{"id":9668,"date":"2013-11-06T17:25:56","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T15:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/?p=9668"},"modified":"2013-11-06T17:30:20","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T15:30:20","slug":"scandal-starring-kerry-washington-tony-goldwyn-darby-stanchfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/scandal-starring-kerry-washington-tony-goldwyn-darby-stanchfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Scandal starring Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn & Darby Stanchfield"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Scandal<\/a>
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?:)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Her (season 1) co-workers consist of lawyers Abby (Darby Stanchfield), Harrison (Columbus Short), Steven (Henry Ian Cusick<\/a>) 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 \u201cfixed\u201d their lives.<\/p>\n

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 fianc\u00e9e\u2019s murder and The President \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

As the stakes get higher, with the ADA David Rosen (Joshua Malina) arresting the soldier and President\u2019s 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\u2019t lying, and her relationship with the president is more than she revealed to anyone around her…<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

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\u2019s constant shocked newbie state, Abby\u2019s bluntness and Steven\u2019s trying to balance a womanizing past with the newly engaged life.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re family, and there\u2019s no intra-firm romance going on, though we sense a little crush on Abby\u2019s side when it comes to Steven. They deal with dictators, senators, ambassadors and more \u2013 and they pretty much end up on the right side, doing the right things, following Olivia\u2019s gut- which tends to make mistakes when it comes to the president.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite characters is Grant. A wife-cheating president who has slept with a white house aide would be the clich\u00e9 of clich\u00e9s \u2013 since well, we have seen this before way too many times in both fiction and real life. But refreshingly, Grant isn\u2019t a womanizing bastard. We slowly learn that his marriage is, and was, cold and lifeless \u2013 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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Olivia Pope is like Megan Hunt<\/a> with better social skills, though I don\u2019t like her sacrificing attitude when it comes to Grant. Yeah, yeah, she doesn\u2019t want him to lose his presidency because of her, and he\u2019s 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\u2019re infinitely more interesting than Meredith and Derek ever were (I\u2019m comparing to Grey\u2019s Anatomy because both shows were created by Shonda Rhimes \u2013 the genres and plots are very different) \u2013 but with season 3, the star-crossed lovers thing might just start to get on my nerves- especially with the \u201cother\u201d guy Jake (Scott Foley)- whom I\u2019ll get to in a bit.<\/p>\n

Henry Ian Cusick\u2019s departure was understandable \u2013 there were too many characters on the show. Even though I like them all, Steven didn\u2019t get enough screen time. And while the beginning of season 2 makes up for his absence with good storylines, the addition of Scott Foley\u2019s character made things a bit weird- though not as weird as the appearance of Olivia\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve established the obsession\/passion\/love-of-each-other\u2019s lives situation with Olivia and Fitz. We also know that Olivia isn\u2019t keen on him leaving his presidency, and even if she wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019t off to a genuine start and I\u2019m 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\u2019s basically a good guy with a very complicated past \u2013 but he is nowhere near the impossibly nice (and unlucky) guy he played in Grey\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Also I\u2019ll 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\u2019s a cunning, annoying bitch. I\u2019m not fond of characters drunk with power, and unlike Cyrus, she never adds an element of humor. I also don\u2019t like women encouraging their husband\u2019s affairs due to any reason or leaving their careers for their husbands. She rubs it in his face every two minutes, but let\u2019s face it- she loves the White House more than he does.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Fun note: Brendan Hines, Eli of Lie to Me<\/a> plays a reporter in the first season \u2013 love interest for Quinn and is the key to solving some of the secrets.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Final Verdict, Season by Season:<\/b><\/p>\n

(Spoilers for 2 & 3!!!)<\/p>\n

Season 1: <\/b>Must-see entertainment.<\/p>\n

Season 2: <\/b>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.<\/p>\n

Season 3: <\/b>Good. Though I\u2019m hoping Fitz and Olivia don\u2019t go through any more disastrous drama \u2013 like him having caused her mom\u2019s death or something? Shonda \u2013 please, oh please, don\u2019t turn Scandal into Grey\u2019s Anatomy (which I enjoyed until Denny\u2019s death, and each season ending with a new disaster, and well, a lot of other things\u2026). \u00a0I mean there\u2019s already the marriage and the White House, a murder and the election thingy.<\/p>\n