Review: How to Get Away with Murder

In true Shonda Rhimes style, How to Get Away with Murder is sexy and melodramatic with just a sprinkle of cheesiness and a constant sense of mystery. Following the lives of five law students and their teacher before and after they become involved in a murder, this is a series that demands your attention to every little detail, otherwise you’ll lose the track of the story completely and find yourself in quite the rut – funnily enough, much like its main character, Annalise Keating (Viola Davis). Both the show itself and Keating are hard-hitting and fast-paced, confusing and alluring simultaneously.

From the get-go, the pilot throws you into what becomes the standard episode formula of flash-forwards first, actual episode after. It automatically demands that you sit up and start taking notes, jumping from the future to the present fast enough to make your head spin. It’s pretty effective for a show that relies very heavily on slow burning reveals and suspense in every corner, but it can definitely get confusing. The flash-forwards focus on the climax of the mid-series arc – a campus bonfire taking place as the characters attempt to cover up a murder, and they work well in revealing just a little bit more every episode.

Promotional photo for ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder

All the characters start off as absolute stereotypes – Keating as the tough but effective teacher, Wes (Alfred Enoch) as the innocent puppy-dog caught up in everyone else’s drama, Connor (Jack Falahee) as the sex-crazed casanova who works through seduction, Michaela (Aja Naomi King) as the Type A control freak desperate for success, Laurel (Karla Souza) as the quietly brilliant student and Asher (Matt McGorry) as a testosterone-fuelled insensitive jock.

Unfortunately for the show, only a few of these characters really get interesting character development. The most development that Michaela and Connor get simply stems from them slowly losing their cool as the show/murder goes on, and while that made their characters entertaining, that’s all their characters are. Wes and Laurel, on the other hand, morph very quickly from bystanders to active manipulators and it’s fascinating to see their character arcs leading slowly down darker and darker paths. Asher tends to be the comic relief, but in the sixth episode, ‘Freakin’ Whack-A-Mole’, his character is explored a little and his testy relationship with his father is revealed, which made him a really layered character.

The one character, naturally, that stays a mystery throughout the series is Annalise Keating. Davis is extremely skilled, and with one look can turn Keating from tough teacher to vulnerable victim to master manipulator in a manner of seconds. You never know what Keating is really up to or really thinking, and therefore she’s a very difficult character to like or dislike.

For every con I find about this show, there is always a giant pro. With a weak crime-of-the-week storyline comes a hilarious moment from McGorry, for instance, or with any sub-standard performance by a less major character comes an incredibly strong performance from Davis. And because this is Shonda Rhimes’ work, there is also a lot of eye-candy (refreshingly, not usually female) to be enjoyed as well as new questions that are answered and asked with every episode. And for its faults, at the heart of it I find myself gasping in surprise or on the edge of my seat at points in every episode, and I’m always looking forward to the next one. I’d say this show scores a decent 8/10, but in order to kick it up a notch it needs to decide what it’s going to do with a lot of its characters.