Okay, folks, it's "Sports Night" time again, and Linda Holmes from NPR's Monkey See blog has once again been a life-saver in helping this project get done amidst my vacations and other summer distractions. Her thoughts on "Eli's Coming" and "Ordnance Tactics" coming right up... What I love about Dan's discussion of the title song in "Eli's Coming" is that it's so obviously a real thing – either Aaron Sorkin or someone he knew had the same misunderstanding of the song that Dan did. It's too offbeat to be made up.
What is made up is the ridiculous conclusion to the Bobbi Bernstein story. Let us indulge for a moment the fantasy that Dan could plausibly forget that he slept with her and that he was ever in the entire country of Spain. (And if his memory of it is THAT wiped out, why does he look at the picture and remember her as Roberta?) If, indeed, Bobbi went by "Roberta" and knows she looked completely different, then she never would have been so confused in the first place about why he didn't remember. As soon as Dan balked, she'd have explained it: “I went by Roberta then. I had braces and red hair [or whatever].” And who has their picture taken in a hotel room next to the towels with a one-night stand? Who took the picture, Housekeeping? It's just stupid. It's a stupid, backwards-justified story idea that's there for an admittedly interesting reason.
I think what they were trying to accomplish here was giving Dan something to think about as far as his own behavior as he considered Steve Sisko's treatment of Rebecca and Gordon's treatment of Dana. I think the idea was something like, "Even nice guys accidentally hurt women by not treating them gently enough." It's a little patronizing, but it's well-intentioned, and it would have been nice if they hadn't chosen such a numbskulled way of executing it.
The slow car accident that is Dan's relationship with Rebecca also progresses nicely here. The news that Steve is visiting her is bad news and everybody instinctively knows it. And yes, it's worse that it's on Saturday, even though nobody can exactly articulate why. And then, of course, it gets cleared up, and Dan doesn't like the answer.
As for Dana and Casey, they're still mid-ugliness from the Fedrigatti incident. I have to admit to having never quite understood why Dana handing the show off to Sally to produce so that she could go to dinner would be quite such a betrayal to Casey for a single night. They all have nights off; they all get to go on vacation. That Casey finds it quite this heart-mangling of a personal slight has always seemed off to me. I mean, he's screwed up in the head because he's upset about Sally and Gordon and all of that business, but the level of outrage toward Dana seems out of proportion, no?
But the meat of "Eli's Coming," of course, is that this is how the show dealt – admirably, I think – with Robert Guillaume's stroke. Even with the writing clearly on the wall that he'd be gone a while and might be different upon his return, they kept Isaac on the show and created a story of his absence and recovery that capitalized perfectly on where they were trying to go with the delicate maneuvering between Isaac and the network.
It is always such a sad punch in the gut to me when Jeremy tells Dana, in that way that people do when they are working to believe their own optimism, that it could conceivably take four hours to get into the city from JFK. I think that's even worse than seeing Casey break the news to Dan.
One sports-related nitpick for which I must credit Alan: You would never be covering the Sweet 16 on a Saturday. Sweet 16 is Thursday. Elite Eight is Saturday. OOPS.
The bomb scare in "Ordnance Tactics," I admit, has never held my interest. Yes, it is a stand-in for the larger story of being under siege, of being threatened, of the possibility that the building – that the show – will fall down. But Dan and Casey's overreaction seems out of character.
What I like better is the political mess Dana is in. J.J. shows up to make his usual vague threats and promises about what he will do for her if she takes him into her confidence. It's exactly what he did with Isaac when he (presumably) planted the quote – he's trying to create trouble, or threatening to create trouble, so that he can be the guy who solves it. He's just odious, but again, he sees himself as a guy who's doing his job and looking out for himself.
But as little as I care for the bomb scare, I care about this Jeremy/Natalie dance even less. All he's suggesting is that they "temporarily" (a word he stresses over and over) stop seeing each other. If it's temporary, then they're not breaking up. That's the difference between temporary and permanent. One is breaking up, and one is, presumably, just not spending so much time together. And if it's temporary, then WHO CARES?
We do return here, though relatively briefly, to the Gordon/Dana/Casey/Sally business that's been on a simmer. After Casey half-accuses Sally of having Natalie passed over, Sally says, "You know, for someone I'm sleeping with, you don't say the nicest things to me." I really do wish that she'd been allowed to not be quite so wounded. It irks me that Casey and Dan have both, over two episodes, played out the "don't forget that it hurts women if you sleep with them and aren't nice enough afterwards" routine. It feels a little retro, the idea that women always need to be sent flowers and so forth. Sometimes, women don't care about you, either.
Also, this is what makes me like Casey less. When he says, "How many people know about us?" the implication is clear. And the implication is, "You'd better not be telling people." As I said last time, it is a basic violation of the respect you owe the people you're sleeping with to communicate to them that you wouldn't want anyone to know on account of how other people would react. It's degrading, for lack of a fancier word, and it's a little sad when, right after that, she asks if they're sleeping together tonight as usual. It makes Sally seem desperate and grasping, which she didn't need to be. And then, of course, she freakishly overreacts to Dan's entrance, and all of a sudden, the last remaining professionally competent woman on the show is acting like a complete psycho. Fan-TAS-tic.
I can't bring myself to get all upset about the “We're women” speech Dana gives at the end, which sounds like nothing no woman would ever say. Women pretend everything is fine, while men air all their fears? What planet are they producing this sports show on, anyway?
At any rate, this is all setup for the final three episodes of the season: “Ten Wickets,” “Napoleon's Battle Plan,” and the season closer, “What Kind Of Day Has It Been?” Look for things to get a lot trickier over the course of those three episodes.
Thanks again, Linda. Again, my hope is to find some time to watch and write about all three remaining episodes in one post sometime before the end of the month. You won't know when (because I don't), but keep watching the skies.
What did everybody else think?
33 comments:
To me, the genius of "Eli's Coming" was the callback to this earlier bit of dialogue:
Dan: And I'm not saying "I'm fine" in that dramatic way that's obviously meant to indicate that I'm not fine. That's not what I meant when I said "I'm fine".
Casey: What did you mean?
Dan: I meant I'm fine.
Casey: Okay.
When Casey tells Dan about Isaac's stroke, Dan once again has to say he's fine, but he's saying it the way he described earlier in the episode. That "I'm fine but I'm not" I'm fine is an important part of getting through terrible things, and while Dan mocked it before, he has to go on and use it to finish the broadcast.
In the same way, "Eli's Coming" (the song) starts silly because of Dan's story about it, but becomes heartbreaking and eerie when it plays over the end of the episode.
When he was at his best, Sorkin knew how to take something funny and turn it right back on his viewers.
I love Dana and Natalie's little "we're women" speech. Not so much because of how it's written - I agree it sounds like nothing a real person would ever say - but it's Dana and Natalie saying, in effect, we're the bosses, and the guys upstairs are counting on us coming unglued because we're women, and we're not going to do that, because we don't need to give J.J. another reason to mess with us.
I actually read a lot of this differently from Linda.
Bobbi was portrayed as a nutcase the last time we saw her, now we know she's right.
Sally herself said she was interested in Casey for "the sex and the contacts", now we know she's not just a manipulative bitch/plot complication standing in the way of Casey and Dana, but a fully-drawn character with more complex feelings than had been seen heretofore.
And when she flips out at Dan, she had just been told moments before that Dan knows about her and Casey; given how stressed everyone is, and how rude Casey has just been, I don't think her reaction is unjustified.
I don't believe that Sally is grasping. She is not the desperate one. She knows that Casey is vulnerable, and she is using that to her advantage to get what she wants. Casey is regrettably partaking in the events because he is in need of companionship. He isn't proud of what he is doing and asks Sally to keep quiet. It isn't the best situation, but Sally is getting something she wants and Casey is getting something he thinks he needs.
There was a strange magic to this show for me. I love watching it, (and rewatching it) but the instant you begin thinking about it, the holes show. Sorkin had a wonderful smoke and mirrors effect.
Eli's Coming is no different. It's never made much sense that uncool Casey could nail a Three Dog Night allusion, quote the song, and give his inveterate womanizer line. Still, I got chills and still get chills went that first plaintive line of the song is played as the news of Isaac's stroke is relayed.
I can live with the smoke and mirrors.
Agree about Casey's seeming over-reaction to Dana handing off the show. Obviously they had a system for doing this and had done it before. And yes, perhaps it's because it has to do with Gordon, but still.
Sally's line about Casey's remarks to her totally works for me. She's asking for a little decency from someone with whom she has a personal relationship (no matter how you define what they're doing) and to me her reaction reads not so much wounded as more matter-of-fact and straightforward, like her "Casey doesn't like me very much" from before. Made me appreciate the character -- and the performance -- even more.
Yeah, I just...he's being a jerk to her, which is what she's pointing out. To have her follow that with "Should I just come over?" is gross, to me. And I do think Brenda Strong is playing it wounded.
As for knowing Casey is vulnerable and using it to get what she wants, I don't see that at all. When you say, "He isn't proud of what he is doing and asks Sally to keep quiet," that's what I mean by "degrading." If you don't want to sleep with someone, you don't have to, but if you do, and then you say, "I'm not proud of sleeping with you, so please keep it quiet," you are a wad. To tell someone essentially that you're ashamed to be having sex with her? That is unbelievably gross; you're treating her like a blow-up doll. Sally may be getting something she wants, but there's no indication that she dislikes Casey, puts him down, tells him she's embarrassed to be seen with him, or anything of that sort. Know what I mean? I don't see how Sally is using anything to her advantage, since he's making it clear that he doesn't like her and he's making her feel like crap. That Sally once said she'd sleep with him for the sex and the contacts doesn't mean that's what she's doing; I think this episode and the ones to come make it pretty clear that it isn't what she's doing. She doesn't need him to be in love with her, but she'd like it if he liked her.
To add onto it, while I agree that Sally seems to fall apart here, I don't think "she's a woman so she's unstable" as much as, "after sleeping with someone regularly for a while, she assumed he'd have some basic respect for her as a person. He doesn't."
Sally might be hysterical, but Casey is a dick.
Eli's Coming is, I believe, my favorite episode of this show. So good. In addition to my favorite dramatic moment of the show (how good are Peter Krause and Felicity Huffman in that scene? So good!), it has the priceless Dan line, "What are you, nuts? Are you just some nutty nut girl who's nuts?" Love it.
I am also amused by the bomb scare in Ordnance Tactics, out of character though it may be. The "we're women" speech irks me, though.
I agree with DRL that there is a magic to the show that defies logic. I found Eli's Coming very compelling in the pacing and the emotions behind the story. It's not real life, it's the Sorkin fairy tale of the workplace and it has its own power to seduce and entertain.
I still say "Eli's coming" when bad juju is on the horizon. It's just a perfect saying. Although no one ever gets it, and then I have to explain it and people think I'm weird. Weirder than usual, at least.
And Casey's term "inveterate womanizer" also became a favorite and is used frequently in my discussions.
"It's never made much sense that uncool Casey could nail a Three Dog Night allusion, quote the song, and give his inveterate womanizer line."
Hey, maybe it was on his Time/Life "Sounds of the '70s" compilation.
Actually, I agree with you that it's weird Casey would be the one to know this. Not the first and not the last of Sorkin's continuity issues in service of the story of the week.
Linda, I agree that Sally's not sleeping with Casey just to further her career; my point was that we didn't really know that until now, because we don't know much about her at all. So as awful as Casey's being to her, I had no problem with the scene itself or how Brenda Strong played it, because it's the moment when Sally stops being a plot device and becomes a person.
Thanks, Linda, for the great write- up on these episodes, even though my take differed from yours (and some other posters) on some of the scenes.
On Eli’s Coming: It's never made much sense that uncool Casey could nail a Three Dog Night allusion. It’s precisely his un-coolness that enables him to nail it. The song was probably on his Time-Life Hits of the 70s CD (or 60s)
I love the way this episode uses that song for a bit of Dan/Casey banter at the beginning (with reference to Dan’s love of water sports), and then uses it to play over the end of the episode in such an ominous way. The camera work for that final scene is great as it swings around Dan and settles on the shot of him troubled, but holding it together on air with Casey forlornly in the background.
The reveal about Dan and Bobbi never really bothered me, though I think the show could have explained it better. I can imagine college students traveling in Europe, partying, coming across another group of college students and hanging out (photos included). Trips like that can be a blur in which you go a lot of places and meet a lot of people, even if you’re not 20 and drunk. Dan apparently remembered the hookup, just not the place or the person.
On Ordnance Tactics But Dan and Casey's overreaction seems out of character. Yeah, but it’s funny. I always laugh at the way Dan and Casey are kind of sharing a brain in this scene, and chase Dana through the office and studio like a spastic version of the typical Sports Night walk-and-talk, not letting the ridiculous argument end. And the way their discussion just flows into the control room, and they suck everyone else into the nonsense, with Natalie and Jeremy jumping right in.
The Casey/Sally scenes are uncomfortable. However, their relationship is one of the things about Sports Night that oddly made the show more realistic to me – it was a tv show showing run-of-the-mill jerkiness. People hook up in real life, and sometimes they treat each other poorly, without the behavior escalating into something that would make an episode of Law and Order. I agree with Rachel's take on them. Casey was being shitty to Sally, and she was taken aback by it. He continued to be a jerk to Sally even after she left the room. His only response to her freakout was that he and Dan should go talk to Natalie and Dana.
Trips like that can be a blur in which you go a lot of places and meet a lot of people, even if you’re not 20 and drunk. Dan apparently remembered the hookup, just not the place or the person.
Maybe for some people, but not for Dan. He's already been established as the guy who knows every crew member's name and their kids' names and if they like hockey or not. Maybe he changed since his youth, but it seems to me like Dan is not that kind of guy..unless that was back in his pot-smoking days, in which case...who knows.
I should point out that my beef with the way it was played wasn't with Brenda Strong; I think that's how it's written and how she was meant to play it. I think Sally could have still been interesting even if she didn't become pitiable, is what I'm saying. I think she could have continued to be a mostly breezy, mostly unemotional person who slept with Casey for fun and would have reacted more like, "No, I didn't have Natalie shuffled aside. If that's over, are we seeing each other later?" There's just a playing and replaying of the "inside every strong woman is a soft, insecure flower who fears nothing more than feeling like a slut" dynamic that, when I see these episodes together, sticks out.
It's a small point -- I love "Eli's Coming," for the most part, and I absolutely agree with the observation that the show was better for letting characters actually be jerks at times. I think I said that in a Sports Night comment long ago -- one of they keys is that all these people, from time to time, do things that actually suck that they should not do. I respect that in the show.
One point I always found curious: so Dana can't hand over the show to Nathalie when Gordon asked her to in an earlier episode, because she didn't prep it, but the show can be handed over to Sally in the later episode without any problems?
One point I always found curious: so Dana can't hand over the show to Nathalie when Gordon asked her to in an earlier episode, because she didn't prep it, but the show can be handed over to Sally in the later episode without any problems?
Sally and Dana are, more or less, equals in terms of the CSC hierarchy. Natalie is Dana's subordinate, and shouldn't have been producing the show in Small Town in the first place, which makes the whole excuse that much more grating.
I think it makes sense that Nathalie would be trained to produce the show on her own. But infeasibility, not inexperience or hierarchy, was the reason given for her not being able to produce the show in Dana's absence, and that reason seems contradicted by Sally's assumption of the reins.
I read a lot into Bobbie's remark about Dan being surprised she turned out to be a babe. Maybe she wasn't a babe in college, maybe she was a little overweight or her hair wasn't so good, maybe her skin wasn't clear, perhaps she was a little shy. Dan was your basic college guy who wound up with the not so pretty girl on the night they were all drunk and pairing off. He remembers the not so pretty Roberta because he wasn't happy about getting stuck with her.
And since even he admits he remembered Roberta, then why didn't he do the menschy thing and call her? Perhaps because there was a time when he wasn't so menschy, when he made a fool out of women, which is why he confesses that to Rebecca: I know these things. I'm not so good myself.
He's at least ready to admit it; he's learned a lot this season. Casey, on the other hand, as we learn in the next episode (if we hadn't already figured it out) is not such a nice guy. (Wouldn't you love to have a talk with Lisa?)
Sally's reaction to Dan in "Ordance Tactics" is very appropriate: they've been sparring all season, putting each other down, insulting each other. He's the one who called her 'ya freak' in front of everyone in the rundown meeting (something I've always had a hard time with, by the way). At that moment she's upsest about how Casey's treated her -- and a person like Sally would hate being that vulnerable in public, and then she turns to go and there is Dan -- Casey's best friend, a guy who always has something sarcastic to say to her -- and she reacts. What's nice is how Dan reacts -- I love that moment between the two of them. Casey should have been taking notes.
The Dan/Bobbi hookup had a little more backstory in the original script that got cut for time, which I think helps it make more sense.
I love Casey's anger and betrayal over Dana dumping the show, because she chose Gordon over the show (over him) when he knows Gordon's not worthy. And it's probably the first time Dana's ever chosen the person over the professional like that.
Rebecca's kissy truth detector still amuses me.
But it's the Isaac storyline that owns this one. It's not really overplayed, but you can feel how shocked, scared, worried, upset they all are...but have to keep faking their way through the show. (Josh Charles & Peter Krause are especially good)
All he's suggesting is that they "temporarily" (a word he stresses over and over) stop seeing each other. If it's temporary, then they're not breaking up. That's the difference between temporary and permanent. One is breaking up, and one is, presumably, just not spending so much time together. And if it's temporary, then WHO CARES?
Really? You don't get that? You don't get that Jeremy asking for a temporary break plants a seed of doubt and insecurity in Natalie? Or that temporary breakups can turn permanent?
I think you've had a happier romantic life than I have!
When I haven't seen Sports Talk for a while, what I recall about it is the banter, especially the Casey-Dan banter, and the way it can turn any situation, no matter how trivial or how dire, into a fandango of Sorkin Dialog (TM). When I actually watch the show, I recall that this is a rare treat: the dessert, no the meal. Anyway, silly as their reaction to the bomb scare is, I still love "Ordnance Tactics" for how many delicious empty calories it packs into one half hour.
Oh, and one more thing: consider the context of Sally's freakout. She's just seen Casey on the phone with Esther, and seen how he acts with someone he cares about. As soon as he turns to her, all that warmth goes away, replaced by accusations and contempt. That would sting even coming from someone you considered a friend, much less someone you were sleeping with. Sally's a pretty tough lady; she doesn't let her guard down much. She has with Casey, and now she can see what a huge mistake that was.
At some level, analyzing SportsNight is a little like dissecting a kitten to see how it works. You end up with more questions than answers, and the fun disappears.
Just to make it clear, this is a criticism of the gaping holes in Sorkin's plot arcs (was he doing drugs at this point?) not LInda's game and insightful efforts at trying to make sense of a show that's lovely to watch, and painful to think about.
"Really? You don't get that? You don't get that Jeremy asking for a temporary break plants a seed of doubt and insecurity in Natalie? Or that temporary breakups can turn permanent?"
I was actually referring more to why JEREMY gets so freaked out over Natalie's refusal to "acknowledge the breakup." Given the rest of Jeremy's behavior, it makes no sense that he would keep arguing with her about it, rather than just saying, "Well, you can acknowledge it or not; we're not going to do anything together for now." Their having a purely semantic argument over whether they are "still dating but temporarily not going out or having sex" as opposed to "temporarily not dating" is, to me, incredibly boring. It has nothing to do with my not being able to "get" the idea of insecurity. It has to do with my failing to find the stakes particularly high when both characters agree that they will soon be back together just as before. To me, they're arguing about something I don't care about, and thus, I am bored.
Sometimes a different response is just a different response. It doesn't necessarily mean I don't understand or lack the relevant life experience.
And one more. Casey doesn't know exactly why Sally slept with Gordon, but one obvious motive is that she knew he was Dana's boyfriend. That's enough to explain why he's being such a jerk to her.
Linda
I follow your point about "acknowledge the breakup."
FWIW, I like Jeremy and especially Natalie when they're arguing about nothing. It was one of the few things I remembered about the show from my first viewing 10 years ago.
But I think it's pretty typical of SportsNight, and Sorkin in general. So much of it is style over substance, and boils down to whether you (or I) find particular cul de sac is charming or boring.
Sorkin reminds me a bit of Steely Dan in a way.
They say "Any major dude with half a heart surely can tell you my friend/Any minor world that falls apart falls together again" when they mean "Thing's will get better." They talk about "Cuervo gold and fine Columbian" when they could say "tequila and pot."
I like the word play because, well, I do. But I can't really argue with Bob Christgau when he suggests that it's "what passes for poetry in freshman English, and what passes for jazz in a Holiday Inn."
Thanks again for pinch hitting.
do you like any of the show? why are you even watching it?
I don't think Casey is really overreacting here.
One thing Casey seems to respect about Dana, above everything else, is her professionalism. They've worked together for a long, long time and he respects her abilities (see: Shoe Money Tonight).
It's not quite the same thing as taking a night off. If she was tired or overworked or stressed, then that would be one thing. But that wasn't it, she only handed off the show at the demands of Gordon.
He loses respect for her not because she dumped the show off, but for why she dumped the show off. He thought he understood her ("Dana's not dumping Sports Night"), so this hits him like a brick.
I've never been to Europe, but I've heard of people, people in their early 20s especially, who have gotten drunk enough that they didn't realize they were crossing a border into another country.
It's technically possible that Dan was partying in France with a group of people, and somehow drifted over the border without realizing.
Of course, more exposition to this effect would have been nice.
I watched "Eli's Coming" again last night -- even after all this time I still look at the clock at the end and wonder how they managed to do all that in one episode.
Eli, in a way, is the side of Danny he's not proud of -- the one the girls really do need to hide their hearts from. He admits to Rebecca and Bobbi that he hasn't always been so good. As things continue to go wrong for him on this day, he tries to stay one step ahead, tries to circumvent disaster. As disappointed as he is about Rebecca's lie, he returns to her to make sure she knows he's on her side. He apologizes to Bobbi in such a heartfelt way. But in the end Eli, that old trickster, uses a bit of misdirection to hurt someone who isn't even there -- someone Danny can't protect.
There's such a need for atonement in Danny -- something we saw earlier in another apology -- the apology to Sam.
Imagine Casey apologizing to Sally -- I can't, but only because he doesn't see the need for it. Dana tries to hide her heart from him, Sally may not have known she had one to hide, and I still wonder about Lisa.
But Casey doesn't carry around the kind of guilt Danny feels. Two such different young men, and yet . . . such a remarkable friendship.
Sorry to go on so . . . but that episode always gets to me. Danny gets to me.
As far as the "dump off of the show", Casey is angry because Dana was dumping it off for Gordon's sake since they(Dana and Gordon) had gotten quite close. Casey had feelings for Dana all along and didn't know or want to acknowledge those feelings until Dana made that move that night. Dana and Gordon were serious at that point unlike the previous time that Dana could have passed the show off (she and Gordon had just started dating). Casey was feeling threatened by the fact that he could lose out on his chance for love with Dana and so he took it out on her for passing the show on. I am not sure of the timing( I'd have to go back and watch) but he may have also known about Gordon and Sally sleeping together and didn't want to see Dana get further hurt by continuing to go out with Gordon so he expressed his displeasure by letting her know how much of a jerk she was being both personally and prfessionally by passing the show off.
I agree the main focus of Eli that grabs me is the Isaac story(Robert G's) stroke. The ending always does grab me and I love whomever brought up about Dan's quoting the line earlier and how he has to show he's fine but he really isn't after hearing about Issac.
So, Sorkin must be a Three Dog Night fan. Not only does "Eli's Coming" get quoted and played during an episode, but Dan insists he's "Never Been to Spain".
I heard that song on the radio today and started to think of Sports Night...it took me a minute to figure out why.
Apologies if this has been said already -- and qualified by the fact that I think Linda's recaps are very enjoyable -- but I have to quibble with something.
I think there's a tension bordering on contradiction when you suggest that "Sometimes, women don't care about you, either," and shortly thereafter talk about how hurtful it is for Casey to imply that he wouldn't want anyone to know they're sleeping together. She can't be hurt that he's ashamed of it AND just scratching an itch. Either she needs to be reassured about this arrangement, or not.
All that said, I agree with pretty much everything else. :) Great stuff, guys.
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