Fast-paced tourney: The Newsroom vs Scandal

We’re running a tournament to find the show that’s doing fast-paced storytelling the best. But we also want your opinion, so make sure to vote below! And keep up with all rounds of the tournament with the Fast-Paced Tourney tag.

There is nothing more fast-paced than the world of politics. It is a world where a single day or a single news cycle can change the entire conversation in just an instant. Two shows that attempt to delve into different aspects of this world are HBO’s The Newsroom and ABC’s Scandal. Both shows feature the fast-moving dialogue and smart characters that are staples of both shows’ creators (Aaron Sorkin and Shonda Rhimes, respectively), but both series deal with the ever changing political landscape in different, captivating ways. Newsroom looks at the world from the outside perspective of the media that covers politics, while Scandal gives viewers a peak at the lives of its deepest insiders, who know all sorts of secrets and information that the general public could never imagine.

Newsroom deals with actual stories that occurred in recent history and that most viewers remember playing out in real life. It exposes people to the hectic scenes of the 24-hour news cycle where breaking stories are constantly popping up and nothing goes according to plan. Scandal, on the other hand, creates these elaborate… well, scandals that pop up and cause the main character, Olivia Pope, and her team to scramble to find a way to get them under control and fix the problem. Some scandals last just an episode and some span the entire season, but they all keep you on the edge of your seat for every second of every episode throughout the entire season.

For Newsroom, most of the fast-paced elements come from the nature of working in a cable newsroom. The story lines revolving around the characters’ personal lives and their relationships don’t necessarily move along with the same sense of urgency. With Scandal, every single aspect, including the characters’ backstories and relationships, keeps you completely enthralled for the entirety of the episode. There is not a single second in an episode where you can just breathe and divert your attention; every moment is utilized to the full extent.

As you can tell, this match-up doesn’t really seem to be much of a contest. I’m one of the few people it seems who actually legitimately likes Newsroom beyond being a good show to hate-watch, but it just can’t compare to the whirlwind adventure that is Scandal. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, every week I go into an episode thinking it can’t possibly top the week before and every single week by the end of the hour Shonda Rhimes manages to blow my mind yet again and I NEED it to be the next week so I can find out what is going to happen next.

Winner: Scandal

This poll closes Saturday, Aug 17, at noon ET. You can vote as many times as you’d like.