Shonda Rhimes and I go waaay back. We've been girlfriends since 2005 and hang out every Thursday night at 9p.m. Seriously? Yes...seriously. Okay well maybe we're not exactly girlfriends per se, but I've been an admirer of her career since the pilot episode of her TV show Grey's Anatomy premiered in the Fall of 2005.
Don't call, text, or stop by my house on Grey's night. It's that serious. The show is my personal strange addiction and has been for 7 seasons now. I know some people may disagree with me on this, but I felt Shonda missed the mark on Private Practice. I'm not a fan of the show---shocker I know, but when the series premiered back in 2007, they did a cross-over episode with Grey's and I hated it. I haven't watched the show since, but the series doesn't need my help as a viewer because its doing very well and its highly critically acclaimed on ABC's network.
However, a new beast has invaded the network, that may even supersede my admiration and addiction to Grey's Anatomy. The hotness that is--Scandal. Yes this show is super sexy, stylish, mysterious, and I'll just be blunt about it, I'm lovin the fact that Kerry Washington is "carrying" this show. There hasn't been a prime-time drama series with a black female lead on ABC's network since "Get Christie Love in 1974 (wow I wasn't even born yet!).
So now that network television has caught up with the 21st century, its awesome to see Olivia Pope (played by Kerry Washington) killin it every Thursday night ---right after Grey's--- on one of the hottest new TV shows this season. The hottest storyline on the show for me right now is the brewing romance between President Fitzgerald Grant (played by Tony Goldwyn) and Olivia Pope. LOVE IT! I've never seen a show where the leader of the free world is acting like a love-struck puppy dog with his tail between his legs, pining after a woman he can't have. I mean this President is WHIPPED!
The show Scandal is inspired by the real life experiences of Judy Smith who is a crisis manager. A crisis manager in her world is someone who "fixes things". It could lead to a myriad of situations that are caused by scandals which politicians, sports figures, and Hollywood celebrities find themselves the victims of. Smith simply comes in with her team of legal experts (as does Olivia Pope on the TV series) and assist with any necessary cover-ups due to the indiscretions of her clients. It gets really interesting from one episode to the next. The pilot featured a decorated war hero who was accused of murder and last week's episode was a South American dictator concerned with his image to manage his diplomacy. Things get pretty crazy from one episode to the next and the end is always completely unexpected.
The writing is absolutely fabulous! I always get concerned when a great concept for a TV show is birthed and then the writing is lousy. I hate to say it---but this was the effect of Private Practice for me. Don't get me wrong---Rhimes has had her hits and misses, after all this is the same writer of the Britney Spears classic "Crossroads".
I give Rhimes her due on this show and it gets 5 stars in my book. I just hope that ABC's rapport with Rhimes keeps this show on the air. This network has a bad history of cancelling really good shows. "V" is one recently that I was upset about and I still haven't fully forgiven ABC for cancelling "My So-Called Life" back in 1994. The wounds for that cancellation are still healing. Scandal will hopefully set a precedent of more shows to come with more black girl leads.
Scandal is my new drug and I wish the show was more than a mere 60 minutes including commercials.
