Sports Night – Summer DVD Review – Pilot

photo: abc

Sports Night
Pilot

Season 1, Episode 1

JD & Brittany W – Associate Staff Writers
jd@thetwocentscorp.com
brittanyw@thetwocentscorp.com

This week on Sports Night: Casey’s having a meltdown and screwing up Dana’s show, Danny’s having a New York Renaissance, Natalie is falling in love, and Ntozake Nelson knows a little something about a happy ending.

This is JD along side Brittany W. Those stories, and more, under the link.

We meet the crew of a New York-based nightly national sports news show, who in the words of series creator Aaron Sorkin, “we don’t know what they’re talking about, but we know that they do.” Co-anchors and lifelong friends Casey McCall (Peter Krause, Dirty Sexy Money, Six Feet Under) and Dan Rydell (Josh Charles, In Treatment) are the network’s version of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann, only better looking and less jaded about everything. Their direct boss is longtime friend Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives) who quite obviously has a crush on Casey. Dana answers to Isaac Jaffee (the iconic Robert Guillaume), while running the show with junior producer Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd, Numb3rs, Sliders) and hiring a new producer, Jeremy Goodwin (Josh Malina, In Plain Sight, The West Wing). These six characters are our core group as we look into a chaotic, unpredictable, fun, thought-provoking and emotionally moving workplace.

In the pilot, things come alive without being heavy-handed, overly expository, or clumsily handled. Casey is going through a divorce from soon-to-be-ex-wife Lisa, and Dan has taken it upon himself to help, especially since Casey’s marital problems are now affecting his job performance. Dana, while worried about Casey, is also interviewing for a new position, which is how she meets Jeremy, whom Natalie instantaneously falls for. Isaac, meanwhile, is just trying to keep everyone’s head on straight. And everyone learns the story of Ntozake Nelson, a South African man who was supposed to never walk again, who sets a new world record in track. The pilot does a marvelous job of laying out backstories and relationships while moving the plot forward, and ending (as many Sports Night episodes do) with that warm, fuzzy feeling that makes you feel a lot better about life. When Ntozake Nelson sets his world record and Casey calls his son Charlie to ensure that he sees history being made (and thus reinvigorates his own love of sports, and his job), we both had tears in our eyes.

JD: I always think that the pilot episode of a lot of shows suffer from what I call “pilot-itus”. They have to cram so much info in, setting up the characters and premise, and sometimes having to give us information on how to understand the shows, in more complicated shows. Generally, this comes off forced and rigid to me, and usually pilots turn out to be some of the weakest shows in this season, in retrospect, even if they’re enough to get us interested.

Brittany W: Pilot episodes of any series are usually very tricky, and on the whole, pretty subpar. Between a pilot and the next episode of something, parts are often recast, plots ironed out, characters further developed — you just generally are seeing a rough product of what a show is supposed to be, not what it actually is. This is not the case with Sports Night, which offers probably the most solid pilot episode I’ve ever seen in television.

JD: I totally agree: this is one of the best pilot episodes I can think of that I’ve ever seen. There’s lots of set-up information, and the plot is fast paced, but it never feels like the show is explaining itself to us like we’re five. And it’s very consistent with the rest of the series on whole. This show never talks down to us, even from episode one. There’s not a lot of explanation going on. They just trust us to get it.

Brittany W: It’s hard to say where to begin when it comes to the genius that is Sports Night. What holds it nearest and dearest to my heart is that, even in this pilot episode, it offers the most complete and realistic universe I’ve ever seen depicted, down to the smallest detail. Even the supporting characters, like control room guys Will, Chris, Dave, Elliot and Kim, are their own full characters with their own stories to tell. The monitors show real sports events and the computer screens really do show actual work being done. Actual sports references are in the script (Jeremy insists the Knicks ought to tell Spike Lee to “sit down and shut up”). We’re dropped into a fully realized universe that makes me think not only could I walk across the street and into this building, but I actually want to.

JD: It has always amazed me how well rounded the supporting cast is in this show, given that they feature in only a small portion of the over all plot. The writing is such that even in just a few lines, we know these people. We believe in them; they are not cardboard cut-outs imitating real life.

Of course, we have the set up of the two main romantic relationships in the show too. Casey kissing Dana’s cheek at the end, and Natalie’s uber-crush on Jeremy. Speaking of which: JEREMY. He’s perhaps my favorite TV geek ever, and he’s definitely my favorite kind of TV geek. Far from meek and hopelessly bullied, he’s a charismatic geek, embracing his geekatude! I knew I was going to love him from episode one, and I still think he’s my favorite character on the show.

Brittany W: This show has stuck in my consciousness for so long. It was a show that I, as a sports fan, and as a human being, could embrace on so many levels. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me think. And I always thought in the back of my mind how great it would be if these were real people we could meet and know and invite into our homes for an hour every night. It’s a thought I’ve never had about any show since. If anyone wants to see what a great pilot is, and how great television gets made? The pilot episode of Sports Night is the best place to start.

JD: I’m not a sports fan at all. I was initially very skeptical about watching it because of this; I thought it would be all about the sports. I can’t even remember what persuaded me to give it a try, but I am so glad I did. The fact that I adore this show as much as I do speaks to how utterly universal these characters are. We may not have the same interests, but they are every bit as human as I am; we have the same dreams and fears. Everything about this show speaks to me on some level, even if the sports love is lost on me.

Overall, I think we both agree: this is a great start to a great show! Stay tuned next week when we review The Apology.