Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Scandal: Dirty Little Secrets

“Dirty little secrets always come out.”

The client of the week story was rather dull. Pope & Associates are fixers in a city known for its sex scandals. Of course there had to be a madam client right off the bat. The twist (if you can call it that) is that this madam isn’t a sexy dominatrix type, but a sweet old lady who keeps her client list in the back of a photo album of her grandkids.

This show loses something when you can’t feel sympathy for the clients. In the pilot, the client was a closeted, disabled veteran who was being investigated for the murder of his best friend/fake girlfriend. This week, it was a madam who valued confidentiality and Supreme Court nominee who inadvertently married a former call girl. Worst case scenario for this week: Sharon Marquette has to reveal her clients and Keating does not get his dream job. The stakes aren’t exactly sky high.

The whole Stacy is really Mrs. Keating thing was pretty obvious. The Keatings live in Wyoming. Stacy once talked about moving to Wyoming. No show mentions Wyoming more than once without a decent reason. My one question is why Stacy told her boss he was a client at all. Couldn’t she just have seen him on her days off and prevented this giant mess? Then again, do hookers have days off? Or nights off, I suppose.

I really dislike when writers decide to cheat intelligence in a character by simply making all the other characters stupid. This is how they do The Mentalist. It’s annoying. Please don’t pretend that Olivia was brilliant in figuring out that all the men on the list could easily quash any criminal inquiry into Sharon Marquette and get Keating confirmed. The audience had already figured that out. And Olivia would have too, if you didn’t need to fill an hour of TV.

Speaking of Olivia, her character is written extremely unevenly. She’s a strong, tough woman who can take care of herself, but the writers seem to feel that, in order, to bring this across, they have to make her mean. She’s mean to Amanda Tanner, she’s really mean to poor Quinn. Then the writers, feeling they’ve made her too mean, no doubt, make her into a teddy bear when dealing with her clients. Can’t we find a happy medium here?

The only reason I continue to watch this show is the relationship between Olivia and the president. Tony Goldwyn and Kerry Washington are magnificent. The dialogue between the two of them (what little there is) is fairly lackluster. That’s all acting. You can practically feel the sparks coming out of your TV as their hands just barely brush.

Unsurprisingly, Cyrus has not reacted well to the news that his protégé and his president had an affair. He feels betrayed and let down by both of them. His solution is to ban Liv from the White House. That should solve everything.

Bits and Pieces:

Abby is so unlikable. All she ever seems to do is screech and disapprove of things. Last week she didn’t like Republicans. This week she doesn’t like prostitutes or men who frequent prostitutes.

In his review of the pilot episode, Nadim said that Quinn had the charisma of the mop. This is grossly unfair. She has the charisma of a Swiffer WetJet, at least.

Kerry Washington is so freaking pretty.

Shouldn’t the president and his team have found out about Mrs. Keating’s former employer before all this came out? It would seem like a standard precaution to give the wife of your first Supreme Court nominee a cursory background check.

Quotes:

“Don’t Clinton me with words.”

“Ginger Bell. Seriously, her real name is Ginger Bell. Like her parents didn’t want her to go to college. Like they planned for their kid to be a hooker.”
I watch MSNBC a lot. Too much, in fact. They have a pundit named Krystal Ball. Birth name. Krystal with a K and everything.

“Please tell the president I’m busy.”
I wonder how many times this sentence has ever been uttered in reality?

“I have the secret service, the national guard, and some very scary Marine sentries to protect me. I think Liv can walk through the White House without posing a danger.”
Not so sure about that, lover boy.

“It’s two sentences about a disturbed girl.”
“Watergate was two sentences about a burglary.”
Burn.

“I don’t know what kind of cupcakes you gave him.”

“Are you aware you are all grown men and that, as such, it should be at least somewhat beneath you to waste my time on what seems to be no more than a pissing match?”
“Yeah, your honor.”

Three out of four ginger bells

5 comments:

  1. Hhaha I love you and that swiffer wetjet comment!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LOL at least three times. Terrific review, Sunbunny. I can see why you wanted to review this show.

    I'm really enjoying it. I like all the characters, but especially Abby and Olivia. (You don't like Abby?) And Olivia's relationship with the Grant. I like the office set. I even like the elevator. And it may be gimmicky, but I like the pace, too. It's got a West Wingy feel, but with suds. I want to see the rest of it, and right now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't DISlike Abby, I just find they never really give her character anything to do except complain about/disapprove of things. Hopefully this season with Desmond gone (boo-boo!!!!) she'll get more to do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fantastic review!

    I agree with Billie. This is the West Wing with suds. As I have seen every episode of that show more times than I will ever admit, it feels as though I already know a lot of the players involved.

    Plus, I love nitpicking the "law" apart on shows filled with lawyers, or rather, what Hollywood writers think lawyers do and say. You know that part when Olivia goes and gets the evidence ahead of the search warrant? She could lose her law license for that, not just piss off the ADA.

    I really like Abby, and not just because she's also Castle's first wife. I like people who say what they think (even when they shouldn't), and this girl just can't keep her mouth closed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Clearly, ChrisB, Pope and Associates practice some sort of mysterious law unknown to humans. :)

    I really should rewatch West Wing. I watched it during its original run, but I was pretty young and I'm sure I a lot of it was over my eleven year-old head. Plus, I know so much more about politics now, I would have a whole different perspective.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.