How to Get Away with Murder

I saw at least 3 other reviews of this TV show that put it at a 6/10 for the sole reason that it is an inaccurate portrayal of lawyers. Yes, and...? Does that take away from the brilliant plot and acting? I don't think anything in film or television is an accurate portrayal of anything. If someone were to rewrite this exciting show into an "accurate portrayal" of law, then it would just be a show about Viola Davis filling out paper work and occasionally showing up in court. And some of these reviewers go on to say that it is a shame that people believe that is how the court of law is in real life. My advice to them is to go to the IMDb page of the Avengers and write a review that says, "it's a shame that every single person who watches this movie now believes superheroes actually exist," because apparently no one who is a consumer of media entertainment has the common sense to know that lawyers do not, in reality, go around killing and bribing everyone.

No one watches a show like How to Get Away with Murder for a lesson in law, they watch it for the interesting characters and fascinating plot. I had to write this review to correct all of the mistaken reviews that gave this show anything less than a 7, because the overall rating of this show was dismaying to me. And to learn it is for such a irrelevant reason!

This is a story about a law professor and her inner circle of students, collegues, lovers and friends who each season find themselves involved in a murder and use their legal knowledge to cover up their crimes.

Sounds distasteful? It very much is. It's messy, ugly, upsetting - and totally brilliant!

The entire cast is phenomenal. Viola Davis in particular brings magic to every scene she's in, and it's impossible to imagine anyone else playing Professor Annalise Keating.

While the series pushes the limits for how many murders we're supposed to accept that our little group of anti-heroes gets involved in, the story is a dramatic rollercoaster that I couldn't get enough of. I binged every season. This series feels so fresh that you can't really compare it to any other show.

I just binge watched season one and I loved it. First off I want to say that there are a bunch of complaining critics on here that I think are missing the point of the show. How to get away with murder. It's not a show that's going to depict total reality. It's a fun to watch exaggerated clever show (but there's a bit of truth behind every bit of this exaggeration). Maybe the critics that rate the show so harshly should really watch it with a grain of salt. So many are saying that it's unrealistic. The law schools are not at all like this. Law isn't practiced like this. Oh grow up. The crazy twisting corrupted lying cheating goings-on are exaggerated and accelerated to make it more fun to watch. This is a fun show and I am most certainly looking forward to season two. Now I will agree that there are some gratuitous sex scenes that just really aren't necessary. The writers really don't have to spell it out for us. We get it. Maybe they will ease up on that kind of stuff in season two. Good show and I recommend it to people who are open-minded to the fact that TV doesn't always have to be based on true absolute reality. It's supposed to be entertaining. And this show is definitely entertaining.

Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) is a sought-after law professor and a famous hard-charging defense attorney willing to push the envelope. She selects her students Wes Gibbins, Connor Walsh, Michaela Pratt, Asher Millstone, and Laurel Castillo as her interns to work on her cases. There is Annalise's husband Sam and her secret affair with police detective Nate Lahey. There are her associates Frank Delfino and Bonnie Winterbottom. The first season centered on the murder of student Lila Stangard and Rebecca Sutter who is the main suspect.

This is Shondaland. The flashforward structure of the first season is challenging but kept the show different and interesting. There is nothing better than Viola Davis. She shines but she also overpowers the younger cast. The biggest overshadowed problem is Alfred Enoch who is most known for a minor Harry Potter role. He's not alone in that problem. It doesn't help that the storytelling is non-stop twists and turns. The characters never get the stability needed to build chemistry. The second season centers on a different case and by the third season, I have to give up. All the effort is used to keep up with the twisty stories. Only Viola Davis is able to break through. It's just really tough to remember the situations for each character over the years.

At the time of writing, I have seen all of season one and the first episode of season 2.

I've seen other reviews on here that talk about how impossible it is to watch this show if you have any legal knowledge, and I would just like to add my two cents to this topic. I sympathize. I'm a lawyer, and have worked in criminal defence (once upon a time), and I, too, generally have a really hard time watching any legal dramas whatsoever. Television takes egregious liberties with the justice system, and shows that portray the practice of law are difficult to watch when they are wildly inaccurate, and it is frustrating to witness protagonists do things that you know are illegal or unethical. As annoying as this is, the tendency is understandable—even criminal law is only so compelling in real life. The assumption is that most viewers do not have legal training, and that nobody—lawyers included—will watch a show where competent, ethical practitioners stay at the office late looking up cases on Quicklaw, fiddling with binding machines, and trying not to smudge pad thai sauce on their prelim transcripts.

This show, however, is so ridiculous that it actually rose to the level of suspension of disbelief required for me, at least, to still enjoy it. It is basically a soap opera. Trying to subject it to human logic is a pointless exercise that will inevitably leave you discombobulated, shouting at the sky about injustice or whatever people do once they've discovered their whole life is a lie.

For instance, I would be hard pressed to conceive of a more profound conflict of interest than that contained in the season 1 episode 10 court scene if someone bet me $100 and a case of beer (I won't describe it in the interests of no spoilers--the blame-shifting thing). And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Every other thing that every character does in this show would get you summarily disbarred, fired, or charged with something.

At the end of the day however, that is not the point. This show seems to know exactly how over-the-top it is. But rather than trying to scale back the insanity in the name of realism, it revels in knocking it right into twelfth gear. Left and right, people are lying to each other or the court, sleeping around and committing felonies—sometimes at the same time—because why not? The degree of accuracy is so low that the mercury drops out the bottom of the thermometer and creates a rift in the space-time continuum. It fails so hard it wins. It is the Hearts equivalent of shooting the moon.

So get some popcorn and get comfy. Try to resist the analytical voice in your head that keeps screaming "No!" and just let it wash over you. Everything will be fine.