Coping with TGIT Withdrawal: 8 Reasons to Watch ‘How To Get Away With Murder’

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about ABC’s new show-stopping series, How To Get Away With Murder. Shonda Rhimes dominates Thursday nights with back to back to back Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away with Murder; a lineup that ABC has fondly dubbed ‘Thank God It’s Thursday’. And thank God indeed! If you’re not already hooked on the new legal drama, here are eight reasons why you should definitely binge on the series before it returns on January 29th.

1) Annalise Keating

Meet your main character, Professor Keating. I’m pretty sure the song ‘Boss Ass Bitch’ was written exclusively about her. Just saying. She’s a high profile attorney who teaches lectures for hundreds of students in her spare time. In her few hours off, she splits her nights between her murderous husband and smoking hot lover. Her moral fiber might be in question, but like I said, she’s a total boss.

2) The New Legally Blonde

The first thing I thought when I saw this pilot promo back in April was that it looked a hell of a lot like a more diverse version of Legally Blonde. A select group of first year law students interning for a criminal defense attorney on a murder case? Yeah, that’s basically a straight rip-off of Elle Woods, right down to the underdog main character. Not to worry though, the episodic nature of the show, plus the personal stakes each character has in the Lila murder bring out a new dynamic in an otherwise old story.

3) Gryffindor!

Okay, okay, he’s not our adorable Gryffindor, Dean Thomas anymore. He doesn’t even have a British accent! Actually, his American one is so flawless that I often don’t even expect him to throw out an Expelliarmus! in the middle of the courtroom.

4) The Shooting Star

You’ll have to watch the show to get the above reference, but needless to say, Michaela is just one of the greatest things about How To Get Away With Murder as a whole. She oscillates between the totally panicked priss and the calm and collected operator, and watching her snap back and forth between the two is endlessly entertaining.

5) Who Killed Lila?

The central mystery at the heart of the show is the on-campus murder of Lila Stangard, an adorable but racy sorority girl. Was it the boyfriend? The best friend? The professor she was having an affair with who just so happens to be married to a criminal defense attorney? Yeah… I don’t think you need three guesses to figure that one out.

6) Our Heroes

The kids take up a large chunk of the main cast, and they are simultaneously the funniest and most dramatic aspects of the show. Let me tell you, Harry, Ron, and Hermione have nothing on the shenanigans that this study group gets into on a regular basis.

Watch How to Get Away With Murder Season 1

7) The Time Jumps

In all seriousness, the way that the story of this show gets told is really masterful. We’re constantly jumping back and forth between the team’s first semester of law school, and the night of the campus bonfire where they frantically try to cover up a murder they’ve just committed. I won’t spoil who they’ve killed or ‘who done it’, so to speak, but it’s this amazing mashup of timelines that creates a totally unique feel to the series.

8) Representation

It’s no surprise that as a Shonda Rhimes show, How To Get Away With Murder has an incredibly diverse set of characters. There is no heterosexual white-washing going on here. My favorite character would definitely have to be Connor, the openly – and I mean OPENLY – gay student, who uses his sex appeal to his advantage. Often. There’s no insecurity or ‘coming out of the closet’ story for him. Instead, he’s a refreshingly confidant young man, who gets along just fine with the ultra-hetero frat guy character (fondly dubbed Doucheface). It’s a great dynamic between them, even if it is a little too belligerent to be called a friendship.

How To Get Away With Murder Returns Thursday, January 29th at 10/9c on ABC.