The Scandalous Thing About "Scandal" Season 1 is That It Might Be Good

Our seemingly sensible selves tell us that Scandal is not something we should watch by choice other than begrudgingly and in hushed tones so no one is aware we're watching something with so many crazy twists and turns. Scandal, especially early on, feels like its going to be a guilty pleasure. It seemingly a series that is good at indulging in our baser instincts of what we expect from television in fast-talking, soapy fashion. Our sensible selves tell us: there's good stuff in there but its all so clouded over by its more, well, scandalous elements.

And certainly, there are ideas that feel half-baked on the show, and it definitely has a little more leg work to go in order to relieve itself of the label "guilty pleasure". But Scandal is a show that isn't half-bad at what it does, even if what it mostly does is lightly skewer the current political environment with potshots at both the Left and the Right and everyone in between (There's an episode where the case-of-the-week features a South American dictator, and it's every bit as "Um, okay then ..." as you might expect).

Tethered by the awesome central performance of Kerry Washington as super lawyer Olivia Pope who has gone from former White House adviser to political fixer, the series primarily focuses on procedural cases, gradually tying in a larger story connected to some illicit activities involving the President. Creator Shonda Rhimes makes the dialogue snap out of her characters like they're hopped up on five-hour energy, and the dialogue is the kind that often sounds cooler said at a whiplash pace than it might actually be delivered any other way. Some of it is a little too cute or neat (There's a running joke about "wearing a white hat" that borders on trite).

Pope runs an agency filled with lawyers that she's plucked out from the Island of Misfit Toys. The company takes on the cases of whomever walks in their door, fixing their client's problems without judging them. Slowly the supporting characters are revealed to be more than do-gooders and deliverers of exposition, and though the different cases vary in quality, what they slowly reveal about the operations of the company are suggestive of a really cool set-up that you'd only ever witness on television. Pope is steely and seemingly totally in control which means, of course, she's got her own baggage that slowly reveals itself.   

Scandal is a plot heavy series, which means a shortened seven episode season never really allows the show to find its footing. The pilot features a newbie being hired by the company and we begin to see the rest of the characters primarily through her eyes. But the series never even really gets to develop this angle, cliched as it is. Too many little plot threads are hinted at but never get to take form and that's what the problem is; Scandal is attempting too many things at once, and some of it is interesting but some (okay a lot) of it falls flat.

But between the performances of a cast that is at times more convincing than the material provided and an affection for giving its audience a delectably fun time (at times a little too predictably and plainly so), Scandal does exactly what you'd expect. And that's not a bad thing. The real scandal of Scandal is that this might just have the potential to grow into a very good drama. And it's doing it by giving us what we want; that's not a guilty pleasure, that's just a pleasure. I could see this show working out the kinks; developing the under-serviced supporting players more and turning the cases of the week into something with more teeth.

I'm not saying you should expect wonders from the first season, but it's okay to embrace the pleasure part of that guilty pleasure you're experiencing.