‘How To Get Away With Murder’ is a bonafide hit

theGRIO REPORT - The momentum behind ABC's new hit, 'How To Get Away With Murder' is going strong....

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

Last week, Shonda Rhimes and company broke records with their new show, How To Get Away With Murder. In the ABC drama, Viola Davis plays Annalise Keating, a shamelessly acerbic attorney and law professor who recruits a group of her students to work for her.

It’s no surprise that millions tuned in to see if this new offering could measure up to Scandal’s epic success. And Scandal fans still got their usual dose of fast paced editing, urgent dialogue and twisted plot lines. But that’s where the similarities end. While Olivia spent her first couple seasons enmeshed in a steamy love triangle – Annalise apparently has bigger fish to fry; specifically, her soon-to-be deceased husband.

Halfway through the premiere, the show revealed itself as a modern day “Howdunit,” complete with flash forwards of a murder that will clearly keep us on our toes all season.

Executive producer Pete Nowalk told Entertainment Weekly:

I love everyone creating their own theories. Some of [the clues] we’ve planted intentionally, a lot of them are subtle Easter eggs of suspicion for the audience, and some of them we didn’t plant and people are still seeing them. I’m hoping people really get into the details and subtleties of the show, and they might even want to watch certain episodes twice or watch those flash-forwards again because they’re all very specific and detailed and full of little clues.

So far, Norwalk’s plan to engage viewers is working. The last time people got this excited about a murder mystery drama series with a female lead was Murder She Wrote; although I don’t remember Jessica Fletcher ever having a steamy oral sex scene on top of her desk.

In one exchange, Davis’s character desperately points out to her lover, “We’re all capable of terrible things!” And that statement seems to be the thesis of this show and part of what makes it such a well-executed spectacle. All the characters are messy. Moral lines are blurred and viewers are often left grappling to figure out who to root for.

So far, Annalise Keating is less of an Olivia Pope knockoff and more like Dr. House; brilliant, deeply flawed and at times unscrupulous. Luckily, Davis has the chops to pull off being a female anti-hero without coming across as an “angry black woman.” Her only misstep is that horrible wig they’ve put her in.

If the writers were looking for a formula for addictive TV, they seem to have found it. Last night’s ethically challenged second episode had social media in a frenzy, with many viewers already declaring how hooked they were to the storyline.

Looks like ABC officially has another hit on its hands.

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