HTGAWM: "We're Not Friends" & "Whack-a-Mole"
Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 11:59AM It's true. I didn't quit How To Get Away With Murder as intended. The people have spoken and the last writeup was so popular that I kept watching. But writing about it is harder when it's not being porny and forcing my hand and, um, jaw (see: previously on...)
"We're Not Friends" & "Whack-a-Mole"
It's two episodes in one post, a survival tactic. Manuel will be handling the next while I'm in LA, bless him for his sacrifice.
These latest two eppys huff and puff and cry and scream and the first at least is so (typically) hysteric that it has a jury picking montage with frenzied strobelight-editing set to housemusic from the 90s (I half expected Viola Davis to start pivoting and jacking while shouting "excuse" and "accept" and "dismiss for cause" at each potential juror.) Amidst all the heightened emotion the two rawest expression of feeling came in scenes between Annalise and soon-to-be-dead husband Sam. Their scenes together crackle in a way that little else on the show does which does not bode well for Season 2, unless they go supernatural and keep Tom Verica on as a ghost. Pretty please?! You're always jumping the shark when every character is a shark anyway and it's not like they're concerned with Ivy League or Legal accuracy.
These two scenes with have promising Emmy-seeking character moments, though they're a potentia mine field of regressive gender politics. In 'Not Friends' Annalise implies that she was once like the murdered student, a student her husband picked up "weak, broken ... a mess that he had to clean up" and in 'Whack-a-Mole' she delivers a pathetic but wholly human refrain of "I need you"
So...um... [cue Celine power ballad] she's everything she is because he loved her???
As beautiful as these moments are, it's hard to reconcile them with the rest of her characterization unless she's playing a long game and all these emotionally overwrought scenes are actually revealing an extremely neurotic escapee mental patient who is just barely keeping it together, only her magic business suits containing the spillage (her "broken and weak" freakouts are always with the characters she's sexually involved with which is ... interesting?).
But the bitchy Annalise we love resurfaces for a weirdly quiet catfight between Viola and Paris Gellar about Sam, the husband who shares his penis with everyone BUT Paris, the one who wants it most.
Don't you dare say you did it for me. Because we both know which person in this house you did it for and it wasn't me."
The case of the week in "Not Friends" is about a blogger who killed his dad to protect his mom from frequent abuse. It's boring though I'm always amused when blogging is a plot point in tv or movies. As usual those meddling kids solve it through something called "jury nullification" while Annalise collects the big paychecks. The only thing I'm worried is being nullified on this show is Viola Davis' reputation. Not that she doesn't have great moments on the show. In addition to the two scenes already name-checked there's a superbly exhausted but taunting and condescending exchange with her husband about where he was the night of the dead girl's murder...
Game face now"
These two episodes are suddenly without Gay Guy's sexcapades. Which I suppose is okay since Connor had threatened to swipe the show in total but he does manage to share his Grindr screen name "8isGreat" with the the team.
And Grindr does help the team with this case - no for real - which instantly made me think of all those moments in movies where people drink Diet Coke or what not and hold the can just so so that you can read the name of the budget's sponsor.
These two episodes are light on sex scenes so Connor did nothing to our asses to make our eyes water.
Without Connor taking up so much room Annalise gets more screen time (sweet relief) though the show does still find a way to be about the studentzzz. Laurel and Asher are the focuses of these two episodes as we learn more about Laurel's sex life (... excuse me character via a quickie with Hot Indian Boyfriend and contradictory Past and Future Flash Forward stuff with Annalises' Errand Boy) and Asher's history as Ivy League Trust Fund Baby. He's the spawn of a judge he thought was upstanding. Since this is the show it is, it turns out his Daddy is a horrifically compromised person. (It's weird watching this episode and knowing that this is what McGorry gave up Orange is the New Black for. We all make mistakes.)
It's probably too early in the show's run for them to course correct and stop focusing on Wes (Alfred Enoch) so we get a couple of showdowns with Annalise over the dead girl's phone and the soon-to-be-dead husband's penis pics on the phone in question. Naturally one of these showdowns occurs while Wes is freshly showered. Not complaining since I'd rather look at that then acting happening in his face area.
As for my Pettiest Pet Peeve about the show...
I was stunned that Annalise, who has hundreds of students but only ever notices the five that have series regular contracts, actually calls on a random student we haven't seen before. But the merciless overlords behind HTGAWM deny this young actor a SAG card and we cut away before seeing his face or hearing a line. Argh. Why don't they just film these scenes with hundreds of cardboard cutouts with hands raised? It would give the show a welcome satiric wink at its own fraudulent nonsense.
I leave you with this GIF set of Viola...
These are not actually clips from the show but a wordless meta short film in which Viola Davis was kind enough to play me, Nathaniel. It's called Blogger Watching 'How To Get Away With Murder' Knowing He Has To Write About It Afterwards. Her mimicry is flawless. And, yes, the booze helps.
Reader Comments (10)
I'm not watching, got exhausted after one episode. But I'd like to know is there enough to see Viola giving GG/SAG/Emmy acceptance speeches? Because I'm sure that would be much better TV than this show.
And those gifs are fantastic.
LOL Booze does help.
I will be surprised if Davis isn't nominated for SAG (I think the nominating committees have already started voting--those announcements are soon, very soon and she is a BIG name), but I will be very surprised if she wins. The writing is so terrible that even her talent can't surpass it.
Depending on whether it is considered comedy or drama (I find the show hysterical), I would think Marguilies, Leoni, Davis and Washington are the only network leads in drama to have a shot at a nomination.
I did think we had possibilities of exploring fetishes in the last ep when trust fund baby started humping his couch, but then it got really boring. Not even a replay of the Midnight Express scene with the glass at the prison. So many missed opportunities on every level for this missed opportunity.
hahaha yes. love the ending.
This show is such enjoyable trash! I love it SO. MUCH. And Viola is so much better than the show deserves that in those moments she kicks the show into overdrive, moving it so far past so-bad-it's-good that it circles all the way back around to just-plain-good again. I will admit that I have absolutely no clue what's going on with the show's big two murder plots, but most of the time it's so ridiculous that it just makes me laugh. They're clearly just making it up as they go, and it's weirdly entertaining to watch.
Also the fake Grindr thing was HILARIOUS.
This show is such enjoyable trash! I love it SO. MUCH. And Viola is so much better than the show deserves that in those moments she kicks the show into overdrive, moving it so far past so-bad-it's-good that it circles all the way back around to just-plain-good again. I will admit that I have absolutely no clue what's going on with the show's big two murder plots, but most of the time it's so ridiculous that it just makes me laugh. They're clearly just making it up as they go, and it's weirdly entertaining to watch.
Also the fake Grindr thing was HILARIOUS.
Re: SAG Awards. Submissions have ended so all is in if it's going to be in (this is why many late opening films fail to have nominations--they miss the boat). Nominations will be announced on Dec. 10th (5 weeks away). The other possible spoilers I see in the drama actress category are Maslany and Henson, which, (in Henson's case) all depends on whether Empire got tapes out to the nominating committee If she is half as hot as the trailer makes her look, she could be the hottest thing going into voting.
Essentially this show for me is only Viola and Connor. I find myself fast-forwarding whenever either of them aren't onscreen.
Hmmm! Nobody can do pain face like Viola!
Love Viola Davis to death. Sad she's stuck in this shitty "hit" series for however many years. I haven't seen an Emmy tape for her yet though.
Maybe this is hypocritical to say, but I want a spinoff series starring Elizabeth Perkins lol. Best I've seen from her since "Weeds," and what else is she doing now?
Wait, is McGorry not returning to OITNB? His storyline definitely stalled in season 2 but is also just starting to go somewhere.