Gladiator in Suits.

I spent a large part of yesterday evening and the most part of today watching this show called Scandal. It's amazing. I can't begin to express how much I like the show. It's fast-paced, the characters are intriguing and the plot is full of amazing, mind-blowing twists. I'm not a big fan of shows which are longer than 30 minutes, but with this one, time freaking flies. True, it can get preposterous, but it's fun fun fun.

It follows Olivia Pope, a former Communications Director of the White House. She's now works as a crisis manager and heads a team of talented (and quirky) individuals. If you need something done, you go to Olivia Hope. If there's a murder, or a kidnapping, or cover-up and you can't go to the police for some reason, you go to Olivia Hope. She's a "fixer"; she fixes things, and she's damn good at it. She knows what to say and what to do. If she can't do something, chances are, she knows someone who can.

Meet Olivia Pope.

But she's not perfect. Like I said, she's a former employee of the White House. Nobody leaves a job at the White House...unless something big happened. 2 years ago she helped put the current POTUS into the office, Fitzgerald Grant. She was one of the campaign's directors, but she was so much more as well. They were having an affair (GASP). She quit to get away from that but somehow, she keeps getting dragged back to the Oval Office.

Every week, Pope & Associates deal with a different crises. It's interesting to see how Pope deals with them as they come. As the setting is the White House, a lot of the crises are related to political scandals. It's quite accessible though, so you don't need any prior knowledge of how the US political system works. The show reveals a lot of the spin that goes into politics, how messages are framed, and the various cover-ups.

Pope & Associates. Gladiators in suits.

In addition to the weekly crises, there's a major plot going on just beneath the surface. Something big is always going on in the White House, and if there's something that needs to be fixed, Olivia Pope is the woman for the job. But you know how it is in the White House, nothing is what it seems and you never know the lengths that people are willing to go to protect their own asses. The show keeps you guessing constantly and never fails to surprise you at each and every turn.

Just earlier, I was shouting expletives at my laptop, a whole string of them. I did this several times today.

The heart of the show is Olivia Pope, who is played by Kerry Washington. I've never heard of her, but apparently, she's famous in the states. Her performance is dang compelling. The first season of the show (which is only 7 episodes) focuses a lot on her, but as the show progresses, the other characters step out of her shadow to reveal their own depth, complications, and agenda. The satisfyingly juicy plot is accompanied by well-developed and human relationships - stuff you get from Grey's Anatomy (which is probably because the showrunner is Shonda Rhimes who brought us Grey's Anatomy).

In addition to Olivia Pope, there's her team, her whole host of clients, the staff of the White House, and most importantly, the motherfucking POTUS.

An affair at the White House? Familiar plot, but it's fucking awesome. Also, not a spoiler.

So I'll just leave this post here. At first, I was really skeptical because the words "lawyer" and "gladiators in suits" were being thrown around. I guess it's a necessary hook to build an audience. Thankfully, it gets dropped within the first few episodes to focus on the really good stuff. Season 1 has only 7 episodes, while season 2 has a whopping 22 episodes. It has been renewed. Who knows how things will unfold in Season 3, but the first two season has received critical praise.

The show is immensely popular in the United States, where it's ratings beat the hugely popular Game of Thrones. It's also one of the most tweeted-about show, gathering over 350,000 tweets during it's season finale. In fact, it's lauded as a show which built it's success on Twitter - people make time to watch the show just so they can take part on the social conversation. I think it's quite cool that I found out about the show on Twitter as well; I saw several of the celebrities I follow tweeting about it (P!nk, Lena Dunham and the cast of Community), and I simply had to check it out.

And you should too. Catch you tomorrow. I'm going to catch one more episode before I go to sleep.

The full cast! They're lots of fun.

Bonus Tumblr gif.