How to Get Away with Murder

I honestly think the other review was uncalled for. This is fantastic! The beginning is a little confusing and hard to figure out whats going on but honestly, that's what makes it so suspenseful. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Most crime shows are all about justice, which is great but sometimes it's nice to see the opposite side of things. There's so many dynamic characters in this show, it adds interest. Viola Davis is amazing in this. She's such a strong actress and her acting is very believable and on point. What I will say is, some of the characters seem a bit awkward. Again, I think that's what makes it interesting. The awkward characters have a place and don't seem like a random actress throw into the mix. I find this show, sexy, interesting and very dramatic. It's the perfect mix! I say give it a watch, if you don't like it no harm, no foul.

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.

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.

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.