Talking TV: Oh, that scandalous ‘Scandal’

So Fitz’s son may be his brother, Olivia’s mama is really alive and Quinn now “belongs” to B613? The only thing more shocking would be a tasteless Jackie Kennedy joke. Oh, right, there was one of those two in the most recent episode of “Scandal.”

Which begs the question: If every week’s a “game changer,” can a show even claim to have game? This is just one of the many conundrum’s of ABC’s beltway soap, a show that started off as a spin procedural and quickly became something of a national fixation: “Portrait of Caution Being Thrown to Wind, No. 28.”

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Created by Shonda Rhimes and starring Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, D.C. fixer/president’s mistress/fashion icon, it debuted to chilly reviews only to be remade in form -- forget those clients, it’s Liv and President Fitz 24/7 -- and function. To keep her show alive, Rhimes stormed the gates of Twitter and asked every last man, woman and child of her cast to do the same. Result: a bump in ratings, a lot of media attention, a bigger bump in ratings and an Emmy nomination for Washington.

Now, midway through Season 3, “Scandal” seems to have hit a plateau. Still doing well enough by today’s smaller-audience standard, it’s particular brand of crazy doesn’t seem to be generating the kind of heat it once did. Or maybe the crazy is so crazy it really is crazy.

Join Stacey Leasca, television critic Mary McNamara, television reporter Yvonne Villarreal and a super-fan or two at noon on Monday to discuss how crazy is too crazy and what is up in the “Scandal” universe.

Tweet all your comments and questions using the hashtag #asklatimes.

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