Sorry Shonda,

Scandal Is Terrible

An honest look at the most popular, “political” show of our time

EVAN MELENDEZ

[SPOILERS]

Washington and television are in their happy place. Since the President took office in ‘08, the TV gods have bestowed upon us a glutton of political theater from which to feast. Think shows like The Newsroom, House Of Cards, Madame Secretary and FX’s throwback spy series, The Americans. In ABC’s flagship drama, Scandal, show runner Shonda Rhimes feeds us TMZ as politics. Sex, lies and murder with enough political verbiage to make you feel smarter than the material you’re actually watching. It’s a genius design for network TV: simultaneously glamorize Washington to cartoonish proportions while cashing in on the unprecedented appeal of our nation’s capital. But with nearly 11 million viewers an episode and Washington more relatable now than ever, does Rhimes have a responsibility to deliver a smarter, better show?

Remember when Scandal actually had scandal’s?

Despite its can’t miss blueprint, Scandal has struggled to find purpose since mid second season. The show had two gimmicks to hang its white hat on: Olivia Pope and President Fitzgerald’s torrid affair along side a procedural element where our gladiators cover up career ending, political scenarios. Rhimes and crew elected to focus on the former, abandoning the scandal part of Scandal in favor of long stares, quivering lips and that same, terrible music when Fitz and Liv occupy the same space. It’s infuriating.

I always joke that Scandal needs Jack Bauer. And while it may lack Jack, it does have Huck and B613, a black ops organization responsible for the horrible realities directly tied to protecting our country. But rather than explore how these acts impact the show’s universe, our B613 thread lingers solely on Olivia’s father, Olivia’s terrorist mother, and Olivia’s two boyfriends.

Seriously.

That scene where Jake found out Olivia’s mom is a terrorist. Probably, I don’t know.

B613's actual purpose is when the writers want to go all “HBO” and show Huck, an ex-B613 agent, slicing into someone for one reason or another.

There’s never any payoff to these events, as the show predictably circles back to Olivia. And while she is our lead, Scandal doesn’t trust the viewer to handle complex story telling, preferring to reduce every episode into a mommy-daddy-boyfriend issue. Consider last week’s Chief of Staff and D.C. prostitute wedding special. It’s good Twitter fodder yes, but also somewhat ridiculous when you consider the caliber of other, critically acclaimed TV shows.

And while Jack Bauer did eventually return in last year’s 24 revival, Shondaland got busy writing up a foreign policy angle in a presumed attempt to smarten things up for Season Four. Well, they tried.

Ratings were down last week. Bring on the blood!!

Season Four opens with Olivia taken captive and moved to an exoctic, unknown location. It’s an almost too real scenario, and the sudden shift was intoxicating. The world of Scandal opened up to foreign affairs, war games and in depth look at how our characters would handle a true political crisis. Just a few episodes in however things quickly devolved. Our international caper morphed into a paint by numbers ransom, held on U.S. soil facilitated by un-interesting home grown goons. Meanwhile our side story found the President (surprise surprise) repeating ad-nauseam the lengths he’d go to “get his girl back.”

And get her back he did.

In the series’ most “WTH” moment, President Fitz DECLARED WAR on a small country killing hundreds of soldiers (the show actually states this) all for another side session with the world’s second most famous mistress. Sure, there were arguments from his cabinet and the show has yet to explore the ramifications of such nonsense, but somehow I doubt a Senate hearing is due to close out the season.

“Hi I just wanted to make sure I still have White House clearance. Oh I do? Seriously? Lolz”

I get it. This isn’t House of Cards nor does it want to be. But it’s not just the writing that frustrates, it’s the pandering. It’s the forced 70's soundtrack when gloriously out of place. Or that annoyingly fast cadence everyone speaks with. As Season 4 comes to a close, the show spirals deeper into idiocy and worse yet, is offensive when catering to any demographic. A political drama with such a diverse following can’t be this cavalier with its content. Take this season’s “Ferguson” episode which while heartfelt in its attempt, ultimately proved waving a shotgun at police and screaming will grant you Presidential support against racial injustice.

Sigh.

Ms. Rhimes, you can do better. You’re a smart woman with a lot of power on a powerful network owned by a VERY powerful company. I’m challenging you to raise the bar. Before using another cheating fiasco or more gratuitous violence for our next cliffhanger, throw in a terrorist uprising, game changing legislation or heck, nuclear threat to see how our characters would stack up. It may not be as scandalous but it would be more compelling. You’re smart enough to write it and trust us, we’re smart enough to handle it.

Follow on Twitter: @emelendez56 | @Ten_Pens

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