Sports Night (TV Series) Dana Get Your Gun (2000) User Reviews

Dana Get Your Gun

[studioAT · 7/10 · 20 March 2021]

We are meant to absolutely adore the character of Dana - Aaron Sorkin's writing tells us that we should - but sometimes I find her very annoying. Here though I thought the storyline between her and Sam was well played, and actually quite moving.

The split between Natalie and Jeremy, which was hinted at in the jarring gear change episode last time out, happens here, and again well played.

Personally my favourite moments though involved poor Casey, lumbered with a lovesick sub anchor - great stuff.

Overall, another good episode.

Dreadful portrayal of professional woman

[jeffdstockton · 6/10 · 7 August 2023]

While William Macy delivers a classy, calm elevated performance, Felicity Huffman - her character - is, once again (consistently), embarrassing herself as a giddy little elementary school girl. An irony here is that these actors are married to each other. That may account for some of what appears as chemistry between the characters.

Of course, it's an obvious plot contrivance by writer Aaron Sorkin that we've seen coming from several miles back down the road. It's also a matter of Sorkin's portrayal of women, in general, and, given that SportsNight is earlier in Sorkin's ouvre, and the show is almost 25 years old, the misogyny is especially obvious.

Another matter is Huffman's propensity for over-acting, over-emoting. Where Macy influences - impacts - a scene with quiet calm, with understated subtlety, Ms Huffman seems driven to the opposite extreme.

But, as with my other reviews of SportsNight, the show still remains a tipping point of sitcom evolution. Sorkin's writing is better than what else was out there, on order of magnitude. What comes in the subsequent decades can be tracked, in large part, to this experiment that the Network pulled too soon. But, there was probably never going to be another ending. Boundaries needed to be broken, and SportsNight was a big part of the beginning.