Thoughts on...How to Get Away with Murder

(Or "It's like Lost and Scandal had a baby and Viola Davis is the adopted mother.")

When someone recommends that I check out a show, I tend to mull it over for a while (unless it's like Gurren Lagann or something, then I nose-dive into it). I mean, I've just gotten to the part of Breaking Bad where Walter tries his best to become surpass Gus Fring/Tony Montana and kills Mike and then realizes that he didn't need to. He ultimately did it because feels.

...Power-Tripping Hal?

So, when the blitzkrieg of ads/reviews/Twitter folks (follow me at @JohnthanSpeed, by the way; gotta start updating that thing) suggested demanded I check out the newest Shonda Rhines-influenced show, I reluctantly did so. Viola Davis is a great actress, Shonda Rhines has some good people in her circle with regards to watchable shows, and the ads didn't give away much. So, it had all the makings of either a colossal failure or a dominating success. There will be spoilers, by the way. Many spoilers. So, if you don't want to read them, look away.

The show takes place in Philadelphia and revolves around a law school teacher (Annalise Keating, played by Viola Davis). Annalise is their hard-a** law school teacher/lawyer who's part-Greg House (minus the Vicodin), part-every-other-lawyer-you-see-on-TV. But, with Viola Davis at the helm of the character, there's a beautiful twist to this borderline trope-y character. Not only does she not play by "da rules," she takes the rules, defies logic and reason, and warps them to her own satisfaction (usually to get off people who, to mostly anyone with a brain, are guilty without a shadow of a doubt). She's married to a white guy, Sam (more on him later), but has a black boyfriend, who's part of the Philly police force (who she uses in a few episodes to aid and abet her rule-warping).

Thank you Kevin.

Five minutes in, though, I hated the main male character, Wes (played by one of the Harry Potter kids). I hated his face, his D-Bag doe-eyed expressions, his general confusion at pretty much everything. When you hate the main character (or one of the main characters) this early in, you're probably looking at a failure. Either that, or you're watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. As the series has gone on, he's slowly developed from doe-eyed moron who doesn't belong to less-doe-eyed, slightly-still-moronic sleuth, breaking open a case involving a murdered co-ed (who's murderer is quite possibly Sam Keating). 

In other words, he is Shinji Ikari, transplanted into a world of law school, and played by a black guy who has many annoying features.

This is a face a mother could possibly hate (h/t shopyourtv.com)

As the first episode unraveled, you get more of what the series is about. There're overarching, all-encompassing flash forwards and flashbacks (that's where the Lost aspect comes in) to the new-school Scooby Gang (I'm just gonna call them the "Murder Gang" in the future) dragging a body out of Annalise's house/office. As the flash-forwards/backs go on, the body is revealed to be Sam (who apparently was bludgeoned to death by Annalise's class "trophy," an object given to the kick-butt student of the week). 

Yep. Students possibly killed their rule-warping teacher's cheating husband (and yes, they're both cheaters. But, at least Annalise didn't kill anyone...at least not directly).

Now, about the rest of the cast, the dynamics are great. They seem like an actual group of law students that've been thrust into something highly messed up. The dialogue isn't full of brainless banter, and the "relationships" feel like they could/work exist. That's a problem in a lot of shows of this degree.

However, as great as each character is bouncing off one another, they still end up being a tiny bit cliche. For instance, as awesome and as quippy as Connor is, he's quite promiscuous. He uses men like a femme fatale would (yes, he's gay), which is interesting in a way. I mean, yes, it's stereotypical (the gay guy not being able to keep his hands off of other guys. He even slept with one of the other Murder Gang's fiances), but he's still a strong character. He's possibly, outside of Annalise, my favorite character. But, on the flip side, many of his scenes come of as an excuse for more man-on-man female fanservice that goes zero to 100...real quick (always wanted to say that).

However, this show is worth watching, if only for the "why is Sam dead/Whodunit?" and "'why was [his junk] on a dead girl's phone?'" reveals. The "lawyer" time, it's been a bad-guy-of-the-week approach so far, so there's not much I can say about that side of it. It's solid and entertaining, but it's not that captivating. But, again, check this show out. It could be the next Scandal in terms of water-cooler discussions. Stay away, though, if you're not a big fan of everyone having a "I'm gonna go get my freak on" scene per episode.