ARTS & CULTURE
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 15
TV L Rev
A bi-weekly roundup of legal television
Week of 1 october – 16 October
henry limheung › staff writer
my prediction is that the sister did it.
Also, HTGAWM continues to kill it with its flashforwards that bookend the episodes (pun-intended).
Episode Grades
according to the Osgoode Bell Curve
A
B+
B+
B+
B
B
B
B
C
C
The Good Wife (Episode 1)
The Grinder (Episode 2)
htgawm (Episode 2)
l&o:svu (Episode 1+2)
The Grinder (Episode 3)
The Good Wife (Episode 2)
l&o:svu (Episode 3)
htgawm (Episode 4)
htgawm (Episode 3)
l&o:svu (Episode 4)
W
elc ome to t v L Rev, a bi-weekly
review column of scripted legal
television shows currently airing.
Because of the volume of TV that comes
out every two weeks, I’ll be focusing my review of
only one episode per series that airs during the week.
However, all aired episodes in the timeframe will be
ranked at the end.
Minor spoilers for How to Get Away with Murder,
The Good Wife, Law and Order: SVU, and The
Grinder below.
How To Get Away With Murder
Airs: Thursday, 10pm – CTV; ABC
The Pitch:
Intimidating law professor and criminal defence
lawyer Annalise Keating hires a bunch of her first
year law students to help out her firm, but the legal
lessons become practical as they become a little too
involved in a murder case of their own.
Episode 2 – She’s Dying
What I appreciate about HTGAWM is its forward
momentum. Instead of drawing out the storyline
of Nate’s trial, Annalise’s extramarital lover and
the person she has framed for the murder of her
husband, the story resolves itself in this episode. That
said, HTGAWM suffers from a bloated cast, whose
members unfortunately don’t all pull the same weight
in terms of being interesting; fortunately this episode
focuses on the more interesting ones in Annalise and
Connor, and occasionally Wes.
We also see the continuing of the Hapsdal murder
story, which has a pair of adopted siblings accused
of brutally killing their wealthy adoptive parents.
While clearly it will be an ongoing plot this season,
it is the most boring of the storylines so far. Anyway,
Law and Order: SVU
Airs: Wednesday, 9:00pm – CTV Two;
NBC
The Pitch:
Sexually-based offences are especially heinous;
the stories of the police and district attorneys that
investigate and prosecute these crimes.
The Law & Order series is what first got me interested
in law. It used to be you couldn’t turn on the TV
without bumping into L&O or one of its spin-offs.
Today, only SVU remains as the last standing,
entering its 17th season. While I’ve seen my fair
share of SVU, I haven’t kept up with the most recent
seasons so I was surprised to see the changeup to
the cast and their roles. Detective Benson (Mariska
Hargitay) is now Sergeant, Fin (Ice-T) is still there
(though someone I can’t look at the same after
seeing comedian’s John Mulaney’s bit about Ice-T’s
character), Detective Rollins (Kelly Giddish) plays the
junior detective to the team, and relative newcomer
Detective Carisi (Peter Scanavino) rounds out the
“Order” side, with irascible ADA Barba (Raul Esparza)
on the “Law” side.
The “ripped from the headlines” plots keep the
show topical (early episodes cover the Durst affair,
transgender hate crimes, and police shootings of
unarmed young black men) despite the tendency of
SVU to veer into afterschool special territory. I won’t
go into depth given SVU is in its 17th season, and
you’re either a fan or you’re not, but the early episodes
this season has SVU on good form if you’re into the
not-so-subtle social commentary and melodrama (I
swear the second episode with the transgender hate
crime storyline has non-stop emotional swell music
playing V