In a recent interview Katey Sagal mentioned how some people saw the show as the satire it was meant to be while others took it seriously. She also acknowledged the show's misogyny but said it was how Al saw women.
I find the show to be very successful as the desecrating satire it was meant to be. The comedy mostly…

…and to give it credit it never pretended to be anything else unlike certain other shows.

…and Dunaway set to achieve that by having her boyfriend hired as an executive producer.
I get the impression that Christina's script was never seriously considered. I think they did exactly the movie they wanted to do. Christina says they switched the POV from hers to Joan's which is essentially what Faye wanted and…

I believe Christina herself said that's something they invented for the movie. Christina's claims and the movie are 2 separate things.

I don't think she'd be a difficult character to create if it wasn't for the fact she's so heavily associated with how she was portrayed by Faye Dunaway. She's probably one of the most interesting movie stars to play.
This last episode in particular seemed to make it obvious that either the writing or Lange are trying…

Ironically Dunaway and Lange look more like each other than they look like Crawford.

Crawford almost spoke in a singing voice which Lange actually channels when she jells. I think it was part of the image as she basically spoke in a softer version of a "movie voice" of the time.
It's most obvious in the Baby Jane scenes because there's a direct comparison.

Susan Sarandon is really great in this. For me she steals the show even though on paper Crawford seems the role to have been given a little advantage.
Regardless if Srandon channels Davis or not, the character consistently works exceptionally well.

Depends, it's hard to tell what it will settle on. I doubt the ratings will recover but where it is now is as low as it ever got for the show.

Of course, obviously. I know they promoted the show as a political thriller and whatnot but I don't remember it ever being taken seriously as anything but a soap and Shonda herself has always been honest about what the show was.
I think originally it worked really well because the balance between the elements of the…

Thing is the ratings grew continuously up to season 4. There was a substantial growth between last season's finale and this season's premiere too because of the hype but it didn't last.
So there was something in those seasons that worked to cause the ratings to grow, whatever that was. So the writing lived up to the…

Yeah I'm not sure one dimensional is the best way to describe them. They were fine when Grey's debuted in the sense that they weren't typical characters at least on the surface but despite them being often described as complicated I find them very simple by current standards.
They are easily pigeonholed.
The one thing…

I wouldn't be so sure B613 is as much of an issue as people make it to be. The ratings actually grew when it was first introduced. The ratings started dropping in the 4th season.
The issue with it (like the mystery/murders in HTGAWM) is that it's merely a backdrop/excuse for the soapy drama. It provided Olivia with…

The season debuted at 2.1 so that's a pretty substantial drop. I think what it says is that people are willing to give it another chance (or bought into the hype promotion created) but the writing ultimately disappoints.

HTGAWM is just different enough that made me appreciate Shonda's talent as a showrunner. Pete wrote only on Shonda's shows before creating HTGAWM which makes her influence even more palpable even if indirectly. The school of thought is the same, there's some rehashing of storylines too and of course the over the top…

This isn't just the point of Scandal but Shondaland shows in general combined with simplistic melodrama. HTGAWM is basically a combination od GA and Scandal on steroids run by someone with less talent than Shonda.

The one Wes was wearing when Frank shot Wallace Mahoney in front of him which caused a splash of blood ending up on Wes and the aforementioned jacket.

Lange does well all that counted but I believe not casting an actress for Crawford with similar eyes is a missed opportunity. It softens her too much because there's something creepy about later day Crawford combo of piercing eyes/eyebrows/fake expression that vanishes. Imagining Crawford's real face in the deal…

I believe writing overreaching mystery plots is a very specific writing skill that is largely missing in this show's writing team. This isn't going to change mainly because as far as I understand there's no perceived reason on Pete Nowalk's side to do so.
He believes that side of the show works as it is, he states it…

I know getting across the point that the handling of the mystery plots is ridiculous (if not offensive) may make me sound as a bitter jerk. It's why I bother with the long posts to explain it.
The point is the epilogue of Wes' death was predictable, you may have also noticed I correctly predicted it wasn't going to be…