Mark's TV Review: Sports Night

One of the earlier works of Aaron Sorkin, Sports Night follows the cast and crew of a Sports Center-esqe show on a third rate network in NYC. Casey McCall (Six Feet Under's Peter Krause) and Dan Rydell (Dead Poets Society's Josh Charles [I refuse to use SWAT to reference this man!]) are the fast-talking witty best-friend co-anchors of Sports Night which could be seen as an early frame for Matt and Danny of "Studio 60". (Both shows were pre-maturely cancelled). I've had Kyp's box set of this show (that yes, we'd already watched in college) kicking around the apartment for a while, and decided to pop in the first disc and see if it was something I could watch again and still enjoy.... I burnt through the first disc in one sitting. You find yourself so wrapped up in the strong story lines, and incredibly fast paced "Sorkian" dialogue that before you know what happens the episode is over.

New T.V. writers could take some notes from Sports Night on how to do things well. We have reveals, relationships, realizations all done superbly. From the reveal of a man's death through a simple graphic in the background, to Casey's ranting about a college football coach leading him to realize he had mis-judged the man he had spent the entire episode attempting to rip apart.

However, more than anything else, the show allows you to identify with the characters, and you become invested in them. What's truly amazing about this is the speed with which it happens. The viewer is literally thrust into the middle of the late night sports show atmosphere where if it takes more than 10 seconds, you've missed the shot, and you've messed up the show. Plain and simply, Sorkin goes above and beyond developing his characters quickly, and making you like them, and more than anything making them Human. The characters are incredibly believable, go through struggles that you and I very well may have gone through, and have feelings just like you and I.

Now; how does Sports Night measure up to Sorkin's other works? (TV Shows, will pass on movies and stage shows)

The West Wing; Studio 60 and Sports Night. West Wing i think can't be beat. The story arcs were always dead on; and as soon as he left the show... the show started to crumble. Studio 60 was great, i loved it, but it couldn't last. Sports Night easily takes the cake over Studio 60 and I think holds a strong place next to, not below, West Wing.

All of that is terrific, honestly, there's not much i would change to this show; the ONE thing i NEED to change however is a biggie... and i know Kyp will back me up on this.

LAUGH TRACKS SUCK.

mm out