, there is a downside to their portrayals. Many of these brief love interests, especially in the earlier seasons prior to long-term love Aidan, are used to enable Carrie and her friends to investigate an element of modern dating, and as such, can be reduced to surface-level characters. Bradley Cooper, for instance, portrays a guy in Season 2 who is solely utilized to remind Carrie of her recently shaken faith in her single status.

In Timothy Olyphant's episode, Carrie's key focus is on the younger age of the men that she, Samantha, and Miranda are currently dating, and in her voice-overs, she analyzes the suitability of dating older versus younger age groups. Feeling like a misfit in the club she and Samantha arrive at during the episode, Carrie categorizes the various twenty-something men into the archetypes of "the groovy guy, the corporate guy, the jock guy." The series frequently reduces potential romantic partners — as well as other secondary characters — to stereotypes, in service of bolstering the hypotheses that Carrie conceives for her sex column.

Sam particularly reflects the various stereotypes of youth; he has a fashionably disheveled appearance, is open to having a relaxed dalliance with Carrie, and even sports a tongue piercing. Despite the good qualities he may bring to their relationship, the ultimate message is that Sam is too young for Carrie in spirit, with his horrifically messy apartment and chaotic living style serving as an alarming wake-up call at the episode's finale. Toilet paper for coffee filters, anyone?

Despite the cartoonish ways in which many of Carrie's men can be depicted, Olyphant's role is highly engaging, not the least because it is largely comedic. When Carrie wakes up in his apartment at the end of the episode, he is distracted from her pleas for coffee, instead recounting a strange dream he had, in which he had "big aluminum hands." He continues to be preoccupied with describing the dream whilst Carrie desperately goes in search of coffee, even proceeding to go off on a tangent by singing a song that his dream inspired. These absent-minded musings are matched by his complete lack of embarrassment — or awareness — about the terrible state of his kitchen, with dirty dishes piled in the sink, and clutter on every surface. His scatty approach to life wraps up the episode in a comedic way, with the lack of toilet paper in the bathroom prompting Carrie's speedy exit.

It may have been one of Carrie's shorter flings, and he may have largely been posed as a caricature to aid in her growth, but Sam remains one of the most endearing of the men that Carrie dates in Sex and the City, brought to life by Timothy Olyphant's warm presence.