How to Get Away with Murder

I have no idea why it has taken me this long to write a review for this show since I have loved it since day 1. Meanwhile, How to Get Away With Murder has become my favorite show on television, and here's why: Even in a golden age of television, network TV has been lacking original content in the last few years. There are too many procedural dramas and too many superhero shows, so therefore I am glad to have a show like HTGAWM. Yes, it is partly a legal drama, but it is definitely so much more than than. IMO it is primarily a mystery and a thriller at the same time because every season starts with an intriguing flash-forward, showing us a very dramatic event that takes place in their mid-season finale. However, when most shows have flash-forwards they only feature one in the premiere and practically have no build-up to it, HTGAWM does the opposite, it features a flash-forward in every one of the first 8 episodes of a season and plays with our mind. By the time you have watched the mid-season finale itself, your mind will be blown. But why am I telling you this? Because I am trying to underline that this show has the most brilliant and shocking twists you could even imagine, and they have about 100 of those. They are executed with such brilliance and complexity that you will never get bored or annoyed by them. What is probably even better than the brilliant twists, however, is the masterful acting. Viola Davis nails every single scene she is, she portrays this deeply flawed character beautifully with so much depth. I cannot praise her enough, she deserves every single award that exists. That is not to say that the supporting cast is any less mesmerizing, they all bring their A-game consistently. They all deserve recognition. And one last thing: character development!!!! So so brilliant! The characters that you meet in the pilot change a lot as time passes and they all become very three-dimensional! Just go ahead and watch this show. I could say so much more, but just go enjoy the fun and crazy ride. You won't regret it, I promise!

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.

If you want to watch yet another procedural about lawyers that's realistic or even researched in any way this is not the show for you. However if you want an over the top, melodramatic, sexy, unpredictable show that'll keep you guessing and laughing and freaking out with every cliffhanger, then watch this.

Viola Davis is amazing (unsurprisingly) and Analise is one of the most interesting main characters on TV right now.

This show had one of the best pilots I've seen in a while and the season 2 premiere was one of the best episodes of television I've seen all year (and I watch A LOT of TV).

In summary, How To Get Away With Murder is kinda dumb, kinda funny, really engaging and enthralling and constantly surprising.

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!

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.