The Washington Backstage Politician or Olivia Pope as a Crisis Guru and Style Icon
Olivia Pope - a high-class specialist in public relations, works in the field of chief solving grandiose problems of high-ranking persons and not so much. Her job is to extinguish the conflict without a fire extinguisher and serious damage to her reputation. She is the head of a camp of like-minded people consisting of motley colleagues with a murky past, an anti-crisis agency, ala dry cleaners with a bunch of dirty laundry of influential people, and in the past working in the US presidential administration – “a dark-skinned woman in the world of white people.”
She is a prominent influencer and the so-called fixer (from English. to fix - fix / fix) and the boss of "gladiators in costumes", who are ready to work day, night, without weekends and holidays for the benefit of the client, slavishly and unquestioningly doing everything Olivia says.
She is the queen of chaos and confusion, or rather the leader of their plundering. It’s always in the thick of Washington’s wardrobes, where almost everyone is willing to bite at each other’s throats and frame each other for a piece of pie called “power.” Who was today a friend, tomorrow your enemy, the day after tomorrow you see the enemy in the reflection and so on in a circle: who to whom? A web of lies, a hotbed of undercover games, a concentration of the struggle for the reins of power - all this is Washington-style politics. And if you are caught in her quicksand, not clean on the hand or any other part of the body and this is sniffed out by the scolders, the press or all together – it is better not to call Saul, but Olivia.
"If there is a problem, call Olivia" - so in practice and with knowledge of the case echoes the first lady of America, who, along with the country and the need to decide its fate, stand in the way to the heart of the main man Olivia - the President of the United States - the most influential person on the planet, as he is repeatedly called by the creators of the series. Funny.
Kerry Washington - with such a "capital" name, God himself ordered to play someone who is special, close to the political elite of the United States. Here she is Olivia Pope—beautiful—an eye to her cherry eyes (cute tautology), smooth skin without a hint of wrinkles and stunningly sexy lips—oh, those African-American women. She is a convincing speaker, educated, intelligent, stylish, ambitious, wealthy, confident, assertive, brave and dangerous - all this gives her the right to be known as a pro.
She walks around the house in white (!) cashmere (!) and sleeps in and out of natural silk. She has designer shoes and bags (Prada), Blackberry before the advent of smartphones, in the kitchen there is always rare red wine and popcorn instead of food. At work, she, adhering to an ultra-business style, wears expensive silhouette coats, trenchcoats, suits, tweed jackets, woolen ponchos and capes. At social events, she wears exquisite dresses not couture and a jeweler - where can you not sin so that you are dressed like this? By the way, her wardrobe was engaged by someone Lin Paolo, and it is to her that the series owes the fact that we are jealous of all this splendor, understanding why Liv prefers black & white (a black woman in the White House – as symbolic), and who watched the series in the years of its release, has already recognized the character Olivia Pope one of the most fashionable on TV.
Her activities prove once again that the existence of so-called connections is the key to success where anyone else would have given up long ago, but not her. She doesn’t know the meaning of the word “lose”, so go to the end and “I never give up” sounds very convincingly her professional credo, just like “I never lose” from the lips of “Force Major” Harvey Spectre.
She worked as an image maker and PR actress in the campaign of a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and if politics is something honest and clean, the lion’s share of what he won the election is hers.
She is the first everywhere, and even the man No. 1 managed to get caught without much zeal, and so much so that he became not only obsessed with her, he raves about her, admitting that he loves her more than the presidency. But to tame men’s libido above the position of head of the free world and not give a damn that “the fate of the whole country is more important than the life and freedom of one man”? Funny 2.
To generate such a character as Olivia Pope, I think, only under force was Shonde Rhimes, because her heroine has a prototype - Judy Smith - lawyer, crisis manager, former assistant J. K. Busha S., presenter, writer and co-producer of the series. It was she who advised Monica Lewinsky, who was eventually trampled by the powers that be. Shonda was enough to get acquainted with Judy Smith and the planned dialogue for 30 minutes resulted in a 3-hour conversation, and then even in a joint collaboration in the creation of “Scandal”.
Where Shonda Rhimes, there will always be a place for branded flashbacks - remember only "How to Get Away with Murder", where in one of the plots, by the way, she wove Pope and vice versa.
Where she is a showrunner, there will always be themes of racism, sexism and LGBT people (in and behind the frame) - here gays even in the White House - ola la.
Where it is the domination of the black population (what is the hype around the Bridgertons, which has charmed many with its kind absurdity and pseudo-romanticism). "Scandal" is no exception.
If I had to compare Rhimes to someone from Hollywood, I would immediately name Ryan Murphy, a gay man and creator of notable TV shows like Nip/tuck, Glee, Ratched, etc. Afro-american and openly gay - a searing mixture and the key to the success of the popular serial industry on streaming platforms sample of the 21st century.
In the “Scandal” you can find references to the tragedy with J. Kennedy and Princess Diana, scandals in Watergate, with M. Lewinsky, E. Snowden, the movement #MeToo (harassment), as well as to see a parody of Trump and a reference to the Russian mafia (well, far beyond the birthplace), and even in Russia with Putin metaphorical tank passed, which means that the title of the series is fully justified and the creators wrote the script through the prism of historical and political events of the country – not a fantasy, even with a sufficiently accurate plot and plot.
When Shonda takes on the case, the project is doomed to success. She amazingly manages to gather around a team of professionals in the face of caste, directors, consultants, etc. She knows how to tickle your nerves, deprive you of sleep or all together, creating a first-class product that will be discussed and watched afresh. She knows that the output will always be a noticeable project with several seasons, attracting like a magnet for its interest, dynamism, storylines with multi-movement, powerful, emotional mono-dialogues, tear and sex scenes of boiling passions. And for the fact that she and a team of like-minded people create a quality entertainment (albeit with reservations) - respect and curtsey.
The events of the series “Scandal” take place somewhere in a parallel reality to today’s US. Thinking like this is a great relief for the psyche, because otherwise it becomes scary to live in this world at all. 124 episodes, for 7 seasons, we scrupulously and meticulously, with repeated repetition, tell the banal story that politics is not only dirty, but also criminal. Intrigue and corruption, blackmail and outright violence, insidiousness and betrayal, debauchery and immoral behavior mixed with harassment, racism, abuse of a high position, well-disguised murders and killers in public office - this is not a complete list of plot lines of this long-playing television narrative.
Despite the fact that the authors defined his genre as a thriller, I would call the series a political melodrama with a purely female view of events. And although the series has many directors (some from the cast), the inspirer and main author is the famous Shonda Rhimes. The one that inspired ABC’s production of Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder, Netflix’s Brigerton and Inventing Anna, and a dozen more long-running TV soaps featuring a vague plot and radical feminist agenda.
The scandal is created in the same style - tough, sometimes grinding, glorifying the "superiority" of the black race, with constant weeping for thorns on the way to Olympus. In this case, it's political. We are talking about the White House and its inhabitants. Including the main ones registered in the oval office. Where they lead talented, but unscrupulous and immoral to the brain Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) – a specialist in public relations. But her work is not limited to this profession - she is such a "crisis manager" of a very wide profile, and at the same time a lady, we are assured, possessing magical charms that work seamlessly on men at the very top of American power. To say that the actress fully corresponds to these initial, is to crook against the truth. If in the first three seasons it is still possible, with a great stretch, to catch her in demonic beauty, literally paralyzing the current President Grant (Tony Goldwin) and forcing him to do everything that the lady “advises”, or simply to dance to her tune, then in the subsequent she somehow noticeably loses appearance. Maybe because during the filming, the actress managed to give birth to two children - pregnancy, they say, paints some women, Kerry Washington is clearly not one of them. Meanwhile, there are a lot of explicit bed scenes in the series and, sorry, you can see how Tony Goldwin and Scott Foley (playing another “victim” of charm) portray “passion” while trying to “protect” the actress’ huge belly. You can see that. And that's bad. . .
After the third season, bacchanalia began in general - in order to collect textures for continuation, the authors began to "strengthen" the biography of the heroes, turning them into real incarnations of hell. Especially went to the heroes of Joe Morton (Olivia’s dad, along with the secret head of the secret department, claiming the laurels of the shadow puppeteer) and Jeff Perry (a man from the President’s team who went through a career from chief of staff to vice president, but with criminal views for the main post). Significantly demonized and simpler characters, at the same time showing that for a successful political career in the United States enough audacity, cunning and the ability to trade principles (women – and body). Moreover, the oversaturation of storylines is to the detriment of their elaboration, the seriousness of the narrative decreases and sometimes you catch yourself thinking that you are watching not the game plot, but the sketches of comics.
With such a tense "picture" it is difficult to talk about the impeccability of acting - all play unevenly. Kerry Washington, especially in recent seasons, looks like a sleepy fish at times. Although at the beginning of the series showed outstanding activity, including emotional and it was pleasant to watch. Morton, who portrays Satan himself, cries more and more, even when there is no reason. Perry, who got the “difficult” role of an old gay man with great political ambition and a complete lack of morality, sometimes just stands with a frozen look and diluted (as if in bewilderment) hands, as if he does not really understand how to play this vile inferno. The rest of the actors (and there are more than a thousand of them here) are also far from everything and not always smooth. And by the way, it struck me that Viola Davis was nominated for an Emmy in 2018 as Best Guest Actress. Of course, she did not receive anything, and this is true - for those five or six appearances she simply did not have time to demonstrate anything outstanding and receive an award for this - shameful.
Anyway, in places the series is very addictive and watching the plot is interesting. A thought arises: if it were not for the stupid, purely female melodramatism, less pressure on the “feminist” idea, thoughtfulness and consistency in the coverage of “specificity”, its proximity to reality, this fictional story for adults could become a very good series. But still actors Tony Goldwin, Belamy Young, Scott Foley and some others saved the situation as best they could - they were pleasant to look at as talented actors, and just beautiful people.
6 out of 10
Political procedure is exactly the description I read somewhere and rushed to search ' Scandal' as abnormal, because this description sounds like something I like with a hundred percent probability. But for all those who have been waiting for ' scandal' a new house of cards I will have to disappoint. There's so much more to Shonda Rhimes's Anatomy of Passion than there is to a political thriller. And it seems that it is not bad, I love anatomy with all my heart, but, apparently, the mixture with politics does not quite suit it.
The main storyline is a novel by Olivia Pope, an anti-crisis manager and political strategist with the US President, Fitzgerald Grant. There are many intrigues of storylines that seem unrelated to them, but somehow all roads lead to their affair.
Olivia Pope, all of herself so brilliant, with the help of one intuition determining whether a person is guilty or not, behaves like a twelve-year-old in whom the first hormones have played out and loses her last brains at the sight of the President.
Fitzgerald Grant is a great president, and according to his entourage, the best candidate for this position is a weak-character, infantile and not particularly intelligent man, from whom his wife and mistress whirl ropes and twist them in all directions.
Mellie Grant is the first lady and, to me, the heroine is more interesting than her husband. She is what a real politician should be - intelligent, persistent, cunning, ready to betray her convictions for the sake of a higher goal.
As it seems to me, the main mistake of the series is that the relationship of the main characters almost all the time stands still – they once in three episodes passionately kiss on the corners, then shout something like “I can’t do this!” You're married! It's over! Then several episodes shoot each other in love, and then everything repeats. And so almost the whole series - it quickly gets bored. By walking in circles, I think Shonda wanted to show that this is no longer love but a harmful addiction and it would be interesting if the characters wanted to empathize.
I read that Shonda wanted to make a series where there will be no positive characters, and to some extent, she probably succeeded, but instead of admiring the genius of the antagonist (as, for example, in the house of cards), we get a bunch of adults acting like schoolchildren during puberty, and instead of admiring it causes only annoyance and facepalm. And no desire to empathize. At all.
I liked Fitz a little more in recent seasons than at the beginning, but his character had some development, and Olivia had only stable degradation.
Season to the third there is such a whistling with Olivia’s parents that the series generally crosses all the edges of insanity.
I’m just scolding this series, but it’s not so bad. Shonda Rhimes knows how to interest, and makes you keep watching, there are interesting characters - Mellie, about whom I wrote a little above, Cyrus Bean - the head of the presidential administration, as I turned out perfectly. Here he is really an antihero, but his actions have a clear logic, he commits many very bad deeds, but all of them are due to his goal, and you can see what external circumstance (who watched, he will understand) influenced him and tore off the brakes.
If you summarize the series normal, just from Shondaland you expect something more than ' well, in principle you can', the main character infuriates incredibly, but does not cause sympathy at all, the main storyline is deadlocked, and nevertheless it almost never goes to the background.
5 out of 10
Double impressions. This, of course, is perfect soap, implausible for housewives. At the heart of the season is the most tender and sincere love against all odds, the choice between duty and passion. Framed by contrast, the background is completely cynical. At the exit there are perfect homunskulas, like the third series, when the old mother and the organizer of illegal affairs organize the appearance of the guilty once guilty. It's perfect thrash. Flame speeches in defense of women and the offended reduce cheekbones.
In some ways, the Scandal, judging by the first season, is closer to the Sons of Anarchy with implausible plot twists, a craving for thrashing, than, for example, to the Good Wife, with whom the series is not comparable either to casting or staging problems.
At the same time, it is necessary to give credit, everything is organized at the Bay Run level perfectly. The creators skillfully and qualitatively use time-tested developments of driving injection, in fact completely disavowing such things as motivation, psychology and plausibility with superspeeds. In some ways, a lot of comics, especially in terms of the team’s superpowers to organize everything quickly.
You will not come off and the second season I will watch (for 7 episodes it was not boring).
I frankly don't like the big, twisted lips of the actress Washington who played straight (Margulis isn't an outstanding actress either), but hopefully that doesn't make me a racist.
I will immediately say that I am not objective: I watched three episodes and became bored and ashamed of the series. So don't pay attention if you're excited about it.
So, the newbie gets into the already established professional team (somewhere I have seen this before). “The meeting place can not be changed” – a joke: every second series uses a similar setting. Now the beginner needs (you can) to study the methods and goals of the team, to prove yourself, to clarify for what such merits he (she) was (a) invited to this established team.
Three episodes (and then I did not watch) were wasted.
But I learned that the President of the United States is an alpha male, whose main occupation is unauthorized relations with female fools in love (thank you for being heterosexual!), meetings with some prime ministers of some countries, discovery of something and evening drunkenness from the unbearability of life.
But near - faithful friends who will support, insure, clean up the sins of intimate life.
A team of non-advocates but gladiators (maybe a failed translation) will come to the rescue on the verge of the law. They are led by a relatively pretty woman: self-confident, confident, faithful and covering entrusted secrets. True, this is only said by the people around her, but we must, for some reason, believe them: in itself her fuss, change of clothes, convincing nonsense uttered on any occasion, for some reason leave doubts about her professionalism.
Believe me, the series is not worth wasting time on: if the president, the prosecutor, the judge and the other powerful people in this world are as they are shown, then: Oh my God! Where is the world going!
The world is rolling, of course, the stupidity of the authorities is ineradicable. But still not to such an extent: there are sometimes professionals behind the scenes who know the laws, know how to act within them – but they do their job quietly, quietly, with varying degrees of success. That’s why they’ll never make it to the TV series!
In fact, it is now clear why the last Bushes are not the most successful presidents. Well, we are waiting for memoirs and exploits in the field of TV series from Jane Psaki; the Russian tracing is quite capable of our Masha Zakharova.
By the way, politics is a way to coordinate the interests of the city residents through negotiations, not riots, civil wars, revolutions, repressions, shootings. I do not know who has come up with the idea that politics is a dirty business: he seems to have confused it with the methods of those who hang around with politics for personal gain. So the actual politics in the series just no, because shown not interests, the bustle of individual characters.
First of all, I admire Shonda's talent. For more than 10 years she has delighted us with endless episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Also note a rather good series “Private Practice” with our favorite Edison Montgomery.
I recently came across a series called Scandal. To say this is a good show is to say nothing! This series is absolutely gorgeous. It's all in Shonda's repertoire. The daily work of Olivia Pope’s agency, the friendship of the heroes, love (often forbidden), politics, murder, secrets and secrets, unexpected plot twists and fates of the heroes. All of this is not enough for this project.
Acting at the highest level, despite a rather large number of little-known actors. But fans of Shonda will definitely enjoy familiar faces from “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice”.
Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington, is mesmerizing. I think a lot of girls and women want to be like her. Strong, self-confident, ready to solve the problems of everyone and everything. The woman who made the president of the United States with her own hands, or as they like to say, “The most powerful man in the world.”
The team assembled by Olivia, her gladiators, is quite diverse, there are killers and victims, but it does not matter to her, she is always ready to help them.
The series opens the curtain of the political world, or rather shows all the dirty sheets and skeletons in the closet, and believe me, there are many. What you can't see here. Sometimes you ask yourself, “Is this the case?” And that's scary.
And relations with the president - how interesting to look at them, it is impossible not to empathize with the heroes.
Well, watch it all! Even men who do not like strong girls, as there are many other things.
Another series from the already famous and beloved Shonda Rhimes.
The series in the first season is gaining momentum, then really hotter scandalous and cooler!
Olivia Pope played by Kerry Washington is simply gorgeous. You can’t imagine anyone who could play this character like that.
You can talk about the plot for a long time. In the center of the plot is the anti-crisis manager Olivia Pope, who together with her company solves the complex problems of wealthy clients, as well as employees of the White House, where Olivia used to work. And that's where the problems start, because these people are rich and powerful, and they have a bunch of skeletons in their closet. Politics is dirty. The idea of the series was based on the life and career of Judy Smith, former head of the press center of George H.W. Bush.
Olivia’s team is very interesting personalities, whose history will also be shown to us.
There are a lot of interesting characters: Cyrus Bean (Jeff Perry) incredibly plays the role of the head of the US presidential administration.
President of the United States Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III played Tony Goldwyn, played perfectly.
The first lady of the United States Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) became one of the favorite heroes.
The appearance of Elizabeth North (Portia de Rossi) was a pleasant bonus.
The series is highly recommended for viewing to all fans and fans of Shonda Rhimes, who is the author of such masterpieces as Grey's Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder.
10 out of 10
Times change and conditions of existence change in everything. Communication of people with each other almost completely moved to the conditions of wireless Internet and social networks. Paper money is slowly but surely giving way to electronic wallets and cards. Warriors quickly change their location from battlefields to the conditions of behind-the-scenes struggle of the political arena at the highest level and this is once again confirmed by this series created by Shonda Rhimes.
It would seem that throughout the history of cinema, a huge number of TV series and feature films were shot, which to one degree or another touched upon the topic of the political arena. As an example of the most important historical events, and the usual relationships of people living in a dangerous environment of politicians. Nevertheless, this series created by Shonda Rhimes, if not a discovery as such, then certainly one of the few truly worthy followers of this cinematic direction.
In many ways, this is facilitated by a really spectacularly written scenario, which to a greater extent is a kind of “seed”. After all, if the pilot and the first series of the series do not impress with anything outstanding and create an impression of something quite ordinary, then by the end of the first season the series acquires a truly interesting and exciting image. So much so that there is no desire to break away from what is happening on the screen, or anything else.
With each series, the characters are revealed more and more widely, the fates of the characters are more and more intertwined with each other, and individual events of their lives on the example of gossip, machinations, intrigue and other passions become more and more large-scale and acute and it is really interesting to observe. Especially in the context of the fact that, unlike many films and TV series on such topics, the creators of the series do not limit themselves in the desire to pour dirt on the political arena, how much to reflect its particularly slippery moments, which almost always remain behind the curtain of beautiful speeches and correctly constructed PR techniques in the service of government employees.
Of course, the series is based on the strongest performance of Kerry Washington, which I personally consider one of the few truly talented African American actresses of our time. Perhaps she did not manage to fully create the image of a strong and strong-willed “iron lady”, but it is certainly easy to portray such a complex image from a plot point of view. Tony Goldwin is incredibly good as the President of the United States. Acting out perhaps one of the most ambiguous images of the series, which imbued with sympathy and antipathy at the same time. At the same time, not being indifferent to the most complicated relationship between the heroes of Washington and Goldwin. The entire secondary caste is not bad at coping with their tasks, but alas suffers a little almost minimized level of charisma of each of the actors, which would somehow distinguish them from the main actors of the series.
7 out of 10
Scandal is a very intriguing, interesting, fascinating and exciting series, to which you manage to unwittingly get addicted, if not immediately, then thoroughly for sure. In many ways, because of the very spectacularly played theme of political intrigue and dramas of human destinies, which are so interestingly played by the creator of the series Shonda Rhimes.
The series “Scandal” I was praised as a worthy competitor to the famous “House of Cards” – the recommendation is better not so easy to come up with. The series is really about behind-the-scenes games around the White House – this topic seems to be very popular among Americans (I don’t even remember examples of the Kremlin). But to call "Scandal" luck, I, unfortunately, can not - an interesting idea in general ruins more than a strange performance.
"Scandal" has many merits. Telling the story of the “anti-crisis” team, recruited by a lady from the very top, is not a bad idea. Selection of actors led by the famous Kerry Washington is excellent. The pace taken by the creators of the series is impressive, and although the action after the first series inevitably slows down, the dynamism of “Scandal” makes a very pleasant impression.
The series, however, clearly lacks a sense of proportion, sophistication and elegance. Intrigues do not give the impression of twisted, and carefully cultivated pathos - the importance of what is happening and the uniqueness of the main character is emphasized about once every five minutes - gradually begins to irritate. Scandal borrows ideas from its predecessors. Not to mention the fact that the general line of the series gradually displaces what it was created for – the everyday life of the best team in Washington crisis managers.
In other words, “Scandal” was closer to a comic book about superspies than a serious political drama. Surely this genre will also have a lot of fans - in fact, the success of the show on television shows it with all the clarity. In addition, “Scandal” will be a joy for fans of all sorts of conspiracy theories. But those who expect from a political series the level of Frank Underwood, or at least early Carrie Matheson, will have a hard time.
The content of this product can be called fantastic. Really, unscientific. Because the lack of sound logic and constant inconsistencies in the overall concept of the plot literally go off the scale.
In general, the recipe is:
We take for the main object of attention not something, but the White House administration headed by the President himself. The main character is a brilliant and politically correct black PR woman, who simultaneously failed mistress of this very president (by the way, a rare infantile idiot). We give her as a retinue a team of assistants bursting with their own pathos, but obediently looking into the boss's mouth. And then we dump in each series a bunch of “dirty political underwear”, from which the Big Intrigue looms over time.
In order not to be bored, mini-stories with clients are inserted into the episodes, which the Office “virtuoso” pulls out of the type of hopeless situations. And as the icing on the cake, we introduce one unhappy but charismatic secondary character with a dark past.
Nothing, do not lie at the heart of the initially absurd concept. The heap and literally anti-realistic conspiracies in the plot on the verge of idiocy. And how do they manage to remain the world’s first superpower?
Plus, it is completely incomprehensible how the main character - on the idea emphasized smart and decisive - could have a close relationship with such a helpless tyrant, whom the US president is exposed to.
The actress, to put it mildly, is very so-so. Olivia has to change her mood often. But because she can use about three-and-a-half facial expressions more or less distinctly, it's not always clear if taking the text seriously in a scene is ironic. Although it is difficult to deny purely external charm.
The project as a whole, of course, adds highlights allegedly based on real events. It is funny that the real PR Judy from creating illusions in real politics went to promote them in the series.
Unfortunately, after reading good reviews and watching five episodes, I realize that time is wasted. As you go on, more and more yellow-gazette nonsense - scandal-intrigue-investigation. I assume that the enthusiasm is caused by a weak acquaintance with the genre.
Of the advantages, you can note a well-worked dynamic installation and a pleasant picture. But who is surprised by this on American TV?
If you want political and legal intrigue with a feminist flavor, I recommend watching The Right Wife. There, the plot, although more mundane, but much more realistic, the main characters are livelier, and the cast is much stronger.
The series evoked very different feelings. On the one hand, this is another series about the profession. So many of them were about doctors, police officers, firefighters... and now people who work in crisis. In general, at first my interest was caused by the profession of the main characters, because it is very close to the specialty in which I received my education.
By and large, I liked the series, and it's weird because Kerry Washington, who plays the main character Olivia Pope, I didn't like it at all. I have no idea what talents she showed when the decision was made to appoint her to the lead role, but clearly not acting (I have long suspected that in the United States there is a quota for black actors in films and TV shows). ). The actress is pretty, and for representatives of her race, probably even beautiful, but using a beautiful face is quite trouble. If there is still some movement in the lip area, the upper part of the face is almost paralyzed. She plays like a rubber doll, which, in addition to the “stone face” mode, has two more modes: “house throws” and “rocks” in case of demonstrating sadness and anger, respectively. In any case, all her attempts to portray emotions look unconvincing and ugly, I think.
The plot of “Scandal” is built differently than the plots of similar series, but because of this kind of narrative, the series only wins. Usually, in each series, one case of using professional capacities is shown. In this case, for all seasons stretched one case – working with the President. The rest of the cases go as a secondary line. After watching the first season, it becomes clear that the series is not about PR people who work in a crisis, but about politics. On the other hand, how often do such specialists come in handy in other fields?
The series is perfect for fans of various conspiracy theories. This direction is deployed as much as possible here. You have the undercover games of the White House and the secret organizations that control it. Special attention deserves the character Huck, who is trying to get rid of the state of the killer machine imposed on him. I remember this character because he looks a lot like the Dexter I love. The creators of the series even the scene of Huck’s murder of their victims accurately copied. Whether it was realized or not, I do not know, but for some reason the copied scene did not cause outrage, but on the contrary even fell to taste.
The series shows the patriotism of Americans in all facets of his idiocy. Every time I was ironic about it. For example, a present is so often referred to as the “leader of the free world” or “the most powerful man on earth,” just as it becomes clear that he has absolutely nothing to control. There are so many moments like this.
Like any good show, the main advantage is the plot. And it is not possible to try it immediately. In itself, the development of events in “Scandal” is monotonous, and that’s when you start to get bored, there is some twist that demolishes the roof. That's probably what catches you.
However, I don’t think it’s for everyone, just people who can watch TV shows like House of Cards or The Good Wife. There is no action in the usual sense of the word, there is some kind of mental action. In general, if you can perceive monotonous material, be sure to look.
America learned long ago that to hide that politics is a dirty business is stupid and pointless. Politics is a game, it’s lies, it’s deception and victims, it’s bribery and falsification (think Person of the Year – find plot intersections).
And politics is also human. Crisis manager Olivia is a fragile but strong woman. The President of the United States is a son who hates his father and overcomes himself. The wife is unhappy, but ready to do anything to defend her place in the sun.
There is something absolutely unreal about it, like the fact that the president has fabulously few trips and meetings and a suspiciously long time to think about the woman he loves. Maybe that’s how you saw (or wanted to see) your boss Judy Smith?
But this is an art project that forgives such inconsistencies. After all, the standard weekdays of a presidential administration over three seasons would be boring to watch. What is really exciting is the plot finds in each of the episodes, the theory of conspiratorial organization and the play of actors, and the opportunity to look into the political boudoir. It's all an illusion, but it's damn fascinating.
Gladiators, the people who keep your dirty laundry clean. Olivia Pope is a woman with no feelings when she does her job. Personal life is closed to everyone, it is not discussed. She is the mistress of the President of the United States.
ABC put the series in danger in 2011. But they took a chance. Now this series is the most rated. Even Grey's Anatomy was left out. When the next episode comes out, it is a guarantee that you will spend the next 43 minutes in the ecstasy of pleasure from intrigue and investigation, from the dirty deeds of the most venerable people in America from the White House.
The cast.
Kerry Washington became one of my idols after this series. Her lips when talking are something. Emotions are on the verge of exploding, you'll believe her anyway. After all, she, being sensual, can be a monster and tear up anyone.
Guillermo Diaz is also one of the gladiators, I didn’t know anything about him before this series. Even if you watched the TV series “Durman”, he simply did not remember. Guillermo's game just keeps the series going. I feel sorry for him even though he is a murderer. The character's isolation, the tragedy of the past, the service to the America that betrayed him. Delight. He also appeared in Britney Spears' "I Wanna Go". You can expect anything from this person.
White House. I'll highlight the actor Jeff Perry. He's the president's right-hand man, but every now and then he does dark things that you better not know about. His character Cyrus, in the series his name is pronounced much more than Olivia. After all, he is the soul of the series, Olivia is the heart, and Heck is the rest of the series. Jeff Perry; Grey's Anatomy fans know him. He played the father of Meredith Gray.
The reason I saw it was Shonda Rhimes. This is a woman without brakes, she has been hitting with drama in the series Grey's Anatomy for 10 years. I’ve watched all the TV shows she’s produced and, of course, mostly focus on the TV shows and movies she’s writing. Unfortunately, Shonda can't stop. I mean the series “Private Practice” and “Grey’s Anatomy”, I hope that “Scandal” will be finished in time and will not kill anyone.
The directors convey a great atmosphere, every shot completed my bow as a fan of the show. The writers know their work, because Shonda Rhimes is on this team. A woman who knows what to intrigue and how to capture the viewer.
This year, Carrey lost to worthy competitor Claire Danes at the Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
Special thanks for the music.
We all remember the intuition of the great Chekhov: “If in the first act a gun hangs on the wall, then in the last it will shoot.” Well, in this show, there's a damn grenade launcher on the wall! And he shoots more often than once for a play!
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In the center of the story: the team of Olivia Pope ... A kind of dry-cleaning of the dirty secrets of high-ranking officials of Washington, cleaning them of imminent problems. Sometimes bypassing the law, sometimes simply ignoring the moral code, a team of lawyers, a hacker-maniac-CRUshnik, a former prosecutor and, in fact, a public relations specialist, achieve justice even where Themis does not always find or approve it.
The creators of the show make concessions to the viewer: in order not to confuse us in the wilds of the already existing nuances of the team’s work, the story will follow a new employee of the office, who, like us, will be told about the intricacies of work and will personally present everything – characters, customers and so on. Already in the tenth minute of the show, it seems to us that we all understood: the team helps the “bumps” solve problems.
From such a synopsis, a good show would come out, which lasted a couple of seasons and eventually retired, aki “Theory of Lies”, parallels with which it is simply impossible not to conduct.
The creators of Scandal went further. Seriously! Much, much further! Forget everything you just read! The history of the office is only a screen for a grand plot! In fact, out of the seven episodes of the first season, only four episodes are devoted to solving the problems of high-ranking officials. The main line is another, a refrain going through the whole narrative: a grand scandal with the presidents of the United States of America, in which not only the employees of this very office, but also the first people of the state, weaving intrigues with such frantic rapidity that you wonder: how unusual such a show is for American television, as a rule, trying not to touch the political elite!
“Scandal” is a breath of fresh air in the somewhat frozen development of television. First of all, thanks to the writers: the storyline is thought out and verified to the smallest detail! In a sea of mysteries, everyone will find their own solution and answer. In a sea of intrigue, each will have its own development. Each word, inadvertently thrown in conversation, in the future can become the starting point of the next plot branch.
In particular, the presentation of mysteries and mysteries, for which the show is certainly famous, was one detail: there are a lot of them! But! But there are only as many as the viewer can bear! This is not “Lost”, where the writers in ten minutes put a million secrets of Drahma, and then torture the viewer, twenty episodes answering the question: “What was there?”
Nope! Each question will immediately find an answer leading to the next question, which in turn will lead to the question. And so on, until the point is reached!
In fact, "Scandal" is a unique political series, combining parts of the best shows of recent years - from "The West Wing", to "Theory of Lies" and "Fight".
... Perhaps, the review was not the most enlightening, but, honestly, for seven episodes, so many turns were made, so many unexpected, tense moments that after watching the eyes run away: what to write about?
... As a result, you can write one thing: the series is definitely recommended for viewing by every lover of action-packed films, because this most acute plot for the screen share of time just goes off the scale!
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Out of a million mysteries that confuse the brain to the viewer, only one remained unsolved, oh miracle. She is in the second, coming season.
A grenade gun hanging on the wall once again raises its trigger.
A wonderful series!