Scandal – Who’s got the bigger white hat?

With the exception of the Olivia Pope/President Fitz Grant’s still smoldering affections, the main story of Scandal gives viewers the sense that we have ringside seats as we watch, from an insider’s perspective, how a juicy news story percolates through the media food chain when there’s precious little that can be done to stop it from becoming public.

You can genuinely imagine something like this Amanda Tanner-President Grant story happening because, well, something like has already happened and hasn’t really been afforded a definitive, prime-time dramatic treatment. (Barbara Walters’ interview with Monica Lewinsky doesn’t count.)

I remain intrigued by the Amanda Tanner story and how it’s unfolding as the vulnerable White House aide turned to Pope’s gladiators in suits, who’d threatened to destroy her in the previous episode, after the first of many dominoes has been knocked down (a reporter had called Tanner’s parents about Tanner’s suicide attempt). While Scandal is a smart, stylish drama about Washington, D.C.’s hypocritically seamy side, it also provides commentary on the news media and the age old lesson that scores of politicians seem to never heed: It will all come out eventually. (The gritty Starz drama Boss, where a reporter is hot on the trail of the story of the mayor’s declining health which he’s trying to keep under wraps, is treading on similar terrain.)

Pope can’t do anything to change the fact that the president’s affair with a White House aide will most likely become public — as it seems inevitable — the story is tantalizingly amped up by Pope’s own involvement with the married president, who now seems compelled to declare that his main “fixer” is the love of his life … the love who’s also representing his suicidal former lover.

As for the day-to-day cases that each episode features — very much in line with the formula to which shows like House adheres — Scandal doesn’t feel like a stale retread as it swerves into myriad, unlikely directions and keeps the rivalry with the U.S. attorney light and rooted in a competition of wit. I like that.

The powerful madam who has a client list comprised of high-powered men has been done to death on countless TV shows. But Scandal made it fresh by turning viewers’ expectations on their head. While it looked like President Grant’s squeaky clean Supreme Court nominee had frequented a pricey call girl, the writers abruptly took a 180 and revealed that the nominee’s wife had been an escort and had kept that information from her husband. Didn’t see that one coming, which is part of the reason why I’ll be tuning in next week.

The other big reason: Kerry Washington’s Pope. While she spouts off tough-as-nails Pope-isms, she also has a moral core that brings her to the edge of propriety if she thinks that’s the moral thing to do. In this episode she wasn’t above blackmailing some of the madam’s most influential clients in order to preserve the reputation and viability of the Supreme Court nomination of a good man. Hence the “whose white hat is bigger” discussion with Joshua Malina’s U.S. attorney David Rosen.

Do I believe that she’d be able to quickly gather a dozen or so members of the House and Senate in her office — without anyone in the media getting tipped off — and threaten them? No. That scene wasn’t believable, but it was fun and because the meta-story seems plausible, I’ll overlook theatrics like this and go along for the ride.

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Apr 13, 2012 @ 11:08 EST5EDT