Girls (and boys too!), grab your friends and a bottle of wine and skip Thirsty Thursday, because its back-to-back-to-back shows by Shonda Rhimes on ABC Thursday nights; there’s almost nothing that can compete with that. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch Grey’s Anatomy now that Cristina is gone, but I am definitely keeping up with Scandal and the newest show by Shonda: How to Get Away with Murder.
How To Get Away With Murder
Talk about starting off with a bang. Although, I’ve come to expect nothing less from Shonda Rhimes, the woman knows how to get your attention. First off, what better woman to play an all knowing, ruthless lawyer/professor then Viola Davis? She is absolutely killing this role so far, including the emotional scenes. One episode in, and this show is already full to the brim with controversy. Not only is Annalise Keating willing to put her boyfriend on the stand, and possibly force him to commit perjury in order to save her guilty client from conviction, but we also are eye witnesses to the cover-up of a murder committed by none other than Keaton’s star students. Overall, I don’t think you can ask for much more in a pilot episode; it’s full of action, drama, mystery, and deceit.
Scandal
First off, can we just acknowledge how beautiful Kerry Washington looked without her hair or makeup done on the beach with Jake? It’s unfair to the rest of us mortals. As far as the rest of the episode, I felt like I was being pulled back and forth the whole time by wanting Olivia to be happy and drinking wine and relaxing with Jake in paradise, but, by the same token, I wanted her to be back in Washington D.C. kicking butt and taking names. Then, when she got back, it seemed like the rest of D.C. felt the same way I did. President Grant and his staff were doing better than ever, but Harrison and Huck were—let’s just say—NOT prospering in Olivia’s absence. Abby, meanwhile, is basically trying to be Olivia, and apparently not living up to the role. So we are left with the question—what should she do? It’s quite clear that the last thing Jake wants is for Olivia to get sucked back into the D.C. lifestyle yet she takes the senators case anyway. Then David out of the blue gets asked to be Attorney General? Where did that come from? And lastly (of course), we are left with a classic Olivia/Fitz scene where the whole world ceases to exist when the two of them cross paths. In my personal opinion, Fitz needs to man up and be a good husband to his traumatized wife and Olivia should stick with Jake because he is the only one who has gone out of his way to protect her best interests.
Scandal airs on ABC on Thursdays at 9 PM. How To Get Away With Murder airs on ABC on Thursdays at 10 PM.