It may be the age of Netflix but it is also the age of Shonda Rhimes, who has the honour of being the first woman to produce three hit TV shows with 100 episodes each. Even as she has moved to Netflix, at least three shows from the iconic writer and producer still have a home on ABC Network and are staging a return after going on hiatus earlier in the year.
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The iconic producer and writer on her multiple TV productions and the recent edition of the Emmy Awards.
It may be the age of Netflix but it is also the age of Shonda Rhimes, who has the honour of being the first woman to produce three hit TV shows with 100 episodes each. Even as she has moved to Netflix, at least three shows from the iconic writer and producer still have a home on ABC Network and are staging a return after going on hiatus earlier in the year.
First up is Scandal starring Kerry Washington (Olivia Pop) that is set to make its last appearance since the upcoming season will be its final hurrah. While the plot remains ambiguous at this point, we do know that Olivia Pope, the impeccably-dressed fixer with her white hat in tow will finally get to the White House. This is my world,” she says to Cyrus Beene, “Mine.”
ABC’s entertainment president Channing Dungey, speaking about why Scandal must end said in an interview: “I had conversions with Shonda Rhimes where she has had for a while a sense of how she wanted the story to end,” Dungey said. “She said, ‘Look, I really feel like season seven is where I want to wrap up this story, because I always prefer to end a show where you’re feeling on top as opposed to letting things fizzle out.’
“I do think that audiences, especially fans and Gladiators, who are as loyal to Scandal as they have been, are going to want the story to end in the way that Shonda intended to,” said Dungey. “That was a decision she felt really good about, and we support wholeheartedly.”
Shonda Rhimes has meanwhile promised that the final season of Scandal will be big. “Next year we are going all out,” she said, “Leaving nothing on the table. Creating this world in celebration. We are going to handle the end the way we like to handle the important things in our Scandal family: all together, white hats on, gladiators running full speed over a cliff.”
Other Rhimes productions like longtime fan favourite Grey’s Anatomy and Viola Davis-starrer How to Get Away with Murder will also make an appearance next week. In the case of the former, the story of Meredith Grey has been particularly brilliant to watch since the departure of Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd. The subtle exploration of loss and grief is sensitive, human and powerful. That said, Rhimes has promised that the upcoming season will be lighter in tone. What we do now about events is this: “Harper Avery arrives at Grey Sloan, putting Bailey on edge. A familiar face from Meredith’s past returns as a patient, and Amelia tries to manage a secret.”
Moving on to the third production in question, How to Get Away with Murder, things are about to get wild. The amazing Viola Davis who picked up an Emmy returns as Annalise Keating and encounters new entrant Jimmy Smits. What it means for the character remains to be seen.
In other Shonda Rhimes-related news, she has launched her own website and called the recently concluded edition of the Emmys an “embarrassment”.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, she said of the Emmys: “It’s embarrassing, frankly. To me, it feels embarrassing that we are still in a place in which we still have to note these moments... I’m hoping that it’s not a trend. I’m hoping that people don’t feel satisfied because they saw a lot of people win, and then think that we’re done.”
– All three productions are scheduled to return on September 28, 2017.
