A spoiler free article follows:
If you follow me on Twitter (which you should, @jessicarozycki) it will come to no surprise that I am among the many Shonda Rhimes fans with an undying love for How To Get Away With Murder. But my love for this show goes beyond the star-studded cast – who are all amazingly beautiful human beings – and the endless cliffhangers that keep you wanting more. This show offers so many great things that many other TV shows have yet to give their audiences. The writing is smart, the topics are poignant, and, simply put, the show’s creators, Peter Nowalk and Rhimes, are making TV history.
For those of you who have yet to visit the brilliant getaway that is Shondaland, How To Get Away With Murder centers around a group of law students who work for their professor and accredited criminal defense attorney, Annalise Keating. These students are referred to as “The Keating Five”, and throughout the series become intertwined with a number of murder cases – some of which they have personal ties to and others they are helping their professor defend in court. The show has so many layers that the audience is forced to pay attention to every little detail. This is definitely not a show you can watch while checking Facebook or reading the latest Her Campus article.
Unlike some other well-known TV shows that are driven by mystery, scandal, and plot confusion HTGAWM doesn’t leave you hanging for too long. Every couple of episodes the most pressing questions are answered or we are at least given solid hints toward finding the answers. But in doing so, viewers are also left with a fresh set of new queries. The writers have the ability to keep the ball rolling without letting it fall off of the edge. The decisions they make are smart, calculated, well planned, and always enticing. With every piece of detail the audience gets, we are left wanting even more whether it revolves around a character’s backstory, the truth about who killed which murder victim, or how Annalise will eventually win her case. This show has everything you could want in an entertaining hour of Shondaland – a mix of unlikely relationships, plot twists when you least expect them, and a whole lot of dead people.
This show also has intersectionality. They have covered everything from sex shaming, to transphobia, to white privilege, and even living with HIV. The creators of this show are not afraid to fight back against the important problems facing society today, something that cannot be said for most other TV dramas. Other shows may offer elements of these themes in their plots and characterization, but I challenge you to find a single episode of HTGAWM that doesn’t bring attention to a topic that is usually taboo. This is the kind of content we need to be seeing on television. We need shows that keep us interested, make smart and thoughtful plot decisions, offer new perspectives to the stories they are portraying, and ultimately challenge other programs to step up their game. And, as is proven with leading actress Viola Davis’s Emmy win, HTGAWM is doing just that.
Check out How To Get Away With Murder’s winter finale this Thursday (11/19) at 10PM on ABC!