[SPN] Kafelnikov

TV Programme: Sports Night
Season: 2
Episode: 5
Date I watched this episode: 09/08/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 6 days.

Here we have yet another mistitled episode. "Kafelnikov" was a concept which was meant to be introduced in this episode but apparently got postponed to the following episode "Shane". Nevertheless they kept the title. Very strange and perhaps indicative of the fact that, with Sorkin spending so much time on The West Wing Season 1, the organisation of this show was falling apart.

For once, the Dana/Casey saga was not a big part of the episode. I disagree with Dana and say that they were really on a "date" at the start of the episode, but I don't think Casey and Dana will ever see eye to eye where that's concerned. Instead, the relationship side of the episode focussed on Dan, seemingly setting things up for the programme's return after the midseason hiatus (since I also watched [JER] "Vox Populi" on this day, I designated this a kind of unofficial "midseason finale day").

Dan hasn't really had a love interest so far this season (unless you count Hillary Clinton) and I think Abby Jacobs is a great character for him to be involved with. She's smart, witty and interesting. It's kind of a funny situation and the scene they have together in her office shows the chemistry the two of them have. Dan's mental state is also a storyline that's probably coming back - Abby should have left that well alone!

The main storyline of this episode was the Y2K bug (this being the last episode of Sports Night of the 20th Century). It wasn't a great storyline, but the whole atmosphere and character of this show just made it not such a bad episode after all. Natalie showed her tremendous art for calming people down and holding things together. Jeremy mostly showed a crazy, almost manic streak. Dana showed her business head coupled with strong feeling.

But the best reaction came from Isaac. He only appeared for a few lines in this ep (the real-life actor was recovering from a stroke at the time) but his hope for the new millennium was heart-warming, and the show once again showed (not unlike in "The Six Southern Gentlemen Of Tenneessee") that it tackles the race issue rather than trying to push it under the carpet.

On paper this episode wasn't amazing, but somehow it just became great due to the great acting and character development that is intrinsic to this show. It also set up the stage for a compelling "Dan" storyline after the Christmas break.