Verdict: I think the show would become all the more wonderful if they devoted more care and growth to certain storylines inserted of the cases of the week
After a heavily promoted and successful first year on the air, ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder” closed its season Thursday.
For those not aware, Shonda Rhimes’ hit tells the story of a troubled successful lawyer, played by Viola Davis, who also teaches law students in her unorthodox class self titled, “How to Get Away with Murder”. After a series of tests, Viola Davis’ role, Annalise Keating, selects five students to work with her on her cases and get first hand experience.
The season was in my opinion, very good television. In true Shonda Rhimes fashion, there wasn’t enough time to get bored with a storyline, because the scene was about change and a new direction in story was going to take the lead.
Soon into the episodes, you realize there are dual stories going on. Keating and her five selected students (Connor, Laurel, Wes, Michaela and Asher) attempt to solve a case of a dead sorority girl among other various cases. Also, through a series of flash forwards, the “Keating Five” attempt to hide a dead body, who remains faceless until the mid season finale.
In a nutshell, here are the major plot points that have been revealed
– Annalise’s husband, Sam, had an affair with the sorority girl, Lila, and got her pregnant.
– Annalise had an affair of her own with a police officer, Nate.
– The dead body the “Keating Five” have been attempting to cover up, is Sam after he attacked all of them while they tried to find evidence against him.
– Connor’s partner has been identified as HIV positive.
– While Sam wanted to kill Lila and hide his infidelity, he didn’t physically kill her, he had Annalise’s right hand man, Frank, do it for reasons not yet revealed.
– Rebecca, Wes’ love interest and main suspect in the Lila murder, was murdered in a house where only the “Keating Five”, Bonnie, Frank and Annalise were.
With such a numerous cast full of various stories, the plot lines move fast and change, leaving a want for the characters to get a little more time. In favor of the Annalise and Lila narrative, a lot of the characters only received a small amount of scenes to watch them really develop.
Asher, for example, got one episode to show his rich background, and shortly after he is still just a boisterous loud fool, and besides for tension cutting, serves very little purpose. Frank, Annalise’s right hand man, while mysterious and interesting, is still light years away from having any development, besides his crush on one of the “Keating Five”, Laurel.
The only characters in my opinion truly developed are Annalise, Wes, and Laurel.
Annalise has been unpeeled to show a tough exterior, brutal nature, but clearly is becoming very distraught by all the things she does for the sake of cleaning up messes. For instance, to save the “Keating Five” from getting caught, Annalise frames her lover for the murder. A complicated character from the beginning, seems to even become more complex.
Wes goes from underdog yuppie to broken and jaded by the legal system. Where we see him in the finale, desolate, to the beginning where he believes that there are clear choices between right and wrong. He betrays his earlier convictions in the finale, by accusing his girlfriend of killing Lila and aids in the interrogation of her. His spirit is crushed and less trusting than he was.
Laurel, who was the wallflower of the group from the get go, has been the only character to have actually grown stronger since the murder of Sam. She stands up to her parents, has not come even close to a nervous breakdown, and in the finale it was revealed she found Michaela’s engagement ring the night of Sam’s murder and kept it to keep Michaela complacent. In disgust by underhanded moves earlier in the season, she even goes as far as to suggest to Frank he should kill Rebecca to keep her quiet. Which leads me to believe she is the one who killed Rebecca in the finale.
All three of these are very different people from when the show began, maybe not for the good but for the most interesting development. Each of these have become darker and more ruthless, which in my opinion can make greater television.
As Annalise describes Wes and Laurel, “The quiet ones are the most dangerous.”
By the end of the finale, while many questions have finally been answered, a whole new set of questions have been created.
In a television executive’s point of view, this just makes fans all the more ready to view the second season.
