This is one half of a dueling column. See the argument on why to watch How to Get Away with Murder here.
How to Get Away with Murder is all set to be your next favorite legal drama. Intriguing concept? Check. Well respected, Academy Award nominated actress playing a mysterious and strong female character? Check. Produced by the lauded writer behind Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy? Check. Yet for all its creative clout and promise of intrigue, How to Get Away with Murder just doesn’t work.
The show opens in a packed lecture hall, where budding law students (played by Alfred Enoch, Matt McGorry, Aja Naomi King, and Liza Weil) anxiously await their first day of class. The camera gives us a quick glance at the suspiciously old teenagers we’ll get to know so well, and then we get to meet the real star of the show.
Viola Davis’ Dr. Annalise Keating has all the makings of one of Shonda Rhimes classic strong female characters. Dr. Keating takes a no-nonsense approach to her career. In the classroom she’s an authoritative teacher who doesn’t take poor excuses lightly and works her students hard (at one point she even says “I’m not your mother”). When it comes to the courtroom, she’s a defense attorney who is less concerned with justice and morals than she is with getting the right verdict for her clients.
The actress, famous for starring in The Help, puts in as sterling a performance as you’d expect. Annalise is a mysterious protagonist who delivers her three “rules” (among them, picking apart witnesses to place as much doubt as possible in a juror’s head) with sharp wit and plenty of confidence. Unfortunately, some of the material Davis must deliver feels lackluster and clashes with her characterization. One pivotal sequence in particular asks the audience to assume that the brilliant legal mind missed a crucial and obvious piece of evidence just so the show can make one of her students look smarter. It’s a small detail, but it’s one that epitomizes the reasons why How to Get Away with Murder doesn’t really work.
The show is glossy and stylish on a surface level, but these transparent hand-waves of television magic don’t hide the fact that the show’s mystery and logic don’t quite cut it.
Throughout the pilot episode, we’re given flash-forwards to a long and dark night in which Dr. Keating’s brightest students take her class name a bit too seriously as they try to get away with the titular Murder. The young ensemble all put in perfectly respectable performances, but the characters aren’t really distinguishable from each other which makes it very hard to care about their predicament. Harry Potter fans may recognize Enoch from his Dean Thomas days, but he’ll be remembered because of his past work rather than the individuality of his newest role. As for the rest of them – well, there’s Guy #1, Girl #1, and Girl #2. The audience can’t tell which one is which, and (from the evidence of the first episode) neither can the show.
The season-long mystery is teased liberally, and if you’re a hardcore Grey’s Anatomy or Scandal fan, you may well find enough in the show to hold your attention for the time being. Just don’t look below the surface, or else you’ll discover that How to Get Away with Murder doesn’t really make sense, doesn’t really care about its characters and doesn’t really care about its viewers. It throws plenty of tried-and-tested tropes at the wall, but the only thing that really sticks is the impression that the show is far more concerned with being a social media sensation rather than a decent piece of drama.
You can watch How to Get Away With Murder on Thursday nights at 10 p.m., starting tomorrow.
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