Hell week of sorts begins. Naturally, I kick myself repeatedly for letting papers build up to this point, but last night's three paper marathon wasn't too bad. I watched all the episodes of Scandal, which managed to be simultaneously highly addicting and obnoxious.
Scandal is about a team in Washington D.C. that fixes the scandals of high-profile figures. From affairs to homicide cases, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) leads a group of lawyers in covering up for their clients. Oh, and Olivia is also caught up romantically with the President. But that itself would be, you know.
Olivia Pope - in terms of her place in the cultural fabric of our times? Wonderful. She's one of the few female characters who are - you thought I was going to say strong - fully developed and nuanced. Yes, she's independent and assertive (we'll just ignore that awkward scene in the Oval Office in episode one, during which I kept screaming in my head, "Push him away! Push him awayyyyyy!!!!), but she's also flawed in ways both major and miniscule. I can imagine what a meaty role this would be for an actress. We need more of these. And what's more, I love that she's a woman of color. There's nothing in her background so far that explicitly indicates her ethnicity, which makes it all the better that such a casting choice was made.
As a character in the fabric of a story, I don't like her as much. Her team builds her up to be this nearly invincible force of nature. "Gladiators in suits," "She doesn't believe in crying," and all that legend-building business. It makes for an initial thrill that quickly wears thin, in part because she makes crucial mistakes almost immediately. The audience must take declarations of other characters when they are repeatedly shown otherwise. I believe that is called conspicuous exposition. Her famous gut barely gets a chance to show off before it is compromised, by nothing other than
amour.
Why, girls, why? Why can we be strong in everything but love? What is it about the fairy tale that makes our artistic representations weak? I'm not a cynic. I indulge in daydreams too. But to do a complete 180 personality-wise in the presence of your lover seems ludicrous to me. Maybe I'm too young and naive, but for now, this seems implausible (or at the very least frustrating) to me.
In general, it's great the way the writers have woven in diversity without making a big deal about it. Cyrus, the Chief of Staff, is gay. He just is, no big deal. Oh, the Vice President is a woman? Okay. Once again, however, the show champions progress while lacking as a show. Cyrus is obnoxious because I don't understand his goals and thus cannot empathize with him. I admire the approach in creating him, but I like him as a concept and not a character. After episode after episode of twists and secret dealings, I have to admit I want to skip ahead to the end when everything is tied up with a little red bow.
And one final thing. The first time Olivia intimidated someone, it was cool. The way she spoke without seemingly taking a breath, breaking sentences where they shouldn't be broken, and not letting anyone else get a word in edge-wise. But then she did it seven times in one episode, every time someone needed to be persuaded or intimidated. Armed with that alone, she's become the fearsome figure we see onscreen. Difficult to believe in its powers, especially when Gideon the reporter tears it down in five seconds with some tough talk of his own. In MUN we call that hard-balling (very amusing to a male delegate who thought I was speaking in euphemisms). More than once I wanted to do what my teacher taught us when we get hard-balled (wrong phrasing WRONG PHRASING), stick my hand in her face and say, STOP!
What's more, all the characters started speaking in the same way. There was one moment in particular when Abby and Olivia were screaming at each other, the only difference in their delivery the subtle characterization work of the actors. When one character does it, it's kind of awesome. When all the characters do it, I have to wonder if Woody Allen was in the writer's room.
My qualms pile up on paper, but for the most part, I enjoyed the show and I have to applaud Shonda Rhimes for her work as a writer and producer. We won't get our perfect female or minority characters immediately, but I'm glad we have characters like Olivia Pope along the way. I'll be watching in hopes that the writers of Scandal tweak and polish as the show moves along.
Photos courtesy of ABC.
Scandal
spent the day in a fancy hotel with a bunch of francophones, discussing literature, performance art, and cinema in a cross-cultural context (volunteering at a 20th and 21st century French and Francophone literature conference). The panels and subjects were so rich with diversity and depth that my biggest frustration was that I couldn't attend them all.
