Happy 
Tax day for all you Aussie!
Scandal is a show I nearly missed out on, which would have been a pity.
I heard one casual review about the show, that I followed up on to find out more about the series itself.
It’s fabulous!
Most of the time, when we’re easing into a new TV series, it takes between five and ten episodes for us to relax, enjoy and get hooked by the show.
Dexter was one of those series we nearly ditched. It’s only our “at least five episodes” rule that kept us watching — that God for that, because around episode four it really takes off and we remained hooked and obsessed until we had caught up with the end of the seventh season (which was a doozy — it featured Ray Stevenson as the bad guy of the year and he was good.)
Scandal was the complete opposite. We were hooked deep by the first episode and the series didn’t let up for two whole seasons (so far).
One of the best things about the series is the on-going relationship between the star of the show, Olivia Pope (played by Kerry Washington), and the President of the U.S. (Tony Goldwyn). There’s conflict galore, as he is married and (obviously) the most powerful figure in American politics, that lots of people would like to have a piece of, or just bring down.
It’s very unusual to find a romance that has purely external conflict. In this case, it’s his position and her reputation that keep them apart — nothing else. The President desperately loves her, while Olivia — who in many respects has more political savvy than he does — tries to keep his presidency alive and afloat by staying as far away from him as she can bring herself to do.
In the second season, the writers introduced some humdinger internal conflict — emotional issues that rose between them. At the tail end of the second season, their longevity as a couple is still up in the air.
It’s not just the romance that makes the show worth watching. The storylines are humdingers that sometimes even I can’t stay ahead of.
But the romance and the moments they share together on the screen are just what a romance reader wants. Beautiful.
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