Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) is a lawyer dealing in crisis management- she is the one who can fix and spin scandals and control the perception in the media.    She is the one who you turn to when trouble rears its head in Washington DC.  Welcome to the world of SCANDAL, the latest TV series from GREY’S ANATMONY creator Shonda Rhimes.  It seems her shows like OFF THE MAP and SCANDAL are the ones I can really dig where I can’t stand GREY’S ANATOMY or PRIVATE PRACTICE.  She became attracted to do a show about crisis management when she talked to Judy Smith (whose job is do crisis management).   SCANDAL is an addictive and suspenseful show that combines thriller and soap opera in equal parts- a perfect cocktail for a new show that will be back for a second season this fall.

 

Some of the characters just click on the screen like Olivia, Huck, Harrison, Abby (to some extent), and Quinn Perkins (the mysterious new woman she hires for her business).   Stephen is a character I feel the writers struggled to write for (spoiler alert- ABC decided not to bring back the character for season 2).    Then you have Tony Goldwyn perfectly playing flawed US President Fitzgerald Grant that you want to love and sometimes even hate while sympathizing with the way the media attacks him.   That does bring me to his Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene who you want to hate for the things he does and the conclusions he jumps to quickly plus I don’t know if a conservative President in real life would have a gay chief of staff when the Presidential administration also has an ultra conservative bible thumping vice President (it feels like they’re dipping too much into drama for melodrama’s sake).    Despite some of the flaws I found with the characters on the series, there are enough well written characters to make me want to watch season 2 as long as the quality of writing doesn’t start dipping.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

SCANDAL: SETTING THE PACE- Executive producers and the cast discuss the delicate balance between the writing and the acting in what they term as Scandal Pace (delivering the dialogue as fast as they can to put some energy into the show where the actors and the scripts help deliver a unique dynamic).

GLADITORS IN SUITS: CASTING A SERIES- a look at the auditions for the actors who would be cast for the series and how they were cast

SCRIPTING SCANDAL- the writers discuss the process that goes into writing the series.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   SCANDAL is a well written drama that has a few good characters despite some of the characters I didn’t quite like.  I’m eagerly waiting for a second season where I hope they include audio commentaries for the next set in addition to having a featurette on Judy Smith (who is the real inspiration for this series).

 

This DVD review is (c)6-15-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com