Scandal: Links

Kerry Washington is the first African-American Woman to star in a Network Prime Time TV show in 40 years.

The show's success is drawn from rich, sometimes challenging storylines. That push network TV norms and hinge on mystery in  semi-serialized narrative.

The New York Times:

 “She’s the most complex black female lead we’ve ever seen in prime time,” Dr. Cooper said. “You’re not getting an archetype, you’re not getting a stereotype, you’re getting a fully fledged human being,” she said." 

"Asked whether she felt any pressure being in this unusual position, Ms. Washington... She said in an e-mail: The question was: Are audiences ready to have the stories that we tell on television to be more inclusive? Are we ready for our protagonists to represent people of all different genders and ethnicities?” "

OWN: 

"[Olivia Pope] is a fully realized woman," says Oprah. "She's not just in this role because she is African-American. [She represents] a new moment for our culture."

Indiewire:

"The other week, as the debate about the depiction of torture in "Zero Dark Thirty" raged on, I chatted with Alex Gibney about his upcoming HBO doc "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God" and the piece he wrote in Salon about his issues with Kathryn Bigelow's film, which he felt misrepresented how useful so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" were in finding of Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, on TV, Huck (Guillermo Diaz), one of the main characters in Shonda Rhimes' ABC drama "Scandal," was accused of attempting to assassinate the President, taken to a windowless room somewhere and tortured in an attempt to get a confession."

Parents Television Council:

"On the very same night that Vice President Joe Biden met with entertainment industry leaders to discuss the issue of media violence and its impact on children, ABC—the television network owned by a company named for Walt Disney—aired an intense, explicit and bloodied torture scene during its show Scandal," the PTC wrote in a statement Tuesday. 

Jezebel:

"Scandal's a runaway success not because it's a black show from a black writer but because it's a great show from a great writer. (Although let its inclusively be a lesson to the networks and showrunners who can't manage to employ any people of color… What's stopping you?)"