henry ian cusick | pinartarhan.com

Scandal starring Kerry Washington & Tony Goldwyn. Image via tvguide.com. Is it just me or is Tony Goldwyn the coolest and hottest president we have ever seen?:)

Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) has left her prominent position at the White House after she helped Fitz Grant (Tony Goldwyn) get elected as the president and started her own crisis-management firm where she can handle even the most difficult and complicated problems with her ever-loyal co-workers.

Her (season 1) co-workers consist of lawyers Abby (Darby Stanchfield), Harrison (Columbus Short), Steven (Henry Ian Cusick) and ex-CIA/expert hacker Huck (Guillermo Diaz), who can prove to be resourceful and dangerous when need be. The latest addition is Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes), who tries to adapt to their long hours, gray moral areas and their blind loyalty to Olivia, who has “fixed” their lives.

They have to deal with two important cases in the pilot episode: An ex-soldier, a true American hero who happens to be the prime suspect of his fiancée’s murder and The President – who is being accused of having slept with a young house employee. They deal with both cases with extreme care, though neither man has told them the entire truth.

As the stakes get higher, with the ADA David Rosen (Joshua Malina) arresting the soldier and President’s advisor Cyrus (Jeff Perry) panicking about the woman since the president is married with kids, things get more complicated with Olivia. Maybe the aide isn’t lying, and her relationship with the president is more than she revealed to anyone around her…

Scandal is an addictive and entertaining show, and especially with the short but brilliant first season (only 7 episodes) providing all the elements of a good mystery/thriller, drama, romance and cheeky sense of humor with Quinn’s constant shocked newbie state, Abby’s bluntness and Steven’s trying to balance a womanizing past with the newly engaged life.

They’re family, and there’s no intra-firm romance going on, though we sense a little crush on Abby’s side when it comes to Steven. They deal with dictators, senators, ambassadors and more – and they pretty much end up on the right side, doing the right things, following Olivia’s gut- which tends to make mistakes when it comes to the president.

The characters are also all shades of grey. Maybe David Rosen stays a bit on the whiter side for the most part, but even he does things for winning cases that I don’t approve of: like sleeping with someone for information or almost sending an innocent woman to her death even though deep down he knows it doesn’t add up.

One of my favorite characters is Grant. A wife-cheating president who has slept with a white house aide would be the cliché of clichés – since well, we have seen this before way too many times in both fiction and real life. But refreshingly, Grant isn’t a womanizing bastard. We slowly learn that his marriage is, and was, cold and lifeless – to the point of costing him the election. This is the first thing Olivia points out when they first meet. His wife Mellie (Bellamy Young) is a lot more manipulative, ambitious and White House-obsessed than he’ll ever be. By the time he and Olivia got together, they were already pretty much in love. As the season continues, we learn that they still are very much in love and they both fail to deal with it. As for the aide…that storyline has its nice twists and turns.

Another character I enjoy watching is Cyrus, brilliantly played and owned by Jeff Perry. I disapprove of his actions and low morality levels and the extreme lengths he goes to secure the president’s seat and his own position. But I love his dialogues and banter, his frustration and love-hate relationship with Olivia, and him trying to keep a baby-wanting, ex-journalist husband happy.

Olivia Pope is like Megan Hunt with better social skills, though I don’t like her sacrificing attitude when it comes to Grant. Yeah, yeah, she doesn’t want him to lose his presidency because of her, and he’s indeed a great leader. But she has to make up her mind about being a mistress, waiting for a couple of years or not being a mistress or not waiting at all. Make up your mind, and stick with it. They’re infinitely more interesting than Meredith and Derek ever were (I’m comparing to Grey’s Anatomy because both shows were created by Shonda Rhimes – the genres and plots are very different) – but with season 3, the star-crossed lovers thing might just start to get on my nerves- especially with the “other” guy Jake (Scott Foley)- whom I’ll get to in a bit.

Henry Ian Cusick’s departure was understandable – there were too many characters on the show. Even though I like them all, Steven didn’t get enough screen time. And while the beginning of season 2 makes up for his absence with good storylines, the addition of Scott Foley’s character made things a bit weird- though not as weird as the appearance of Olivia’s father.

We’ve established the obsession/passion/love-of-each-other’s lives situation with Olivia and Fitz. We also know that Olivia isn’t keen on him leaving his presidency, and even if she wouldn’t mind getting together with him, Mellie and Cyrus, separately and together, will do about anything to keep his seat. And a cute love interest that had nothing to do with politics and Fitz would be a welcome change. Instead, he is friends with Fitz, their romance isn’t off to a genuine start and I’m not buying his intense fondness for Olivia just yet. That said, if Jake has to be there, I have no objections to him being played by Scott Foley. He’s basically a good guy with a very complicated past – but he is nowhere near the impossibly nice (and unlucky) guy he played in Grey’s.

Also I’ll be very happy if Mellie gets shot/killed or at least tortured during one episode. She says or does something smart once in a while, but mostly she’s a cunning, annoying bitch. I’m not fond of characters drunk with power, and unlike Cyrus, she never adds an element of humor. I also don’t like women encouraging their husband’s affairs due to any reason or leaving their careers for their husbands. She rubs it in his face every two minutes, but let’s face it- she loves the White House more than he does.

Fun note: Brendan Hines, Eli of Lie to Me plays a reporter in the first season – love interest for Quinn and is the key to solving some of the secrets.

Final Verdict, Season by Season:

(Spoilers for 2 & 3!!!)

Season 1: Must-see entertainment.

Season 2: Quiet good until Jake starts getting involved with Olivia. A bit of a downer watching Olivia turn into a neurotic mess and get into denial about how the world works when it comes to her dad.

Season 3: Good. Though I’m hoping Fitz and Olivia don’t go through any more disastrous drama – like him having caused her mom’s death or something? Shonda – please, oh please, don’t turn Scandal into Grey’s Anatomy (which I enjoyed until Denny’s death, and each season ending with a new disaster, and well, a lot of other things…). I mean there’s already the marriage and the White House, a murder and the election thingy.

Body of Proof Season 3 Cast.Image via i1.cdnds.net.

Body of Proof series finale, Daddy Issues, aired on Tuesday this week.

It just sucks when such a fun series is cancelled.

Yes, all good things come to an end. But I wish they didn’t while they still had great storylines to explore.

Yeah, yeah, we get it. It’s about ratings and advertising revenue. But it’s not the healthiest sytem, and hey, the show’s time slot also affects things.

But let’s not get into the whole archaic Nielsen thing, or the advertisers’ inability to make the most of the show’s social media followers and international viewers…

I read that the creators are looking to find another network, but I’m not holding my breath. Survival after cancellation has been known to happen, but none of my favorite (cancelled) shows had such luck.

But at least, Daddy Issues was a great finale. It tied up all the loose ends, and even though their final choice of the main villain is a bit implausible (and questionable), it makes up for it by:

(*includes spoilers for season 3, episode 5 (Eye for an Eye), where Henry Ian Cusick first guest-starred.)

1) letting us finally know what happened to Megan’s father and why.

2) bringing back my favorite “villain” – therapist Dr. Trent Marsh (Henry Ian Cusick) who was the only guy that got away from Megan. He was intelligent enough, and he was worth sympathizing over. Even though he had killed 3 people (in episode 5), all those people had committed cold-blooded murder. One of the victims was Marsh’s wife.

3) Megan (Dana Delany) finally beginning to see how there might be shades of grey when it came to “bad guys” and “good guys”

4) Megan finally having a non-evasive talk with Tommy about where they stand.

The finale works, both as a season and a series finale.

Even if I don’t get any more of Megan Hunt, I’ve got closure- something prematurely-cancelled (but awesome) *Lie to Me or *Awake couldn’t provide.

Now, if you want to find out more, dig into a spoiler-rich plot summary:

Megan is too busy solving her dad’s murder to get into the case-of-the-week, so it’s Ethan (Geoffrey Arend), Kate (Jeri Ryan) and Curtis (Windell Middlebrooks) working on it.

Megan and Tommy (Mark Valley) are shocked to find out that her father’s grave is empty. This proves Megan’s theory one more time. They try the next logical angle: going after some old records, which they also find that were taken by the killer.

And as Megan is trying to deal with the emotional strain, Marsh “runs into” her. She’s a bit “easier” on him this time, as she’s more concerned about catching her father’s killer.

After Megan finds a hidden key in her father’s belongings, she finds a hidden file on an assaulted and killed woman, supposedly by a serial killer (Kurtwood Smith, Red of That 70s Show), convicted for several other murders.

But he tells Megan and Tommy that she wasn’t one of her victims, and their search takes them to the cop in charge of the case years ago.

Megan is adamant that he’s the killer, but they only have a theory. Marsh finds her, and tells her he can help her. Megan refuses, though she seems to be less judgmental of him now.

When the cop is shot in the back, it makes you wonder whether a certain “villain” didn’t keep his promise.

But the victim in Kate’s case turns out to be the partner of the cop. When Megan goes to the police station to find Tommy, she runs into Tommy’s boss – who “kidnaps” Megan.

As it turns out, the killer is none other than Tommy and Adam’s (Elyes Gabel) boss Chief Angela (Lorraine Toussaint) (yeah, her connection is explained.)

And when she is about to shoot Megan, it is when Marsh comes and shoots her, saving Megan’s life. A shocked Megan can only whisper “thank you” after he is gone.

After Tommy arrives at the scene, she tells him who saved his life. But when they go to his office, he is gone- having left his book, along with the note “You’re Welcome” for Megan, who doesn’t seem that bummed that he has eluded them.

She makes up with her mother.

The she goes to Tommy’s house, finally admitting her feelings to Tommy, and we see their first on-screen kiss.

I’d kinda hoped Megan would hook up with the therapist (at least before we found out he was the murderer.) Even then, I was kind of hoping that Megan would understand him. This episode I got that chemistry again- and I had a feeling……wouldn’t mind.

But I’ve always liked Mark Valley (Boston Legal, Fringe), and Tommy’s been a very entertaining character. So it was about time they got together. But Marsh would have made a risky, grey and interesting love interest. Oh, well…

And if you want to see Cusick play a real villain (as in a villain killing anyone who gets in his way and gets off on it), watch his guest appearances as Tommy Volker on The Mentalist.

Lie to Me’s ending wasn’t good for a series finale. It was barely good enough as a season finale. Don’t get me wrong, it was a first-class episode. It didn’t move anything forward, apart from Lightman finally admitting to his daughter that he loved his partner Gillian- something we always knew.

Awake’s finale, had it been a season finale, would have been one of the best in the history of television. But as a season finale, it was just disappointing that we didn’t get the answer to the show’s promise: which of the worlds he was living was real?

Body of Proof answered everything we needed to know, moved the story forward, avoided the cliche of Megan winning over every criminal….

Yeah, I’ll miss the show. If another network buys it, I’ll keep watching.

What did you think of the finale?

Also on Body of Proof

Body of Proof starring Dana Delany, Nicholas Bishop & Jeri Ryan

Body of Proof is Back for its 3rd Season: And It’s Even More Fun!

Scandal starring Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn & Darby Stanchfield

Body of Proof: Now That’s What I Call A Series Finale