Well that was supremely underwhelming.
I don’t know why I had such high hopes for Scandal’s season five premiere, but I expected much more than this. After season three’s over-exaggerated wackiness, the show rebounded with a pretty entertaining fourth season thanks to Olivia Pope’s nail-biting kidnapping. But this? This was just not very good.
I get what they were going for with the Princess Diana parallels, but just like the episode title, the allegory was far too heavy-handed and exhausting. We get it – the princess died in a tunnel (geez, I wonder who else that happened to?), and Olivia’s probably won’t get her happy ending. Did we really need all that talk about “happy endings” and “evil queens”? Surely Shonda Rhimes and her incredible writing staff can do better.
And can we please discuss the Fitz issue? I don’t know if Rhimes wants us to consciously hate the character, but I absolutely loath the show’s male lead on every level. I appreciate that our characters have layers and that none of them are necessarily good or evil, but Fitz is just despicable. He’s selfish, and constantly whining when something doesn’t go his way. It’s grating, and it makes me wish he wasn’t on the show. I seriously doubt that’s the sentiment the writers were going for. Fix this Shonda, fix it now!
Thankfully, Sally Langston was a bright spot. I can’t get over how outstanding Kate Burton is in the role as the devilish villain, and she was equally amusing here. In addition, she helped supply the show with a heck of an exciting ending as our favourite talk-show host revealed Fitz and Liv’s affair to the world (complete with photographic evidence). After all that cheesy dialogue about Fitz and Liv waiting for the right time, it was extremely satisfying to see Sally out the couple so publicly. Bring on the awesomeness!
Scandalous Bits
– That was a whole lot of sex in the teaser huh?
– Bone-chilling shot with Liv arriving at the crash site and shielding the Princess’ body from the paparazzi.
– I found the Mellie vs Liz scene to be really “off”. It felt like Mellie was uncharacteristically weak and speechless.
– I love that it was Liv who made Fitz be there for Mellie’s swearing in.
– What do the writers intend to do with Abby this season? Because she was actually a weak link last season and that’s never okay.
– I don’t think I’ve hated Fitz more than when he told Mellie he wanted a divorce right after she opened her heart out. And why is he judgemental of her and the bus when he took down a whole frickin’ plane?
– Oh Huck, still as useless as ever. Please get off the show; you’ve more than served your purpose.
– I actually liked seeing Mellie visit Cyrus. I hope these two team-up and wreck havoc. Mellie for President!
– How obvious was the reveal of the Queen being responsible for the assassination? How unlike Scandal to be this predictable.
– I’m usually not Jake’s greatest fan (he’s so very dull), but I was happy to see him open the door for Huck at the end.
– So who do you think snapped those shots of our not-so-favourite couple?
Quipyness
Sally: Isn’t that interesting? Vaccination-touting first lady didn’t get her flu shot?
Mellie: I saved your life. I saved you and your child from Olivia Pope’s butcher. I took you in. I brought your bones back from the political graveyard and performed voodoo to make you somebody again.
Fitz: My bucket list is done. You? Your biggest accomplishment so far is waving and smiling.
Olivia: I’m only here out of courtesy and out of a terribly misguided belief that someone in this office might be interested in doing the right thing.
Queen: She could have given birth to a child who looked exactly like that bodyguard of hers, and my son still wouldn’t have seen it.
Olivia: You were right. Not all fairy tales have happy endings. But evil queens? They tend to go down.
Olivia: If we are broken going in, we’re not getting out, not together.
Conclusion
An underwhelming and disappointing return from Scandal. At least that end scene was fantastic!
Nad Rating
C
Still not a fan of Fitz and care even less about him and Olivia being together. They're such a toxic pairing. Mellie and Abby have to be the only characters on the show I truly care about and I feel for their struggles with the latest changes going on in their environments. I hope Mellie kick Fitz's ass.
Doesn't surprise me that they had Quinn let Huck live. Knew they didn't have the guts to make her go through with killing him. I hate that Olivia is still in the dark about Huck's misdeeds last season and, just when I was hoping for there to be a long time until he shows his face again, Jake turns up. But it does piques my curiosity of how Jake will help Huck contain his darkness.
Though heavy-handed and a bit predictable in certain areas, I did enjoy the resolution of the princess subplot and Olivia's line about evil queens going down.
I agree, Mellie and Abby seem to be the only two likable characters on this show right now. I can't believe how annoying Huck was, was he always this way? I hate how the show is trying to make him seem complex but he's just coming off as a psyco who needs to leave the show ASAP.
Could it be Abby who took those pictures of Olivia and Fitz and revealed them to the public? Or is that choice too obvious right now?
Let's hope next week's better.