Election season was difficult. The dreaded several months after election season was even harder. The next four years may even seem infeasible. In short, it seems a little bit silly to actually want to watch the American government implode on television. So, why exactly is Scandal so popular?
Produced by ABC Studios and ShondaLand, Scandal is about political fixer, Olivia Pope, and her crisis management team. Much of the plot is about how she can’t let go of her past as White House Communications Director. I would say there’s equal parts of politics and drama which makes it accessible to a lot of people.
I’ve watching Scandal for several years now, and I’ve noticed that it takes enough inspiration from the current political climate that it doesn’t ever cross that line of actually imitating real life. For example, the fifth season, which aired in May of last year, featured the Presidential Election, and the sixth season, which aired just a week after the inauguration of Donald Trump, revealed who won that election. The results of that election mimicked some of what occurred in the actual election but there was a distinct departure from reality that made it possible to separate fiction from reality while still having similar politics.
Stepping away from the dramatics of the show, its core ideals have been and still are relevant. Olivia’s father echoes a similar sentiment towards his daughter, and it has become something of a Pope family motto: You have to work twice as hard to get half of what they have. This statement represents the idea that white people automatically have this jump ahead in life, and colored people, especially black people, had to work so much harder just to get the same opportunities.
This is similar to the ideals of Jim Crow, in the sense that whites were always given the better facilities and told blacks that they should just accept what they have. Blacks who tried to take the leap towards gaining actual equality, instead of the superficial idea of “separate, but equal”, were treated with disdain and silenced. No matter what anybody argues, there are still distinct traces of Jim Crow in our society, and the rise of the so-called “alt right” movement hasn’t helped to achieve equality.
Scandal, despite the dramatic elements, portrays this idea far better than any television show I’ve watched, along with important ideals of feminism that could have easily been hidden behind the backdrop of a Republican presidency.
I absolutely adore Scandal. Not just because of the dramatic elements, but because of the beliefs it so heavily values and portrays. And, in a world where these beliefs can be silenced, we must promote media that fights for everybody.
