TV Review - How To Get Away With Murder: Series Finale

If you haven't watched this series, then you missed one of the most, twisty, exciting and well-acted, murder mysteries ever created for television. For the latter part of the 2010's, this series was one of the anchors of what was known on ABC as TGIT, or "Thank God It's Thursday." At its height, it was averaging 11 million viewers and it filled an entire Thursday night lineup that was totally shows produced by Shonda Rhimes or Shondaland. It followed Scandal (2012) as one of the only broadcast network shows with a black woman as the lead, that black woman being Kerry Washington. Washington was nominated at the Primetime Emmys for that role, something that hadn't happened for a black woman in nearly 20 years. When the star of this show, Viola Davis, started here, Davis became the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama, which occurred at the 67th Primetime Emmys in 2015. For that, this series will always be in the history books.

The series follows a law professor in Philadelphia named Annalise Keating, played by Viola Davis, who gets ensnared in a murder investigation and even a murder trial after her husband is killed. Five of her best students are involved in the murder and the series is about Annalise's attempts to protect them from legal jeopardy. The series later becomes about indicting the criminal justice system as a whole. The systemic racism that exists is also challenged. The political corruption also comes into question. The presence of homophobia in the culture at large and in small ways is targeted under the writing of show-runner, Peter Nowalk who is openly gay himself.

Over the course of the six seasons, there have been several characters who have been murdered, including two of Annalise's students. As a way to wrap up the whole story, Nowalk and his writers crafted a story about the FBI linking all the murders together and charging Annalise with the crime of conspiracy to commit these murders. The FBI believes that Annalise orchestrated all of this. The final episode here is about Annalise trying to win her case and getting the ultimate verdict. However, what I like is that the final moments of this last episode is akin to the last episode of HBO's Six Feet Under.

What was always great about the structure of each of the episodes of Nowalk's show, going all the way back to the beginning, is the use of flashbacks or what's visually represented as rewinds. Even in the first episode, it starts with Annalise's husband already dead and the students trying to figure out what to do. The episode then rewinds to some time before the crime to show you how everyone got there. Literally, you see the video on screen rewind and everything goes backwards really fast. At times, there would be a digital clock that also goes backwards to help keep track and keep the tension.

In this final season, the death that started things was Annalise's death herself, so the tension of this final season is the reveal of how Annalise dies and who's behind it. Nowalk manages to keep that mystery and everyone guessing as to how she loses her life up until the very final moments of the episode. The way that he finally shows how she dies is strangely satisfying. It's shocking leading up to that reveal of the end of Annalise's life, but it's one that I think is satisfying to long-time fans of the series, especially to long-time fans of one of Annalise's students named Wes Gibbins, played by Alfred Enoch (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

The plot twists were some of the best of any show that I've seen ever. It became very much like a soap opera toward the end, but, if so, it was some of the best melodrama that one could ever hope to see. What buoyed it is the incredible performance from Davis who since the show started won an Oscar, an Academy Award, proving how amazing an actress she is. She elevated the material into the stratosphere and beyond. The emotional beats that she hit out the park, even in the very final scenes, will move you to tears and to catharsis unlike any other can or has. She made the show what it was, but she was backed up by an equally talented cast, including Liza Weil, Charlie Weber, Aja Naomi King, Jack Falahee, Karla Souza, Billy Brown, Conrad Ricamora and Amirah Vann.

Rated TV-14
Running Time: 1 hr.

Available on Hulu and Netflix.