wishes

What Should Happen Next Season on How to Get Away With Murder

Who’s ready for more murders? I know I am. Photo: Mitch Haaseth/ABC

How to Get Away With Murder has had quite a banner freshman season. It’s as buzzy as buzzy gets, Viola Davis’s performance has been superb, plus the show got to pioneer network television’s discussions about analingus. Oddly, the show has still not officially been renewed for a second season yet, even though Davis has tweeted that season two is in the works and ABC has every reason to want to keep the show around. Let’s assume for our purposes that HTGAWM will be back for a second season, and that tonight’s finale is just a season and not a series closer. (It’s a safe, safe bet. Fear not.) What could another season of the show look like? Here are a few suggestions.

Get rid of everyone except Viola Davis.
Annalise is obviously the most interesting character on the show, and Davis is by far the most engaging cast member. “Annalise hits the road” is already a way more thrilling option than “everyone is still thinking about that time they murdered someone.” The show is not called How to Dwell on a Murder, folks.

Okay, a few people can stay.
Paris from Gilmore Girls can stay. Connor can stay, but only because Connor’s boyfriend Oliver is the second-best character on the show. (If he had a spinoff web series called How to Get Away With Computer Things, I would at least sample some episodes.) Asher can stay because he is the comic relief, and also because Paris deserves a little action here and there. But that’s it! Everybody else, thank you for your time.

Have Annalise train a bunch more murderers.
What if this murder gave her a taste for blood, so she establishes a for-hire vigilante service, each year picking a handful of eager students and then manipulating them into committing a horrible crime? Fun! Every season, a throng of 1Ls does her bidding, and she of course finds a way to shield them from any legal ramifications, though they will obviously carry this monstrous burden for the rest of their lives. Across America, many of our most powerful, brilliant lawyers are secretly part of a grotesque secret cabal of murderers. “Oh, you went to Middleton for law school?” [Looks person up and down.] “Did you have Professor Keating?” [Assess for signs of despair.] “I was a Keating Five when I was in her class …” [It’s okay to talk to me about our shared history of murder.]

Give us a season-long flashback.
No other future murders will have the dramatic weight of killing Annalise’s husband. This is one of the lessons the show can take from Damages: You’ll never have a story line quite so resonant, so don’t pretend you do. (What if Annalise got married again? And then … that … husband also was murdered? No.) We know how Annalise and Sam’s story ends, and we learned last week that their relationship started when he was her therapist. I want to watch that unfold. Imagine a bottle episode with Tom Verica and Viola Davis in a therapy session turned seduction session. Yes.

Let’s follow Michaela’s wedding story.
Just kidding, no one cares about your stupid wedding, Michaela.

What Should Happen Next Season on HTGAWM