[SPN] Special Powers

TV Programme: Sports Night
Season: 2
Episode: 1
Date I watched this episode: 31/07/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 year, 6 months, 11 days.

Watching this episode reminded me of just how much I've missed this programme. The little chats between Dan and Casey, the verboseness of Jeremy, the feisty Natalie, the "smoky" Dana... just in general the characters of this show are what do it for me. While the script is often brilliant anyway, Sports Night is just a relaxing, uplifting show to watch, mainly due to the fact that the characters exude these qualities too.

They work so well together (both in the ficitional "work" sense and in the sense of the overall story), and are so strongly on each others' wavelength in terms of humour and work ethic, that even when things go wrong they don't lose it. For example, the little bit of fun Dana has when she realises they're not on the air, and goes in to interrupt the supposed "broadcast". Everyone is a bit shocked and she laughs at their faces; they eventually come around to see the funny side.

After the compelling opening sequence showing what happened "in between" the seasons with Casey and Dana (as most of the episode took place 3 months after the season 1 finale), we were launched straight back into the action, with that speed of making changes right up to the last minute which is inevitable for this kind of television. Stuck in there were a couple of hints for later in the episode (such as the thing about the network feed being turned off because of lumber sports - blink and you'll miss it) but the pace was kept up so we come to realise straight from the off that Sports Night hasn't lost anything in skill over the hiatus (not that I doubted that, as Sorkin would go on to write The West Wing, which kept getting better and better - so was Studio 60).

So three main story threads to this episode. First and foremost, the resolution of the thing with Casey and Dana. I'm sure most people tuning into this episode would have been most interested to know what was going on with that. Well, after a few "missed opportunities" (as Dan called them) he was left faced with a waiting Dana, completely paralysed by fear, and almost transformed into an adolescent again. It's tough for him because he's been waiting so long for this moment and now it was staring him in the face. Of course, they both knew why Gordon and Dana had split up, and that it seemed logical for them to get together, but because it was so obvious it almost made it harder. The change in Casey and Dana's moods at the end was uplifting, despite the fact that Casey's mood change was just a little too exaggerated. Dana's was very believable though.

The second story thread - and the one to which this episode lends its name - was Natalie and Jeremy. Here we were kind of thrown in at the deep end with not much idea what had gone on (very similar to in the pilot of Studio 60, with Matt and Harriet). We gradually found out, although there were multiple facets to the argument, like the fact Jeremy would have had to move and "work on a ranch", the fact that Jeremy is annoyed at the reasons why they wanted to hire Natalie, and the fact that Jeremy was annoyed they had offered the job to her and not to him. The chemistry between these two is beautiful, and they finally resolves things because Jeremy "acts like a man" and Natalie is visibly moved by all this.

The other thread was about Isaac and the effects of his stroke. It does look likely that the reason he came back was because of some pressure from the network. He gives completely different messages to Dana and to Dan (acting to Dana like he doesn't even care, and acting to Dan like Dan should be giving him hell). The reasons behind this aren't that clear, but maybe I'm reading too much into it, and it's just to do with the different relationships between the characters.

Through all of this though I had particularly forgotten the great music of this show. WG Snuffy Walden, who also scored The West Wing and Studio 60, knows exactly how to capture the essence of a moment, and give you a certain very strong emotion at just the right time. The show's use of non-original music was good as well - Neil Finn's track at the beginning is one which apparently is going to recur throughout the season.

The shorter running time of this show (20 minutes) compared to other similar drama shows (including Sorkin's later shows) gives it a rather unique ability to focus on a very small cog in a big machine per episode. This episode, let's face it not a lot happened. Casey thought about asking Dana out for ages and then eventually did. Natalie and Jeremy made up from an argument. But it still felt compact, pacey and brilliant. I'm sorry that this is the last season that was ever made, but looking forward to the other 21 episodes of this season.