r/Scandal • u/llamamelu • 4d ago
Post Discussion S1 - S6: Thoughts
Up to Season 6 (fought for my life) - think I’ll take a break now. Long rant/jumbled thoughts ahead:
But what a ride.. so much potential just ruined. I’ll finish because I do want to see how things end and obviously, Olitz 😍 love them to bits!!!
Post season 2, everything just declined. Hated seasons 5-6 with a passion. But I must say, Kerry and Tony’s acting in that scene in S5E9, just phenomenal. It felt so raw, so well done, playing off one another. They were so damn good
Seasons 1-2 were excellent, absolutely loved and was obsessed with them, enjoyed the stories and loved some characters and loved to hate others. One of the best shows I’d ever seen (to that point) and locked into my favourites. Romance was great, storylines and cases were great, fun and interesting - very DC. Pacing was *chefs kiss*
The Trail is hands down my favourite episode ( « Happy Birthday, Mr. President » a very close second). Watching Fitz fall for her, his lines in that whole ep - « I am a man in love. With an incredible woman » Such a beautiful confession and the looks between them! Ughhh! Just him falling in love with her and the yearning. Girl, « Say my name »…. I died.
Then season 3 it was like everyone and everything was rewritten leading to so many holes and discrepancies in seasons 1 & 2. The characters and their storylines just went off on a tangent. Like at what point did the narrative change from Liv made Fitz, to Mellie made Fitz????
Also hated the Mellie becoming President storyline. Man I hated it. I pretty much skipped through it and pretended it didn’t happen. That whole season of the presidential campaign was not great. I don’t think she deserved the arc she got. A single divorced woman leading the Republican Party was laughable though.
But anyway, the things the made the show exciting just got lost in the mix. The character changes absolutely irked me (looking at you, Mellie, Quinn & Fitz).
B6-13 just no… it reminded me of when Supernatural went off on that Angel vs Demon war instead of sticking to the “new case per episode” that it’d started with. I hated it. I hate it so much when shows do this. This is why shows like House are still a favourite of mine.
They should’ve just stuck with the new case per episode instead of dragging one marginally interesting story out. The cases were entertaining and tied well with the plot.
That being said, I’m not all that mad about the kidnapping (though it did drag out a bit), because it accelerates her descent into power-lust madness and becoming her parents (which could’ve been written a whole lot better). Plus it really showed how deeply Fitz cared for her, I loved the Helen of Troy comparison. I love a story of a man going to war for the woman he loves. I do wish that their reunion had been sweeter though - there was so much potential for an iconic, loving reunion.
Fitz - man they absolutely destroyed his character. It would’ve perfect if the ONLY person that could scream at him was Liv because when the show first started they emphasised that the only person he listened to was Liv, then all of a sudden everyone’s screaming and telling him off.. like it makes sense for Mellie as the mother of his children to get away with telling him off but who tf is Abby to tell him off? Timid Susan? And pretty much every single woman around him. He started off as headstrong and stubborn from to being under his father’s thumb. The self-doubt, lack of confidence in his abilities, and Defiance was done so well initially but then it became too much . And this was completely butchered in S3 which I absolutely despised. I get we want to show empowered women and stuff (all white women mind you) but make it realistic and maybe don’t direct it towards the Male Lead, it’s weird and makes him seem pathetic, not what sells the romance. He should’ve been written to be more assertive. They turned him into a guy whose sole purpose was to pine for the girl that didn’t want him. A whole ass President - puppet or not. And god the alcoholism, the hoe-ing… just, no…
His character could’ve gone in such a brilliant direction - he had the base for the perfect tortured soul, a privileged white boy with daddy/mommy issues. They could’ve used the revelation of Remington to flesh out his vulnerability and flaws (because I assume at the time he didn’t know the full story at the time - just following orders. We should’ve seen the torment that should’ve caused him like Defiance did) or give him some other reason to off the rails (something other than Olivia). We don’t give him enough credit for Jerry - being there for Mellie while running the country while also dealing with losing his “beating heart” (Cyrus killed me with that line).
Liv’s flip-flopping was unfair to both men though I get why Fitz stuck around. He was ready to give up literally everything for her - her seeing someone else wouldn’t be enough of a reason to make him back off at that point. And I honestly can’t bring myself to hate him for that. And Jake… why was he turned into such a major character?? If he was likeable or had chemistry with Olivia and didn’t have such a dry personality maybe he wouldn’t have been soo bad.
I also have to say, too much Mellie. Too much Quinn-off-the-rails. They were not compelling as main characters. I picked up the show for OLIVIA POPE, her story not some basic ass white characters that we see time and time again (sorry not sorry). Also too much Eli, and B6-13 man. Just kill the story line already. Mellie becoming a whole other character in season 3 was a very bold, very wrong decision.
Her also going for Office was not an arc I enjoyed. Quinn was just unlikeable, even Abby grew on me a little (until she went off the rails). Jake… still so dry, and again I think it’s the actor. I could’ve done with so, sooo much less of him. Russell was more interesting. Gotta say though, I liked Charlie and was glad to see more of him.
Quinn and Huck. Yuck.
I was honestly hoping for a romantic relationship between Elizabeth and Mellie, I liked their scenes together. That would’ve made both characters more interesting i think. I liked their dynamic together.
Also Marcus…? Was this a Harrison (who was GREAT) replacement or something? Him and Mellie..? Also Fitz getting mad about Andrew seems so out of character for someone who wants out of his marriage, his reaction was a truly stupid decision by the writers imo. The way he consoled Liv after Andrew, that was too sweet, just bypassing the whole mess, no hesitation, just to check on her well-being; loved it!
I thought S5 was bad but S6 - the thing with the FBI director… that has to be illegal right? Conflict of interest and what not..? I mean the shows’ whole premise was based on scandals and such, I guess. But that whole thing was too weird.
Also like to point out the Kerry’s hair as the show progressed… it just kept getting worse and worse 😭 someone truly stopped looking out for my girl. Not the fluffed up curls sis, nooo. That lil’ “pouf” the stylist used to do after that press - we all got those and we can all acknowledge they were not cute.
As far as I’m concerned, it ended at S2 with Olitz still together; Liv and Cyrus help Fitz (because I love that trio) win a second term (correctly this time)
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u/Fit_Marionberry_3878 4d ago
Wow this is one is the most accurate takes and thank you for realizing the rewrite of Mellie, the fact that her story ate up too much of the show, and the show is best around Tony and Kerry. You’re right,
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u/llamamelu 3d ago
Just having Olivia at the centre of the story would’ve been perfect. Focus on her and her relationships. But having Mellie as the central focus and Olivia being the side-kick or having to share the spotlight was truly a choice, especially given most people picked up the show to see a black woman as the lead.
Don’t get me started on them pitting the only two black women (Angela) against one another. Both vying for the same white man. That truly rubbed me the wrong way.
I have very strong feelings about the direction this show chose to go 🥲 I’m just so sad about the wasted potential. We all know non-stereotyped Black women led shows barely get picked up by networks so we get one only once in a blue moon
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u/Fit_Marionberry_3878 3d ago
It's very problematic that Mellie transitioned to central focus and they lost the plot for Olivia. Essentially at some point they could not even pinpoint how Olivia was meant to feel about her own father. She even began to be a prop for his redemption too. You come to realize Shonda must have really hated Kerry because I cannot understand how she would do her wrong like that. I don't even think the two are close irl.
I agree, and I also feel they set Angela up because she was not the type of black woman that the mainstream audience would find palatable, so she just ended up looking like a fool and being dunked on, when she could have been anyone, not necessarily a black woman. The point is Fitz was not going to choose anyone over Olivia, so they did not need to conjure the image of a dark skinned and heavy set black woman to be played around with for the audience to mock.
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u/Confident_Fortune_32 3d ago
One of the things I love about Scandal is what passionate complex observations it draws out of its viewers. I don't think anyone comes away feeling a tepid "meh" about it!
You bring up a subject that I believe deserves more attention: hair. (In the interests of "truth in advertising", I am very pale, fish-belly yt, the colour of things that live so deep in the ocean that they bioluminesce, sigh...)
It's no coincidence that, as the seasons progress, we begin to see Olivia just out of the shower, with her wet hair, not yet styled. Not to mention how dishevelled she becomes in captivity.
It is a stark contrast to her frankly high-effort styles. Her public image does not allow her the ability to do what I do when I'm in a hurry: dry my hair by blasting the car vents on high heat straight at my face.
Any woman's hair has the potential to be symbolic in fiction writing, but everything I have been told personally and everything I've read tells me that that is even more significant for WOC.
It's tied up in many different narratives: historical laws in the post-civil-war south requiring WOC to cover it in public, double standards in education and the workplace and the military, falsely claiming natural hair is inherently unkempt, how it is tied to self-esteem and personal power, how it connects modern women to global heritage, how braids were used as maps or to hide wealth or seeds for survival. And this is only a subset...
As much as Liv's parents are off-the-deep-end looney-tunes nuts, they're both quite right about the systemic barriers to success for their daughter.
So I pay attention to when the writers show her with wet unstyled hair, when they show her with straight flat long hair (ironically similar to mine), and everything in between.
Her hair is as powerful an significator as her clothing and her bag and her footwear.
Her "look" means far more than a simple reading of "this character is fashionable", as compared to a conservative preppy like Mellie or a boring dumpy Susan.