Writer, producer and director Shonda Rhimes is known for her TV dramas—”Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal”—but now she’s adding another one to the mix: “How To Get Away With Murder.”
Starring Academy Award Nominee Viola Davis (“The Help”) as Professor Annalise Keating, the law teacher from hell, the show centers on Keating’s law class and the five students she picks as her protégées.
The show opens with four of Keating’s five protégées—Wes Gibbons (Alfred Enoch), Connor Walsh (Jack Falahee), Michaela Pratt (Aja Naomi King) and Laurel Castillo (Karla Souza)—discussing how to deal with someone that they have presumably murdered. A few minutes later, the show flashes back to three months ago when the four of them are just entering law school and Keating’s class.
Throughout the episode, the pilot flashes forward to the four students wrestling with the body, revealing more and more as more is known about the cast and mythology of the show.
Plenty of drama and intrigue is packed into the pilot, including affairs, murder, missing college girls and possibly tainted evidence, promising plenty of good things for the rest of the season. Multiple story lines are set in the pilot, but it seems that the focus will be on the murder of another student at the university.
“How To Get Away With Murder” seems to be the type of show where everyone is important; besides other students in the class, few superfluous characters were introduced, a good idea for a show with this large of an ensemble cast. So far, everyone seems to be connected either to another member on the show who they should not be, or entwined in the mystery of the missing college girl.
The show is carried, however, by extremely strong action, especially from Davis. Davis, who managed to be seductive, emotionally broken and terrified all at once, steals the show whenever she’s in a scene. So far, the four main law students seem to all have their own personalities, though Wes, despite being the focus of the pilot, is the character about whom the least is known. So far, he’s the way that viewers will learn about the world of the show, the character that we can empathize with the most.
“How To Get Away with Murder” also excels—especially in comparison to other shows on TV—on another point: diversity. Not only is the main character (Keating) a black woman, but so is one of the other main law students. One of them—Connor Walsh—is at least sexually fluid, if not gay, but it’s not treated as a big deal, nor is it his defining characteristic.
As of right now, the women on the main cast outnumber the men, as well. Within the first few minutes, the show passes the Bechdel Test, something that a shockingly low amount of TV shows and movies manage to dp.
All things considered, the show is shaping up to have a strong season. Anyone looking for a fairly intelligent drama to sink his or her teeth into should check out “How To Get Away With Murder.”
