How To Get Away With Murder, “Pilot” (1.1) - TV Review

Sept 25, 2014, 10:00p.m. (EST), CTV

Viola Davis is the main reason to watch this new series!

It starts off with four students that have committed a murder talking about how exactly they are going to cover it up. Yes, I know, it does seem like it gave away the entire secret of the TV show, and it did, well until you get to the end.

The entire pilot consists of flash-forwards with a three-month time difference. In the present time these four students, like I previously stated, are trying to get away with the murder of someone. But, in the past, they are in their first year of Law School in Professor Annalise Keating’s (Viola Davis) class. Keating is also a defense attorney.

Davis demands the screen much like Annalise demands to be the star in every room she enters. A very multilayered role that seems could only be pulled off by someone as talented as Davis. One minute she is kind, then angry, then she is embarrassing students in her class that have come unprepared, then threatening and finally she comes full circle and is kind…occasionally.

Annalise teaches a huge group of students and wants to narrow them down to four that get a job placement in her firm - this four turns into five due to the talent she sees in the class that year. This pits the students against one another causing friction within the class and courtroom (where they come to help bring light to anything that may help Annalise win the case).

One stand-out among the students is Wes Gibbins (Alfred Enoch) who in present day seems to be the one who is coming up with ways that they are able to get away with the crime, but in the classroom seems lost. As if he happened to get into law school on a fluke. Yet, no one else really stands out in the group of students because they all seem to fit into the regular category of college kids that every TV show and movie does. The reason Wes stands out is mostly because he walks in on Annalise while she’s receiving a gift from a male friend.

In the beginning of the episode I was a little lost on why the creators wanted to give away so much so soon. Why not just keep the murder until the second episode or even the middle of the season? It was not until the end of the episode when a college girl shows up dead on campus who is a student of Annalise’s husband, not her male friend from above, that you understand that it is not only one murder that is going to be investigated this season, but many.

The reveal of the dead body the students are trying to cover up is quite shocking and if the twists keep happening throughout this Season, it should only get better from here.

If it wasn’t for the right casting in Viola Davis, I am not sure I would have liked this episode as much as I did. If you are a person that likes twists and crime shows then this is one for you, with or without Davis.