It just seems like yesterday that I was putting off the inevitable midterm paper by scrolling through various actor and TV show pages on Imdb.com when I came upon ‘Scandal’: a new drama from the brilliant creator of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Shonda Rhimes.
The pilot episode had been posted online before its actual debut (sort of a testing the waters situation to see if the show will even get a full season renewal).
I watched it. Twice. In just one episode I was hooked and when I found out there would only be seven episodes of the first season, I was understandably upset.
The show is centered around Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) who is Washington’s go-to political fixer. She can make all your problems go away except her own. She is a walking scandal as the lover of President Fitzgerald Grant III (Tony Goldwyn). Their passionate and consuming love affair is one that has you questioning the sanctity of marriage yet rooting for their love to survive even though he is married, in a loveless marriage I might add, to the deliciously manipulative Mellie (Bellamy Young).
This show moves at a breakneck speed and drops bomb after bomb of a twist all in one episode. The writing is superb and the chemistry between the cast, especially Washington and Goldwyn, is incredible.
The show didn’t do amazing in the ratings at first and I anxiously awaited ABC’s call on whether there would be a season two. Thankfully, it was renewed for a whopping 22 episodes.
Then something happened over the course of the ‘Scandal’ summer hiatus, a hidden army of “gladiators” was building (“Gladiators” is the term given to the members of Olivia Pope and Associates who work together to fix the problems of Washington’s most powerful). ‘Scandal’ exploded in popularity and became one of this season’s most-watched shows.
The cast began live-tweeting during new episodes, giving their reactions and possible spoilers for upcoming episodes. During the show’s 10 p.m. timeslot, it’s most likely taking over trending topics and people are tweeting about the show thousands of times per minute.
And ‘Scandal’ isn’t slowing down. The show is moving toward an incredible showdown for the back eight episodes of this season as the twists of Olivia’s involvement in the President’s election rigging and a mole in the White House come to a head.
Basically what I’m saying is this: immediately after reading this, go to Netflix and add ‘Scandal’ to your instant queue. Soon you will be a gladiator too.
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