Entertainment

‘Scandal’ still sizzles

Forget ridiculous spooky apartment buildings and insane asylums. The most scandalously delicious show on TV remains “Scandal,” a series I didn’t get a chance to review when it first aired.

But prompted by constant pokes in the back, and painful pinches by my friend Damien Miano to, “Watch! Watch for God’s sake!” I decided to go back to the beginning and start with a clean slate.

He was right. This is the most intriguing network nighttime soap right now — even if it is about presidential and other politics, an area that TV hacks almost always get wrong by either putting them in white hats or black hats — never in gray headwear.

The series, like the premise itself, came out on top even though it shouldn’t have had a ghost of a chance against two wildly hyped political soaps — that turned out to be bombs.

There was the completely bad hack-job, “Political Animals” with the great Sigourney Weaver as a thinly disguised Hillary Clinton, and the even more ridiculous “Boss,” with TV fave Kelsey Grammer as a mayor who had no problem committing public violence. Both were killed off for good — and for our good.

Yet, standing strong is “Scandal,” a network show, based on the real-life DC fixer Judy Smith (recently hired by BeTRAYus scandal leaker, Jill Kelley), and it’s as accurate as a DC show can be while keeping it salaciously delicious. Of course, if you’re dealing with scandals in DC, it can’t get any more ridiculously salacious than it is in real life anyway.

Kerry Washington is Olivia Pope, a DC fixer who used to work for and sleep with the president of the United States. When things got too hot for her politically and sexually, she opened her own shop with people who also have shady pasts from former high-level positions.

Their job is to fix private scandals before they become public disgraces. Upcoming is a national tragedy that will send Olivia back to the White House, and perhaps not as a freelancer, as well as the ongoing conflict between the White House press secretary and his husband, White House correspondent for a news organization.

My friend was right. “Scandal” is as addictive as it is scandalous. Series creator Shonda Rhimes has managed to make Olivia and company unsympathetic/sympathetic characters that quash politically ruinous stories about some very bad guys’ while maintaining at least a bit of conscience. Somehow they manage to do it — and keep us rooting for the people in the gray hats.