TV Reviews: Scandal

(Bear with me, I actually watched this pilot over a week ago... The finer points might not have stayed in my brain. You know, like people's names and whatnot. Little stuff.)

This is going to be the short short version of my usual reviews. I'm trying to get back to blogging in a more active way, but life keeps preventing me from doing so.

Scandal stars Kerry Washington as a professional "fixer" who takes PR nightmares and makes them go away. She and her team are kind of the crew from Burn Notice, only instead of disarming bombs and getting rid of neighborhood drug dealers, she keeps compromising information out of the press and shuts up whistleblowers. This is a Shonda Rhimes production and aside from a lack of medical acumen, is exactly what you'd expect from Shonda.

Washington plays Olivia Pope, the best of the best, blah blah blah, who doesn't take guff from anyone and dishes it out with zeal. Again, not exactly blazing a new trail here. She's a former aide to the president and apparently used to be involved with him romantically as well. This is one of the many predictable elements of the pilot, but it also bears the most potential for the ongoing series. Having been spurned by her former lover, the most powerful man in the country, she has an axe to grind. This is where the ongoing story arc comes together. Aside from this, I suspect most of the show will be case-of-the-week type stuff which has never been of much interest to me in general.

The basic concept has some real potential even though the pilot itself was pretty bad. From minute one, the show is so hell bent on telling the viewer what complete badasses these people are that it forgets to give them much substance. Furthermore, if a character is actually cool, I don't need to be told. Raylan Givens is as cool as they come. The show didn't need to tell me that, they showed me that. Scandal simply tells the viewer what he or she is supposed to think about these people then hits them over the heads with it for 42 minutes. Yeah, yeah, I get it already! Telling me someone is cool pretty much automatically means I think they aren't which means that Scandal has a lot of work to do. The dialogue was so oppressive and clunky in this regard that is was actually laughable. Even after such a barrage and an A-plot to further convince me, I'm still not buying it. The cast is fine and all, and Desmond from Lost is particularly nice to have around (best part of the show, brother), but I'm still not convinced. I don't believe that Washington really is Olivia Pope. She didn't do a completely horrendous job and in general, she's a fine actress, I just don't think this was the right part for her.  At least not from what I've seen so far.  I don't know. I can see where she could convince me more over time, much like Mary from In Plain Sight did, but after just the pilot, not only do I not like her character, I don't believe in her character.

The supporting cast didn't get much chance to shine in the pilot and were mostly cookie cutter stereotypes that all such TV teams are required to have. We have the socially awkward computer genius, the attractive investigator, the no-holds-barred prickish alpha male, the charming, disarming womanizer, and the mousy new girl who's learning the ropes. Ugh. Speaking of mousy new girl, I realize it's not just Shonda who does this, but when a show so blatantly has a "I'm the new person who will act as the viewer's window into this world" it drives me absolutely crazy. For a writer, it's just a cheap, easy way to dump plot exposition with as little effort as possible. "I know, we'll just have a new person show up who needs everything explained to them a million times! Genius, I say!" Lazy, I say. I am more than happy to pick things up as I go along. I don't need it all explained from minute one, especially with a concept that is as seemingly obvious and straight-forward as this one. The supporting cast all did a decent enough job, I suppose, but honestly there wasn't much to judge. Desmond had the most prominent role and was by far the most likable character on the show, even if he is embodying yet another cliche. The characters are as basic as their inter-dynamics are and although there's certainly room to grow and adapt, the pilot alone didn't leave me desperate for more.

Oddly, the most promising aspect of the show and the most off-putting was Olivia Pope's relationship with the president, played by Tony Goldwyn. On the plus-side, establishing a universe for the show where the characters have such high-level connections opens some interesting doors and ups the stakes considerably. That said, if the writers don't tread lightly, they could easily write themselves into a hell of a corner. Hopefully though, they'll interlace high-level drama with the more story-of-the-week type elements and find a nice balance. While Tony Goldwyn does a very nice job as the president (and Jeff Perry does an even better job as the president's aide), some of his interactions with Olivia elicited an eye roll and a sigh. When they are talking in the oval office (or the like) and he backs her up into the corner, all her former bravado (that I was already having a hard time buying) melts away and she becomes this weak, simpering shell of a woman. Ugh. It was disappointing to say the least and only served to undercut her character in the most hackneyed way possible. It always seems to be the case with female characters. Oh, they can be effective and ballsy in one aspect of their lives, but they have to balance that with a vulnerable, pathetic side as well. I can appreciate that they were trying to give her some depth and layers, but for me and my brother, it just pissed us off. To go from a fiesty bulldog in your professional life to a scared, weak, almost submissive, doe-eyed idiot in your love life isn't depth. It's insult. Seriously, my brother was like, "Please tell me they're kidding." They were not. To the show's/character's credit, she managed to get away from the big strong man before completely compromising her position, but it was already teetering before she started breathily asking (not telling) him, "Please don't..." She seemed to get some backbone back toward the end, but the damage had already been done. When it comes to men, she's impressionable and weak-willed. The scenes from the coming episodes helped bolster my perceptions of her strength and character going forward, but here and now, I'm unimpressed. My brother and I spent pretty much the entire episode wishing that Gina Torres (Zoe from Firefly) were playing the lead role. Gina Torres is a badass. Gina Torres could put Ukranian mobsters in their place in a way I could believe. When it got to the scene with the president, I was like, "Oh man alive, now I really wish Zoe were playing this role. I'd love to see how she'd handle this (i.e. verbal evisceration or a knee to the groin)." To which my brother responded, "Zoe never would have been in this situation." Hear, hear. Kerry Washington is a lovely woman, and a fine actress, but this is just doesn't seem like the role for her (so far).

In terms of the story-of-the-week A-plot, it was predictable to say the least. In fact, at times it was so so obvious that we didn't think they would actually do it, but they did. There were no twists or turns or surprises that hadn't been telegraphed loud and clear at least a dozen times prior. The dialogue was fairly painful and clunky, but I'm hoping that's a product of the newness of the show. Maybe they'll settle in as the series continues? Here's hoping. Based on the potential of the concept, I'll give it another episode or two. There are a lot of shows out there that had terrible pilots and turned into excellent shows. The Vampire Diaries and In Plain Sight, in particular, come to mind. Can Scandal follow their lead? I'm skeptical, but willing to try.

I didn't hate this pilot, but I certainly didn't love it. My brother actively hated it. It has gotten to the point now that whenever a mediocre show comes on, he can't stop himself from saying, "You know, compared to Scandal, this is looking pretty good." I didn't hate it that much, but admittedly, I played Bejeweled during the really painful parts. Which... might mean I actually did hate it as much as he did...

On a final note, my brother and I happened to be discussing the lack of minority representation on TV prior to watching this pilot and while we very much appreciated that they cast an African-American woman as the lead, the cast as a whole is surprisingly white. We got to talking about it because we were noting the number of great characters on TV who are of Indian descent and it underscored to us how woefully underrepresented African-Americans are. What strikes me as odd is that Scandal, which is produced by Shonda Rhimes, an African-American woman who has frequently spoken out on this issue, has nearly as few minority characters as shows produced by a bunch of white guys (i.e. the vast majority of shows out there). Seriously, Scandal has two African-American characters. And that's it. The entire rest of the cast is white, which means the race ratio is nearly 3 to 1 whites to non-whites. Actually, make that whites to African-Americans. From what I recall, there were no other races included either. Now, I'm not saying that just because Shonda is African-American the whole cast should be as well, but I guess I would just expect a non-white writer to be more attuned to the problem and more devoted to representing faces of color on television, like she has with her other shows. Maybe it was a decision based on the politics of DC? Maybe it just kind of happened that way during casting? Whatever the reasons, I applaud Shonda for including casting an African-American as the basis for the show, but I would have liked to have seen (and expected) a bit more diversity throughout the cast.

Anyhow, it was disappointing pilot, but a promising idea. Here's hoping it settles in as the series continues. It has decent bones, and a promising concept, now it just needs to learn how to use them. If they can keep it more on the serialized side of format, I'm willing to forgive quite a lot. If they turn it into more of a procedural, I doubt I'll stick around for long.

So much for the short short version...

Pilot Grade: C-

Dear Smash, Try Harder

Awh, twas but only a few short months ago that I watched the pilot for Smash and declared that I was in love. Turns out, it was one of those crappy junior high crushes that only lasts till the end of Geometry. Sigh. I was in denial at first, having been so delighted by the wonderfully-crafted pilot, but as the episodes wore on, there were only so many excuses I could make for the show and only so many ridicularities (yes, I know it's not a real word) I could excuse.

"Hey, it's only the second episode. Second episodes are tough. It'll get better."
"Okay, so the third episode was a disaster, I hear the fourth is excellent."
"Hey, that episode had slightly more semblance of story and working knowledge of logic to it than the last, so... that's an improvement..."
"The whole episode was a disaster, but it had 80% less Ellis, so... WIN!"

I've finally given up the ghost. Smash is kind of a disaster. Sure it has brief glimmers of potential that flare up every so often, but by and large, it's a train wreck. What I thought would be saved on my DVR till the end of time (or till the DVDs came out, at the very least) is now hastily deleted after each viewing. In my glowing review of the pilot, I proffered that it wasn't akin to Glee in any but the most superficial of ways, but in terms of speed with which I hit "Delete! Please dear god, delete!" after each episode, I'd say they were separated at birth.

Why do I keep watching, you ask? At its core, it really does have a hell of a lot of potential. Quite frankly, it should be very, very easy to make Smash spectacular. Solid concept with built in drama, stellar cast, uncommon and exciting conceit, and a central location where all the characters can very logically get together. Should be a cakewalk. And for writers who actually like TV, I think it would be. My prevailing theory is that the writers of this show think television is a lesser medium that can be slapped together with no effort whatsoever. Well, kiddies, you reap what you sow. My main hope for the show, and one of the main reasons I'm sticking with it, is that the showrunner (Theresa Rebeck) and most of the writing staff is being ousted prior to season 2. It can only get better. This show has problems. Lots and lots of problems and I don't think it would take a genius to identify them. Fixing them is another story, but pointing them out is quite simple.

Let me count the ways:

1) The writers of the show hate TV. Or at the very least, they don't respect it.
As mentioned above, I think this is the biggest problem here. Even before the show aired, concerns were expressed by the team that the general population simply doesn't appreciate Broadway and that Smash might suffer as a result. Well, kiddies, your show isn't exactly helping the cause. The disdain for television as a trash medium runs through the show like an undertow. Every casual mention of Broadway being the best thing in the whole wide world undercuts the medium in which this show exists. That's... a problem. At various points in the show, the theater roots of the writing staff get written right into the script, whether it be Karen and Ivy vying for a humiliating commercial spot or Derek deriding television as a wasteland of forensic science crime procedurals. Don't get me wrong, there are humiliating commercials out there and more than enough unfortunate crime procedurals to go around, but the way it's woven into Smash gives the impression that the theater is the only true bastion of creative expression. Everyone associated with the production of Marilyn is a true genius! A maestro! An embodiment of all things creative and fantastic! I hate to break it to theater, but there's at least as much bad theater out there as there is in any other medium. To place themselves on a pedestal where TV is lesser is not only a fallacy, but a big problem when you're working in television. I guess my feathers just get ruffled when I get this nagging suspicion that the show is trying to teach television how great it could be (you know, if it were more like theatre), but totally sucking at it in the process. It should be noted that I LOVE the theater and think that this show really could have been a lesson to other network shows about how to break out of the box, but so far, Smash is making me want to crawl back inside said box and determine who killed somebody using little more than tri-lobal carpet fibers. (That means they came from a car, by the way. Yeah. I actually know that. Damn CSI.)

2) The show keeps telling me what to think rather than letting the work/art/writing speak for itself.
To be fair, Smash has a taller order than most shows in this regard. The vast majority of cop, lawyer, doctor, comedy sketch, ad executive, what-have-you shows are based around the main characters being the best of the best. The difference is that the general population has no idea whether or not Dr. Benton's surgical skills were really that impressive or if the analysis of that blood sample really makes sense at all. Those shows can tell you their characters are splendorous and the audience can generally suspend disbelief enough to take their word for it. Smash has a much harder job to do. Everyone has a decent perception of what good music and lyrics sound like. Nevertheless, Smash keeps trying to tell me what's what rather than letting me decide for myself. To be honest, the musical numbers are generally the more successful elements of the show. I really did think that baseball number was wonderful. The most brilliant piece of work to have ever existed ever? No. That god-awful rendition of "Touch Me" with the ever-so-inspired-and-original Derek Wills directing Karen to roll around on a bed while prison bars sprang up around her? PAINFULLY BAD. Karen and Ivy as the best two options to play Marilyn? Nope. For as many times as Derek tells me that Karen is spectacular, she needs to show me before I'll believe you. If anything, proclaiming her as such and hoping the audience simply believes you makes me scrutinize her even more. Hell, even things completely unrelated to the music are subject to telling me what to think. Early on in the series when Julia reads her adoption letter to the group, rather than letting me judge its worth, the room immediately deems is the best letter they've ever heard. UGH. Smash, if you're going to make proclamations like that, they better be true. More importantly though, I, as the viewer, have the ability to make such decisions by myself. You don't need to tell me what to think. You need to show me who these people are and what they can do and I'll tell you if it's good. It's the same problem Studio 60 had and it's one of the primary reasons that show failed. For as often as the characters patted each other on the backs and proclaimed themselves to be the wittiest creatures on the planet, the sketches weren't funny. Plain and simple. For the record, I actually quite enjoyed Studio 60 and it was a far better show than Smash, and I still take issue with that fact.

3) The show doesn't earn the big moments because it won't take the time to set them up.
There are a lot of shows out there that can burn through story like nobody's business and make it work. The Vampire Diaries crams more delectable twists and turns into a single episode than most shows do in a whole season. And it works. They delivery story at a breakneck pace AND find the time for powerful character moments that have been building over time. Many shows excel at this. Smash is not one of them. With Smash, it feels like they aren't willing (or able?) to set the scene before telling the story. It's like people who can't tell a joke because they're so over-eager to get to the punchline. Instead of getting a laugh, they get a "huh?" And so it goes with Smash, only they're aren't trying to be funny. Well, not intentionally funny. The primary example here, although there are literally dozens that I could rattle off with absolutely not effort whatsoever, is the Julia/Michael Swift affair. All together now, "UGH." This was a disaster from beginning to end, all of which happened over the course of like, 4 episodes? Seriously? Yep. Here's the thing. This could have worked. It could have been compelling, titillating, erotic, multi-layered, conflicted, and heart-wrenching. Instead, it was non-sensical, insulting, absurd, annoying, and idiotically fleeting. They easily could have set Michael and Julia up exactly as they did: former flings who had had a brief affair 5 years ago. No problem. If they had wanted viewers to actually care about any of this, however, they needed to stop there and rewrite the entire storyline from what they actually did. There are many ways this could have played out successfully. They could have had Michael and Julia thrown together like this and played on the awkwardness of it all at first. They're both in happy, loving relationships and they look back on their former dalliance with mixed feelings of regret and desire. Over the course of the entire first season (at least), they could have been placed in scenarios that poignantly explored their conflicted affection for one another, possibly leading to minor, unintentional infractions that left both feeling embarrassed, but intrigued. The show could have laid the groundwork for Julia's reasons for cheating on her husband 5 years ago and the reasons she would do so again now. Instead, the show opted for blind lust, with absolutely nothing behind it. Hell, even if they had wanted to go with blind lust, that could have worked if they'd rolled it out slowly, letting the sexual tension build over time. Give me a reason to care about these people! Give them enough complexity that I can understand why they're doing this and enough depth that I want to learn more! Ugh. This show simply refuses to take it's time to really lay a solid foundation. Without the groundwork, the stories seem superficial at best and utterly non-sensical/cliched/annoying at worst. Groan. Seriously, at most points during this idiotic affair, I wanted to throw things at the TV. I'm sorry, did he seriously just show up at her house, force his way inside, make nice with her son, then kiss her in plain view of the son's bedroom (which we all saw coming from 6 miles off)?!?! Wait, wait, wait, is he actually threatening to expose the relationship in the middle of rehearsal?? Why is she meeting up with him in her pajamas?? What the hell is this?! And then it was over. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled it was over, but it just made it all the more ridiculous. The list goes on and on and it makes the story arcs fall as flat as a bad joke. You have to earn the big moments. Michael and Julia getting together could have been amazing. Instead, it was cheap and pointless. They didn't earn and I didn't buy it. Or care.

4) Uncomplicated characters in an underdeveloped, unexplored universe.
The concept for this show should be dripping with built-in drama. The very process of putting on a Broadway musical is a stressful, gut-wrenching, exciting, grueling ordeal. All the writers needed to do was develop this universe and then explore the people inside it. Instead, they've opted to have cardboard cut-outs stand in front of a matte painting while a soap opera is read aloud. For a well-built universe, the actual events can be totally minimal, subtle, or nearly non-existent. For Breaking Bad, Justified, Luck, Deadwood, and even Hell on Wheels, you can oftentimes sum up the major plot points of an episode in a blink. Man alive, I'm pretty sure I was 4 episodes into Luck before anything actually happened. And yet, I totally enjoyed it. The writers constructed a world that was so rich, so interesting, and with so many multi-layered characters that something as simple as a conversation between old friends could be completely riveting. Breaking Bad, in particular, has any number of episodes where all that happens is talking. A bunch of old guys sit around a table obliquely talking about meth and I'm glued to the edge of my seat. The characters are so well-defined, so deep, and so interesting that it doesn't matter what they do. It matters. It all matters. With Smash? Well, technically speaking, tons of stuff happens, but none of it matters. These characters are simple. They have simple goals and simple means. I can't dissect the intricacies of their motives because there are none. Or, if there are, they're completely ridiculous. Had the writers fleshed out this universe in a compelling way and simply let some realistic people inhabit that world, it would be gold. As is, I just don't care. Neither the characters nor the world of Broadway is as complex and compelling as they very easily could be. My only thought is that the writers of this show are too accustomed to Broadway musicals and haven't been able to translate to TV. In a musical, you have to have simpler characters and more straight-forward methods as a matter of medium. A musical simply hasn't the time to explore each and every character and doesn't have to format for subtlety. When you have to play to the rafters, you can't have a tiny facial expression say it all. TV is different. It just is. And until the show has writers who can work with this medium, the show will continue to falter.

5) Not to beat the dead horse of shoddy storytelling, but the narrative has no focus, no cohesion, and no consistent ongoing themes.
So, you know, no big. Seriously though, it sometimes feels like the writers are passing half-completed scripts from one to another and not talking about it as a whole. Kinda sounds like Glee, right? Right. The best shows on TV have a focus, a theme, and a plan going forward. Smash feels like they're improvising the next episode based loosely on the previous episode. Great shows do exactly the opposite. They plan out exactly where they're going, at least thematically, and then figure out how to get there step by step. I just watched the season 3 finale of Justified and it all worked. Every single element. This season has been chaotic, intense, complicated, and moving, but it all came together exactly as it should. When writers have a plan, a long-term, season-long (if not series-long) plan, it's a lot harder to write themselves into a corner or fly off the rails. When writers are reactionary, they spiral out of control, lose their focus, forget their underlying themes and end up where Smash already is. I don't think it's too late for Smash to course-correct and rein in the show, but the sooner the better. It's not like the later seasons of Lost where it was just way too late to backtrack. In small defense of Smash, they produced almost all of their first 15-episode season prior to airing. This means that when something didn't end up working for viewers, it was entirely too late to take it back or reshoot it. With that in mind, I think if they can really sit down, figure out a plan for season 2 and lay out more than a couple of episodes in advance, they could make this work. I'm not holding my breath or anything, but a girl can dream. Speaking of, do you remember in the kickass pilot when we were presented with a thrilling tale of the dream for greatness and the cost of success? Yeah, I hardly remember that either. This show is at its best when it takes thematic elements from Marilyn and the musical and applies them to the ongoing narrative. Much the way Buffy took the theme of "high school is hell" and made it a literal part of their actual lives, Smash succeeds when it ties the elements together. Well, usually. Ivy's new dependence on various drugs sort of parallels Marilyn's decent into addiction, but the show isn't willing to go all the way with it. Rather than taking that theme, slowly and subtly chronicling Ivy's path to addiction and desperation, Smash comes across as an afterschool special. Again, much like Glee, it wants to send a message, but rather than letting events speak for themselves, it just tells you how you should feel. It's about as subtle as a punch in the throat. When the show premiered, I thought I was in for a well-woven tale of parallel lives, both current and past, doomed to repeat the past as they look toward the future. That's not what I got...

6) Ellis
That is all.

7) The non-musical musical numbers are a problem. A fairly embarrassing problem.
"Wow. Okay, so that just happened..." That's the phrase that springs to mind every time on of their painfully over-produced, unnatural, illogical non-musical based musical numbers crop up. Again, much more like Glee than any show should ever aspire to be ever. The pilot episode raised my hopes that they'd be able to integrate the musical numbers in an organic way that helped move the story, much like a real musical would. In the pilot, when Ivy and Karen are getting ready for their second auditions and they sing "Let Me Be Your Star", it totally worked. Meaningful, well-sung, and integrated into the storyline seamlessly. That has not been the trend ever since. Now we get awkward songs being sung in Times Square for no apparent or logical reason, a ukelele solo from Julia's husband that should never have seen the light of day, a painfully painful love song by Michael Swift to Julia while waiting for a cab (speaking of the show telling me what to think, when Julia tells Tom about this, he says, "That must have been amazing."--nope), and my personal favorite, the bowling alley. Oh sweet Jesus, that actually happened. If they were going to do that, they should have at least have the common decency to have them sing, "We're Gonna Score Tonight" from the hilariously bad Grease 2 (see below for a clip). Good lord, that would have been less embarrassing... and would have made more sense to the story... Let that sink in for a minute. It should not be this hard to incorporate songs into this kind of a show! Man alive, seriously? What's worse is the over-production. Much like Glee, I can see where they're trying to sell iTunes here and feel like they have to produce a single-worthy version, but I've got news for you, show. The live version would be better. The cast has more than enough vocal talent to sing live. LET THEM SING LIVE. The musical numbers for the musical itself are excellent. If they could translate even part of that to the non-musical musical numbers, the show would be in much better shape. (On a related note, how fabulous was Tom as the fill-in Daryl Zanuck? Love him. Unfortunately heavy-handed love triangle and all.)

The glory of Grease 2:



Sigh. Again, I don't think there's no hope for Smash, but they need to get their act together sooner than later if they want to save such a promising concept before it's too late. I'm hopeful that they overhaul the show over the summer and come back strong. I don't know who the new writing team will be, but if they have even a working knowledge of how television works and how story is structured, it can only get better from here.

I'm going to hang in there till season 2. Based on the last few episodes, it will not be easy, but I think it's a concept that strong enough to hold out hope for. Fingers crossed.