Scandal

Scandal (2012-2018) is a movie I watched as it aired on television. The storyline initially follows Olivia Pope as she works as a secret cover-up agency for the national government and often for the president directly. As the show matures the focus shifts from the crafty agency to a relationship between the president and Olivia. They both have demons in their closet that as they unravel shows why their brilliance and character is what it is. This series was created by Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy) and stars Kerry Washington (Django), Darby Stanchfield (Waitress), Guillermo Díaz (Half Baked), Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) and Joe Morton (Terminator 2). The storyline for this the first couple seasons was actually really, really good. Then the storyline started getting a bit too crazy, outside the box and unrealistic. When the series shifted to a love story with tragedy after tragedy and away from Olivia and her agency saving the world and various lives the entire show started falling apart. It's really too bad because the original premise was very good. The show really started to run it's course after season four and was on life support after that. It's amazing it lasted as long as it did. I would score this series a 6-6.5/10.

This is about the most reprehensible people you could ever dream about. It starts off with the group hacking a voting machine to facilitate the election of Fitzgerald Grant (with a name like that, you know he's gotta be a weenie). Then from there it escalates to murder, treason, torture and lying with the intent of obtaining and/or maintaining power.

And they never do anything with this power. I mean, the entire series these people are doing these horrible things to gain control of The White House, but once they obtain the power they have no agenda neither to enrich themselves nor to cut taxes or help the poor. It's playing "King of the Mountain". Once you get up there, your only objective is to stay up there.

There doesn't seem to be much creativity in writing dialogue. The dialogue seems to always go the same way. The President likes to make a decision, and then after his advisers tell him the risks of the decision, he repeats himself with a louder voice. I want a bologna sandwich with cheese. But, Mr. President, cheese is bad for your cholesterol and bologna is bad for your gout. I WANT A BOLOGNA SANDWICH WITH CHEESE! It's dramatic the first time, but after five times per episode it tends to just get annoying. Another character is Huck, and he talks as if he always has to go to the bathroom. Olivia. I have to go to the bathroom real bad. Is it number one or number two, Huck? It's number twoooooooo.

Another thing that happens frequently is that a character will give a lecture to someone else looking them right in the eye, talking rapidly and loud and over pronouncing the words. We'll take the bologna and cheese sandwich as an example. No. You are going to go into the kitchen and grab some carrots. Then you are going to slice them up. Then you are going to get some tomatoes. You are going to eat that, and you are going to like it, because if you don't, then your cholesterol will skyrocket.

The one highlight of the show (other than the wonderful Brenda Song who only appears in a few episodes) is Emmy Award Winner Joe Morton who plays a ruthless manipulative evil, evil man who makes the others look like rank amateurs, and his only weakness is that he loves his daughter. The actor is fantastic. We first saw him years ago in Terminator 2 when he played the scientist/electronics genius who blew up the Cyberdine (sp?) building, but he has peaked for this role. He's just a fantastic actor.

Another good point is that the soundtrack includes a lot of 70s music. Listen to the music whenever you watch a show. You can always tell the age of the producers.

It was a great show in the beginning but then it jumped the shark when Washington's character became rambo on the show, started over-acting, and her facial expression became a constant look of smelling feces. I fast-forward through her rants on the show; love all other characters, except her dad's rants that are just as terrible as hers.

I don't need to add anymore about the horrible writing , summed up by another reviewer who called the dialog "50 Chihuahuas going after one hot dog". This program is nothing more than a 30 minute 70's soap opera saturated with product placement. The premise that Olivia Pope is a power player is absurd. She is a compromised incompetent cluster*@ck that could not solve anything in real life.

This may be the laziest writing and research for technical background I have ever seen on a major TV show. Their lack of knowledge and terminology how thing work in real life is either lazy or incompetent. From " two F-15's are waiting on the Carrier ready to take off" (try Wikipedia) to numerous medical, security and government protocols that could never occur in real life, only shows that this program only wants to be about comical love stories made for 16 year olds.

Unbelievable on too many fronts for anyone to not just laugh.

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.