SCANDAL - powerful police brutality episode

??(Spoiler Alert: Please do not read on if you haven't watched Thursday's episode of "Scandal")

In the eyes of her fans, Shonda Rhimes can do no wrong -- and that was certainly true on Thursday night with "Scandal's" latest powerful episode, "The Lawn Chair."

The ABC drama turned its attention on the difficult and emotional topic of police brutality and hit close to home for many viewers.

The episode began with the haunting image of an unarmed black teen named Brandon Parker lying dead in a Washington, D.C. street a few miles away from the White House. When his distraught father, Clarence (Courtney B. Vance), positioned himself between the body of his son and police with a shotgun, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) was called in to manage the sensitive situation.

Sparking memories of the Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown, Pope was caught up in the moral dilemma of the injustice before her and her role as a crisis manager. She promised Clarence she'd get Attorney General David Rosen involved (he was sadly too busy dealing with other issues), and then clashed with neighborhood activist Marcus Walker who arrived with the titular lawn chair, which the mourning father placed over Brandon's body. "In case it rains or something. I want him to be protected from the elements," he said.

Behind the scenes. #scandal Marcus and Liv

?© Provided by TheWrap ‘Scandal’s Powerful Police Brutality Episode Lights Up Social Media A photo posted by Kerry Washington (@kerrywashington) on Mar 5, 2015 at 10:35pm PST

Olivia then managed to pull off some Pope-esque wrangling to get video footage of the shooting. "That man standing over his son's body thinks he's going to end up in one or two places: jail or a drawer in the morgue ... I lived in complete fear," she told Rosen, referring to her own recent kidnapping. "Imagine living like that every single day of your life."

The artful handling of the mystery of a knife under the body and a potential police cover-up amid mounting racial tension prompted praise from many viewers who took to social media after the episode aired.

"BRILLIANT WORK! #Scandal WOW! Intense important transformative," wrote Gabrielle Union.

BRILLIANT WORK! #Scandal WOW! Intense important transformitive (my "bathroom break" is about to last for another 11 min) -- Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) March 6, 2015

Meanwhile Judy Smith, a.k.a. the "real Olivia Pope," tweeted: "The conversations in tonight's episode aren't easy but they must happen. To move forward, we must talk to each other."

Even Washington and Rhimes were blown away with emotion watching the episode they had created.

This episode takes my breath away #scandal -- kerry washington (@kerrywashington) March 6, 2015

Damn it @shondarhimes - I made it through the West Coast airing without crying... until I read that tweet. #Scandal -- kerry washington (@kerrywashington) March 6, 2015

In the end, we went with showing what fulfilling the dream SHOULD mean. The idea of possibility. And the despair we feel now. #scandal

-- shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) March 6, 2015

See more tweets about Thursday's "Scandal" below.

The conversations in tonight's episode aren't easy but they must happen. To move forward, we must talk to each other. #Scandal#TGIT -- Judy Smith (@JudySmith_) March 6, 2015

Standing ovation for @shondarhimes That scene was masterfully handled. #Scandal -- Lola Ogunnaike (@lolaogunnaike) March 6, 2015

The fact I found truth and insanity in everything he said? Epic power move. @kerrywashington @shondarhimes #Scandal -- NrsDee (@GyrlGrey) March 6, 2015

It took a fictional character to bring justice to the everyday crimes against Black Men? #Scandal -- SHEKINAH (@ShekinahJo) March 6, 2015

Now I know why my wife called me crying after the east coast feed of #Scandal. #TGIT

-- JohnnyJet (@JohnnyJet) March 6, 2015

The balls that is this episode of #scandal...from pitch to production...#huge

-- scott foley (@scottkfoley) March 6, 2015

Just got home to see the east coast feed of #Scandal. I'm so moved...so unbelievably proud to be a part of this incredible show.

-- Portia de Rossi (@portiaderossi) March 6, 2015

 

if you didn't catch this show last night...you are going to want to see it! I don't think it could have been more real or moving. Shonda Rhimes doesn't hold back. Impressive! What a great way to send a message into the homes of millions of Americans that are hook line and sinker with SCANDAL.

 

Why see it on tv when we live it every day

This is as much of a non-story as the article about scientists in 2015 'discovering' that men like big, curvy butts

 

did you see the episode or not? this wasn't hidden on some no name network when half of america doesn't even have cable...ABC...SCANDAL...it takes alot of guts to make a stance like this when we are so divided in this country...since you didn't watch it I will tell you that the young black man was shot by police and the police claimed he was pulling a knife out of his pocket...just incase you want to see it I won't tell you the entire story but the white police officer went to jail in handcuffs after it was discovered that there was no knife and he had lied. The story was modeled after Ferguson with a tell of how it really should be handled versus how is it mishandled many times by police departments.

 

This type of storyline (a real world issue) is the type of material the show should have been doing all along. Instead it settled on being an outlandish soap opera that left the real world behind long ago. Such a topic seems so out of place on a show like this.

Besides...how am I to believe Olivia Pope would even notice any black man on any given day when clearly the only thing on her mind would be which white lover to fuck?. Oh! Yes, I went there because that is probably how black female would react if there was a show starring a black man who only messed with white chicks and in one "special" episode decided to take on the case of, say, a black woman dealing with domestic violence. It would be like : ""why he all of a sudden care about a black woman....go tend to your white girls, fool." Or something close to that.

Like I said....a show that does not deal with reality. Were viewers supposed to get some sort of cathartic victory or release with such a fairytale ending? Shonda loves to present the world as she wishes it to be, not as it really is. Which is why she created a medical soap opera that takes place in Seattle in which there are far more black doctors on the staff than there are Asians (Grey's Anatomy).

 

Scandal is actually based on a real life PR problem solver that worked under Bush...I get it...you don't like it because a black woman is fucking a white man on television...does that somehow change the message?

 

:smt043 imagine that