Tony Goldwyn as President Fitzgerald Grant and Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope (Credit: ABC)
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There have been
more than a few articles written recently asking why are there so few TV series centered around female antiheroes? Many television critics have labeled the shift that started in the late 90s to serialized, darker, and more complex television storytelling as the third "
Golden Age" of television. This current
Golden Age has largely been dominated by shows led by antihero characters like Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) on
The Sopranos, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) on
Mad Men, Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) in
Justified, and Walter White (Bryan Cranston) with
Breaking Bad. All of the antihero characters tend to be middle-aged, white males, leading some to speculate the appeal of the male antihero is that it connects to the very real insecurities (i.e. "midlife crisis") of many men in the audience at that point in their lives. So is that the reason the female antihero isn't as prominent?
The truth is that there are many notable shows headed by female antiheroes that are conflicted, complex women. It's just that these characters haven't been as much the "household names" in pop-culture notoriety as their male counterparts, and why that is can get into a complex set of sociopolitical, gender and cultural arguments. Examples would be Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) of Weeds, Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) in Damages, Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) of Homeland, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) of Orange is the New Black, or Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) in Nurse Jackie. All of those roles are critically acclaimed, and portrayed by talented actresses.
One character usually cited as a prominent antihero (and one of the few female African-American leads) on network TV is Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope in Scandal. However, below the fold, I'm gonna argue that she's not really an antihero. In fact, while the character is the protagonist of the show, I think a good argument can be made that she's one of the villains.
Nothing has to be true, but everything has to sound like it was.
-Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Series
I have a love of prime-time soap operas that I blame on my mother. Some of my best memories of my mother is watching
Dallas with her as a child, and witnessing her get so pissed off at Larry Hagman's
J.R. Ewing. Truth be told, even though ABC's
Scandal is categorized as a political drama, it has much more in common with
Dallas or
Dynasty than it does
The West Wing, since its narrative is largely predicated on "OMG!" and "WTF?" moments and cliffhangers. It is both the show's greatest appeal and its greatest weakness. To keep the OMG! moments going, the writers have to keep pushing to the edge and risk breaking any semblance of a cohesive narrative that makes any sense.
Created and produced by Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice), Scandal is centered on Washington's Olivia Pope, who's a spin doctor/media consultant brought in to work for politicians and rich people who've gotten themselves into trouble that may or may not be of their own making. The methods by which Olivia and her team help their clients range from highly unethical to most likely illegal. But beyond that, the bigger problems lie in the secrets each of the main characters carry, most notably Olivia herself, who's been having an on-again off-again affair with the president of the United States for years.
Moreover, the depiction of American politics in the show is both soap opera-ish and probably the darkest of any TV series.
Scandal exists in a universe where it seems like every conspiracy theory may be true, and every rumor you've ever heard about a politician is probably true or much worse than is believed. The president of the United States is a murderer who was installed through a rigged election, his Sarah Palin-esque vice president seems to have murdered her husband, the first lady was raped by her father-in-law, the president's Democratic opponent in the last election killed his wife's lover in cold blood, and a super-secret spy agency that no one knows about & answers to no authority (not even the president) kills and imprisons with impunity.
And Olivia's mother and father are connected to the killings and kidnappings and conspiracy.
From Todd VanDerWerff at the
A.V. Club:
The series taps into something indefinable in the political zeitgeist: As The West Wing defined the long twilight of the Clinton years, Scandal is the George W. Bush/Barack Obama TV show we didn’t know we needed. At its best, it plays like a slightly sci-fi dramatization of Glenn Greenwald’s blog, with soap elements added, as well as a hefty dose of romantic tragedy. In "Scandal," there are only two things that hold true: No American institution—not governmental or corporate—has your best interests at heart, and human relationships are a kind of beautiful addiction, irresistible in the moment but spiraling outward to infect all they touch.
Now I did mention that Olivia may be one of the villains of the show. I say that because Olivia is presented as strong, competent, intelligent, and someone who we (as the audience) should root for as a "gladiator" with a
white hat fighting the good fight. But if you step back and look at the series in its totality, almost all of the bad things that happen on the show are directly or indirectly linked to her actions or her enabling. Olivia took part in rigging a presidential election. Olivia employs a team that disposes of dead bodies, and tortures people to get answers. And she is the one that covers up the lies and spreads them to benefit herself, her clients, and those she cares about. In that way, both her and her team are hypocrites. In fact, the closest thing there is to an ethical character on the show is Joshua Malina's
David Rosen.
Also, depending on your perspective, for the "shippers" the relationship between President Fitz and Olivia is the great love affair that the audience should be rooting for, with them as starstruck lovers that everyone and everything are trying to keep apart. But the other interpretation of it is that it's a horrible, abusive relationship that is as destructive as it is wrong.
- A Republican President That Could Only Exist In Hollywood: Tony Goldwyn's President Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant is a "Hollywood Republican," in that he's a Republican that bears no resemblance to any Republican that's existed in American politics over the past three decades. Whenever the show has his character take a position on a hot-button issue, all of his stances are Democratic positions. He loathes his Palin-esque vice president, and he has not only an openly gay chief of staff, but a married, openly gay chief of staff.
I've moved Heaven and Earth to save you from yourselves. I have lied for you. I have stolen for you. I have cheated for you. I have killed for you. I have almost died for you. And you, you two are so stupid and romantic and high on your own doomed love, Romeo and Juliet, Dear Diary nonsense that you won't even save your own lives, but I am being dramatic? -Cyrus
- Why Is Olivia Attracted To Fitz?: A while back I gave up trying to figure out the logic of female attraction, and just chalked it up to being one of the great mysteries of the universe. But as Scandal has progressed, I'm perplexed as to what Olivia (and by extension the fans that want the Olivia-Fitz relationship) find attractive about Fitz? Is he a "good" man? No, since not only did he personally kill a Supreme Court justice, but he also made his political name on a lie that made him out to be a military hero when he actually blew a 747 out of the sky killing over 300 civilians. Although, apparently using Marine One as a limo and buying a woman a house in Vermont will make her forget that you killed hundreds of people, and she'll have sex with you again. Is Fitz a "good" president? No, since it seems like he spends every waking moment of his presidency either brooding or trying to find ways to fuck Olivia.
- Addiction Or Passion?: The way Kerry Washington plays Olivia's affair with Fitz is interesting. It almost always begins with her resisting Fitz's advances, and her eventually giving in to having passionate sex in the shower, floor, or on top of the Resolute Desk. In a lot of ways, Washington's characterization of the affair reminds me of Diane Lane's character in Adrian Lyne's 'Unfaithful,' where the adulterous affair is almost an addiction that the character can see is destructive, but she can't resist the fantasy it provides. Also, another aspect of the Olivia-Fitz relationship some critics have latched onto is the power imbalance. It's either a passionate affair among two people that would be much happier living in a cabin in Vermont, or it's a horrible relationship in which the president of the United States crosses the line into being stalker-ish and abusive.
If you knew the sacrifices that I have made, the things that I have given up, the pieces of myself that I have given away for you … and you treat me this way? You declare war on me, and you shame me, and you make me beg for scraps when I have done nothing but fight for you. You don’t have to love me, but we are in this hell together and the flames are burning both of us with equal intensity, baby, so the least you could do is be my friend. Just a little bit. The least you could do is show up. -Mellie
- Sympathy For Mellie: When the series began, Bellamy Young's Mellie Grant at first seemed to be a ruthless political spouse who was married to her husband only for the political power she could gain from it. However, as the series has progressed, Mellie has become more & more sympathetic and tragic as more has been revealed about her and Fitz's past. The crux of the Mellie character is that she desperately loves someone that doesn't love her, for which Mellie has sacrificed so much for including her own dignity. Mellie's marriage with Fitz was a modern-day arranged political marriage, where her own father only agreed to the marriage after receiving political favor from Fitz's dad (Barry Bostwick). Mellie is a Harvard & Yale educated woman that chose to be "The Good Wife" instead of a partner in a law firm in order to advance her husband's career. Mellie chose to keep quiet about her politician father-in-law raping her, instead of seeking justice (which would have been nearly impossible given the ruthless and powerful status of her rapist) and instead used the situation to help her husband's political career. And Mellie decided to look the other way when Fitz began sleeping with Olivia, because she wanted him to be president and succeed. There are many women out there that have given up promising careers for their marriages and families. And there are many women out there that get burned just as bad as Mellie has, and have to decide whether they're going to let go of a relationship that they've sacrificed so much for. Both Mellie and Olivia deserve so much better than Fitz, and would probably be happier if they would let go of their fantasies involving him.
- Alias Redux: The spy-conspiracy element of this series has always been to me the weakest part of it. And the reveal that Olivia's parents are involved in the massive spy conspiracy felt like something literally pulled directly out of J.J. Abrams' Alias, including the revelation of a dead mother who is actually alive and more than what she seems. I can never tell if Shonda Rhimes is actually trying to say something about torture and clandestine surveillance, or if she's just using it to advance the plot, since the scenes involving those subjects run the gamut between camp silliness to horrifying. Which brings me to ...
- Huck, The Office Serial Killer: I know some fans of the show love this character, but to me he's always been a ridiculous characterization of the "psycho vet." Although, I did think Olivia's mother made a good point that Olivia is basically her father, and has set up a private version of her father's B613. Olivia is not as ruthless as her father & won't go as far, but she employs similar people and tactics.
I need you to had done your damn job that you're always boasting about, boring me senseless; droning on about how you do the dirty work, about how you've got my back! Well, my back's now got one hell of a Sally shiv in it that you may as well have handed her. -Fitz
- The 111th Rule Of Acquisition: To sum up, this is a show in which everyone's morals can be sold for a price and the people we know are exploited by those that claim to care about them, leading to more and more problems. In just the last few episodes, VP Sally Langston (Kate Burton) sells out her religious beliefs when pushed, and is willing to become pro-choice for just an outside chance of taking the White House, and Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) has shown that he will protect the president by any means necessary, even if it means manipulating his husband James (Dan Bucatinsky) into being a whore.
Next week: Just how good is Julianna Margulies as CBS'
The Good Wife?