Scandal

Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) runs a firm of political fixers in D.C. Her group of loyal associates are gladiators. She has a troubled secret relationship with President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn). He has a political convenient marriage to Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young). Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) is the calculating Chief of Staff and David Rosen (Joshua Malina) is the Assistant US Attorney. Olivia hires Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes). Troubled Huck (Guillermo Díaz) and Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield) are two of the associates. Olivia's scheming father (Joe Morton) runs the mysterious shadow government organization B613. Grant assigns Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) to guard Olivia in mid second season.

For a time, Shonda Rhimes owned a night of network television. Grey's is the gold and this is the silver programming. It burned hot for a couple of seasons with overblown plots, and overwrought melodrama. The love triangle is the pinnacle. It definitely burned bright for a time but it burned itself out. By the fifth season, the convoluted story twists and ties itself into a knot. The biggest dead end is Fitz's presidency ending. Even the white hot romantic triangle fades into nothingness. The acting is usually big and over the top. Kerry Washington does a lot of near cry acting with her quivering lips. When a story twists and turns this much, it will almost always go out of control. The last few seasons are simply this show stalling and running in place. Shondaland has an expiry date.

I really love this series and think the acting and story are terrific!

My only complaint is that more often than not it seems as though someone hit the fast forward button. Most of the actors speak so fast that it is difficult to follow and I am constantly rewinding to catch what they said. Also, the picture is at times too dark.

It would be much better if they could slow the pace just a little. It really does seem as though the actors are being timed to see how fast they can say their lines.

The casting of the characters is very good and I hope the show stays on the air for many years.

this show is a big joke, it's literally make me laugh. in the show they keep refer the president as o most powerful man in the world and the leader of free world, so seriously somebody who carry these titles cant keeps his pants on?? prior countries best over his lust by the excuse of love?? he is a total child so as she great and wonderful Olivia pope can not get it together and every time see that idiot bend over?? this show is joke if they make it as a comedy it would be more acceptable

Like most other reviews, first two seasons of this show was great, then it completely fell of the grid. Every episode is of Olivia Pope, a vile excuse for a human being. She's hypocritical, devious, arrogant, self-righteous, annoying and throws a temper tantrum whenever she doesn't get her way. She bends the rules as they benefit her regardless of who she hurts or kills in the process. Thank God this is a terrible drama, because our country would have no hope if it ran even a tenth of the way this show portrays. The other supporting actors save the show in my opinion, because Kerry Washington is very annoying in this role. Other reviewers speak of her over- enunciating, talking slowly and raising her voice to make her point, i.e. get her way. I think a fun drinking game would also be to have to take a shot each time one of the characters (mainly Pope) says "Look at me." Pause. Then again, slower and exaggerated, "Look. At. Me."

I was a big fan of this show in its opening season and most the way through season 4. It was clever, with some good writing, interesting characters, and good plot twists. Then something happened and it turned into a soap opera. Rather than being an interesting show with some big moments, it turned into every scene being a yelling feast. I love an intense interaction, but when it's every dialogue in every scene...it's gets old. It's like they turned the volume up to 11 and left it there for 2 seasons. Characters became ridiculous and inconsistent, writing got predictable. Every character intensely flip flops back and forth, usually multiple times an episode. I'm trying to finish the show just to see how they resolve everything but it's basically just suffering through episodes that are mostly unwatchable. Sad to see it fall so far from its first seasons