Scandal! The brain child of Shonda Rhimes ( Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, )  airs on ABC Network on Thursday nights. I must take my hat off to this show, it delivered one hell of a roller coaster ride, with more twists and ‘hair pin’ turns, back stabbing, secrets, surprises, murders and “having you stare at the TV saying WTF” moments in its 15 episodes run than any other show ( that I had watched) in recent memory! But I am getting ahead of myself.

Scandal, loosely based off of Bush administration press aide Judy Smith is a thriller about ‘Olivia Carolyn Pope’ played by Kerry Washington, ( Ray, The Last King of Scotland, Fantastic Four,  Django Unchained) Olivia owns “Pope and Associates” a crisis management firm, in Washington D.C. Together with her “Gladiators in suits” : Computer hacker ‘Huck Finn’   lawyer Quinn Perkins, litigator Harrison Wright, investigator Abby Whelan, protect the secrets and the image of some of the most powerful and inflectional people in the country by any means possible, which puts a lot of tension on the team, not to mention placing them in harms way!

A crisis arises in the White House involving the President of the United States, because Olivia Pope use to be the current administrations former White House Communications Director before she left and formed her own  crisis management firm, she was the ideal choice to deal with the current problem at hand. She is well trusted in the inner circle of this administration. Hell, she helped place Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) and First Lady Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) in the oval office, she could be intrusted with resolving this current problem discretely, quickly and permanently!

It seems a intern is treating to talk to the press about an affair she had with the President, an affair President Fitzgerald Grant denies ever happen. As Olivia digs deeper into this widening scandal, she finds that all is not what it seems. The more she digs, the closer the lies and deceptions she help bury when she left the White House come to be reveled. Secrets that would destroy the Current administration and obliterate her own life, secrets some people would kill to kept hidden!

Like must shows Scandal starts off slow, building up plot lines and characters in the first few episodes of the first season. Like a roller coaster, slowly climbing to the top of the ride. Then suddenly dropping and giving you the ride of your life! Trust me when I say this show entertaining, and well worth the hype it gets!

I must admit this show got by me, I did have some interest when I first show it ws going to premier April 5, 2012, but I never sat down and watched it. other shows seem more interesting at that time. A co-worker insisted that I would like the show if I give it a chance. And she was right, the show grabs you and doesn’t let go, and that’s a good thing!

New episodes return on Thursday March 21^th at 10:00 pm on ABC. you can catch up on the first season on DVD and on Netflix.

Good Stuff.

A Game of Thrones! The Third season will Premiere March 31 Sunday at 9 PM, est. After the events of last season the war between  House Lannister and House Stark is just heating up as a for-told ‘long winter’ approaches. But unknown to ether house a evil force is gathering past the icy wall to the north! The young princes Daenerys Targaryen gathers momentum as she heads home  to take back which was taken from her father, and her’s by birthright, the Iron Throne!

After viewing the trailer, this season promises to be as exciting as the last two!

The first and second season are now available on DVD. HIGHLY recommended if you have not seen the series!

OH, did I not mention DRAGONS????

A fan of the show? Lets hear from you!

GOOD STUFF!

Elementary. 10:00pm Thursday nights on CBS. I wanted to hate this show…. I wanted it to be bad, to fail, to fall right on its face and be yanked by the network in record time!

But I liked it. I liked the chemistry between Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu’s as Dr. Joan Watson. So why did I want it to fail? Because when I first heard of the show being created, I was enjoying another take on “Sherlock Holmes” a BBC show called simply  “Sherlock”, now in its second season. It too was a version of Sherlock Holmes based off the books of  ‘Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,’ also placed in a modern setting. And the BBC’s hit version was fresh, new and very interesting take on the world famous detective. So I thought how dare someone at CBS try to “copy” this show, trying to ‘ride on the coat tails’ of someone else’s success! So I waited for the premiere, ‘Chomping at the bit’ to see it so I can ‘rip it a new one!!’

I WAS SO WRONG….( I have not been this wrong since putting a down payment on a Beta recorder machine in the 80’s…) The Show is good. Engaging, Mostly due to the acting of Jonny Lee Miller ( Trainspotting,  Dexter,) & Lucy Liu. Miller’s version of  Sherlock Holmes is Troubled, flawed and seems to me, to be holding onto a great pain.Lucy Liu’s Dr. Watson starts out as a  sober companion for Holmes, helping him back to a normal drug free life, but slowly begins to be drawn into a working partnership with Mr. Holmes.

Jonny Lee Miller & Lucy Liu as Holmes and Watson in Elementary

The show has everything it needs to be a great hit for CBS. In my opinion they need to keep the stories “fresh”, and stay away from the ‘cookie-cutter’ Murder mysteries found on TV. I now have high hopes for the show , and made room for it on my DVR.

Lesson learned…do not judge a show by its cover!

Hunted. Friday nights 10:00 pm on Cinemax. This Spy drama is the brain child of award-winning writer ‘Frank Spotnitz’ ( The X-Files  and many other American television shows) Hunted is being produced by Kudos Film and Big light productions out of Great Britain  for the BBC, and then re-aired here on Cinemax Starting on October 19th.

In the United Kingdom, the show is already on its third episode, and getting ‘luke-warm’ reviews. The show which stars ‘Melissa George.’ (originally the part was made for ‘Gillian Anderson’). Melissa George plays ‘Samantha Hunter’ a Spy for a private intelligence agency called Byzantium. After a assignment she believed to have went very well, she sets up a meeting with one of her fellow teammates in a place she believes to be safe. After a attempt on her life, she realizes only her teammates knew where she would be and that one of them set her up to be killed. After a year off to recover from her wounds she returns to the firm, determine to fine out whom would want her dead and why!

Being produced and filmed in England, obliviously this show will have a “English feel” to it. And if you seen enough shows made in England you’ll know what I am talking about. But strangely enough It does have a very American feel to the action, and the two mix very well. For me its a little bit “Spooks” ( MI5 to American audiences) and a little bit “Alias” ( the television series created by J. J. Abrams ) Which  Melissa George also acted in. Melissa George is very convincing as the troubled spy trying to solve the mystery of  the attempt on her life.

I believe the show will do well in the Friday night time slot of 10:00 pm a nice replacement for ‘Strike back’ which just ended its second Cinemax season. I am enjoying the show so far, and I hope it gets better reviews here on this side of the Atlantic!