“Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season” is worth of its title as scandals are a big running theme of this fifth season. We get to see a new side of Olivia Pope that we have not seen in prior seasons, presidential campaigns in full swing and relationships being tested. For fans of the series, “Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season” is recommended.
© 2013 ABC Studios. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season
DURATION: Episodes 70-90 (904 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: Color, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Widescreen (1:78:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 Television, Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish
COMPANY: ABC Studios
RATED: TV 14 DSLV
RELEASE DATE: August 23, 2016
Directed by Allison Liddi-Brown, Tom Verica, Oliver Bokelberg, Tony Goldwyn, Regina King, Jann Turner, Paris Barclay, Scott Foley, Steph Green, Sharat Raju
Written by Shonda Rhimes, Zahir McGhee, Severiano Canales, Paul William Davies, Mark Fish, Mark Wilding, Raamla Mohamed, Peter Noah, Chris Van Dusen, Jess Brownell, Johanna Lee
Produced by Scott Collins, Merri D. Howard, Heather Mitchell, Matt Byrne
Co-Producer: Chris Van Dusen, Noah Evslin
Executive Producer: Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers,
Co-Executive Producer: Tom Verica, Judy Smith, Jenna Bans, Mark Fish, Peter Nowalk, Allan Heinberg, Mark Driscoll, Alison Schapker
Supervising Producer: Roxann Dawson
Associate Producer: Holden Chang
Music by Chad Fischer
Cinematography by Oliver Bokelberg, Michael G. Wojciechowski, Daryn Okada
Edited by Gregory T. Evans, Joe Mitacek, Matthew Pevic
Casting by Linda Lowy, Will Stewart
Series Production Design by Corey Kaplan
Art Direction by Louise Dorton
Set Decoration by Amy Wells, Hernan Camacho
Costume Design by Lyn Paolo
Starring:
Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope
Henry Ian Cusick as Stephen Finch
Columbus Short as Harrison Wright
Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan
Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins
Guillermo Diaz as Huck
Jeff Perry as Cyrus Beene
Tony Goldwyn as President Fizgerald Grant
Cornelius Smith Jr. as Marcus Walker
Joshua Malina as David Rosen
Bellamy Young as Mellie Grant
Matt Letscher as Billy Chambers
Dan Bucatinsky as James Novak
Gregg Henry as Hollis Doyle
George Newbern as Charlie
Debra Mooney as Verna Thornton
Norm Lewis as Senator Edison Davis
Kate Burton as Vice President Sally Langston
Scott Foley as Jake Ballard
Matt Letscher as Billy Chambers
Henry Ian Cusick as Stephen Finch
Susan Pourfar as Becky Flynn
Brian Letscher as Tom Larsen
Joe Morton as Rowan Pope
Portia de Rossi as Elizabeth North
Gregg Henry as Hollis Doyle
The hottest show on television takes ruthless ambition to all-new heights of shock and awe in the game-changing fifth season of ABC’s SCANDAL. The Oval Office is up for grabs, and none of the players are playing nice, including Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington), who now realizes she can never be content as a wifely First Lady. Domestic bliss pales in comparison with holding the reins of the highest office in the land, so when faced with a chance to wield unrivaled influence at any cost, will she continue to wear the white hat… or prove that she is, indeed, her father’s daughter? Prepare for a battle royale as Olivia, the White House politicians and the O.P.A. “gladiators” play an anything-goes game of blackmail, murder and seduction in a bid for that all-consuming, all-corrupting commodity: Power. Succumb to all 22 intoxicating episodes, spiced with exclusive, never-before-seen bonus features. Relive every drop of scintillating drama as you raise a glass to SCANDAL: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON.
If thought the previous were full of scandals, the fifth season proves to be a huge scandal as the affair between President Fitzgerald Grant and Olivia Pope has gone public.
Meanwhile, the First Lady, Senator Melody “Mellie” Grant becomes the Senator of Virginia and is now the Republican presidential candidate.
And life for Olivia Pope will never be the same in the exciting “Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season”!
What is “Scandal”?
In April 2012, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice” creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes would create another drama series titled “Scandal” and this time, instead of a medical drama, it would be Rhimes first political thriller.
For Rhimes, this is her fourth series, with the third, “Off the Map” (2011) being canceled in its first season. Fortunately for Rhimes, unlike other ABC drama series that began in Spring 2012, “Scandal” was among the few to be renewed and given a second season.
“Scandal” stars Kerry Washington (“The Last King of Scotland”, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”, “Fantastic Four”) as the main protagonist Olivia Pope, who runs a crisis management firm, Pope & Associates. Olivia is the former White House Communications Director for President Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III (as portrayed by Tony Goldwyn, “Ghost”, “The Last Samurai”). A President that she happens to be having an affair with.
Known for her intellect and her ability to fix a crisis for the White House and major corporations, although her reputation is constantly on the line, she depends on her associates and employees to help her get the job done. Her staff includes Stephen Finch (as portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick, “Lost”, “Hitman”), a womanizer who can get any information that he needs; Harrison Wright (as portrayed by Columbus Short, “Stomp the Yard”, “Quarentine”) who is loyal to Olivia and is one of her key litigators and a person who tries to keep watch over the staff and lending his advice; Abby Whelan (as portrayed by Darby Stanchfield, “Jericho”), an investigator who is very loyal to Olivia for saving her life; Huck Finn (as portrayed by Guillermo Diaz, “Half Baked”, “The Terminal”), a hacker and former black ops who is a man with his inner demons given a second chance by Olivia and new employee Quinn Perkins (as portrayed by Katie Lowes, “Super 8”, “The Job”) who is trying to learn the ropes at Pope & Associates and how to stay on Olivia’s good side.
For the first season of “Scandal”, Pope & Associates have their hands full as they are taking on various clients that includes a decorated war veteran being accused of murder, a well-known DC madam who is trying to keep her clientele list private (especially since she serves many major players in Washington, D.C.) and defending a deceased pilot (representing her family) who is accused for a commercial plane crash that killed everyone onboard.
But the recurring storyline involves a White House intern who has accused President Fitzgerald Grant of having an affair. And when Olivia Pope and her associates defend the White House intern, the White House employees are going to do all it takes to protect the President and the administration from her client’s accusations. But how far will the White House go to stop Pope & Associates?
In the second season of “Scandal”, the scandals are taken to a higher level in Washington D.C. as Pope & Associates must defend various politicians but internal scandals start to hit Olivia and the others when Olivia is involved in a significant scandal, meanwhile President Grant wants to be with Olivia and wants to leave his wife, who is this Jake Ballard that the president has watching Olivia and what happens when someone within the President’s staff is leaking information to terrorists. But also, what happens when there is an assassination attempt on President Grant?
Season three focused on President Grant’s re-election campaign for a second term and Olivia’s name is leaked to the press as being the mistress of the President.
Season four focused on changes after Olivia was relocated on an island off the coast of Zanzibar and the changes that her staff went through, as they had to seek other employment and Jake being arrested for the death of Jerry Grant.
Which leads us to season five as Olivia has been outed as the mistress of President Grant. As Mellie wants her marriage to work, the President wants to divorce the First Lady. And Mellie, now hell bent on getting revenge on her husband by wanting to destroy Olivia Pope.
How will Olivia Cope after being vilified by the media and the public?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season” is presented in Widescreen (1:78:1). For the most part, picture quality for “Scandal” is very good for DVD but as expected for a DVD release, you can see a bit of compression but nothing that would hurt your viewing of the film and for the most part, for most viewers, this is a non-issue for a DVD release.
“Scandal” is presented in English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with subtitles in English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese. As a drama series, audio is primarily a dialogue-driven track with some use of scenery ambiance for surround channels. For the most part, audio is very appropriate for this style of series and dialogue is clear and understandable.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season” comes with the following special features:
- Extended Episode of “I See You” – An Extended version of episode 83 “I See You”.
- Outtakes – (3:09) Outtakes from season five of “Scandal”.
EXTRAS:
“Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season” comes with a slipcover case.
As political scandals is a running theme for the series, “Scandal”, one of the biggest scandals that many expected to happen is the affair of President Fitzgerald and Olivia Pope.
Olivia is a person who is used to calling the shots, most of the time, calm and collected and her gladiators there with her every step of the way.
But things have gotten a bit chaotic as Olivia has been vilified by the press and the public and while she is stuck at home, trying to avoid the death threats she has been receiving, the First Lady, who is working with Cyrus, now wants her revenge.
And as Mellie is running for President, trust and loyalty becomes a theme for series five as we don’t know who to trust.
And as Abby is busy working at the White House, Quinn trying to keep things together and Huck in a bad state mentally, the team brings in a new gladiator, Marcus Walker, a man who doesn’t follow anyone’s rules but his own.
And just when you think you have heard enough about Rowan Pope or even Cyrus, Rowan has escaped from prison and as for Cyrus, he is secretly working with the Democratic presidential hopeful (while working for the Republican president) as a potential vice presidential candidate. And as for Mellie, her choice to run for vice president will be a complete shock to everyone.
As for the fifth season of “Scandal”, I felt that the first half of the season was very strong as it focused on the affair of the President and Olivia being made public. As the second half of the season focuses on the changes that have taken place six months later, it seems like there was a big role reversal as we saw Mellie wanting revenge on Olivia for the affair but then by the second half, the two working together.
Meanwhile, Olivia, who was more interested in President Fitzgerald in the first half of the series, all of a sudden starts to become more interested (and also jealous) in Jake, now that she finds out that he is dating someone new.
Personally, this flip flop of the characters and situations bothered me because it felt inconsistent. And the whole VP running mate for the presidential nominees just felt too farfetched.
If anything felt consistent and a person I started to respect more in the series was Vice President Susan Ross.  A person who holds accountability and most of all, she’s becoming more interesting as a character in the series, especially with her fling with Attorney General, David Rosen.
As for the Gladiators, I liked how in the earlier seasons, there were more storylines that were character building episodes for Quinn and Huck. With Abby now in the White House, she is featured much more in season five than the others. The season also introduces us to the newest gladiator in Olivia’s team, with the introduction of headstrong Marcus Walker.
But while I did enjoy the series showing us Olivia’s vulnerable side for season five, I’m not sure how to think about what Olivia did in episode 86’s “Thwack!” and what she did to former Vice-President Andrew Nichols.
As for the DVD, picture quality is as good as you can expect on DVD, with dialogue being crystal clear. There are not many special features but outtakes and an extended episode, so no audio commentaries or any featurettes are included with this fifth season DVD.
Overall, “Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season” is worth of its title as scandals are a big running theme of this fifth season. We get to see a new side of Olivia Pope that we have not seen in prior seasons, presidential campaigns in full swing and relationships being tested.
For fans of the series, “Scandal: The Complete Fifth Season” is recommended.
