Midseason report card: ‘Scandal’ season 4 brings the crazy, and a ton of Joe Morton

It’s that time of year again: Some of your favorite TV shows are ending, and this in turn allows us to have an opportunity to sit down and discuss some of what is working for them, and also what could still use a little bit of nourishment going into the second half of the season. We’re going to be doing these up through the end of the year, but we’ll start here with a show in “Scandal” that has already finished for the fall, and is enormously popular to boot.

Regardless of what we think at the moment, the clear winners here to us are over at ABC for continuing to deliver big ratings for this show, and really using this show to establish an entire culture with #TGIT and all the social media buzz. This all should be factored into our overall score, since we’re talking here about cultural impact.

What worked – The performances for this show continue to be nothing short of excellent. Given his recent Emmy win, it was understandable that Joe Morton would get a ton of screen time, and he delivered every time we saw Rowan Pope on the screen. Exceptional stuff. Also, kudos to Kerry Washington, if nothing else but for that speech from Olivia to Cyrus alone.

Also, a great use of many supporting characters this season like Abby and Huck. In giving them new places to be and things to do, we saw so many different sides of their characters.

What didn’t – We didn’t care for what Quinn had to do for most of this season so far, and that felt inferior in comparison to most of her past stuff. Also, we’re starting to feel like the “will they or won’t they?” game for Fitz and Olivia is starting to run its course. If you want them to be together, make it happen! Otherwise, it’s feeling like we are dragging things on just for the sake of doing it. There’s only so long this “will they or won’t they” game can be played.

Overall – “Scandal” gets bonus points for continuing to be so successful, and also for going to really difficult places sometimes. The fact that they are doing 22 episodes while keeping the quality high should be commended.

Still, we’re starting to feel like some of that new-car smell is going away, and you cannot just stick an air freshener on it that has the same scent. It’s time to change things up when it comes to our main characters beyond just a kidnapping. Midseason Grade: B.

What do you want to see on the second half of “Scandal” season 4, and is there anything that you liked in particular about the first half? Share with a comment!