How To Get Away With Murder Review: We’re Good People Now (Season 3 Episode 1)
On How to Get Away With Murder Season 3 Episode 1, we catch up with Annalise and the Murder Babies and their fun-time summer vacation activities, as they return to class ready to get back to their normal, stress-free routine.
Haha. Just kidding.
This episode is the feeling you get when you and a friend have a big fight before they leave to Spain for the summer, and that friend comes back and you don’t remember why you’re mad, and you’re still mad, but still talk to them anyway.
“We’re Good People Now” looks to be a course correction of the main problem from last season: a deluge of melodrama.
A number of shows that once relied on Case-of-the-Week episodes have become more serialized as time went on, shifting the focus to longer, character-driven story arcs, oftentimes for the betterment of the show’s narrative and ratings.
That isn’t the case with How To Get Away With Murder.
In Season 2, the show dropped all their cases for the Hapstall murders and went from a genuinely interesting, nail-biting week-by-week romp with an underlying arc to a dragging season-long case where each staff writer was competing for the most tweet-worthy moment. The characters were wandering around ruining their souls instead of going to class, Viola Davis spent most of her time sulkily earning her Emmy nomination, and Famke Janssen was… well, no, she was pretty amazing, actually.
Within the first act, like a snake screams off sheds its skin, “We’re Good People Now” tosses aside last year’s plot lines and gets right back to where we want to be: with the characters and the courtroom.
Once Annalise and Wes finish their little vocal warm-up in the woods and Frank completes his devastating buzzcut-and-run act, we’re immediately chyronned to FOUR MONTHS LATER. There’s still some bad blood dripping off Wes’ face, but for the most part, everything seems to be buried and forgotten. At last, we move on.
After being promoted laterally for last year’s… issues, Annalise now leads a class of toddler lawyers, giving them the opportunity to try cases on their own. There’s still competition, but the trophy here is experience (much harder to whack someone over the head with that).
Granted, the case of the week, while heartbreaking, is ultimately uninteresting, a footnote with little bearing on any of the characters’ emotional arcs.
This, however, does leave more time to explore their arcs apart from the larger group: Connor and Oliver’s fight about not fighting, Laurel’s lingering stares at Wes, Michaela’s self-destructive and unrelenting ambition, and Doucheboo’s struggle with suddenly being poor and asking Annalise for help.
All of these scenes are immensely enjoyable and intensely quiet, something this show hasn’t seen in a while. In fact, this episode is too positive. So positive, I almost had more anxiety waiting for the other shoe to drop than I did worrying about Viola Davis’ wig.
That being said, How to Get Away With Murder would not have its title if this were a world of shiny, happy people NOT murdering anybody. The other shoe finally drops in the last two scenes where Put-that-beard-back-from-where-it-came-from-so-help-me Frank takes down Annalise’s P.I. and a mysterious dead body is pulled from Annalise’s home, now with a nifty new skylight.
Judging by Annalise’s reaction to both, this season is going to be fire. (Whomp whomp.)
Vodka, No Chasers:
- The premiere answered all the damn questions from last season’s finale except the last: Who Shot Wallace Mahoney? Are we supposed to believe it was Frank?
- Which gives us this episode’s most ridiculous/funny exchange: “Frank did this for me.” “You asked him to shoot my father??”
- Ironically, I think Annalise is the only one who hasn’t murdered anybody. Who’s posting these “killer” flyers? Is it someone we know?
- It was fun to see these kids being carefree for a bit, sitting back, drinking whack-ass mojitos with unmuddled mint, and studying. Like normal law students.
- “Why are you always stalking me?”
- Annalise is right: Oliver’s already crossed that threshold, but there are still worse ones to cross. Is Oliver really going to become the next Asher?
- Billy Brown and Charlie Weber are contractually obligated to have their shirts off once per episode. Don’t research it; just trust me.
- Connor’s reaction to Oliver’s betrayal was a bit muted and slightly terrifying. He’s gone from fire pit of anger to dead inside. Is this depression or is this a quiet rage biding its time?
- Bonnie was background this episode. Suspicious.
- Meggy is #blackgirlmagic on a bike and if they hurt her, there WILL be a fist fight.
So many questions! What did you think of this episode of How to Get Away With Murder‘s Season 3 premiere? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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How to Get Away With Murder airs Thursday at 9pm on ABC.
James A. Windley
James A. Windley, Writer, Virgo, Loaded couch potato. James' love of television began at the intersection when Saturday morning cartoons met to Xena: Warrior Princess syndications, and his head has been a mess ever since. He loves superheroes, drama (in life, not television), and misses when very special episodes were a thing.