![]() | Gladiators in Suits Subjects: Women on television.; Race on television.; African American women on television.; Political television programs; Political television programs; Thrillers (Television programs); Thrillers (Television programs); One of the most popular shows to come out of Shondaland, Shonda Rhimes's production company, is ABC's political drama Scandal (2012-18)--a series whose tremendous success and marketing savvy led LA Times critic Mary McNamara to hail it as "the show that Twitter built" and Time magazine to name its protagonist as one of the most influential fictional characters of 2013. The series portrays a fictional Washington, DC, and features a diverse group of characters, racially and otherwise, who gather around the show's antiheroine, Olivia Pope, a powerful crisis manager who happens to have an extramarital affair with the president of the United States. For seven seasons, audiences learned a great deal about Olivia and those interwoven in her complex world of politics and drama, including her team of "gladiators in suits," with whom she manages the crises of Washington's political elite. Simone Adams works at the Center for Digital Teaching and Learning and teaches American studies at the University of Graz, Austria. |
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