Scandal

Scandal (2012-2018) is a movie I watched as it aired on television. The storyline initially follows Olivia Pope as she works as a secret cover-up agency for the national government and often for the president directly. As the show matures the focus shifts from the crafty agency to a relationship between the president and Olivia. They both have demons in their closet that as they unravel shows why their brilliance and character is what it is. This series was created by Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy) and stars Kerry Washington (Django), Darby Stanchfield (Waitress), Guillermo Díaz (Half Baked), Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) and Joe Morton (Terminator 2). The storyline for this the first couple seasons was actually really, really good. Then the storyline started getting a bit too crazy, outside the box and unrealistic. When the series shifted to a love story with tragedy after tragedy and away from Olivia and her agency saving the world and various lives the entire show started falling apart. It's really too bad because the original premise was very good. The show really started to run it's course after season four and was on life support after that. It's amazing it lasted as long as it did. I would score this series a 6-6.5/10.

I don't need to add anymore about the horrible writing , summed up by another reviewer who called the dialog "50 Chihuahuas going after one hot dog". This program is nothing more than a 30 minute 70's soap opera saturated with product placement. The premise that Olivia Pope is a power player is absurd. She is a compromised incompetent cluster*@ck that could not solve anything in real life.

This may be the laziest writing and research for technical background I have ever seen on a major TV show. Their lack of knowledge and terminology how thing work in real life is either lazy or incompetent. From " two F-15's are waiting on the Carrier ready to take off" (try Wikipedia) to numerous medical, security and government protocols that could never occur in real life, only shows that this program only wants to be about comical love stories made for 16 year olds.

Unbelievable on too many fronts for anyone to not just laugh.

It was a great show in the beginning but then it jumped the shark when Washington's character became rambo on the show, started over-acting, and her facial expression became a constant look of smelling feces. I fast-forward through her rants on the show; love all other characters, except her dad's rants that are just as terrible as hers.

If shonda rhymes knows how to do anything it's create a show that is utterly ridiculous and unrealistic in every way but very entertaining.

As a medical professional I think greys is the best and worst show. I love the characters but the medical stuff frustrates me. But still I allow myself to switch off and enjoy the show.

And I think that's what you also need to do with Scandal. If you have an intelligent bone in your body you have to switch off your brain and suspend total belief. This show is so ridiculous in so many ways. But who doesn't love some political drama, lots of cliffhangers, mysteries and plot twists.

I'll admit it is better in the first few seasons and just gets to preposterous levels by about season 6. The utterly horrible and treasonous acts committed by employees of the White House are insane I'm so glad that it's not unrealistic as it would be just plain scary if our world leaders acted this way.

Nevertheless it had me hooked after about 3-4 episodes and I binge watched the entire series in a few weeks.

I'd label this one a guilty pleasure. Don't watch if you can't switch off your brain as it will only leaving you saying wtf a lot!!!!

I was a big fan of this show in its opening season and most the way through season 4. It was clever, with some good writing, interesting characters, and good plot twists. Then something happened and it turned into a soap opera. Rather than being an interesting show with some big moments, it turned into every scene being a yelling feast. I love an intense interaction, but when it's every dialogue in every scene...it's gets old. It's like they turned the volume up to 11 and left it there for 2 seasons. Characters became ridiculous and inconsistent, writing got predictable. Every character intensely flip flops back and forth, usually multiple times an episode. I'm trying to finish the show just to see how they resolve everything but it's basically just suffering through episodes that are mostly unwatchable. Sad to see it fall so far from its first seasons