‘Scandal’ Final Season Review: Shonda Rhimes’ Gladiators Exiting Loud & Large
It’s 100 days into the administration of America’s first female President, but as the final season of Scandal makes very clear, the most powerful person in the world is Olivia Pope.
If you are already a fan of the Shonda Rhimes created and Kerry Washington starring soapy and high stakes ABC drama, then you are going to love the heightened wish fulfillment fiction seventh and last season of Scandal. However, in an America very different than big time Hillary Clinton supporters like Rhimes and Washington likely envisioned a year ago, if you are new to the series or distinctly weren’t a TGIT fan before, check Scandal out before its last 18 episodes air and it’s gone.
With all the verve of a new sharp-elbowed show, Rhimes and crew unsurprisingly, but thankfully, as I say in my video review above, aim to go out loud, large and leaving little on the table.
Don’t be fooled just because the name on the office door of the Gladiators may have changed and Washington’s always calculating Pope is now at the pinnacle of corrupting power as the White House Chief of Staff to President Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young). Taking things to expected and entertaining way off course places at the same time, this strong female-led show has crash-landed on the face of its own Sun. A deliberate act that, from what I’ve seen, intends to make sure things get hot.
From the center stage-deserving Young to Joe Morton’s ever threatening Papa Pope, the rechristened Quinn Perkins and Associates and the excellent Jeff Perry as now Vice-President Cyrus Beene, the whole gang is back with a few new additions. Though Tony Goldwyn directs the second “Pressing The Flesh” episode of the season, his now former President Fitzgerald Grant III is in the background early on – but clearly and poignantly not for long.
So, before you tune into the season opener on October 5, take a look at my video review above of the last season of Scandal. And tell us, will you be having a fine glass of wine on Thursday?
This review was originally posted on October 3.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgCXuRjWMi0&w=605&h=340]
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