Anyway, why does Olivia deserve better than Fitz? Because we all deserve better than Fitz. Did you hear me, O Women Of The World? If you are reading these words, you deserve better than Fitz. Unless, that is, you are Mellie, Fitz’s wife, who exactly deserves Fitz, which is part of what makes the show’s central romantic mythology kind of hard to give a hoot about. If Olivia had a lick of sense, she would make the “that’s that” motion with her hands like she’s smacking the dust off, say “ptooey,” and go have sex with someone more worthwhile. Meaning: anyone.

And Fitz and Mellie would go off and have a whole bunch of evil babies and tour the world like the Von Trapp Family Singers, only they would be a troupe of lying, well-dressed hypocrites who would cry and complain instead of singing “So Long, Farewell.”

Because honestly, Fitz is the worst. He is the absolute worst. In case you don’t believe me, I am prepared to present my list of reasons.

Notes On A ‘Scandal’: Fitz Is The Most Dumpable Man On Television : Monkey See

There are spoilers on the other side of this link. — tanya b.

(via npr)

Honestly, I stopped watching the show because I thought Olivia deserved better… (also I got really behind after missing a couple episodes.)

(via npr)

Network TV Is Broken. So How Does Shonda Rhimes Keep Making Hits?

Rhimes observes that people, even the ones who like “Scandal,” describe it as “ridiculous,” which she can live with, or a “guilty pleasure,” which she ardently despises. The worst reaction, she says, is when people dismiss it as a show for women, the TV version of chick lit. “It’s superinsulting that because Olivia is a woman, and the girl who wrote ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ wrote this, it must be for chicks,” Rhimes says. “Like if it’s geared for women, it’s somehow not as serious as if it’s geared for men.”

These slights — that it’s just a prime-time soap opera — obscure the series’ ambition and intelligence. We’ve been trained by the great TV shows of the last two decades to think that quality television has to come draped in a shroud of somber respectability. But that’s just not Rhimes’s style.

  • Vulture: Has NBC ever expressed concern over what you review or what you say?
  • Retta: [Laughs] No. I usually don’t talk bad about the TV shows. If I don’t like it, I’m not going to watch it. I mean, somebody asked me on Twitter, “What shows do you watch? Don’t you watch Homeland?” Showtime PR saw that and sent me the season. And I was obsessed.
  • Vulture: Name one TV show that people are not watching, that they should be watching.
  • Retta: Nashville is really good, really fun, and I don’t know that it has great numbers. That, and Scandal. Scandal is getting really close, if not just past, The Good Wife. IT’S SO GOOD.

Source: vulture.com

Having gone through NYU’s graduate film program, one comes out with a very sharp, critical eye. I’m fortunate to do script analysis for private clients. One thing I note with my female clients, is that it’s hard for us to keep a woman character as lead. Usually, the female will partner with a male (either in work or love) and the male will eventually become the lead or takeover the storyline. It is very difficult for women to keep a strong, female character at the center of the story. This seems to be the case here. By the second to last episode, I did not know if ‘the president’ or Olivia Pope was the lead. It’s a very subtle dynamic. ‘The president’ took the lead in their interactions. He asked for ‘the minute’. He showed up at her house. He was making the choices. The lead has to make the choices, otherwise, they become a ‘passive’ character. Olivia Pope, who started off the series fully in charge, had become a doe-eyed mistress. How did we get here?!
The Trouble With “Scandal” | Shadow and Act. Why I am hoping season two is slightly better.

Source: blogs.indiewire.com

There really needs to be a buzzing neon sign outside Olivia’s office window with one of the letters missing, and a corny voice-over narration by Olivia. (“He threw me a look, and I caught it my hip pocket.”) That and an invisible jet plane on the roof with vertical takeoff and landing capability: How else can you explain Olivia’s ability to get to wherever she needs to be within, it seems, minutes of needing to be there? Kerry Washington’s a type-A icon, a poster gal for borderline-OCD people who are happiest barking out orders to underlings. I don’t know which I like better, her I-can-burn-holes-in-your-forehead stare or her amazing ability to run in four-inch heels as if she’s dancing barefoot through a field of daisies.
TV Review: Scandal, or the Show As Bag of Potato Chips — Vulture. I wanted the show to be better than it was… but I will keep watching.  

Source: vulture.com

The local family planning officials stormed my parents’ house and took my baby away. They said the child was illegal, but gave no further explanation. At the time, I was in my thirties, but my wife was just shy of 20 years old, the legal marrying age for women. When my wife gave birth, we decided to register the child after my wife turned 20. Many people in our village had done this before.

I called a few weeks later, and my parents gave me the terrible news. I rushed home. We went to a nearby village, where a government official said that we had to pay 6,000 RMB (about $940) to get our daughter back. My monthly salary is just 2,000 RMB, which is usually enough to pay rent and other living expenses for me and my wife and to send a little back home, so we had only 4,000 RMB saved. A few days later, when I returned with the money, the official balked, saying even if I paid 1 million RMB, I would never get my daughter back. She had already been given away to an orphanage.

He tried to cut me a deal, giving me permission to have another child, more than the one-child policy allows. I was furious. I tracked down the orphanage, but by the time I got there, she was gone. As I talked to more people about what happened to my daughter, I discovered that other families had also had their children taken from them. If I speak up, I don’t know if the government would help me find my girl, or try to shut me up or detain me.
Black-Market Babies: Broken Families in China, Confused Children in the U.S. - Deborah Jian Lee and Sushma Subramanian - International - The Atlantic. Awful.

Source: The Atlantic