Sunday 3 July 2016

How To Get Away With Murder Review


Four days. That's how long it took me to watch two seasons and no I did not get much sleep during that time. I knew I shouldn't have reactivated my Netflix..

How To Get Away With Murder (fondly referred to as htgawm because who honestly has time to sit and type the full title out?) stars the incredible Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, a law professor at a top university in Philadelphia. She employs five of her students, who are known as the Keating 5, to work for her and her two assistants, and what follows is more drama than the average lawyer should have to deal with.

How can the writers make a bunch of law students investigating crimes exciting? Get them directly involved in a murder, that's how.

Before you worry, the script isn't filled to the brim with law terms that you need to wrap your head around nor is the show focused on the law aspect; it's more about the drama surrounding the consequences of not following the law.


I also wasn't expecting them to find room to squeeze in love triangles but hey, they did it and it worked surprisingly well, bringing out emotion from some of the more closed-off personalities.

Okay so back to the drama: I love plot twists and this show presents them impeccably, I can't even tell you how many times I had to pause it to take a moment to mull it over in my head. There were so many plot twists that every time I got close to figuring out who the killer was (or so I thought), another theory was thrown in.

What makes it so unique is the use of both flashbacks and flashforwards so that we see the outcome of the murders, but have to spend the whole season figuring out what lead to them, who did it and why and yes you will be shocked. I held my breath for a good two minutes at the end of the season two finale because I had no idea what to expect.

I had heard nothing but good things about this show and I figured if Matt McGorry is in it, it must be worth watching, but I didn't expect the rest of the cast to be so flawless. Just like with The Affair, the acting in this show is consistent.


We've got a strong female lead who is flawed but even in her most vulnerable moments is definitely never deemed to be weak; this woman knows what she's doing and she does it well. Sure, she has her moments of heartbreak but who doesn't? Annalise Keating is the character who keeps everything together and my faith in her never falters despite her often risky decisions.


The main gay character (yes, there are multiple!) has broken stereotypes in the sense that he's definitely not shy about it. Not once is his sexuality mentioned in a derogatory way or used against him, and it's viewed as completely normal by the rest of the team because let's face it, it is normal. He gets his heartbroken and goes through exactly the same struggles that anyone in any relationship would. Connor Walsh, ladies and gentleman, is how you write sexuality into a show.


McGorry's character, Asher Millstone, is undoubtedly one of the most cliché and annoying members of the Keating 5 but he's been one of my favourites because he brings humour to an otherwise very intense series with his facial expressions alone. Typically speaking, we should hate Asher because truthfully, he's pretty arrogant, but then you catch him looking like a confused puppy and all is forgiven.

One thing I will say about this show is that you need to focus on it. You may see that as a bad thing but think about it this way; it's serves as a foolproof distraction at the end of a long day.

There's corruption, there's heartbreak, there's representation and there's deception; it's no wonder fans keep coming back for more. 
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