There was a time ten years ago when Thursday nights were reserved for ABC, your beverage of choice, popcorn, and your favorite social media app fired up and ready to be used.
TGIT meant Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder were going to blow your mind for three hours straight, and you were going to thank them for it.
Of the three, Scandal was perhaps the most likely to have you clutching your pearls, yelling at the television, and waiting with bated breath for the next episode.
When you think back on Scandal, there are so many memorable moments, and what stands out to you the most will assuredly come down to your personal preference.
But whether you prefer one ship over the other or the political intrigue is what hooked you the most, the one character at the center of everything in Scandal was Olivia Pope.
Olivia Pope was the main character, of course, but in some ways, she felt like so much more than that.
To understand the series in its entirety, you have to understand Olivia, a flawed woman whose moral compass was more up and down than a five-year-old discovering a seesaw for the first time.
When the series first began, Olivia was a crusader who left the cushy confines of the White House to start a crisis management firm and address the various problems that affected the people of Washington, D.C.
But as she found herself drawn back to the Oval Office and into the arms of President Fitzgerald Grant, her life was essentially turned upside down, and she was never able to right it again fully.
Olivia was a brilliant and ambitious woman who worked extremely hard to achieve the heights she did, especially as a Black woman in a white, male-centered field.
Learning about Olivia’s background as the show progressed lent a great deal of context to her demeanor and pursuit of perfection. Still, before we met Mama and Papa Pope, the early seasons had Olivia donning the white hat and striving to stay “good” while surrounded by so much “bad.”
By the nature of her profession, Olivia was constantly torn between doing the right thing and what needed to be done for her clients.
In trusting her gut, she often found herself in situations that tested her morals, and seeing Olivia grapple with the rightness and wrongness of situations, however big or small, was at the core of what made Scandal into such an obsession.
Here was a brilliant woman who was so smart that she could go toe-to-toe with any “Big Bad” you put in front of her.
However, she had one weakness: the President, and seeing her navigate this morality test in both her personal and professional life was a feat to behold.
For new viewers tuning into Scandal for the first time, it’ll be interesting to see how they view Olivia Pope, especially in today’s day and age, which is not the same as it was when the show premiered in 2012.
The world has changed, but obviously, past shows don’t evolve along with it, and a newer audience will certainly have different views about election rigging, high-profile affairs, and shady government operations.
Scandal may have been a little ahead of its time, as some people say.
But Olivia Pope is the one thing new viewers should look at the same way, as she was truly a trailblazer for complicated leading women on television.
There was once a time when you’d rarely see shows centered around a female character that didn’t present the women as being wholly likable. Television didn’t allow them to have significant flaws or anything that would turn an audience against them.
Luckily, times have changed as more and more series have embraced the complexities of female characters, which has only enhanced television in general.
Olivia was a very imperfect character, and to be fair, she wasn’t even that relatable on the surface.
Not many of us can relate to the President of the FREE WORLD willing to go to war for us after all.
However, the relatable aspects, such as working hard and pursuing justice, made her someone fans wanted to root for and ultimately led to her becoming one of the most iconic television characters of all time, male or female.
Even with time, I can’t imagine new sets of fans not falling in love with Olivia Pope as the seasons progress and she becomes increasingly unrecognizable from the woman she was at the beginning of the series.
Even when Olivia was at her worst, she was so absorbing and entertaining, from her love affairs to her shifting allegiances and her constant struggles with that grey area of decency she often inhabited.
Many people look back on Scandal and see the Olitz of it all, and I get that better than anyone. I am Team Olitz through and through, but Olivia controlled that relationship, and Olivia’s controlling nature was paramount in understanding who she was at her core.
And once you understand Olivia, across all seven seasons, and every right and wrong decision, you understand that just like MANY of us, she’s a human being, and she’s often trying to do the best in the messy and complicated situations, usually falling at her feet.
The fun is watching Olivia figure things out and doing so with her signature flair.
Olivia Pope remains a signature example of the complexities of powerful women, and I’m incredibly jealous that so many people will get to witness her journey for the very first time when Scandal returns to Netflix on June 17th!
Alright, Fanatics, what are your opinions on Olivia Pope?
Are you excited to binge Scandal again? Or maybe for the very first time?
Let us know!
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Comments, shares, and good vibes all keep this little ship afloat. Thanks for reading.
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