Sports Night – Summer DVD Review – Dear Louise

photo: sportsnight.net

Sports Night
Dear Louise

Season 1, Episode 7

JD – Associate Staff Writer
jd@thetwocentscorp.com

In this episode of Sports Night, Dan has writers block, Isaac is planning to add a dungeon and a moat to his house, and Dana gets down to Boogie Shoes.

I’m JD. Those stories and more under the link.

This episode of Sports Night revolves entirely around a letter that Jeremy is writing to his sister Louise, a sophomore at Amherst College. Jeremy explains to Casey that his siter is deaf, so he writes, rather than calling. The team invites Jeremy out with them for a drink after the show, telling him that if Dana gets even the slightest bit drunk, she’ll dance on the tables, but he turns them down to stay in and write, promising to come by later.

He runs over the events from the previous weeks for his sister. Dan had writer’s block, and Natalie tried to use “shock therapy” to scare it out of him. Casey tried to take on Gordon in a battle of witty banter, and lost. Isaac was mad because his daughter was dating a charming young man who happened to be a republican. And Archibald “A.K.” Russell, and old Negro League athlete, was dragged from his car and beaten.

In the end Jeremy admits his feeling for Natalie to his sister, but also that things have been awkward for them since he had his picnic for her. As he gets to this part, the team is coming back after having been thrown out of the bar for Dana’s drunken dancing, and Natalie drags Jeremy off to a corner of the bullpen and gives him their first kiss.

I love this show, but this episode rates up there among my least favorite of all of them. Personally, I find it a bit dull, almost as though they didn’t have any ideas good enough for a full episode, and just threw together a few little, less interesting ideas, tying them together with the letter. Perhaps the writers of the show had writer’s block along with Dan?

It feels a little like a montage show, and isn’t nearly as strong as the other episodes. Not only that, but it has no impact. Aside from the kiss at the end, nothing in this episode really makes any difference in future episodes, and not even that is enough to save it entirely for me. Being the fan of their relationship that I am, I sort of wished that the kiss had happened differently.

Of course, as I typed that, I also realized that I appreciate the realism there. Not all first kisses are under a moonlit night with a glass of champagne, music swelling to crescendo.

But I digress. There are moments in this episode that I love. In particular, I liked Natalie’s shock treatment on Dan. In fact, that is one of the gags in the whole series that I love the most, so the episode is not a loss.

Stay tuned next week when I’ll be reviewing Thespis.