Watching Studio60

Our Sports Night re-watching session continues today with “Smoky,” the twelfth episode of Sports Night. Join me in reviewing the episode today, and come back through the week for a recap and memorable lines.

“Smokey” marks the beginning of the Dana-Casey-Sally triangle, or really, the Gordon-Dana-Casey-Sally rectangle of shirt-swapping doom. I’m with Dan about Sally being some sort of evil alien force. It’s the tallness and aggression and the blind self-confidence. If she were setting her tractor beams on a friend of mine, I’d be frightened, too.

Speaking of clueless, how does a guy like Casey, who didn’t know fantastically unsubtle Sally was flirting with him, come up with something like “smoky” to unhinge Dana? Guess it’s that sort of thing that’s allowed him to keep her off-balance all these years. Love that Jeremy not only knew what it was but was able to add “a slow drink of whiskey” to the evocative conversation, even if he didn’t get Natalie’s geek-speak/phone sex connection.

Isaac looked pretty clueless to be telling Dana something and expecting her to keep it private, but it was worth it for his snipes at Sally and then smackdown of the whole staff. And, of course, for Jeremy’s great line: “I told many, many people.”

I let some time go by in my re-viewing of the first season here, between episodes 10 and 11, and now I can’t remember, thinking back to the earlier ones — was Kim always this snippy? Funny snippy, I mean, but between her saying “Who gives a damn?” to all Jeremy’s play of the year suggestions in the previous episode and wanting Elliot to be her man-slave in this one, she seems to have stepped up her game. Maybe Sally’s been coaching her.

Sports Night, ABC, Smoky, review

I watched “Shoe Money Tonight,” the tenth episode of Sports Night, again last night, and thought it had the ideal mix of plot advancement and gratuitous silliness. Dan’s in the zone! Isaac’s shrinking! Shoe money tonight!

Relationship drama tonight, too. It’s a little bit of a cheat that we never get to really see Jeremy and Natalie as a couple before we get the first big fight, but it’s a pretty great fight. On the one hand, Natalie was ridiculously jealous and bitchy, and amazingly resistant to Jeremy’s increasingly eloquent and adorable pleas for her to trust him. On the other hand, playing tennis with another woman instead of hanging out with your new girlfriend is a surprisingly dumb move on Jeremy’s part.

That speech at the end, though, where he spells out for her exactly what’s in her poker hand and what’s in her head, as everyone in the room holds their breath, was such a terrific Jeremy moment. Every time I watch it, even though I know what happens, I’m hoping that Natalie will just trust the guy. And then she doesn’t, but it doesn’t matter, because she’s had the upper hand all along.

The episode also introduced Sally, the producer of the 2 a.m. show and a weasel in tight clothing. Casey didn’t do himself any favors with Dana by approving Sally’s rundown, or by pointing out to Dana how close to God whoever put Sally together must have been. Body, maybe; brains, not so much. Knowing what a foil Sally is going to be, she seemed a little lightweight in this first episode, so openly ambitious as to be kind of harmless. She’ll get around to harm.

It was nice to see that Dana eventually got the upper hand on Casey, too, once he realized the full horror of what Sally expected him to say on national television. (Puns!) And fun to watch her sparring with Isaac. The two of them play off each other so well; that “You love me”/”I’ll fire you” dynamic has been working since the pilot and really made a nice running thread here.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments. Still to come: A recap and memorable lines.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Sports Night, ABC, Shoe Money Tonight, review

I watched “The Quality of Mercy at 29K,” the ninth episode of Sports Night, again last night, and that was really sort of a Message Episode, wasn’t it? A little heavy-handed there at the end with the homeless guy, but an interesting thematic effort.

Everybody’s plot, in one way or another, turned out to be about What We Can Do. We can climb the tallest mountain in the world and knock on heaven’s door. We can put together a work of art that moves even the most skeptical and hoedown-wary. We can put love of another person ahead of all our selfish ambitions and pipe dreams. We can reach out to others with compassion, whether by writing a check or sharing a sandwich.

If Jed Bartlett had stepped in at the end and gave an inspirational speech about the miraculous things that humans can do, it would not have been out of place. It sort of called for that, didn’t it?

Dana’s theatrical transformation courtesy of The Lion King (above) was pretty amusing, and the bit about Casey feeling he understands the “spirit of the mountain” because he climbs the wall at his health club. I could sure relate to Dan and his donation dilemma, have received mailboxes-full of come-ons and felt guilty about tossing them. (I recommend this service for at least reducing the volume.)

Both my favorite parts involve Natalie, though: Her response to Dan asking what she does with her money, and her inspiring the realization in Jeremy that he will never climb Mt. Everest.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, Thespis, review

I watched “Thespis,” the eighth episode of Sports Night, again last night, and I still don’t understand why Dana would want to find out how long it takes a turkey to thaw on a light grid. Wouldn’t thawing in, say, her kitchen or her fridge be more to the point? Doesn’t matter, though, ’cause it’s worth it for the pay-off of the water dripping onto the desk followed closely by the turkey. I’m willing to suspend disbelief for that.

Any disbelief concerning Thespis gets suspended pretty quick, and I love the way this episode plays on Jeremy’s geeky yet passionate knowledge of obscure information. For a guy who can sometimes be awkward and insecure, he did a pretty good job of freaking Dana out.

Instead of Dana/Casey squabbling this time around, we got Dan/Casey squabbling, with Casey looking like a jerk for not remembering the anniversary of his first show with Dan. I’m not sure about the wisdom of bringing a real show into the Sports Night world by having Casey reject his chance to do “Conan’s show,” but I liked getting more information about their history together, and the advice Isaac gives Casey to show appreciation to the people who are important to him.

And it was nice to have a little break from the Casey/Dana/Gordon triangle.

The other serious subplot amongst the Thespis silliness was the drama of Isaac’s daughter and her pregnancy complications, which had some resonance with Dana’s turkey trauma (Isaac’s daughter was cleaning the house for her mother’s visit just like Dana was obsessing over Thanksgiving dinner) and Casey’s (Isaac worries that he didn’t show enough appreciation for his daughter and unborn grandchild). It makes for a nice package, with a range of emotions and a variety of happy endings.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, Thespis, review

I watched “Dear Louise …,” the seventh episode of Sports Night, again last night, and enjoyed the little trip down Exposition Lane offered by this letter-themed outing. It’s kind of a formula, the voiceover-plus-flashbacks episode, but there were enough funny bits here to make it work. Plus, Natalie and Jeremy’s first kiss!

Natalie was full of surprises this episode, not just with that smooch she planted on Jeremy, but with her sneak attacks on Dan’s writer’s block. I remember reading somewhere that some of her water-throwing, air-horn blowing shocks was unexpected by both Dan and Josh Charles, the actor playing him. The last water-in-the-face brings such a look of genuine surprise to Peter Krause, the actor playing Casey, that I think that one at least had to have been improvised. It’s funny, regardless.

The usual Dana-Casey teasing was kind of eh this time around, but it payed off big with Casey’s attempted smackdown of Gordon, and Gordon’s total and complete shutdown of Casey. Our sports guy is overmatched for sure, so it’s a good thing that Dana really does secretly, improbably, love him best.

Isaac railing about his daughter’s Republican boyfriend was funny, and all the goings on about El Perro Fumando and big blue margaritas at two dollars off, and Dana putting on her boogie shoes. I sort of wish they’d kept the whole thing light, and left out the sad story of the Negro League player being carjacked and killed. The poignancy seemed out of place in this otherwise light-hearted outing.

All in all, though, this was a letter I, like Louise undoubtedly, was happy to get. What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, Dear Louise, review

I watched “The Head Coach, Dinner and the Morning Mail,” the sixth episode of Sports Night, again on Monday, and once again was aww-ed by the sweetness and perfection of Jeremy’s dinner destination.

We learned this time around that the Quixotic sports nut who has been admiring Natalie pure and chaste from afar also has some serious computer skills, able to find a six-letter password in thirty-eight tries and put together a program to conjure up just the right restaurant. All of which makes me think he shouldn’t have threatened to kill Christian Patrick, he should have threatened to steal his identity and empty his bank accounts. And then done it. Revenge of the nerd.

The quickening pace of the Natalie-Jeremy romance is a good counterpoint to the endless sparring of Dana and Casey, who we know will torture each other for the rest of this season and beyond. I liked the way Gordon was pulled into the plot about Casey badgering the football coach. One way or another, Gordon’s always going to be spoiling Casey’s good time, isn’t he?

There were a lot of good little bits here — the extreme coldness of the studio, Casey being conversationally anal-retentive (and conceding the point pretty quickly), Dana describing the effect she hoped her outfit would have on Gordon, the importance of voicing the crash-and-burn sound just right, Dan having to improvise due to Natalie’s mistake and somehow settling on Tony Orlando.

It looks like an awfully fun place to work, doesn’t it? Especially that sweet little cafe down by Natalie’s desk.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, The Head Coach Dinner and the Morning Mail, review

I watched “Mary Pat Shelby,” the fifth episode of Sports Night, again last night, and I think this was probably the sportsiest Sports Night so far, with the various twists and turns involving the Christian Patrick interview dominating the episode.

Though there were some strong scenes with Natalie and Dana, and the other characters supporting them, my two favorite moments are ones involving Jeremy — his realization in the meeting that the woman Christian Patrick assaulted was Natalie, at which he bolts from the room, leading the others to realize it, too; and the confrontation in which Jeremy says that if Patrick touches Natalie again, he’ll pay somebody $50 to have the big guy killed.

I loved the way that even the usual running gags wound up getting woven into the Patrick story. Dan’s talking endlessly about getting a goatee paid off humorously when he used it as a threat to get Patrick and his lawyers out of the room. The allegations that Dana could not tell a joke paid off sweetly when Natalie, overwhelmed by the evening’s events and the ones sure to come her way when the story got out, asked Dana to tell her a joke. And of course, “How much do you love me?” went from a jubilant celebration of coming ratings victory to a bittersweet exchange between Natalie and Patrick as both their worlds were about to be turned upside down.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, Mary Pat Shelby, review

I watched “Intellectual Property,” the fourth episode of Sports Night, again last night, and this seems like the first episode that didn’t really have a strong central storyline. For most of the episode, all the different strains of silliness seemed to have more or less equal weight.

There was a last-minute turn toward the serious, I supposed, but Dana and Casey squabbling over their dysfunctional relationship was a lot less weighty than Jeremy’s deer diatribe from last week or Dan’s apology to his brother the week before.

Who knew you couldn’t sing “Happy Birthday” on TV without paying up? I enjoyed Yeardley Smith (otherwise known as the voice of Lisa Simpson) as the lawyer whose job it was to set Dan straight; wouldn’t it have been more fun if she was one of the lawyers double-teaming Dan over his drug quote a couple of weeks ago instead of those two stuffed shirts they had?

Poor Casey, attacked by a phantom fly and a fire hydrant, unable to function effectively in a world with one extra Gordon. Natalie, the troublemaker, seems determined to bring him and Dana together regardless of whether they want to be or not, and the closing shouting match made it clear how very complicated that issue is. It’s a little bittersweet watching this now, knowing how not-smooth their romantic path runs in the future.

Loved that memorable closing moment, though, when Dana finally sees the fly, and has to wonder what else is not all in Casey’s head.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, Intellectual Property, review

I watched “The Hungry and the Hunted,” the third episode of Sports Night, again last night, and saw again the emergence of the Jeremy I came to love over the course of the show. Of course, the character’s overwhelming love of sports — already well-established with his episode 1 meltdown and his episode 2 inability to cut even a second of a lengthy baseball-game recap — continued with his expert guess on what would happen next in the football game Isaac and Casey were watching. But with his horrible hunting story, more full of sarcasm and hurt than geek bravado, Jeremy took on some depth. That’s a great anti-hunting speech written by Aaron Sorkin there, and Joshua Malina totally sells it.

In addition to making Jeremy one of the team, this episode also launched the relationship triangle that would be tripping Casey and Dana up throughout the rest of the season. We didn’t learn anything more about Gordon but his name this time around, yet that alone was enough to send Casey into a tizzy, much less the fact that the guy got to spend a lot of time with Dana-in-the-hot-dress. Dan tries hard with his Inconsequential Subjects of the Day — the greatness of yachting, and the non-greatness of soccer — but he’s no match for jealous Casey.

The other important work of this episode was to establish Isaac as the single greatest boss in the world. Jeremy sure got lucky, even if that poor deer didn’t.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, The Hungry and the Hunted, review

I watched “The Apology,” the second episode of Sports Night, again last night, and thought it did a great job in developing the characters introduced in the pilot. Isaac is established as loving his staff but taking no guff. Jeremy is so involved with sports he can’t be objective, and Natalie is so involved with Jeremy that she can’t be, either. Dana’s got a crush on Casey, who is uncool. And Dan enjoys bantering with his co-workers on completely random subjects, with this week’s aerobics stalker replacing last week’s New York renaissance. This week, of course, Dan got himself into trouble by talking in favor of legalizing marijuana in an Esquire interview. It didn’t matter that the interviewer missed the point that he thought it should be a healthcare issue and not a criminal issue; the network still wants an apology and lays down all kinds of threats to get it, good-lawyer-bad-lawyer style.

The apology that Dan eventually delivers on air — to his younger brother, who died in a car accident as a teen because he was copying his big brother and getting high — is moving, and yet … am I the only person who thought that there, at the end, when Casey sort of quietly leaned over to Dan, he was going to say something like, “You don’t have a brother.” The apology seemed too “Lifetime Movie of the Week” to be for real on a comedy show and I kind of thought it might be made up, but this show did mix serious themes in with the silly and I guess this was the start of it. At any rate, Casey’s easing the discussion back to his lack of coolness once again was a pretty nice little moment.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, The Apology, review

Hey, I remember this show!

We’re starting our Sports Night Replay marathon with the first episode, “Pilot,” and boy was it fun to be dropped back into this world. It’s been a while since I re-watched this show, and I missed these people.

I love how fast the show is — all the rapid-fire banter we love from Sorkin shows with none of the weighty topics to ponder. Yeah, I know, they’ll get into weighty topics, but at a sit-com pace, not a drama pace. After the kind of melancholy final batch of episodes of Studio 60, this was really zingy and refreshing.

I also like how we’re dropped in without much explanation and left to figure out the relationships of all the people. Pilots too often are all about Explaining It All for You, and I’m generally forgiving of that. But the Sports Night pilot didn’t really pause for exposition. The tensions and relationships — between Dan and Casey, Casey and Dana, Dana and Isaac, Isaac and the network, and potentially Natalie and Jeremy — came out as natural parts of the plot that went zipping by.

The one standard sit-com moment, sadly, involved an actor I like and a character I love, and that would be Jeremy’s basketball meltdown. I don’t know if poor Joshua Malina was directed to be that schticky, or he was playing to a studio audience, or what, but every time I see that scene — which word-wise, is pretty cute — I feel like it’s been dropped in from a much, much broader type of TV comedy. Thank goodness Jeremy calmed down and learned how to be panic on the run instead of in the spotlight.

What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments, and come back during the week for a recap and memorable lines.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Sports Night, ABC, Pilot, review

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing “What Kind of Day Has It Been”:

1. Matt finally reunites with the love of his life, and the first thing he wants to do is … write? I guess they’ve established Harriet as his muse strongly enough that getting her back may cause his creativity to flourish again, but you’d think they might at least have the weekend together first. Or, you know, breakfast.

2. Do they have traveling beauticians in the hospital? A lot of the characters looked like they’d spent a sleepless night, but Jordan looked fresh as a daisy after almost bleeding to death. A little tired, maybe, a few more lines on the face than usual, but that lipstick looked pretty fresh. I guess Hollywood hospitals understand that it is better to look good than to feel good.

3. Does that doctor have no other patients? The hospital’s been a bustling place for much of the five-episode arc, but this time the doc seemed to have nothing to do but loiter in the background during Danny and Jordan’s tearful reunion, making cracks, providing a pen, fetching papers, looking moved. Maybe the hospital still thinks Danny’s at risk of stealing the baby and selling her into slavery, and wanted an eye kept on him at all times.

4. Aw, couldn’t Danny have let Lucy go to Germany with Tom? It’s not like anybody but Matt ever writes the show anyway.

5. What shall we do next? Since this was the last Studio 60 episode to recap and comment upon, I’m going to be broadening the scope of this blog to All Things Sorkin. And since a half-hour show will be a nice change-up for me from an hour-long one, we’ll be starting a re-view of Sports Night this Monday. Drag out those dusty DVDs and watch along.

Studio 60, NBC, What Kind of Day Has It Been, commentary

I watched “What Kind of Day Has It Been” again last night, and remembered once more how much I loved this series finale. The sun was rising at the end of this long dramatic night, and the sun was rising in the lives of these characters, even as it set on the show that brought us into their world for one short season.

If the first couple of episodes of this five-episode arc — “Breaking News” and “K&R” Parts I, II and III all took place on the same night as this — skewed toward the comic with the wise-cracking doctor and raucous writer’s room scenes, and the second couple veered into drama and trauma, this last one was pure emotion. A little smart-ass, a little scary, but mostly sweet. Even hell-in-heels Mary calmed down a little.

Of course, it did have a pretty heartless break to commercial there, when the doctor, looking unusually serious, cut off Danny’s rant about needing Jordan to sign papers by quietly saying they needed to talk. Sure seemed like it was bad news about Jordan, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who spent that commercial break, the first time through, joining Harriet in prayer. But all was forgiven when the show resumed with Jordan looking tired but alive, meeting her daughter, being reunited with Danny, and pulling adoption papers out of her bag. That transition loses its impact on DVD … and thank goodness. I like it better without the unwarranted trepidation in the middle.

There were some terrific one-on-one scenes in this episode. Jack and Simon going round and round about Simon’s need to apologize. Danny and Harriet talking about why she and Matt can never get together, with Danny correcting an old misunderstanding and letting Harriet know how messed-up Matt’s really been since she was cruel to him at the Catholics dinner. Harriet and Matt then making up, again, for good or for now, but with the awareness that they are each other’s “the one.”

Maybe the most moving two-character scene, though, was Matt and Danny in that small glass room looking at the baby, with Matt knowing no way to say to Danny that he needs to get Jordan to sign custody papers in case she dies, and knowing that it has to be said. That one small painful scene, culminating with Danny realizing that something had to be done, said as much about the relationship of these two guys as the quitting-together flashback scenes or the “I love yous” at the end.

It was interesting, watching this episode, to note how much most of these characters actually looked like they’d been up all night, having the worst night of their life. And major kudos to Steven Weber for perfectly pitching a character who has had not enough sleep and way too much alcohol but is keeping it together, mostly. Jack lost his grip little by little throughout the evening, even as we kept revisiting his smug younger self in flashbacks. Of all the characters on this show, Jack’s the one who’s shown the most growth, and who would have guessed that in the beginning?

I appreciated the show ending with romances and crises resolved, and also that they managed to bring everybody back for that final scene on the stage, one last line or look for all these actors we’re going to miss, including a sweet little nod to Tom and Lucy’s relationship. I wish we hadn’t had to turn the lights out on all these entertaining folk, but at least we managed to turn away at a time when all was right in their world.

Share your thoughts on this episode in the comments, and come back later this week for a recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Studio 60, NBC, What Kind of Day Has It Been, review

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing “K&R Part III”:

1. Did Mary get nicer when she changed into sweats? The character has bugged me quite a lot, especially when she was playing all cutesy with Matt, but at the end, sleepy and finally released from the low-cut blouse and the short skirt and the high-heeled shoes, “the blonde with the legs” actually seemed more human and compassionate, making a persuasive argument to Matt about getting legal custody papers to Danny without so much as a reference to her stratospheric intelligence or her surpassing cuteness. Too bad they didn’t dress her down long ago.

2. Is Boyle bad at his job? He jokes a lot about being bad at it, for sure. And he seems to have a plan that involves keeping Tom on his toes with jabs and jests. But if he’d made more of an effort to befriend rather than antagonize the hostage’s brother, maybe Tom would have listened a little better when asked not to go the ransom route.

3. Did Harriet ever talk to Danny, back in flashback-time? She tells Matt she’s going to, but we never see the scene. If she did, I guess he was no more dissuaded by her argument than Matt was. Perhaps if she had made her points in the Holly Hunter voice, they would have agreed to cut the sketch just to shut her up.

4. Is Jack asking the wrong person for help with Simon? Matt’s obviously going to be disinclined to help, since there’s an apology history between the writer and the honcho. Mary seems to be the only one around who’s actually making things happen — I’ll bet she could write an apology that would clean up the mess but leave Simon’s scruples intact. Did she mention her IQ is ridiculous?

5. What happened to the rest of the cast and crew? Everybody’s supposed to be hanging around still, but they’re making themselves awfully scarce, even with Jack wandering around the building. Maybe they set up bunks in the parking garage to tuck everybody away.

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part III, commentary

I watched “K&R Part III” again last night, and what a melancholy episode that was. Things just keep looking worse. And again, since this is not so much the third of three but the fourth of five, there’s no resolution in sight. I almost kept the DVD going for the final episode just to get that happy ending. I made myself wait for next week, but it was a struggle.

The comedy-drama balance was tipped pretty far toward drama here, with the humor being of the bittersweet variety. Even the doctor wasn’t making jokes, as he let Danny know that Jordan had gone from bad to worse. Not so “fine, fine, everything’s fine” this time. Harriet tried to be funny with the Holly Hunter impersonations, but not so much. Events there finally drove Danny to his knees, with Mary theorizing that he could lose both his fiancee and his baby in one night.

Tom’s fear of losing his brother didn’t ease up either, and the solution offered by Mary, Jack, and Matt — to try to ransom him out — just added a huge moral dilemma to the mix. When his military watchdog tried to tell him that the kidnappers were going to make a fake declaration that they’d killed one of the hostages, the bad road seemed the only one to take. But if Tom wasn’t tortured enough before, he is now.

Meanwhile, Jack and Simon are locked in a combat for which there will be no easy victory, since they both know that Simon was wrong to lose his temper in front of the press, and they both know that he shouldn’t have to apologize for it. There used to be some pleasure in watching Jack strong-arming someone into doing his will — as recently as him insisting that Tom take Kim to the Harriet dinner. But Simon’s a more formidable opponent. And there’s all that history weighing Jack down.

The flashbacks are sliding from the earlier raucous writer’s-room scenes to the “you are destroying your career” scenes, and since we know that Matt and Danny did indeed get fired, it’s like watching a car crash. Sweet of Harriet to be so concerned about Matt putting himself in professional peril, but of course, if she advocates for something, he’s got to disagree with it. Here’s the pride, and the fall is coming soon.

I remember watching this the first time through and feeling all kinds of tension — would they really kill off Jordan? would they really kill Tom’s brother, or have Tom engage in some ransom endeavor that came with a crushing moral burden? This time, I know we have that gift of happy resolutions for all waiting just one DVD episode away. But I still feel so bad for these people, ’cause they don’t know yet.

Share your thoughts on this episode in the comments, and come back later this week for a recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Studio 60, NBC, K&R III, review