Here's Manuel taking over How To Get Away With Murder Recap duties for the next two weeks.
Is it is me or was this the first wholly uninteresting HTGAWM episode yet? And might that have to do with the fact that we were focused on arguably the least fascinating character on the show, Rebecca Sutter? I can’t tell whether her schizophrenic characterization (is she wily or is she broken? is she indifferent or just cooly in control?) is an intentional if badly executed performance choice or a result of the show’s fragmented storyline which depends on withholding information in order to propel narrative tension from week to week. I’d recommend its writers watch every season of Damages to see how to use flashbacks to keep audiences guessing (and how to build tension by refracting known information rather than continually serving up new revelations) but it’s clear that HTGAWM is sadly constricted by its by-the-week network formula.
And so, with that said, watch me tackle this week’s episode with an attempt to break down said formula so you too can write your own HTGAWM spec script! (Beware, spoilers and a slightly NSFW gif ahead)
How To Write Your Very Own How To Get Away With Murder Episode (#HTWYVOHTGAWM) in 20 Steps or Less!
1. Recap for those who’ve missed the show and who’ll undoubtedly be lost even when your characters continually explain things that happened between commercial breaks (that is, when flashbacks aren’t unecessarily underlining obvious connections)
2. Bonfire scene.
3. Have Viola yell at a someone (“You slut white trash killer, you made Griffin strangle that girl on the roof, you liked watching her die, because that’s the piece of garbage you are!”; line of the night; things can only go downhill from here)
4. Continue to assume the audience cares about your least developed character (Rebecca) and her inexplicable relationship with ‘puppy’ Wes.
5. Give Rebecca several scenes where we’re supposed to be left wondering whether she’s a wounded bird, a conniving fox, or merely a girl fond of vacant expressions but instead make us question her changing hairstyle and wardrobe choices.
6. Give Viola a delicious line to chew on (She’s able to sell even the most cliche-ridden lines like “Speak of the devil and she shall appear,” no?)
7. Realize that Connor is your best character and give him a C-plot storyline (“Wow, and I thought I was a slut!” is the type of cheesy, soapy, scrumptious line that suggests its writers know what it is that works so well in this show) that ends in… (see #14)
8. Insert requisite classroom scene where Viola only addresses her Keating 5 students and provides exposition for how she’ll be tackling the Case of the Week (which today coincides with the Season-long Mystery as we’re following the Rebecca case and the possibility of exhuming Lyla’s body; might those marks on Lyla’s neck be Rebecca’s fingernails?)
9. Resort to turning your scripted show into an inadvertent Reality TV Show competition where the Keating 5 yet again battle it out for a prize. Will Connor’s seduction win again? Will Asher’s connections come on top? Will Wes’s naivete woo the judges? Will Laurel’s soft-spoken demeanor earn her points? Will Michaela’s determination pay off? Tune in every week to see the five Keating household guests duke it out for a chance at HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLL…. Oh wait, wrong show. Though, face it, you’d kill for the chance to hear Viola say “And may the best wo-man, win!”
10. Flash forward.
11. Have Viola work around legal and ethical minefields to get her way (perhaps with an obstacle or two!)
12. Show us a vulnerable Viola (preferably in the company of a man; her ex-lover or her husband will do)
13. Flashforward
14. ...a gratuitous* gay sex scene (not complaining!)
15. Gratuitous* interracial sex scene (Bonus: intercut that with... an autopsy? I have to admit, that was probably the most surprising part of this episode; whether it has any narrative or stylistic significance beyond “cool? I guess” is debatable though)
16. Remember that Connor is your most well-rounded character and continue giving him more depth even as you play into his Brian Kinney-esque qualities (I wasn't the only one who had a flashback to this, was I?). Will him and Olive(r) get back together? Who’s that hunky dude at Oliver’s apartment? Inquiring minds want to know and wish Connor's spin-off were announced already.
17. Match up yet another pair of your current roster of characters because in the high-powered world of lawyering, nothing is hotter than illicit sex. Yes, the Laurel/Frank pairing is less surprising than the one that closed last week’s ep, especially because it’s been hinted at since the pilot, but it still reeks of mere plot development (also, can one show really only muster one type of coupling: the knave and the maiden?)
18. End with a revelation (Lyla was gasp! pregnant) that! will! change! everything! (Until next week, of course).
* Maybe not wholly gratuitous as both serve to establish some character development (or lack thereof).
Presumably, we’ll learn who killed Lyla soon, though the show has been working dutifully at putting a big X on you-know-who ever since the first episode so unless they’ve been Red Herring us all along, I don’t see where the mystery lies (the motive, perhaps?). There are so many things that have potential here (Connor, the brief witty repartee between Rebecca, Michaela and Laurel, Viola, of course, the racial and cultural politics at the heart of many of the show’s standout moments), but the show is needlessly bogged by its own iron-clad conceit (the class, the case-of-the-week, the season-long mystery) that it ends up robbing the narrative of any heft. I’m curious what will happen once we catch up with the bonfire night and whether we’ll see the show shed some of its baggage and tighten its focus.
Am I being much too harsh on what is arguably one of the most diverse, hot-button-pushing network shows in recent memory? Do you also wish Jack Falahee (Connor) had his own spin-off that would basically be a Queer as Folk meets The Practice via Shondaland productions?