The SNL spoof of Scandal has freed me to admit something:
My name is Ruth and I have a confession — I don’t LOVE Scandal, I barely like it at times.
I have tried, I promise I tried! I watched the very first night Scandal premiered and just did not fall in love with it. Although I record it every week, I rarely watch it. The show has done a wonderful job of creating buzz via social media and it is great to see a powerful black woman, I am even more intrigued by the fact it is based on a real woman. But the show is so over the top (then again maybe it is not and that is a scary thought) that I just can’t get into it. I am convinced if you take away the social media frenzy this show is not even still on. For example, this week people were going so crazy about the episode on Facebook Thursday night, so I watched it as soon as I got home. I barely remember anything other than the “revelation” in the final scene.
SNL’s spoof speaks in so many ways to why I think Scandal is very overrated. It features Sasheer Zamata, the first African-American comic to join Saturday Night Life in a many moons, as Olivia Pope. The scene with the president is priceless and on-point. However, it was so annoying the way Zamata seem to be looking off at cue cards or something. She did not even really look at the other team members in the bit. But the point of the skit just perfectly made the point to me of what they hell and the way the characters or so one dimensional primarily two jobs: fawn over Olivia and give that “hard earnest” look.
Wait I remember something from Thursday’s show the beat down of the coffee over and over — and what was the payoff — nothing much.
Anyway Saturday night, Girls creator Lena Dunham really stood out more Zamata, but my goodness did she get her script yesterday morning. She was continually looking off somewhere I assume checking her lines. Otherwise she was the best part of the skit.
OK, I know we won’t agree on Scandal in general, but what did you think of SNL’s skit?
Watch the video for yourself and read TheRoot’s take on the SNL skit.
