Scandal of the House of Cards that we have in this Homeland

 I like TV but I can easily sit for hours reading a book, writing or doing something other than watch TV.  However, there are few shows that in the last few years have caught my interest and while I often cannot watch them when they are aired - yes because husband watches sports and sports highlights and sports replays and classic sports (seeing the theme here?) - or kids are watching Kickin' It (why do Hollywood actors stay so short and play kids at like 30 - bit eww if you think about it) or some other superhero, mischief making, slug carrying show.  I watch them either on replay on demand or stream them.  I watch them on my iPad with my headphones and you know I can actually do it while husband and boys have the debate about what to put on the larger screen without having to actually hear much (amazing those noise cancelling headphones).   Thank you technology and curse you technology because there are few shows that I have left laundry folding with all it's exciting where the hell is that other sock drama to linger while I sit in front of a little screen ready for the next episode - it's literally a boob tube in this case since it is on my knees boobs pressed against it. 

The shows I like tend to have a theme - I love politics in real life.  Bit of a political junkie and find myself amazed way too often at how many people seem to not realize how important watching multiple versions of the "truth" that is aired on the same story is.  It is no surprise then that my favorite shows are Homeland (tapping my foot writing this because I cannot wait for next season - -BRODY I ♥ u), House of Cards with Kevin Spacey (I ♥ him too) and my new addiction is Scandal.  I like Mad Men, Downton Abbey and Big Bang too. 

Now with a name like Scandal you know it is going to be sex with politics and not politics with the occasional fooling around.  The show is well acted and the plots all neatly wrapped up in one episode or a thread in a season which would make the real Washington DC so much more effective than it actually is.    The plots seem far fetched but close enough (sometimes eerily like CNN - go ahead conspiracy theorists go to town with that one) to actual events.  The thing that I like about all of these shows is what probably makes them popular - you get control to some degree.  You get control about events that we have no control over, terrorism/special interest lobbying/government employees at every level showing us that we are right in our beliefs - they are in it for the power and the power only. It appeals to our hopeful side too - that though they are in it for the power and corruption is the norm in the end someone will expose them, someone will be the good guy/gal, someone will expose this -- that is the control we do not have but these shows give us.  

Of course for me the characters are compelling - they are not far from my image of DC though on steroids (I hope) - they make fun of conspiracy theories ( I am such not the believer though I think there are dealings that are beyond our control  - vast cover ups in this news age come to light or don't really exist) and then prove them to be true.  They also have the romance and the sex that turns into hot, steamy sex.  The impossible pull and relationships of Brody and Carrie and Olivia and Fitz (did I mention how much I ♥ him..oof fan please).  We want them to succeed just like we want the good forces to win in DC and the world.  The love that cannot be but exists anyway and yes the fooling around on the Oval Office desk.. well come on you know it's not like no one ever thought about it.  

It is easy to dismiss these shows but if they make the public think about politics and maybe be less disinterested for whatever reason they are doing more than they could have imagined.  If they remind us of a lover whose touch sent a shiver just remembering their touch on your arm well then they help us escape.  For that I don the white hat and cannot wait to finish season 2 of Scandal and bring on the others.