Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Napoleon's Battle Plan - Sometimes, not losing is just as good as winning.
This has got to be some kind of record.
I last posted to this blog two years, one month and 18 days ago, on January 28, 2002. On a lark, I googled for the site tonight and found it. Cool.
I'm not going to bother explaining where I've been. It would take too long and then we'd have to get into where the hell you've all been... who's got the time? Instead, I'm just going to pick up where I left off. It's time to discuss Episode 22, Napoleon's Battle Plan, which originally aired on April 27, 1999.
You remember this one: It's the episode that begins with Dan and Casey in their underpants. Actually, the boys spend two different scenes in their underwear, and it's the path from one to the other that makes up the meat of the story. You see, a wardrobe accident leaves them pantsless, which forces them to spend some time together waiting for the delivery. While waiting, the guys discuss Casey's reaction to Dana's announcement in the last episode that she has accepted Gordon's proposal of marriage.
Casey, of course, doesn't want her to marry Gordon for at least two reasons. First, he knows that Gordon slept with Sally a while back (remember the shirt?) and he can't allow a woman like Dana to marry a sleeze who would do that. Plus, he loves her. Of course, he can't tell her about either reason, because he is unwilling to admit his love and revealing Gordon's dalliance would reveal his own relationship with Sally.
This quandary makes up the bulk of the episode: What is Casey going to do?
His answer, of course, is the episode's title. He's going to show up and see what happens - a plan he ascribes to Napoleon. Dan is, of course, too much of a busybody to let things be, so he tells Natalie, Natalie tells Dana, Dana asks Gordon, Gordon reveals Casey to Dana, Dana confronts Sally, etc, etc, etc. By the end of the episode, everybody know everything about everyone, and - surprisingly - things are no better than before.
Sportsnight continues to do what it does best: reveal the way real people handle real life. Consider: If the episode is about Casey and Dana, why do we need to know so much about Jeremy's aversion to giving blood? Or, for that matter, what the heck is the deal with Dana's camera? Natalie's need to know everything and punish those who don't share information?
Life is beyond our control. Sartre, the philosopher, wrote, "Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism." In a world made increasingly absurd by science, philosophy and religion, man is left to determine his own place, his own value, his own purpose.
Dan chooses morality has his yardstick, deciding to "take the high road" to rationalization of his actions. Jeremy suffers from religious guilt, manifest in this episode by his inability to admit that he doesn't want to donate blood because, well... he doesn't want to donate blood. Nobody else cares, but he's too locked into his own world-view to notice. Natalie's existence is defined by service; to her friends and herself. She's an information broker who can't stand not being in-the-loop, where she can quickly decide who needs what information from her when.
Dana is stuck between two self-determined purposes. On the one hand, she sees her responsibility to the kind of life she's been taught to have: a husband, a career, a grown-up life. Gordon represents all of that.
On the other hand, she know that Casey has an appeal also. Sure, he's not as successful as Gordon, nor as rich, but she's a gal who works in sports and has told people to jump off a cliff before. She could take a chance on Casey... if he were only willing to do the same.
So, she's stuck, between the two worlds, without a clue which to choose. So, adrift in a sea of possibilities she can't decide between, Dana jumps toward a choice, any choice, as long as she can make it. Buy a camera? Of course it's silly. But, in the grand scheme of things, it's no more silly than marrying Gordon.
Or Casey.
And what of Casey? Where does he stand? Casey is a man who has been through one life already. He's got a son, an ex-wife, alimony and battle-scars to prove it. No... Casey's the only one of the bunch smart enough to play it cool. Dana's gonna get married? Dan lets his secret out? Nobody will give him his pants?
No problem. You see, he's decided to show up... and see what happens.
This has got to be some kind of record.
I last posted to this blog two years, one month and 18 days ago, on January 28, 2002. On a lark, I googled for the site tonight and found it. Cool.
I'm not going to bother explaining where I've been. It would take too long and then we'd have to get into where the hell you've all been... who's got the time? Instead, I'm just going to pick up where I left off. It's time to discuss Episode 22, Napoleon's Battle Plan, which originally aired on April 27, 1999.
You remember this one: It's the episode that begins with Dan and Casey in their underpants. Actually, the boys spend two different scenes in their underwear, and it's the path from one to the other that makes up the meat of the story. You see, a wardrobe accident leaves them pantsless, which forces them to spend some time together waiting for the delivery. While waiting, the guys discuss Casey's reaction to Dana's announcement in the last episode that she has accepted Gordon's proposal of marriage.
Casey, of course, doesn't want her to marry Gordon for at least two reasons. First, he knows that Gordon slept with Sally a while back (remember the shirt?) and he can't allow a woman like Dana to marry a sleeze who would do that. Plus, he loves her. Of course, he can't tell her about either reason, because he is unwilling to admit his love and revealing Gordon's dalliance would reveal his own relationship with Sally.
This quandary makes up the bulk of the episode: What is Casey going to do?
His answer, of course, is the episode's title. He's going to show up and see what happens - a plan he ascribes to Napoleon. Dan is, of course, too much of a busybody to let things be, so he tells Natalie, Natalie tells Dana, Dana asks Gordon, Gordon reveals Casey to Dana, Dana confronts Sally, etc, etc, etc. By the end of the episode, everybody know everything about everyone, and - surprisingly - things are no better than before.
Sportsnight continues to do what it does best: reveal the way real people handle real life. Consider: If the episode is about Casey and Dana, why do we need to know so much about Jeremy's aversion to giving blood? Or, for that matter, what the heck is the deal with Dana's camera? Natalie's need to know everything and punish those who don't share information?
Life is beyond our control. Sartre, the philosopher, wrote, "Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism." In a world made increasingly absurd by science, philosophy and religion, man is left to determine his own place, his own value, his own purpose.
Dan chooses morality has his yardstick, deciding to "take the high road" to rationalization of his actions. Jeremy suffers from religious guilt, manifest in this episode by his inability to admit that he doesn't want to donate blood because, well... he doesn't want to donate blood. Nobody else cares, but he's too locked into his own world-view to notice. Natalie's existence is defined by service; to her friends and herself. She's an information broker who can't stand not being in-the-loop, where she can quickly decide who needs what information from her when.
Dana is stuck between two self-determined purposes. On the one hand, she sees her responsibility to the kind of life she's been taught to have: a husband, a career, a grown-up life. Gordon represents all of that.
On the other hand, she know that Casey has an appeal also. Sure, he's not as successful as Gordon, nor as rich, but she's a gal who works in sports and has told people to jump off a cliff before. She could take a chance on Casey... if he were only willing to do the same.
So, she's stuck, between the two worlds, without a clue which to choose. So, adrift in a sea of possibilities she can't decide between, Dana jumps toward a choice, any choice, as long as she can make it. Buy a camera? Of course it's silly. But, in the grand scheme of things, it's no more silly than marrying Gordon.
Or Casey.
And what of Casey? Where does he stand? Casey is a man who has been through one life already. He's got a son, an ex-wife, alimony and battle-scars to prove it. No... Casey's the only one of the bunch smart enough to play it cool. Dana's gonna get married? Dan lets his secret out? Nobody will give him his pants?
No problem. You see, he's decided to show up... and see what happens.
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