3 out of 5

Created by: Peter Nowalk

Is it trashy entertainment?  Is it a legitimate mystery?  Some might tell you that it’s a Shonda Rhimes project and leave it at that.  And there’s validity to that description, as the show hits its viewer with a similar frank sensationalism that might be familiar from ‘Scandal,’ but once it made its presence known, ‘Murder’ settles down into a sexed and dramaed up legal procedural light that manages to catch you out with twists more often than it should and wrangles its leads – Viola Davis as teacher / lawyer Analise Keating, Alfred Enoch as Wes, one of her students – through some well effected ‘How will they get out of this?’ moments and eventually developed character nuances.  But the core mystery – a murder – is just a continual wave of the writerly hand, dealing out red herrings and distractions by the handful – and yes, it is pretty trash.  And yes, it is pretty damn entertaining.  From the get-go, through a somewhat obnoxious (and later downplayed) rewind-the-scene device, we’re filled in on some pieces of a larger puzzle, where a group of Analise’s students have blood on their hands tied to that central death, but what keeps it from feeling too drawn out is that the show is pretty honest about its intentions to be catty: every character is duplicitous, and moments are purposefully stacked on top of one another to make us asking questions leading to the next scene.  It’s fast paced, everyone plays a purposeful role in events, and once every episode or so some b.s. law-ing will happen that sounds smart and makes us smile.  Now having earned its second season, though, the test will be how long the writers can actually play out this dance routine.  But regardless, ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ delivered a solid 15 episode season of popcorn entertainment, and while other shows are trying to earn their bones by building some huge mythology, it was fun to watch something that was clearly just about keeping you watching.