[SPN] Louise Revisited

TV Programme: Sports Night
Season: 2
Episode: 4
Date I watched this episode: 03/08/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.

This was one of the oddest episodes of Sports Night I've seen. It was an episode that was heavily edited between script and screen and it crudely shows. Since the episode was titled "Louise Revisited", I certainly expected it to be a followup to last season's "Dear Louise", which was narrated by Jeremy in the style of a letter he was writing to his sister.

The original version of the script (which, at the time of writing, can be viewed here), included an introductory narrative by Natalie (who is taking the role of the letter writer in this episode, as confirmed in the final version) and subsequent voiceovers later on. It also included an introduction including the end of the episode, with the rest told as a flashback. However in the final version, this was all cut out, leaving only small references to the letter to Louise (only about a minute of the episode in total, with no real relation to the rest of the story). I must admit I was somewhat disappointed by this, and I think this was a wrong decision by the production team. (Incidentally, another scene from the "next week on Sports Night" segment of "Cliff Gardner" was also cut, where Sam tells Casey he isn't big on team morale).

Possibly as a result of this, the other stories of the episode were kind of all over the place, and not very well connected. The opening story to the episode was about the Internet poll being conducted. While it was funny to find out that Casey had been voting for himself (and funny to rewatch the opening scene with this knowledge in mind), the whole skullduggery with Jeremy wasn't hugely funny. I think Jeremy's reaction to the whole thing was just too normal, and the whole thing was just a bit too simple to fit within Sports Night.

Sam Donovan is really getting to Dana, more so than pretty much any of the other characters. Maybe this is because she feels there is a lot of good things about him, but she just can't bring herself to actually like him. He just amazes her at every turn, she can't work him out. But then neither can Dan, but at least Dan makes the effort to include him. That speech he gave about "are you having fun Sam?" was great and quite possibly the highlight of the episode. It reminds me of a lot of comments I have got myself at work. Sam seems to have a "plan" which involves keeping his cards close to his chest and revealing them a bit at a time.

Once again we have the very strained relationship between Casey and Dana, largely due to Dana's plan. Casey is towing a risky line by not really complying but trying to talk her out of it, but this week I think he actually made a breakthrough in his "I wish it was me" speech. Also we get "She Will Have Her Way" playing at the end of the ep, making for an emotional ending.

Well there's not much more I can say. This episode could have been great if it weren't for lousy editing. (Then again, if they'd have kept the voiceover in but cut another storyline, then the voiceover wouldn't have made sense. But they could have re-recorded it). Sam is still interesting enough in his scenes to make me want to crave more, though, and things are still developing between Casey and Dana; I just hope they go somewhere with that storyline. Not a terrible episode for those reasons, but just quite disappointing.