Shonda Rhimes and Kerry Washington are mired in a political tv show SCANDAL

Keep it in here, everyone.

apparently nobody else wants to hear about this show what is their problem.

i haven't watched this week's episode, but i kind of hate huck. "he likes torturing people, but he's the one who's *really* tortured! emotionally!" and then the combination of that with him being this hacker savant. i don't think guillermo diaz has smiled once on the show.

― jaymc, Saturday, April 27, 2013 1:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think all of us watching it feel too dumb to create a real thread?

the whole vision of the u.s. government and secret agencies and torture feels so obviously cartoonishly wrong on some level that it makes all the otherwise more believable stuff about political crisis management, etc. seem equally outlandish. but i also have this voice in my head saying "does not the falseness of scandal's depiction allow it to speak more freely the truth about black-ops renditions?" "are the inventions that it makes about what does occur not the necessary answer to the inventions we have been told about what does _not_ occur?" and soforth.

its actually not hard to make those sorts of arguments about this show -- it just lays all its cards out there, sees no virtue in opaqueness as 'art', but instead there's this populist romantic vision that theatricality is in big speeches and grand gestures, and simultaneously this is taking place in a world/moral landscape sufficiently corrupt that its the fact of the action being celebrated, and not its 'truth'. which is actually pretty scary, now that i think about it. like if only white people were running around in a show with this ethic i'd be worried that it had a tinge of fascismo. it probably does anyway, except to the extent that all the characters are terrible shitty people in various ways, so its somewhat hard to valorize any of their choices at all, and the romance is all just these physical gestures of desire and lust, like the president is some wounded-duck roark figure.

its really the sort of show that seems ripe for some serious critical articles. dunno if anyone's actually done so though?

― Chuck E was a hero to most (s.clover), Saturday, April 27, 2013 2:18 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok well guillermo diaz did smile this week.

― jaymc, Saturday, April 27, 2013 12:45 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

astrid!!!

― j., Sunday, April 28, 2013 10:23 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

torn between disliking the president or his wife more.

― stephen taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Saturday, May 4, 2013 1:15 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are you following us???! why are you recording our conversations!!!?

cannot believe my favorite show on tv is a shonda rhimes show

― balls, Wednesday, February 13, 2013 8:45 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's a really really easy watch, the first season (only a few episodes, it started midseason) is on netflix. starts out fairly procedural w/ big arc getting the b plot but this season has focused more on the big arc w/ the self contained scandal of the week occasionally even tying into the big picture (veronica mars had the same progression)(this show is nowhere near as actually good as veronica mars). west wing meets david kelly minus the pompousness of both? though the president is the cliched 'good republican' - doesn't hate gays, isn't crazy pro-life, basically republican in the milquetoast 'um, school choice and lower taxes?' way. there are also so many corny touches that i've grown to love so much - the 'let's get to work' montages set to stevie wonder/isley bros/etc, the weird mugshot thing they do (w/ corresponding 'girls on film' sound effects) any time a new character's name is said and they do the quick exposition on them. the cheap thrill that revenge could deliver every episode or two (usually in the final five minutes) scandal delivers on a slow week by the first commercial break. plus kerry washington is crazy gorgeous.

― balls, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 4:29 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i should watch this i guess: http://www.avclub.com/articles/how-scandal-became-the-perfect-distillation-of-ame,97303/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post:headline:default

oh so you trust them but not us

good article, but doesn't barely capture how dark the show gets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/magazine/shonda-rhimes.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

This show doesn't let anything stay buried for long, or anyone keep their hands clean. It's also full of people talking about how good they are at their jobs.

except the president

i saw a commercial for the season finale the other day where the narrator said 'oh em gee'

how's kerry washington in this

mopes too much, wears lots of frumpy republican clothing

can't believe they said 'ish just got real.'

between that stuff and 'you in danger girl' its really knowingly in touch with its fans/fan culture.

'the american PUBLIC needs fixing, they love mellie'

ok i started this thread because i knew i was going to watch it at some point and didn't want all the spoilers happenin' on the general tv threads.

i'm finally caught up and

daaamn.

they're showing this on More 4 over here now and this show is just.. not really very good?

i only saw the last 3/4 of an episode though. maybe it only works as an all-or-nothing thing.

ALL

you need the cumulative effect of lots of episodes and plot twists. the moment-to-moment of the show is not v. impressive, especially in the first season, before the batshit really takes off and when its still pretending to be a procedural.

Season 2 up on Netflix now. Or should be.

it is the worst thing

i should not be asked nor expected to be in the same house as this thing

unless it is a wild attack on republicans in which case i can see the charm somewhat

off to a roaring start

huck's confession!

god that 'twice as hard' speech from the beginning of the premiere was killer

omg there are popups on my hulu scandal to help remind me of crazy plotlines

wait also just comments on what just immediately happened

this is like watching rabbinic commentary in the process of being written, if rabbis were all really inane and if they had time to write commentary on the texts of shonda rhimes

this still baffles and infuriates me every time

http://www.hulu.com/support/article/28167976

Enhanced Viewing is a new feature on Hulu.com that allows you to more deeply engage with your favorite shows. It showcases quotes and memes that capture funny moments, pieces of trivia, and tweets from fans and actors alike that reflect the moment you just watched.

sometimes they are reminders of backstory but lots of them are just like, comments on -exactly what just happened-: mellie and cyrus watch cyrus's husband get hit on by the first lady's husband, they talk about it clearly fully acknowledging that the first lady's husband plays for the other team, then in a bubble LOOKS LIKE THE FIRST LADY'S HUSBAND PLAYS FOR THE OTHER TEAM

r.i.p. tv

this show.

her mom = lena olin

really can't believe how much they cram into one episode sometimes

This fuckin show.

DANGER OR TROUBLE

this show is constructed entirely from lipgloss it is rank

her mom = lena olin

― j., Saturday, November 16, 2013 3:37 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YESSSSSSSSS

i am about a whole season out of date on this, maybe it's time to shotgun it all in one glorious weekend

As far as I'm concerned, the most recent season finale was the series finale. It was wrapped up all nice and neat and I have zero reason to care about any of these fucking characters beyond what happened in the finale. I'm making a clean break.

I was sitting thru a voiceovered story so far and my goddddd

tbh tho I realised I liked everyone in it

I could not stick with this show but it did get me obsessed with trying to draw Olivia Pope. Also it rekindled my love for the Super Fly soundtrack.

I gave up in the middle of the episode where Quinn (iirc) is revealed to be a crazy people-blower-upper; I am sure there was some twiste after that but I had to take the laundry out of the machine.

what do we think of the new season guys

As far as I'm concerned, the most recent season finale was the series finale. It was wrapped up all nice and neat and I have zero reason to care about any of these fucking characters beyond what happened in the finale. I'm making a clean break.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:29 PM (2 months ago)

what do we who are watching the new season think of the new season guys

ok i'm sorta feeling like its finding its feet again.

ferguson ep pretty good.

lol nobody but me cares i guess?

christ, huck is like a bad steinbeck ripoff.

I've never seen a moment of Scandal outside of the Lena Dunham slashing but that guy's acting was amazingly bad.

Was just going to ask how Lena Dunham was. I stopped watching this show after S2. And Huck was one of the worst parts about it.

Man, I started watching this show in Oct and watched 5 episodes in one night. It was so delicious and fun and like wonderfully executed! It was like organic junk food. But the last two seasons have gotten so fucking convoluted and cartoonish that I have p much dropped off. Why is someone as ruthless and effective as Olivia so overemotional? How can you expect us to continue to care about O + Fitz when they are on again or off again for like the eighth fucking time? Once it abandoned its conflict-of-the-week format it just became so ott double-crossy and far fetched that it just became empty and ineffective suspense. Like they are trying to do way too much stuff but it's just the same stuff over and over and over again

Otm

Lena Dunham in this show was like watching a continuation of the episode of Girls where she puts on a wig and tries to role play with Adam in a bar

Yeah, OTM. We're at Olivia-kidnapping in the UK (I really don't care enough to not watch at UK broadcast pace) and this entire thing is so ridiculous. I can barely look at the TV when Fitz and Mellie are huskily breathing sexy threats at each other. Also, yeah, Huck is the worst.

Lena Dunham in this show was like watching a continuation of the episode of Girls where she puts on a wig and tries to role play with Adam in a bar

― gybe horses (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, March 22, 2015 12:08 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ahahaha

the scenery chewing writing for huck is sort of all time camp classic in theory, but in reality its just maddening to watch

no matter how little huck they have an episode its always too much

I hate pretty much every character in this programme. But Huck is still the worst.

I gave up almost exactly halfway thru this season, like a few episodes after it returned from the break. I realized that a) I didn't care at all if Olivia was rescued or not and that B) this is a show where no one dies and nothing challenging ever happens so it's inevitable she'll be rescued and everything will turn out okay. I think I've lost all interest, esp w/ HoC and Silicon Valley and Veep and all this other better stuff.

a variety of people have died on this show.

i feel like its a procedural that lost its way and i keep rooting for it to get back to case-of-the-week.

like finally maybe you can put that spy stuff behind you and go back to handling news of senators having affairs and stuff

The Lena Dunham one was sort of good in that it was case-of-the-week but it had way too much Huck, and thus it was awful.

yes yes sclover otm, I really miss case of the week stuff

I might watch season one again and weep for the horrible thing which it has become.

_finally_ they pull out a really good episode on par with the early ones again.

no dude, you are still watching this?

oh boy, i gave up like 2 years ago once she got kidnapped and i realized i genuinely did not care if she escaped and thought it wd be a more interesting narrative choice if she died

or last year, sheesh, was it that recent?

The one where Olivia broke up with Fitz and had an abortion and Mellie filibustered the senate on Planned Parenthood was brilliant. The rest of it's still awful though. Cyrus is the worst person on TV, which is some feat when you're sharing a show with Huck. And Abby, who is just terrible in every single way.

wow Olivia broke up with Fitz what an unpredictable plot twist

I thought she was done breaking up w/ him after the 7th time but I did NOT see #8 coming!!!!!!

The important part of that was the "had an abortion" bit, which is honestly one of the most surprising/amazing things I've seen on network television

It really was. No fuss, no histrionics, no discussion, no angst. Just, y'know, Liv goes into the clinic, has an abortion, goes home again. For such a frequently sledgehammer-wielding show, it was excellent in its subtlety.

lol @ shonda going ham on trump

The whole Trump thing is just awesome in its total lack of subtlety.