This week marked the return of even more network shows and the premieres of a number of highly-anticipated pilots. The string of strong season premieres kicked off on Sunday with an episode of The Good Wife that took a turn no one expected, as Cary ended up in jail with no easy release on the horizon. Monday featured another fun episode of Dancing with the Stars and the first part of a two-night premiere for the engaging new series Forever (starring the almost criminally charming Ioan Gruffudd). New Girl and The Mindy Project both aired their second episodes on Tuesday, with the former introducing Jess to the stress of online dating and the latter introducing Mindy and us to Danny’s ma. Wednesday’s series premiere of Black-ish was very strong, and the season premiere of Nashville was filled with more drama than ever. And Thursday’s night of Shonda Rhimes shows included a fast-paced episode of Scandal and the incredibly compelling series premiere of How to Get Away with Murder.
It was wonderful to have an abundance of shows to watch and an abundance of moments to choose from for the best of the week. However, my pick for the best of the best isn’t just one moment but an hour’s worth of new moments from my favorite pilot of the season so far: How to Get Away with Murder. Everything about this pilot clicked: It had a very defined style (which I expected from one of Rhimes’s shows), it featured so many twists and turns that it left me breathless, and its characters all have much more meat to them than most pilot characters. Add to all of those things the magnetic performance of Viola Davis and one heck of an episode-ending cliffhanger, and there’s no way I’m missing this show for the foreseeable future.
What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?
Nerdy Girl Notes 
I loved HTGAWM too! The tone was unlike the other shows I watch but it was really interesting and intense in a good way. I love that it seems we’ll have a couple mysteries as a whole-season (or at least half-season) arc that will be in little scenes in the background of each episode, as well as whatever the main case is every week. I’m super curious to see how everything turns out and I love that the show is fast-paced enough that I really feel like I have to pay attention or I’ll get lost – it feels like a very smart show. I also can’t wait to learn more about the backstory of all the characters, especially Michaela Pratt. Actually, the only one of the students who I’m not very interested in at the moment is Asher, who appeared to be a jerk in most of his scenes if I’m remembering him correctly.
Also I want to give the show props for having a cast on primetime TV that has multiple people of color and a character who appears to be gay (or at least not straight), and not making it the focal point of their character. I’m really excited to see a more diverse cast of complex characters on my TV screen every week!
I’m so happy you loved this pilot, too, because I’m going to need people to talk about this show with every week, and I always love talking about good TV with you. I also agree with your appreciation for the diversity on the show. It’s a wonderful mix of complex characters who are more than their race or gender or sexuality, and I’m looking forward to seeing them all develop even more fully.
I watched HTGAWM too! I just happened to catch almost all of it without any specific intention. I’ve never watched a Shonda Rhimes show but I liked it! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to continue watching it (darn marital tv schedule negotiations…) but I would be happy to watch the whole series. I also checked out 2 other new/new to me shows – I watched my first episode of Sleepy Hollow which was OK (everybody talking about the fish out of temporal water/man out of time trope finally got to me but I think I would need to see it from the beginning). And I saw a rerun of Gotham, which seemed pretty cool too. I’m pretty sure that conflicts with a hubby show though, so unless they do Friday reruns forever I’m not going to be able to continue watching that.
I’m glad you found time to try out some new shows this week! If you aren’t able to catch HTGAWM while it’s airing this season, I will say that Shonda Rhimes shows are basically made for binge-watching because they’re so fast-paced and addicting. Also, ABC often airs reruns of Shonda shows at random times since even reruns of her shows get great ratings.
Good to know!
I’m cheating and picking 3 moments by one character for my best thing of the week. All of the Mellie moments on Scandal were fantastic. “Fight the power, baby” and “it’s 1976 down there” made me laugh and but all of them made me want to wrap Mellie in a hug and never let her go. She’s so done with her role as First Lady and anything that might come with that, including Fitz. So of course she was hilarious, because that’s just how unfiltered Mellie is but there was so much pain behind everything she said and did too. That scene at his grave where she just lay down on top of it was beautifully sad and showed what she’s going through. Fitz has clearly thrown himself into the job and actually seems like he’s doing a good job for once but she can’t do that. She can’t put on the happy face and pretend to care anymore because politics and this job have taken so much from her and she just doesn’t have anything left to give.
I cannot believe I almost missed a chance to fangirl over Mellie Grant because my notification for this got lost in my email! 😉 When it comes to Mellie, you are allowed to pick as many moments as humanly possible because they’re always perfection. I totally agree that she somehow managed to both hilarious and absolutely heartbreaking at the same time. Bellamy Young is so good at showing the pain that lies behind Mellie’s exterior in every moment. Like you said, she can’t throw herself into politics the way Fitz can; she has no outlet for her pain and nothing left to give. I’m really looking forward to seeing where they’re going to go with her character this season because whatever is going to happen, I know it’s going to be portrayed so well.