The latest ABC hourlong from writer-producer Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” “Off The Map” and the 2002 Britney Spears vehicle “Crossroads”), “Scandal” follows Olivia Pope, a a former White House communications director whose D.C. firm manages crisis. It stars the gorgeous Kerry Washington (“For Colored Girls,” “The Details,” “A Thousand Words”) as well as Tony Goldwyn (“Ghost”), Henry Ian Cusack (“Lost”), Joshua Malina (“The West Wing”), Darby Stanchfield (“NCIS”), Bellamy Young (“Dirty Sexy Money”), Guillermo Diaz (“Weeds”) and Katie Lowes (“Super 8”).
The pilot features two storylines, both profoundly dopey. One involves a White House intern who may or may not have had an affair with the U.S. President and refuses to resign her position. The other involves a decorated soldier and Republican political hopeful who may or may not have killed his girlfriend.
Pope keeps telling people over and over again she got to be the best in her field because her “gut is never wrong.” But her gut is proven wrong IN THE VERY FIRST EPISODE. Her “gut,” in fact, nearly gets somebody killed (a somebody who in no way deserves to be killed), and five minutes later she’s bragging to a co-worker about how awesome her gut is. Yikes!
“Scandal” feels like a Shonda Rhimes show. It’s full of long, earnest, cliché-riddled speeches and soapy sexual shenanigans and fourth-rate banter. The acting is uneven. (Diaz does the best he can; Malina is wasted.) If you like Shonda Rhimes shows you may like this one. I assure you it is not for me.
... formula doesn't always work (insert memories of your least favorite "Grey's" story arc here), but when it does, Rhimes is as successful at tugging for the heartstrings as anyone in the business. And because of her and Washington, I'll give "Scandal" some time …
... This is “The West Wing” as seen by Ms. Rhimes, not Aaron Sorkin. Instead of witty banter and wonky politics this drama offers meaningful monologues and lots of sex and romance. …
... The baby in the box tells you all you need to know about "Scandal" — realism will bend to the reveal every single time. … Everything in "Scandal" is perfect; the trench coat, the offices, the politically correct subplots, the baby in a box — and perfect quickly stops resonating with those of us who are not. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… There's a lot of Rhimes' "Grey's Anatomy" formula at work here, and that's not a bad thing. To enjoy the show, though, you really have to suspend disbelief at many points, just as you do with "Grey's." There are moments when the frenetic drive for cleverness prompts some rather silly decisions about plot points. …
... deliciously dumb … stylish, hammy, sexy, dirty, devilish, laughably bad TV …
... the best new show of spring. …
... The central character — Olivia Pope, a crisis management specialist treated here as Savior of the Western World — is as grating and ridiculous a creation as ever dragged down a TV show. Then add in a charm-free, strident star turn by Kerry Washington, who plugs into every self-important bit of congratulatory excess the other characters feed Olivia when she should be deflating or deflecting them. … There's another factor: The dialogue, from Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, amplifies past the point of tolerance everything people love and loathe about Grey's chatter, from jokey repetition ("I am the law, the law is me") to grandiose verbosity: "I'm a gladiator in a suit. That's what you are when you work for Olivia. You're a gladiator in a suit. Do you want to be a gladiator in a suit?" You feel compelled to shout "no." …
… While Shonda Rhimes' dramas seldom traffic in understatement, the "Grey's Anatomy" creator has traded a scalpel for a meat cleaver in "Scandal," which with its Washington, D.C. setting, exaggerated situations and overblown politics, feels like "'The West Wing' for Dummies." As usual, Rhimes' workplace characters talk very fast, but the manic visual style can't obscure a series flawed on most every level: The plot twists are predictable, when not ridiculous; the moralizing is heavy-handed; and star Kerry Washington -- while beautiful -- suffers from a serious gravitas deficit, in a show that too frequently lurches toward camp. …
10 p.m. Thursday. ABC.
