Why You Need To Watch How To Get Away With Murder

Straight up – to me, Shonda Rhimes can’t do much wrong (though she makes my tear ducts activate on an almost weekly basis). For the last ten years, I’ve been a major fan of her work on Grey’s Anatomy  but before that, she wrote my favourite teen movie, The Princess Diaries (as well as the sequel AND Britney Spears movie Crossroads). So when I see her getting involved in new things, I get excited for amazing soundtracks, captivating storylines, a cast which inevitably will cast at least one gorgeous man, one gorgeous woman (who am I kidding, they’re all pretty gorgeous, this is the entertainment industry) and some of the best acting talent out there. So last year once I spotted the trailer to How To Get Away With Murder, a legal drama based around a law lecturer and her team of interns who somehow get caught up in a murder themselves, I was captivated. I ate up the episodes, a lot of them in one go, and then mourned for the summer that I’d have to wait for Season 2 which I am VERY happy to be enjoying every week at the moment. And now I see that the whole first season is being added to Netflix UK (It’s already up on the US and some other places) at the end of this week (22nd), it’s all safely there for more marathon binges where I can spot the little things I didn’t notice before. If you haven’t already, you should be joining me in checking it out – but of course I’m going to say that, I may as well give you a few reasons why.

So – Why do you NEED to watch How To Get Away With Murder? 

1. The Intrigue – It starts with the trailer. If watching this doesn’t set your mind alight, you and I can’t really be friends.

Pete Nowalk, the creator of HTGAWM was a writer on Grey’s Anatomy for a few years before becoming one of their producers in 2014 – he’s a man who definitely got his feet wet in intriguing storylines before HTGAWM came along and he’s brought that to the fore with his new series. Combined with involving many other seasoned members of the Shondaland team and the acting chops of the shows stars, it leads to every single episode making you want more, to find out what happens next.

2. Viola. Frickin. Davis.

She didn’t win the Emmy for nothing. An incredible choice for the lead role of Annalise Keating, she’s made the role her own and the show wouldn’t be the same without her. Her sass, her strength and the way she plays a woman so strong and confident yet so vulnerable at the same time makes it a whole-bodied performance, a pleasure to watch. If you’ve not seen her before in films such as The Help and Doubt, both of which gained her nominations for the Academy Awards, a few episodes of HTGAWM will have you cheering her on with her acceptance speech when she became the first African-American winner of an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. When I grow up, I want to be a mix of her and Maggie Smith. Just sayin’.

3. Layers. So many layers.

Just when you think you have a character figured out, a tailspin is thrown in to keep you on your toes – not in a way that you wonder how they can justify that, but in a way that is just another layer of the personality of that character. Everyone has their secrets and new relationships spring up from the most unlikely of places – professional, romantic and platonic – which draws out further surprises as the relationships grow. Am especially loving some of the people around Connor – one of my favourites of the “Keating Five”, and the not-half-hard-on-the-eye Frank Delfino.

4. The Cases of The Week

Normally, shows like this have you tagging on much more for the action alongside the Case of The Week than the case itself – not so in this show, for more reasons than one! The cases handled by the class, and by the Keating Five, are interesting and so many twists and turns you can’t help but be taken along for the ride –  if, like me, you’re into problem solving and getting the criminal case sorted, this show will be right up your alley. I’m thrilled to say that so far, the second season is as much, if not more, one of intrigue and suspense with every case!

5. The Flashbacks/Flashforwards

Adding to the sense of suspense, drama and general leaving you shouting “WHAT THE HELL?” at the end of every episode, the flashbacks and forwards definitely add something special to HTGAWM. From the opening episode, where we start with flashes of them in the woods, flashing back to the law class where it all began, by seeing the end result and then trying to piece together how they got to where they were it definitely keeps the mind active watching it – it’s also allowed for some amazing cliffhangers on a weekly basis and a real show of how things may not be quite as they seem from a first glimpse. I used to have a terrible habit of skipping to the end to see what happens in books – this somewhat gets rid of any point in doing that, as it’s the bits in the middle that really clue you in and keep you glued!

6. The Beautiful Cast

So, if the mad plots and crazy intrigue aren’t your thing, you may still be interested in this series for the cast alone… to say that they’re easy on the eye is an understatement, as you’ll see in the below video of the boys(which contain no spoilers, don’t worry). You might recognise Alfred Enoch, who plays Wes, from the Harry Potter movies where he played Dean Thomas, and the fab Liza Weil who is most famous for playing Paris Gellar in Gilmore Girls, who plays Bonnie. To give the girls their due, they are absolutely stunning but there is absolutely no “pretty but silly” girls – their beauty is not the centre of their character, rather their wit and brains, which is exactly the way I like it!

So, intrigued yet? You should be! How To Get Away With Murder will be available this Thursday, 22 October, so take this as your warning to cancel your weekend plans as you’ll be unable to stop yourself from clicking “Keep Watching” when Netflix sends its reminder that you should probably take a walk outside and see the real world – it’s just too good to walk away!

I swear, it’s not a problem. I can stop anytime I want. Just don’t make me this week…

Disclosure: I am a member of the Netflix Stream Team and received a Netflix subscription and an Apple TV in return for posting Netflix updates and reviews, however, all opinions are my own, and I already had a personal subscription before joining the Stream Team.