I accidentally re-watched Scandal recently. You may be wondering how one accidentally re-watches an entire seven-season show. Let me explain.

I can’t remember where and I can’t remember who, but I heard a screenwriter say they will watch the pilot of any show. They said it helped them develop their world-building skills. I thought to myself, that is an excellent idea, and since I try to read a script a week, why not read a bunch of pilot scripts? I’ve also noticed they keep my attention longer than feature scripts (especially b/c it is hard for me to read a script of a film I haven’t watched yet, and for the ones I have, I already know what is going to happen… for the most part.)

So, one week I decided to re-read the pilot for Scandal. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t even get into Scandal on my own, my friend Ricky convinced me to watch it. He told me, if you don’t like it within the first few minutes, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. That first scene got me hooked! And I’m not sure why I didn’t stumble into the show on my own. As a high schooler, my two main shows were The O.C and Grey’s Anatomy. I was aware Shonda Rhimes created Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. I also LOVE Kerry Washington. A lot of people remember her from Scandal, I remember first seeing her in Save The Last Dance. Maybe it was the political drama that kept me at bay?

Anyway, I read the script and it was SO good! If you’re into reading scripts, I highly recommend it. I typically work with something on in the background, so I figured, why not put on Scandal? Work was done, and four episodes later, I’m sitting there watching like it was all new to me.

In the future, I don’t know if these “reviews” will be season by season or for the entire show (though either way, in hindsight, I should take notes as I watch.) Since I can’t remember what happened season by season, this will be for the entire show. Let’s start by saying this is one of my favorite shows. It is up there with Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse for me. Shonda Rhimes is a genius and I can’t believe it took Scandal for me to put her up there with he-who-shall-not-be-named as a writing idol… This is funny because I remember a moment in time when I was finding all the Shonda Rhimes interviews I could, and she mentioned being a fan of Buffy and Angel.

Though Olivia Pope is the main character, she is not my favorite character. I realized the other day while thinking about writing this, that the main character of a show is rarely my favorite character. In Buffy, my favorite character is Faith, and she is only in a handful of episodes compared to everyone else. In Angel, my favorite character is Illyria, and she’s in even fewer episodes than Faith. In Scandal, my favorite character is Quinn Perkins, and this is a realization I made during this re-watch.

At first, I HATED Quinn. I understood her purpose, at first, she is our introduction to the world of Olivia Pope & Associates… but I didn’t like her. When her character started to become a mini-Huck is when I found her interesting, and by the time she entered B613, I loved her and that love remained throughout the series. She feels like the character who grew the most throughout the show. From meek and overwhelmed to assassin/spy to Quinn Perkins & Associates. Don’t even get me started on her, Charlie, and Robin… my heart! I love Quinn and Charlie together almost as much as I loved Abby and David together. I may have to do separate posts for different things I want to talk about. I definitely want to do one about the relationships in the show.

Mellie deserved better than Fitz. The show seemed built around Olivia and Fitz’s relationship (at least at first) and I couldn’t stand their relationship. Fitz treated Mellie like trash, and the more you learn about her and what she endured for his sake, the more I looked at him as an asshole. A sexy asshole, but an asshole nonetheless.

Though Olivia isn’t my favorite character, despite being the main one, and I don’t think she went through the biggest change, I did like her overall character arc. To condense it (quite extremely), she starts as a white hat, loses her way, and goes back to being a white hat again. I tend to like that character journey (Faith is one of my favorite fictional characters if you can’t tell by the blog name.)

Now that I’ve finished Scandal, I think it’s time to go back and finish How To Get Away With Murder. But, for those who have watched Scandal, what did you think of the show? Who was your favorite character? Who was your least favorite? I’m curious to know.