SPECIAL COMMENTARY: Scandal - A Cautionary Tale

Scandal ends tonight on ABC after seven seasons and 124 episodes and I have been all over the map with this show.

I don't remember being super excited about Scandal when it was first announced at the 2011 Upfronts. Despite being a political drama, which I am generally interested in, I wasn't too excited about the idea of a "fixer" (remember, this was well before the Trump presidency when that was an everyday term). When it premiered in April 2012, I gave lots of praise to Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope in my pilot review, but I didn't think it was a runaway blockbuster and viewers agreed as it premiered to decent but still modest numbers.

Then came Season 2 and Scandal morphed from a fairly tame show that mostly followed a case of the week to a twist-filled, "OMG" moment drama that became must see TV every Thursday night. The show started a meteoric rise in the ratings and became one of the most talked about shows on TV. There was a time in its second season where I probably would have said Scandal was my favorite show on TV. The breakneck pace of storytelling and the constant ability to surprise was so exciting and the diverse cast was dynamite. I think in the back of my head, I knew it was not sustainable over many seasons but I was going to enjoy the ride while it lasted.

Phase three of Scandal came over the next couple years where Scandal did not maintain the consistently strong storytelling but it was still capable of being one of TV's best. Episodes like "The Lawn Chair" or storylines like the Republican Primary with Mellie Grant, Susan Ross, and Hollis Doyle were as good as anything Scandal ever offered. But it was clear that this show didn't always know where it was going and as stories got convoluted and twisted around, it started to all feel like a lot of "the same." Sometimes I'll think back and realize I don't even remember what happened to certain characters who were major players at one point while other characters like Olivia's mother and father just kept having stories that went in circles. I can remember almost everything about that wild second season but I feel like I can barely remember any details from some of the later seasons even though they happened more recently.

The final, sad phase of Scandal happened this year where it became a show I could care less about. I found it becoming one of those Modern Family-like shows where I'm watching it out of obligation. There's a few other shows ending this year that I'm still watching: I still love The Middle (more on that in a couple weeks) and I still think New Girl has some great moments. But Scandal? It's been an awfully long time since I've enjoyed it though I thought last week gave me a little hope that the series finale might recover a little spark. Scandal was never going to be a show that runs for hundreds of episodes like Law & Order: SVU or its lead-in for its entire run, Grey's Anatomy (remember when Grey's seemed like a show that was on its way out and Scandal was as hot as it comes?) But Scandal burned brighter and burned out quicker than a lot of shows. And why did that happen?

I think more than anything, it became a victim of its own hype. When Scandal first started getting hot, everyone was caught by surprise and I think that even includes Shonda Rhimes and the cast. When they were making the episodes that became so buzzworthy, they were just focused on interesting storytelling. Then came the live tweeting, the magazine covers, the talk show appearances, and the hype. And Scandal started to feel the need to outdo itself. Cast members would add to the hype by talking about their jaws dropping open at the table reads. ABC would hype it to no end with the latest "OMG you will never believe this twist" teases. Shonda and her team of writers seemed to focus far more on plot twists than actual plots and soon enough Scandal became a mess. It was like an alcoholic's life. At first, it was tantalizing and fun. Then it was sometimes fun but sometimes problematic and finally, it was just sad and troubled. Despite the best efforts of the cast this week, there seems to be very little interest in Scandal's series finale. Fans have abandoned ship over the years of weak storytelling and there aren't all that many left.

And that is a shame because there were so many good things about Scandal from its progressive storylines to its slick production quality. Most of all, it had a terrific cast led by the incomparable Kerry Washington, the first black female lead in a drama in decades who earned much deserved acclaim for her role and became a fashion icon. Washington's performance is what hooked me on Scandal in the first place and she's probably the main reason I still watch even if they have done some terrible things with her character. So I will watch the final Scandal tonight and hope it gives me some satisfaction for the years I've stuck with it. And maybe someday I'll go back and watch the first couple seasons to remember all this show was and could have been.