Hey Guys! How are you all doing? Happy New Year by the way.

I’m aware that I haven’t posted on here since the beginning of December, but honestly, I couldn’t be arsed. Sorry.
I’m grateful for those of you who still check in, and I’m definitely grateful to Michelle and Willa for keeping things going.

Anyway, my latest obsession, is a show called Scandal, and quite frankly, apart from the shady political crap that’s going on in the world, that’s pretty much all I ever want to talk about these days, and I’m not even sorry.

You’ll be pleased to know that watching Scandal has revived my love for romance books again. I’d been in a massive reading slump, but lately, things have gotten better. Honourable mentions go out to Shiloh Walker, for her amazing friends-to-lovers book Wrecked due out in April. LOVED that book so damned much. Go pre-order, I promise you wont be sorry.

This week, the latest episode of Scandal left me emotionally wrecked, but I’ll talk about that episode in a separate post. Today I want to introduce those of you who aren’t familiar with the series to Scandal, and all of its colourful characters.

The main protagonist of the show is a a woman called Olivia Pope, played by the divine Kerry Washington, (I have such a massive girl crush on her). Olivia is a crisis manager, and the overall premise of the show is based on an actual crisis manager, Judy Smith, who worked for the first George Bush. Judy currently runs her own crisis management firm, and dealt with the whole Monica Lewinski/Bill Clinton mess, and the Michael Vick scandal. I imagine as we speak, General Petraeus has her on speed dial. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that she was behind the Lance Armstrong/Oprah interview. (Isn’t Armstrong an unconscionable bell-end?)

Anyway, so Olivia’s firm is aptly named Olivia Pope and Associates, and her associates are as follows:

Harrison Wright – Good looking, fast-talking, charming man-meat, who’s also a lawyer. I looove Harrison because he always has Olivia’s back. And he’s hot y’all!

Abby Whelan – Abby is a sometimes annoying, sometimes sanctimonious, but usually amusing, bitchy redhead. Abby is the firm’s main investigator, and the moral compass for the team.

Huck – We don’t know his last name, he’s former black ops, and he’s particularly skilled in the art of torture. Huck is their tech guy, he can hack into anything, including uber secure government systems. I love Huck, he’s my favourite associate, mostly because I want to take him home, and hug him every five minutes. I think my love for him stems from his absolute loyalty and devotion to Olivia.

Quinn Perkins – The newest recruit to OPA, she’s the bambi of the group, has been described as a chickenhead by some, but she’s mostly naive and a little wide-eyed. She will probably be the associate who annoys you the most. Especially in the seventh episode of the first season. Seriously Quinn?

Stephen Finch – Stephen is Olivia’s long time lawyer friend, and in season one he’s the person she confides in the most, and the person who knows her the best. Stephen eventually leaves to go and find his normal with his fiancee, Georgia. Stephen has nice hair. He could be in one of those Just For Men adverts his hair is so nice.

They all have shady pasts and have had to be rescued by Olivia at one point or another in their lives, and they all have their own secrets, some more surprising and shocking than others.

Back to Olivia, she has a pretty massive scandalous secret of her own. She had an affair with the president of the United States, which started when she was brought on as his campaign fixer by Cyrus (now chief-of-staff). When the affair became too much for her, she left the White House and started her own firm. The irony is, Olivia is amazing at solving the problems of her clients, but her own life is just a mess. When I watched the first episode, I didn’t have a clue what the actual premise of the show was, I was just watching because I’m such a Kerry Washington fan girl, so I was shocked when we discovered that her and the president – played by the enormously charismatic Tony Goldwyn – had been in a relationship.

Anyway, let me introduce you to the White House Crew:

President Fitzgerald Grant III – Republican president, married to Mellie Grant, has two children (who we’ve yet to see), and had an affair with Olivia Pope, his former campaign fixer. We assume that Fitz is a total sleazebag, because after all, only a snake would cheat on his wife, surely? It’s amazing how one’s perspective changes after watching this show. Nobody is who you think they are. I love Fitz, he’s a wonderfully flawed character who constantly pulls at my loins heartstrings. He wants to be with the love of his life, but that can’t happen while he’s the leader of the free world.

Cyrus Beene – Cyrus is a self-confessed monster who you will love and hate in equal measure. He’s Fitz’s chief-of-staff, and he will literally do anything for his president. I go back and forth with Cyrus, but I mostly love him, and he’s done some heinous shit.

Mellie Grant – Married to the president, Mellie is an ambitious faux Stepford Wife who will do anything she has to in order to keep her husband in power, thus keeping her as the First Lady of The United States. I love Mellie’s character, she’s the most uncomplicated person on the show, she’s highly manipulative, and her motivations are clear as day. She loves power, and she has political ambitions beyond her husband.

Sally Langston – Sally is Fitz’s uber Right-wing Vice President. She’s the Sarah Palin of the show. Sally is cold, and I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her.

Hollis Doyle – A major contributor to Fitz’s election campaign, who seems to have free reign of the White House. He shows up in season two. Hollis is a snake. I’ll leave it there.

I’ll be upfront and tell you that for me, the main attraction to this show is Olivia and Fitz. I’d ask you not to judge me, but actually I don’t care. I checked my real life morals at the door, and quite frankly, I was happy to do so. If you’re even a little bit puritanical, take the door marked exit, because this show is not for you.

“One minute”

They have the most deliciously complicated relationship. A relationship, that I initially questioned (due to the fact that he’s married and all) until about the third episode, then I was all in. Of course I’m going to hell, because there’s nothing admirable about infidelity, but it’s a TV show, so I’m happy to root for this particular couple. It’s not the worst thing that I’ve been ok about in the show either. There are some truly scandalous goings-ons, and it’s remarkable how you end up shrugging your shoulders at some of the questionable things perpetrated by the main protagonists.

Liv and Fitz can’t be together, because not only is he married, he’s also the president, so divorce isn’t really a viable option for him. He tries, but both Olivia and Mellie (his wife) aren’t having any of it. Olivia because she knows he can’t just be an ordinary person, and Mellie, because she covets the FLOTUS title too much.

I think that the reason that I’m able to be ok, with Fitz and Olivia’s relationship is down to the on-screen chemistry between Goldwyn and Washington. They literally sizzle together, sexually, emotionally, and intellectually. Fitz and Olivia are my Eve and Roarke of television, without the affair part of course:)

Every single person that I’ve introduced to this show have literally become as addicted as I am. I lent the first season DVD to my fabulous sister-in-law, and she watched all the episodes (of which there are seven), one after the other and she begged for more when she was done.

I was Skyping with my sister about a month ago, and I recommended Scandal to her. She currently works as a teacher in Australia, and is a huge party animal, so she rarely commits to serialised TV shows. She started watching the first episode at around 12am, Aus time, and continued until she’d watched them all. When I spoke to her a couple of days later, she told me that she’d only ever intended to watch one then go to bed. Needless to say she was knackered in the morning. Just as well it was a Sunday eh?

This isn’t to say by the way that Scandal doesn’t have its flaws, it does, (especially during the pilot) not hugely noticeable, unless you’re a big fan like I am, but the fact is, you really don’t care about those imperfections, because the stuff that Shonda Rhimes and her team of writers get right is so amazing. Oh, I may have forgotten to mention that Shonda Rhimes created this series. Fans of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice will be familiar with her work. Scandal is nothing like those shows.

I would say that if you get to the fourth episode and you neither get it, nor love it, then Scandal is probably not for you. If you don’t like the central relationship in this series, then Scandal is probably not for you. Just sayin’.

Anyway, there are some great moments between Olivia and Fitz, here are some of my favourite scenes:
(By the way, I didn’t turn off the continuous playlist function, so if you don’t want any spoilers, I suggest you click on the stop/pause button straight after each video has played.)

Even their phone conversations were epic..

(This one’s not safe for work people, it contains adults having sex.)

This features the best declaration of love ever…

Heartbreaking scene…

Seriously, there are so many beautiful and brilliant scenes between them that it was difficult to choose.

Here’s a great Mellie/Olivia encounter – I love watching these two go at it:

Scandal currently airs on Thursday nights on ABC at 10pm. The next episode is on the 31st January (I hate preemptions with the venom of a thousand locusts)

You can get the season one DVD from Amazon here, and pre-order the season two DVD here