Genre: Thriller/ Drama/ Crime
Number of episodes: 15
Year: 2016
Starring: Viola Davis, Billy Brown, Charlie Weber, Jack Falahee, Aja Naomi King, Liza Weil, Karla Souza, Alfred Enoch, Matt McGorry, Conrad Ricamora, Famke Janssen
Description: A group of ambitious law students and their brilliant criminal defense professor become involved in a twisted murder plot that promises to change the course of their lives.
Review: Now that the murder of Lila Stangard has been solved you would think that everything is fine with the 'Keating Five'. Nothing could be further from the truth because with the disappearance of Rebecca Sutter, Wes' girlfriend and prime suspect of Lila's murder, everyone has to deal with a new problem. Annalise Keating has the difficult task of solving this problem again before the situation gets out of hand.
Just like during the first season there is again a mystery of which we get to see pieces of the puzzle via flashforwards. The first nine episodes are mainly about the Hapstall case that revolves around the murder of the adoptive parents of Caleb and Catherine Hapstall. A case that is complicated in itself, were it not for the fact that a flashforward shows that eventually Annalise herself will also be involved in this case. While the team is busy with the Hapstall family, Connor tries to revive his relationship by moving in with Oliver. A decision that will eventually cause Oliver to become more and more involved in shady cases, with all its consequences. The second part of this season focuses on Wes and the death of his mother ten years ago, with flashbacks we as viewers soon realize that there is much more behind it than was known so far.
This season, there are again a number of important guest roles that reinforce the story. We see Dutch actress Famke Janssen as lawyer Eve Rothlo, an old acquaintance of Annalise. Cicely Tyson is also present again as Annalise's mother Ophelia. These admittedly small roles add value to the story and show how much the makers value the quality of the show.
This second season we learn more about the past of Asher and Bonnie. The home situation of policeman Nate Lahey will also be discussed. Mysteries are plentiful, sometimes even to such an extent that it is difficult as a viewer to remember exactly what whoever has done. Whether this is the strength or the weakness of the series is something I haven't figured out yet. “How To Get Away With Murder” tells a story you really have to keep your head and regularly creates unexpected events and scenes. At a certain point, however, it's all a bit far-fetched. When is enough, enough? A lot of bizarre coincidence and it becoming less credible.
When it comes to the characters, I only like Laurel. She seems to be the only one that has a conscience or any sense of justice. It’s really hard for me to watch a series that has no characters that I really sympathize with. All of them commit crimes, doing everything to cover it up, get away with it (as the title says), have sex with each other (because that solves EVERYTHING) and move. And everyone is crazy loyal to Annalise, no matter what she does to them. And there are a lot of shows where criminals have a major role, like Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in “Breaking Bad” of the entire crew of “Sons of Anarchy”. But because of their strong character build-up, you can relate or even sympathize with them, even if they are criminals.
You can't tell much about “How To Get Away With Murder” without giving away spoilers. It’s still an okay series to watch, but as I stated before, it’s difficult to watch if you have no one to really relate to. I will probably not going to continue to watch “How to Get Away with Murder”.
