Watching Studio60

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