Sports Night – Summer DVD Review – The Hungry and the Hunted

photo: sportsnight.net

Sports Night
The Hungry and the Hunted

Season 1, Episode 3

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

This week on Sports Night: Jeremy is getting the call, Natalie makes Dan and Casey play musical cars, and Dana has a date with a Gordon who is decidedly not Gordon Liddy or Gordon Lightfoot.

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

In the third episode of Sports Night, after Dan and Casey have had their episodes per se, we get the Jeremy episode, in which he gets to go out in the field as a segment producer…for a segment on hunting, which he knows nothing about and wants nothing to do with. Meanwhile, Casey’s feathers get suspiciously ruffled when Dana gets a date named Gordon, and the whole team is dragged out to a party none of them have any real interest in going to.

Jeremy gets “the call,” which means he gets to go out and be a segment producer for a hunting show. Initially nervous about the job, he’s obviously uncomfortable with the subject matter as well, and is later hospitalized for an anxiety attack after watching his colleagues shoot a deer in front of its own family. Having kept his mouth shut the whole time, he delivers an impassioned speech on the evils of hunting (including one of Brittany W.’s favorite lines, about how he doesn’t hunt because there’s a deli on the corner) to Isaac, expecting to be fired. He isn’t, obviously.

JD: I know that I am completely biased about this episode, as Jeremy is probably my favorite characters on the show (and the Natalie and Jeremy romance is one of my favorite TV romances, but that’s another story.) Sure, there are episodes that are more balanced, in so far as being an ensemble show. There are better episodes, period, I’m sure, but The Hungry and the Hunted has been a personal favorite of mine since the first time I saw it. As I said in our first review, Jeremy is far from the meek, abused geek of many other shows. We get a hint of it in the first episode when he “spontaneously combusts” during his interview, but in this episode Jeremy really comes into his own.

Brittany W: The Hungry and The Hunted really is Jeremy’s episode. The subplots in this episode, while setting up for much drama later in the series, really don’t come to bear. We focus almost entirely on Jeremy getting his first major assignment, grappling with both the professional demands and the conflicts with his beliefs, and his desire to fit in among his colleagues. Who hasn’t wanted to fit in with the people they work with on some level? Generally it’s nice to get along. But is getting along worth sacrificing what you believe in? That’s the dilemma that Jeremy deals with, and he comes to find out that his new colleagues appreciate him for who he is, and want him to speak his mind, not give them what they want to hear. He realizes that now he has a professional family and not just a job.

JD: Joshua Malina hits every note here, right down to his body language, the way he starts to back away just slightly when he gives the first little awkward speech about how he has a deli on the corner, the perfect mix of nerves and hesitation when Isaac first asks if he has a problem with doing the segment, then the initial resignation to it when he decides it the only way he can keep his job. His final speech drives it home. Jeremy tells Isaac exactly how he feels, obviously deciding he can’t continue working on the show if he’s going to be forced into compromising his morals, and is surprised when Isaac respects it rather than firing him.

Perhaps my favorite line in the entire show is in this episode, as Isaac responds to him: “If you’re dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.” It’s a quote I’ve always carried with me, and one I wish more people were willing to take to heart.

Brittany W:Joshua Malina expertly carries his character and brings him into his own in this episode. Jeremy isn’t just the nervous, slightly neurotic new guy anymore. He’s someone with an impassioned point of view who is finally assertive and proves that he belongs with this close-knit team. I’ve always thought it’s a shame that he gets relegated to supporting parts and bit parts (aside from The West Wing, his only major lead part over the last few years was the unsuccessful ABC series Big Shots), because he really is an actor who is smart and capable and knows how to bring a character to life. (On an unrelated note, he’s also the king of Celebrity Jeopardy, a wicked poker player, and a very nice person. I say this as a friend of a friend of his.)

And that concludes my love letter to Joshua Malina.

On to the rest of the episode: this episode first introduces Dana’s future long-term love interest, Gordon (played by TV staple – and TV curse – Ted McGinley). To be honest with you, I never really liked Gordon (not that I think we were meant to) and I’ve never cared much for Ted McGinley since his Married…with Children days. However, it’s a good move to have an antagonist to the Dana/Casey relationship, and it’s fun to see Casey’s feathers get ruffled and see that he may have feelings for Dana, after hinting early and often that Dana has feelings for him.

JD: I have a great fondness for the contrast here, actually. Dana and Casey have such a hard time getting to each other. It’s not just the inner doubts that hold them back, but there’s Gordon, and later Sally, and all the drama those two bring. On the flip side, we get Natalie and Jeremy, who seem to happen so naturally. They have their ups and downs, especially when Jeremy goes through personal struggle later on, but their drama is mostly internal rather than external. We’ve had a lot of set up for both relationships already, but this episode really displays the “sweetness” between Natalie and Jeremy, the way Natalie worries about Jeremy being careful with the deer and packing him snacks for his trip.

The Hungry and the Hunted is really more of a character study episode that unfolds Jeremy for us than anything else, but it’s pulled off without being heavy handed, in that skillful way Sports Night is so good at.

Stay tuned next week when we review Intellectual Property.