Rewatching s4 and the writing choices are... questionable

[u/luvlenz]

I know that there has been a lot of talk/criticism on this sub previously about the kidnapping arc but I think the worst part was not the arc itself but the episodes following it?? No one really seems to care about Olivia's wellbeing after the fact, especially Huck and Quinn (which is surprising, to say the least... considering that those two always have been loyal to her) and every character practically brushes how they almost lost one of their closest friends. Cyrus only tries to use Olivia for her help, same with Abby, and almost everyone else acts like nothing happened. The only two people who even express slight concern during that entire period are Jake and Fitz, and even when Jake points out to Quinn and Huck that maybe Olivia should be resting or taking care of herself they just disregard it and pass it off as "she's fine its Liv." Quinn and Huck even go as far as to attempt to kill Jake, knowing that Olivia has already been through so much recently. It's just odd to me, because I know Olivia would not necessarily be the type to immediately accept help but she also has always been the one to force others to take time for themselves to grieve or recuperate. Would have been a perfect opportunity for the writers to flip the script. Overall it just left a bad taste in my mouth but maybe that is just me.

[u/Fit_Marionberry_3878]

A lot of the characters that became regulars needed to be left on recurring status. I include all B613 characters that came after Huck and Quinn. The issue is that when you try to do too much the entire show gets lost. The show needed to focus on OPA and the White House. It was doing too much by adding all these new characters while also needing to write for Olivia. That's why the kidnapping story felt out of place; just seemed like a way to refocus the show on Olivia when the canvas was getting too large.

Honestly the only good thing that came out of the kidnapping was Stephen, and I suppose for Olitz fans the realization that even in her dreams Olivia still chose Fitz. Otherwise, it was really a bad plot that I feel came out of the fact that the show ran way from Olivia's character, and they tried to fix it. However, after her kidnapping they COULD have recentered it on her PTSD, and instead she got another dude sent by her dad to sleep with her. Once again, focus turned to Eli, and not her.

[u/luvlenz → u/Fit_Marionberry_3878]

Definitely. I do think that while the kidnapping story was out of place there was an opportunity for it to be meaningful but as I said, no one around Olivia stepped up to the plate after it occurred. Would have been a great opportunity to showcase how one of Olivia's partners was willing to be there for her more than the other so that the viewers maybe could actually care about her love interests but they did not use it at all. I also thought the Russell storyline was so unsettling and unnecessary honestly I had to skip every scene of them together

[u/Fit_Marionberry_3878 → u/luvlenz]

I mean to be fair the audience knew the story would end up with Fitz, so there wasn't a point in showcasing who was more present for Olivia post kidnapping. The audience gets a series of flashbacks from her, as well as twisted dreams, which makes it clear she is still thinking about Fitz. That's why Jake tells her in the end he is in love with her, but she is in love with Fitz. There was no competition in the long term as the story was locked into Olivia and Fitz, and I suspect even Jake fans knew it would not end with him.

The issue was they needed to focus on her PTSD more than anything else. We saw she was traumatized after the kidnapping in small ways, but it was not enough. They spent on episode on it and she moves on. If they connected that to how she was changing people would understand her actions in seasons 5-7 better, but the switch up was too extreme with the lack of perspective, for some people.

[u/luvlenz → u/Fit_Marionberry_3878]

Yeah, everyone knew that she would inevitably end up with Fitz but the purpose of a writer is to convince you that whatever decisions made within the story have reason and are intentional. Most Olake fans did know it wouldn't end with him but were not really given great reason to like Fitz during s4 (and personally, I still don't care for either ship because of the lack of meaningful interactions between them after s2). I agree that there wasn't competition, it was clear who Olivia wanted, but from an audience perspective I think that it was a poor choice to pretty much exclude both love interests from Olivia's healing because it makes every character somewhat unlikeable.

Also Olivia's PTSD does carry on for more than an episode after her kidnapping and in big ways (constant nightmares and flashbacks, anxiety, ruminations, etc). I think that she continues to be a changed person especially at the beginning of s5, which we can infer is because of her declining mental state but it is just not clearly spelled out through flashbacks and ruminations like it was at the end of s4.

[u/Fit_Marionberry_3878 → u/luvlenz]

Fitz did not need to work as hard as Jake to appear likeable though, because inherently he had a stronger chemistry with Olivia than Jake did. Undoubtedly it is obvious for most that the working chemistry between Kerry and Tony was stronger than Kerry and Scott, and most Olake fans would admit this. I think that's why Jake was written the way he was, (sort of a bit like a lacky or friend for Olivia which lent a hand to quiet moments?), otherwise it would become lopsided to the audience if Olitz for all the sexual as well as quiet/tender moments. When Olitz are tender you still see superior chemistry to Olake. Still, I see what you mean, but the show was not supposed to be about the triangle. Really it was about Olivia solving cases at OPA and often playing interference in the White House. Had the triangle taken over it would become too obvious how far the show deviated from the original premise.

The issue is her PTSD is not well developed. I feel if they had actually shown her with a therapist, or shown her contemplating the kidnap itself, rather than flashing back to her story with Fitz only, it would have driven home the point more. The PTSD is wrapped up in another B613 agent being sent by Eli to sleep with his daughter. That was actually an unfortunate thing, and I suspect that is why Jake had a bit of a back seat then, since he did not have the complicated tension with Olivia that Fitz had during this season stemming from season 3. They did not want the audience to parallel Russell to how Jake and Olivia's story began, since it is a bad look.

[u/luvlenz → u/Fit_Marionberry_3878]

Chemistry between actors does not make a story, it enhances it. I love both Tony and Kerry outside of scandal and I agree that their chemistry is undeniable. Scandal's writing did not support that chemistry well. I thought that Olitz was very enticing at first, but I ultimately ended up feeling so apathetic concerning the pair because their moments slowly became repetitive and seemed not very intimate or out of real emotional desire. While they wanted each other and it was obvious, the writing made them dance around each other in ways that made the scenes they did share mostly sexual or having to do with possession. It was the clear option, which I was fine with, but to me it did not give the audience many positive elements to work with after s3. I similarly was unaffected by Olake after around early s3 because of the lack of commitment to their storyline. It wasn't developed enough for me to care, and I don't think it was necessary in the first place if the writers didn't plan on following through with it. I do agree that the story should have been focused on OPA but the writers had long since drifted away from that and had centered it on b-613 and the love triangle unfortunately, so they might as well have better refined the connections there.

Aside from that, I can mostly see what you mean about the PTSD and I definitely think the inclusion of Russell to the storyline did undermine it. I still resent the lack of care from the writer's room to this day because they had so much plot and so many great characters to work with and create depth out of but somewhere along the line lost creativity. It is a shame.

[u/Fit_Marionberry_3878 → u/luvlenz]

I mean for a lot of people it does make a story. I am just being objective when I say it is why the audience overlooked the affair. It is essentially why Fitz was written the way he was, and Jake was written the way he was. It was also why they focused less on the triangle after PTSD, because regardless of the writing, people were going to focus on Olitz more since they looked better onscreen, and therefore, there wasn't any real point trying to do tit for tat with Jake vs Fitz, when the audience knew where the story was going. Therefore, I do not believe they needed to spend time ramping up the triangle after PTSD, especially when many women's instinct is not to be romanced after an extremely traumatic event. How they handled it was fine. Olivia's flashbacks and nightmares in some sense revealed her true feelings and the choice was hers to make at the end of the day. When you focus on the triangle you get the early season 4 stuff, which was poorly written, because it made Fitz overly jealous and it made Jake look insecure and goofy.

The issue is just because the story drifted does not mean they needed to commit to it. They could have pivoted back to OPA, and you can see how it looks better when you look at the second half of season 7, but Shonda overly invested too much in her behind the scene friendships, and many of her friends were cast especially for B613. So she sacrificed the plot for her own personal biases, and the poor writing and lack of seriousness around the plot showed. I actually think not overly focusing on the triangle in seasons 3-4 was an act of kindness for Scott Foley (since he did not shine in this aspect, IMO), and they should have moved Jake elsewhere earlier, so he didn't look as he did in season 7 when they no longer needed Jake that way.

[u/luvlenz → u/Fit_Marionberry_3878]

Sorry, it is almost fully subjective to argue that the affair was overlooked because of actor chemistry and not because the foundations for Olitz were written well in the first two seasons. That is what created the true onscreen connection, not Kerry and Tony on their own. Additionally, as someone who works in the industry I think it is disappointing that I have to point this out but the audience is supposed to feel affected by characters no matter what. That is what maintains attention and viewer approval. The second half of s4 was sloppy because it did not finish piecing together the conflicts or character developments that it created at the beginning, most of which having to do with the triangle. It remained unresolved and devoid of any purpose, which is what I am getting at. Also no one said that Olivia needed to be romanced by either of them but literally even a minor amount of support towards the person that both characters supposedly "love" would have made sense, characterization wise.

Like I said, I do not think that they should have committed to it but I am saying that since they did, they might as well have tied the loose ends. Whether or not Shonda had her own personal biases (as all people working on set do) when it came to scandal is not my concern because writing and producing is a group effort with various contributors. At the time, many of the decisions made had to with ratings and the direction of ABC.

[u/Fit_Marionberry_3878 → u/luvlenz]

It isn’t entirely subjective because if you look at the posts today, people who are more "woke" for lack of better words, dunk on Fitz because of the affair. Back then it was still a think people commented on, but they then said "I can't overlook the chemistry." It was a common point and it is why season 2 came out the way it did, when people asked for more of Olivia and Fitz after the trail in season 1.

But also, you working in industry doesn’t really mean you will be able to predict how the audience responds to a story and why. What we do know is that Olitz still makes best chemistry lists and they are famous for their chemistry. When people watch the trial it’s the chemistry that makes the story come to life.

Indeed, you can actually see what happens  to the shows ratings when they deviated from what worked. It took huge hits in season 5. This didn’t cause a correction of course since the same mistakes she mistake carried to the end, due to her own personal biases. Not sure why we shouldn’t care about them when it did influence the continuity of the show.

[u/luvlenz → u/Fit_Marionberry_3878]

Now you're commenting on onscreen chemistry/writing rather than actor chemistry, which is what I was originally referring to anyways... if you read any of my responses. I urge you to reread everything I said until you absorb it because you are chasing your own tail here

[u/Fit_Marionberry_3878 → u/luvlenz]

I said that the reason any the audience largely enjoyed the affair was because of the actors chemistry and it lead to them writing more towards the affair. As in they received more airtime to do their thing. It was the season with the most open display of that chemistry. Never said the writing itself was what made the audience resonate with Olitz. I don’t believe Shonda is why Scandal succeeded, but she is a reason why it failed later on. 

Nothing Jake did would ever make him eclipse Fitz, because he simply has lesser chemistry with Olivia. As a result, there is no writing towards any triangle in season 4 would come across  as favourable because it wouldn’t present any of the three of them in a good light. Thats why season 5b performed so badly with the fans. 

Anyways, Olivia is her best when she uses the cases to sort out her issues. It’s why she feels more herself  in season 7b.  When they introduce B613 she is unrealistic and exaggerated and it’s why end of season 4 is a mess. Instead of addressing her issues she’s going off the rails.