![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 20th, 2013 05:27 pmHave become insanely obsessed with the political thriller Scandal now. If you try it - skip the first season. Like so many tv series - it has a so-so pilot and a mediocre first season, but a great second season.
It's so well written, every scene, every bit of dialogue means something or factors into the plot. And the hair-pin plot twists have a sort of satirical feel to them.
Shondra Rhimes the creator of the series, stated in an Entertainment Weekly article this past March, that if The West Wing is how we wish Washington DC was like, Scandal is what we wish it wasn't. It's not a wishfullment fantasy, quite the opposite and plays heavily into satire, better in some respects than VEEP, which I felt was a bit too obvious and over-the-top in its satire and humor (I don't like it when I see a joke coming a mile away) and Sorkin's Newsroom.
It is based on a real-life fixer, who played a hand in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But loosely. Also the real-life political fixer is an African-American woman. Scandal has the privilege of being the first successful network dramatic series headed by an African-American Woman. And it has made me laugh hard, harder than I do during sitcoms.
Plus, the B story-line or case of the week is seamlessly worked into the plot, narrative structure, and story - commenting on the characters arcs and foreshadowing up-coming events subtly.
Dialogue - rapid fire in the Sorkin style, and quite witty. Great dialogue in fact. I keep rewinding.
I had to resist the compulsion to buy the S2 DVD today on the way home from work. (There's a Target and a Best Buy in the mall that is housed directly above the train station. But it would require a lot more walking and riding of escalators. So will wait it out. Want to watch the first half of S2 - to see if it as half as good as the second half. Also catch the last half of S1 - which is coming via netflix on Wed.)
2. Elmore Leonard died at 87. He's the creator behind Raylan Gibbons on Justified. Also wrote "Get Shorty", "Out of Sight", and various other books. Considered a master at crime fiction. Carl Hiassion is sort of similar in style.
Here's his Ten Rules of Writing.
I've read a lot of his books. Some were better than others.
It's so well written, every scene, every bit of dialogue means something or factors into the plot. And the hair-pin plot twists have a sort of satirical feel to them.
Shondra Rhimes the creator of the series, stated in an Entertainment Weekly article this past March, that if The West Wing is how we wish Washington DC was like, Scandal is what we wish it wasn't. It's not a wishfullment fantasy, quite the opposite and plays heavily into satire, better in some respects than VEEP, which I felt was a bit too obvious and over-the-top in its satire and humor (I don't like it when I see a joke coming a mile away) and Sorkin's Newsroom.
It is based on a real-life fixer, who played a hand in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But loosely. Also the real-life political fixer is an African-American woman. Scandal has the privilege of being the first successful network dramatic series headed by an African-American Woman. And it has made me laugh hard, harder than I do during sitcoms.
Plus, the B story-line or case of the week is seamlessly worked into the plot, narrative structure, and story - commenting on the characters arcs and foreshadowing up-coming events subtly.
Dialogue - rapid fire in the Sorkin style, and quite witty. Great dialogue in fact. I keep rewinding.
I had to resist the compulsion to buy the S2 DVD today on the way home from work. (There's a Target and a Best Buy in the mall that is housed directly above the train station. But it would require a lot more walking and riding of escalators. So will wait it out. Want to watch the first half of S2 - to see if it as half as good as the second half. Also catch the last half of S1 - which is coming via netflix on Wed.)
2. Elmore Leonard died at 87. He's the creator behind Raylan Gibbons on Justified. Also wrote "Get Shorty", "Out of Sight", and various other books. Considered a master at crime fiction. Carl Hiassion is sort of similar in style.
Here's his Ten Rules of Writing.
I've read a lot of his books. Some were better than others.