Tag Archives: How To Get Away With Murder

How To Get Away With Murder’s Viola Davis Applauds How Her Character’s Sexuality Is Represented

Academy Award winning actor, Viola Davis – who is famed for playing lawyer and professor Annalise Keating in How To Get Away With Murder – has praised treatment Keating’s sexuality in the show.

Talking E! News, she explained that Keating, who was identified as pansexual by show creator Pete Nowalk, has an “interesting” love life.

I love the idea that she’s just searching for love and intimacy and whoever will give it to her.

I love that it’s not coming from a place of damage and being screwed up because I don’t think it’s screwed up.”

She added that it was a “liberating” role to play.

I think it’s an interesting, liberating thought to just seek the person who is seeking you.

It’s kind of an interesting 21st Century element to place in this character.”

Davis goes on to explain that she hopes Keating can act as inspiration for the LGBT+ community.

I’m at a place where I just want to do anything that is different. And anything that I feel is going to touch people in a way. I think a lot of homosexuals and the LGBT community, they’re kind of feeling like they’re on the outside now and I think it’s wonderful to have a character like that to relate to and is not once again coming from a place of damage but coming from a place of seeking, of really wanting to be loved and love.”

Speaking at GLAAD, Nowalk said that he was “lucky” because his characters are bad.

I got really lucky in not having to make my characters perfect.

Because they’re all bad people. You don’t necessarily have to make them do things that aren’t real.

Viola’s character—we’ve never said, but I think she’s pansexual. She gets to just be bad in all the best ways.

In that way, it’s very liberating to write any LGBTQ character on the show.”

In Real Life, TV Characters Would Be Way More Bisexual

The best part of watching a show is rooting for your favorite characters to get together, even if they’re the same gender. Especially if they’re the same gender. Sometimes, your favorite pairing seems to have a chance – certain shows are notorious for queerbaiting us into thinking that queer pairings are on the horizon. I’m looking at you, Sherlock.

But at the end of the day, those characters never end up together. They either end up with other straight characters or, if they admit they’re gay, they die.

The problem isn’t that there aren’t shows with lesbian characters. There are some, such as Transparent, How to Get Away with Murder, Sense8, and Orange is the New Black. But in many shows, there are the Designated Queer Characters – you know they’re gay, and their gayness is central to their character development (although straight characters’ straightness is never central to their own character development). They either have failed crushes on straight characters or failed romances with Designated Queer Love Interests, who die. I’m looking at you, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

But in real life, people’s sexual identities aren’t always straight lines. They’re fluid. Straight people have gay crushes. Gay people have straight crushes. Straight people have gay experiences but continue to identify as straight. Gay people have straight experiences and continue to identify as gay or queer or bisexual. People experiment with polyamory and threesomes and open relationships.

But in TV shows, straight people are just straight. And gay people are just gay. Unless they’re women, in which case they usually become straight. Or die.

Similarly, TV shows depict gender as being very static. You are either a Masculine Woman, Feminine Woman, Masculine Man or Feminine Man. If you’re transgender, you automatically become the stereotype that corresponds to your gender. But in real life, many people are a little more nonbinary. Sometimes butch women have days they feel like being more feminine, for no reason. Sometimes cisgender people feel like dressing androgynously.

So what needs to change? TV shows should just make sexual and gender queerness a normal part of life and stop acting like sexuality and gender identity are neat boxes.Characters should be able to experiment bisexually, even if they realize they are straight, and have bisexual feelings, even if they don’t act on them. And if a show is using characters as queerbait, then those characters should actually get together – or at least stand a real chance.

Some shows do this well. On Steven Universe, characters are masculine and feminine and androgynous, and many switch back and forth; for example, the main character, Steven, sees nothing wrong with wearing a skirt. When a character has a crush on someone, it doesn’t matter whether the crush is male or female. Similarly, on Black Sails, characters experiment with bisexuality, polyamory, and homosexuality however they see fit. It’s refreshing.

Hopefully, more shows will realize the fluidity of sexuality and gender. Until then, I’ll continue to daydream.

All Lesbian Or Bisexual Characters To Watch On Television This Month

This fall we have more queer women characters than ever before with more representation of women of color in pivotal roles. Network, cable and streaming staff are finding more ways to be inclusive of LGBTQ women. Here are 21 shows, new and returning that are giving gay and bi women some screen time.


1. Gotham

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In the third series of Gotham the bisexual murderesses, Barbara and Tabitha are up to their usual tricks and getting themselves into a love triangle again! This series is aired on Fox.  (Fox, Mondays 8/7c)


2. Shameless

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This comedy is one of the queerest shows on TV, and this season might be one of the queerest with the thriving polyamorous throuple of Veronica, Kevin and Svetlana alongside Ian seeing his boyfriend french kissing a woman in the season premiere. Three isn’t really a crowd on this show, and sexual orientation has little to do with how anyone is treated.  (Showtime, Sundays, 9/8c)


3. Scream Queens

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Pansexual Chanel #3 has her investigation head on after reports of a new red devil have her friends mildly concerned about their lives. last season ended with Chanel #3 finding a love interest inside the mental institution. (FX, Tuesdays, 9/8c)


4. The Walking Dead

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This long running show boasts a lesbian character Tara Chambler but they killed off her girlfriend, Denise, with an arrow to the eye last season. It will be interesting to see what is in store for her during season 7. (AMC, Sundays, 9/8c)


5. Easy

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This Netflix series is about love, sex and relationships in Chicago and is very queer inclusive. It will feature one episode based entirely on a lesbian couple and another about a couple who go onto tinder to seek a woman for a threesome and ends up spending the night with a woman they already know. (Netflix, available now)


6. Code Black

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In season 2, Dr. Malaya Pineda, who is one of a very few gay Indian characters on TV, lost her love last season and endured some professional setbacks as well. This season let’s hope things get a bit better for her.  (CBS, Wednesdays, 10/9c)


7. Empire

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Fox’s hit musical drama Empire boasted several queer women characters in the first two seasons, so we are sure to get some scenes involving a few of them and there may even be more queer women who pop up on occasion as well. (Fox, Wednesdays, 9/8c)


8. Younger

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Younger is now in season 3 and we will see the return of Maggie who had a brief affair with Lauren, who was against being labelled. Here’s hoping that there is another romance on the horizon for her during this season. (TVLand, Wednesdays, 10/9c)


9. Legends Of Tomorrow

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Sara Lance is a bisexual superhero character that is a force to be reckoned with! Last season she spent time with quite a few love interests so she is sure to enjoy some more encounters in season 2. (CW, Thursdays, 8/7c)


10. Mary And Jane

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Best friends Jordan and Paige are mainly focused on expanding their marijuana delivery service, but when they aren’t working, their relationships (and sexual fantasies) tend to be of the sexually fluid variety and both enjoy fantasies involving other women. Jordan even enjoyed being the attention of a hetro couple only to discover they were using her to spice things up for them at home. (MTV, Mondays 10/9c)


11. Supergirl

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The character Maggie Sawyer is a lesbian working for the National City Police Department and the exec. producer of the show has promised to keep her as gay as she is in the comic books. Supergirl can be seen on CW.  (CW, Mondays 8/7c)


12. Jane The Virgin

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Rosie and Luisa have an awful lot of chemistry between them both but as Rose married and then murdered Luisa’s father things are far than simple for them both. Season three premiers on 18th October. (CW, Mondays 9/8c)


13. The Mindy Project

Out comic Fortune Feimster is back full time in Season 5 and plays a nurse who is the gay sister of Jody. (Hulu, Tuesdays)


14. NCIS: New Orleans

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A new out lesbian character, Tammy Gregorio, is an FBI agent with a mysterious past. She is brashy, ballsy and outspoken so she is sure to ruffle some feathers along the way.  (CBS, Tuesdays, 10/9c)


15. American Housewife

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This new comedy stars a character called Angela who is back, gay and going through a divorce. Angela and her friends see themselves as the outcasts of the town, so naturally they use their differences as a fun way to scare off the racist homophobes attempting to move in next door. (ABC, Tuesdays 8:30/7:30c)


16. Queen Sugar

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This TV series, co-created by Oprah Winfrey, is about a black family trying to keep their family business going.  The character, Nova Bordelon, one of the family members, is a journalist, activist and weed dealer whose bisexuality is not a problem for her brother and sister. (OWN, Wednesdays, 10/9c)


17. Transparent

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Ali and Cherry Jones are still together at the beginning of Transparent‘s third season, so that’s something! And Sarah has finally accepted that she’s bisexual! (Amazon Prime)


18. Life In Pieces

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Dougie, another character played by Fortune Femister, comes out in season two and she gets to experience her first gay bar and gets into other hilarious situations that are sure to make us smile. (CBS, Thursdays 9:30/8:30c)


19. How To Get Away With Murder

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Annalise Keating is black and bisexual and she is as smart as she is mysterious, making her the kind of woman you both fear and fall head over heels for. Her on-again/off-again lover Eve is also set to appear in a few episodes this season so that should make interesting viewing again. (ABC, Thursdays, 10/9c)


20. Saturday Night Live

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Comedian Kate McKinnon is back again to deliver us some of the funniest sketches, impersonations and characters we have ever seen. (NBC, Saturdays, 11:30/10:30c)


21. Grey’s Anatomy

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Grey’s Anatomy lesbian MD Arizona Robbins is set for a new romance this season after losing her last love last season. So fingers crossed that this lady finds a love to make her smile. (ABC, Thursdays, 8/7c)


22. One Mississippi

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One Mississippi is a semi-autobiographical dark comedy about a lesbian who returns to Mississippi after the death of her mother. The lesbian, of course, is Tig Notaro. (Amazon Prime)

15 Times Tumblr Nailed Televisions Rampant Killing Of Lesbians

Three prominent lesbian characters have been killed on three beloved TV shows over the past month, and we’re upset.

So are these Tumblr fans, but they have some some seriously creative ways to respond.

Take notes, class is in session:

1. Be prepared

http://mindyquinzel.tumblr.com/post/141414422012

2. Save them now

https://maggiegrheene.tumblr.com/post/141419665267

3. Reality sucks

https://knockfivetimes.tumblr.com/post/141003996956/straight-person-i-like-to-watch-tv-shows-to-get

4. Shhhh, she’s not really gay

https://aerials-creampuff.tumblr.com/post/140914872743

5. Straight vs. gay

http://debnamdaddy.tumblr.com/post/141405946173

6. Top tips

http://pasteljongins.tumblr.com/post/141404780192/how-to-survive-as-a-television-character

7. Plot twist

https://aerials-creampuff.tumblr.com/post/140890051518

8. We’d be rich too

http://fearthelesbians.tumblr.com/post/141405689610

9. Predictable

http://pasteljongins.tumblr.com/post/141404970807

10. New anthem

https://alyciaswink.tumblr.com/post/141407945558/another-one-bites-the-dust

11. Will they ever listen

http://netflixdesign.tumblr.com/post/141404742676

12. Men’s man pain

http://ankleboner.tumblr.com/post/141414276411

13. Writers block

http://daddygriffin.tumblr.com/post/141452185993

14. Queerbiat

https://ithelpstodream.tumblr.com/post/141446673452

15. Walk away from the shows

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The good news is that there are still several lesbian, bi, or fluid female characters on TV: Annalise on How to Get Away with Murder, Tara on The Walking Dead, and Nora and Mary Louise on The Vampire Diaries, to name a few.

The Best (And Steamiest) Sex Scenes Between Women in TV And Film This Year

It’s always difficult to capture every good sex scene with the plethora of sexy TV on nowadays, but we dove in deep in the name of entertainment!

So as you get ready to ring in 2016, let’s take a look at the 10 most TV sex scenes of the past year.

Get ready to be hot and bothered.


1. The Duke of Burgundy

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It would be difficult to pick a standout sex scene in Peter Strickland’s remarkable The Duke Of Burgundy, because the whole movie functions as an extended sex scene.

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2. Cosima and Shay, Orphan Black

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Honestly, seeing Cosima move on from Delphine was a tough pill to swallow. But a spoonful of Shay really helped the medicine go down.


3. Annalise and Eve, How to Get Away with Murder

The whole season could just be these two kissing and we’d still show up every week.

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Watch, watch, and watch again


4. Big Boo & Rachel, Orange Is the New Black

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Orange Is the New Black has always delivered great lesbian sex scenes, but the show upped it in Season 3, Episode 4 when fans got insight into Big Boo’s past. Big Boo had a sex scene in a flashback where she used a strap-on dildo with her girlfriend at the time.


5. Nomi and Amanita, Sense8

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Netflix pulled a lesbian hat trick this year, with this infamous scene that puts the pan in pansexual. While it’s not strictly limited to our favorite couple, it definitely turns up the heat.


6. Syd and Ali, Transparent

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In a show riddled with narcissism and snark, it’s refreshing to see some sweet authentic kissing between long time friends-cum-lovers Syd and Ali.

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7. Dianna Agron and Paz de La Huerta, Bare

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Dianna Agron naked with another woman, need we say more.


8. Piper and Alex, Orange Is the New Black

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Again we turn to OITNB, and if you’re going to have prison sex, why not library prison sex, hey? And when that heated romp is between, Piper and Alex its guaranteed to make our year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo7uPZCNL9A


9. The Countess, Donovan, & Their Victims, American Horror Story: Hotel

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In the first episode of American Horror Story: Hotel, Lady Gaga’s character, the Countess, was introduced with a bang. The blood-drinking woman hit the town with her boy toy of the decade, Matt Bomer’s Donovan, and seduced an attractive couple at an outdoor movie.


10. Jeryn and Pam, Jessica Jones

Melissa Rosenberg’s outstanding Netflix series Jessica Jones, starring Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad) as the titular superheroine, not only features the creepiest baddie in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also boasts the MCU’s most dynamic, complex female character; a badass woman brimming with agency who enjoys sex just as much as she does administering justice.

But our pick isn’t JJ, but a scene between Jeryn and Pam. Okay, to be clear, this is an evil manipulative sex scene, but it manipulates an evil character, so it we feel okay with how damn hot it is.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoN5gUdwY-M


11. Carol

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The first hour of Todd Haynes’s expertly crafted Carol traces the burgeoning love affair between the titular Jersey housewife (Cate Blanchett) and a reticent Big Apple shopgirl, (Rooney Mara). It’s all furtive glances and sumptuous gazes—that is, until the two hit the road, putting constricting 1950s society in their rearview. It all builds to a sequence in a motel room, a paroxysm of unbridled pleasure that feels nothing short of monumental.

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Fall TV Introduces Several New Queer Women of Colour

For years, lesbian, bisexual and otherwise non-heterosexual women have lamented the lack of queer female representation on TV, begged, pleaded and prayed on their lucky Ellen TIME magazine covers that TV would feature storylines about women who love women.

But as the times have changed and Hollywood has begun to reflect the changing social attitudes towards non-heterosexual people, what they are now asking for is an increase in diversity in those characters, rather than just an increase in their numbers.

Specifically, TV viewers have asked for more queer women of colour, hoping that networks to do better to reflect the LGBT community as it exists in reality.

For reference, last year’s GLAAD ‘Where Are We On TV’ report noted that on broadcast, just 28 out of 65 (43%) regular or recurring LGBT characters were women and just 26% of 65 were LGBT people of colour. On cable, 44% of the 64 LGBT characters on cable networks were women and 34% of that 64 were people of colour.

Unfortunately, GLAAD doesn’t provide a specific breakdown of the amount of women of colour but looking at those statistics, even if all of those LGBT people of colour were women, we wouldn’t be looking at a very large group.

Those numbers are dismal then, but they are so last year. They are a thing of the past, truly, because as we move into the fall TV season of 2015, several new queer women of colour are now gracing our screens, either in brand new shows or as characters who have just come out (in some capacity) since their shows returned.

One of the most talked about examples of this is on How To Get Away With Murder on ABC. The show was already breaking ground as one of few shows to feature a black woman as the lead but in its season premiere, lawyer Annalise Keating reunited with her old college gal pal, and it was revealed that they used to date. They rekindled their relationship (though it was short lived as Eve, Annalise’s ex, returned to New York) and it was so great that we even labelled it one of our ‘need to watch’ shows.

Over on FOX, Empire became another one of our need to watch shows when it introduced lesbian billionaire Mimi Whiteman. No Mimi isn’t a woman of colour, but in the first episode of the show’s new season, Mimi did sleep with Anika, a character who had only previously had relationships with men on the show.

American Horror Story: Hotel, which airs on FX, may see you sleeping with the lights on for the rest of your born days but the relationship between The Countess (played by Lady Gaga) and Ramona’s (played by Angela Bassett) is a grand reason to watch.

In terms of completely new shows, the likes of Grandfathered and Rosewood (both on FOX) deliver on that front. Grandfathered stars John Stamos as your typical, womanising white guy, but the twist is that his past has caught up to him and that not only does this bachelor have a son, but he also has a granddaughter too. 

Kelly Jenrette plays a lesbian named Annelise and she’s also Jimmy’s co-worker. So far, things look okay for Annelise; we’re only two episodes in but reception to the show in general has been positive and she also has a budding friendship with Sara (Jimmy’s ex and the mother of his son), which is something.

And as for Rosewood, this procedural’s already on ‘cancellation watch’ due to a weak start, but you’ll be hoping it stays on the air for sweet couple Pippy (a woman of colour) and her fiancee Kathy, who work together in the pathology lab.

Admittedly not every show with a queer woman of colour is getting it right. Season 2B of Faking It on MTV began towards the end of September, and spent several episodes tiptoeing around Reagan’s frankly vomit-inducing biphobia and on Scream Queens, butch lesbian Sam is literally introduced as the ‘predatory lez’, with many saying that Ryan Murphy is relying on the very same trope he used to dehumanise Santana Lopez on Glee back in the day.

Thankfully though, most of the new queer women of colour, and the returning TV favourites (e.g those on Jane The Virgin, The Fosters and Grey’s Anatomy) have enough good in them to outweigh the few examples of bad.

It’s highly encouraging for the future as these shows not only bust the troubling stereotypes that a) queer people of colour don’t exist and that b) that many non-white ethnicities are homophobic but it also gives queer women of colour the same shot at great representation that queer white women have enjoyed for so many years.

 

5 TV Shows With Queer Women That You Need to Pay Attention to

Once upon a time, queer female representation was so bad, so cheese-sarnie-in-the-summer-sun rotten that just a handful of gay, bi and otherwise not-heterosexual ladies graced our TV screens.

But gone are the days where re-watching The L Word on Netflix is the only time we’ll see women-loving-women in the media as now, it seems like every show has a female/female relationship looking to find a place in our hearts.

As a result, the problem isn’t the quantity of queer women on TV, it’s the quality. Now that we have a choice, we have to ask ourselves which shows are worth our valuable viewership.

It would be impossible for you to watch every pilot of every show to figure that out, so to make life a whole lot easier for you, here’s a list of five TV shows which feature queer women that you need to pay attention to.


1. How to Get Away With Murder

A few weeks ago, Viola Davis made history becoming the first black woman ever to win the lead actress Emmy. Indeed, her incredible turn as no-nonsense lawyer Annalise Keating was already reason enough to watch How to Get Away With Murder but in the season two premiere of the show, Annalise’s old college friend Eve showed up.

Annalise and Eve aren’t a couple of regular, platonic gal pals, however, as they dated but Annalise left Eve for (Annalise’s now murdered husband) Sam.

Viola Davis

Unfortunately, Eve did head off back to New York at the end of episode two but with Eve and Annalise having rekindled their feelings (Eve says she’s still in love with Annalise, Annalise calls Eve the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to her), there’s a lot of room for this relationship to grow.

With so few bisexual women in the media (and bisexual women of colour especially) Annalise is a brilliant rarity so if you haven’t started watching HTGAWM already, you should get on that right now.


2. Person Of Interest

Looking at Person Of Interest‘s description – a show about a tech whiz, a former soldier and their pals as they try to protect people from the world’s dangers as well as the government’s snooping – it sounds like an unlikely candidate for fantastic queer representation but you’d be surprised.

The show’s two supporting women, Samantha “Root” Groves and Sameen Shaw are part of the core group of ‘good guys’ who aim to protect the world and though the two characters are incredibly sarcastic and spend most of their time shooting bad guys’ kneecaps, they still find plenty of time to flirt.

In Person of Interest‘s fourth season (the one that most recently aired), their flirting finally came to a head when Shaw (played by former L Word cast member Sarah Shahi) kisses Root right before she risks her life to save Root and co. and gets shot in the process.

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Although Root spends the remainder of the season pining over Shaw/trying to find Shaw/talking about how much she misses Shaw, Shaw’s not dead and the two will be reunited in season five of the show.

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3. Jane The Virgin

Earlier this year, Jane The Virgin made a splash as its lead actress Gina Rodriguez won a Golden Globe for her role as Jane, a virgin who becomes pregnant after a doctor accidentally artificially inseminates her when she goes in for a routine check-up. Based on a telenovela, this show is anything but easy to follow, nor is it overly serious, but it is a lot of fun to watch.

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As for the queer content in Jane The Virgin, the doctor who inseminates Jane is a lesbian named Luisa. While there’s enough drama in Luisa’s life stemming from the fact that the sperm she inseminated Jane with belongs to her (as in Luisa’s) brother, on top of that Luisa has also been having an affair with Rose, who just happens to be the woman that her father is married to!

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After a good many plot twists later, Luisa ends up with an MMA fighter named Juicy Jordan and thankfully, Rose, Luisa, and Juicy will all be returning when Jane The Virgin season two premieres on October 12.


4. Empire

Empire is another fine example of a TV show. The show is all about the Lyon family (Lucious, his three sons Jamal, Andre and Hakeem and their just-out-of-jail mother, Cookie) and their record label and the trials and tribulations of both running the label and keeping their home, love and family lives in tact.

In addition to being a majority black show, Jamal is also gay. That was a big deal in season one (which features Jamal’s coming out) but in season two, there’s something for queer ladies as well.

Marisa Tomei is on board as lesbian billionaire Mimi Whiteman and in the season premiere we saw Mimi flirt with Cookie but ultimately Mimi went home with (Lucious’ ex) Anika.

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It’s unclear whether or not that flirtation between Mimi and Cookie will come to anything, or whether Anika and Mimi will get a part two as Mimi is only set to be in a few more episodes, but with The L Word co-creator Ilene Chaiken being Empire‘s showrunner, you know that there’s going to be some must-watch queer content here.


5. Transparent

Another award winner in this post is Transparent, the Amazon-only TV show that debuted on Amazon Instant Video last year. At this year’s Emmys, not only did the show take home two awards, but during her acceptance speech, its creator Jill Soloway stated that “we don’t have a trans tipping point, we have a trans civil rights problem”.

Indeed, the show which builds upon Soloway’s own experiences with her ‘Moppa’ stars Jeffrey Tambor as a trans woman who comes out to her three adult children – children who have only ever known her as their father.

Transparent is a must watch for Maura, as her story follows how she finds a place for herself in the trans community and how those around her handle her gender identity, but her daughter Sarah’s bisexuality is also a draw. Sarah is married to a man and they have children together, but she cheats on him, and eventually leaves him for her ex-girlfriend.
Transparent

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Admittedly, Sarah and her siblings aren’t the most loveable bunch (they’re self-centred and selfish at best, and amusingly useless at best) but with just 10 episodes of the show having aired so far, it’s a fabulous dramedy and it won’t take you long to catch up before Transparent season two airs in December.

Season 2 premiere: HTGAWM Gets Its Bisexual Storyline Right With Authentic Portrayal

The Season 2 premiere How to Get Away with Murder gave fans another plot twist, when Viola Davis’ Annalise Keating revealed that the superstar lawyer had a romantic past with guest star Famke Janssen (playing Eve Rothlow).

Talking to Access Hollywood, the Emmy winner said she was “very surprised” to discover her character was bisexual, and she didn’t want her mom to see her kissing a woman.

Viola Davis

I didn’t tell my mom. I said, ‘Don’t watch it. Go to the casino. Go over to a friend’s house.’ But I thought it was very apropos to have a past that’s not defined by anyone or anything. I don’t think that Annalise is a character who wants to be defined by anything. I think that she’s free-falling.”

The moments they shared weren’t awkward they were organic and steamy.

The backstory leading up to the kiss was excellently written and provided the opportunity for viewers to ponder about if Annalise and Eve could have been romantically involved. The moments both characters shared on screen were riveting and authentic.

The dramatic episode ended with (spoiler alert!) the sound of a gun being fired and a shot of Annalise lying in a pool of blood, but (spoiler alert 2.0!) it won’t prove to be a fatal injury for her character.


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When asked if she was concerned that her HTGAWM days were over when she initially read the scene, Viola joked,

No. I’m number one – I have a good contract. I wasn’t scared. I was just, very intrigued. You always want people to lean in to a show. That’s the power of a good narrative, so I liked it.”

The actress hinted at revenge for Annalise for whoever shot her though.

Someone’s gonna pay. Soon, at some point, someone’s gonna pay!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX41P6r_vCQ

 

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How To Get Away With Murder – 112 Recap – She’s a Murderer

Welcome to another How to Get Away With Murder recap! HTGAWM also known as the show where sometimes people aren’t getting away with murder, they’re being heavily considered as the suspects instead.

This week on the show, Annalise puts her game face on and the police continue to bust her for a murder that she didn’t actually commit.

As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

If you’ve been watching the series from the start, then you’ll know that Annalise’s number one rule of lawyering is not to ask your client whether or not they did it or not. Well you can expect that one to be in full force this episode when Annalise is investigated for the murder of Sam (her husband, whose cremated, mashed up remains were discovered last episode) and she takes on the case of a mob boss embroiled in a drug trafficking scandal.

“I have never lost you a case [in 15 years]” is the line she pulls up when mob boss Leo tries to drop her when he grows concerned about Annalise’s (rumoured) murderous antics. She’s good at convincing him and his nephew (the one on trial) though and so she rallies the troops (her students, y’know, the ones who actually killed Sam) to get him off the hook.

Step one, go through every bit of info that explains why the container (the one with the drugs in) was chosen for a weigh in as part of a ‘random’ check. Funnily enough, only one container was chosen that day although the officials usually check 15! There’s a turn up for the books when Frank and Asher realise that the officers who showed up to weigh the container actually showed up before the container was weighed…sort of like they’d been tipped off? Yup, and as Laurel discovers that a man named Pedro was working the yard that day but quit his job two days later to look after a sick relative, we know that there was a mole.

Fast forward to Annalise in court and the federal agent responsible for the mole starts threatening her, tells her not to pursue the criminal informant angle or she’ll find herself in more hot water with regards to the murder of her husband. But this is Annalise, she can’t back down! She probably doesn’t even know how to! After discovering that Pedro had actually been partying it up in New Jersey when he was supposedly looking after his relative, Annalise decides to press the issue anyway. She pulls him onto the stand, interrogating him until he confesses that not only was he told to weigh the container but that he was promised a green card (an important citizenship document) for doing so as well. But whoever told him to such a thing? Prosecutor Hobbs! Also known as the federal agent who threatened Annalise earlier.

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Like Annalise herself said, she’s never lost a case for the mob and she wasn’t about to start now.

As for those murder charges against her. Things are looking bad (to say the least) when Annalise sends Bonnie to have a search warrant thrown out but she’s literally laughed out of court and so the search will take place anyway. The police come; they search every inch of the house and find the scales off of the trophy (the thing used to kill Sam) but don’t deem it suspicious. Unfortunately, the nervous look on Annalise’s face and the way she’s staring at a section of the floor make the police start swabbing the floor for DNA traces. They don’t find a single thing – Annalise scrubbed it to within an inch of its life after Sam’s blood spilled all over it.

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Things still aren’t done yet though, as the police are examining the fibres found amongst Sam’s frazzled remains. Featured in the case file of Sam’s murder is the fact that there were carpet fibres mixed up with his corpse and the fact that he was killed with a blunt object; most likely a metal one. Bonnie puts two and two together and makes four, noting that not only was the carpet in Annalise’s hallway missing when she showed up the day after Sam disappeared but that she knew it was odd when the police found the scale from the trophy too. She gives Annalise an ultimatum and says that the police will soon realise Sam’s body was dumped in the woods and that she won’t get away with covering for her students. “Don’t let them ruin you” she advises.

But what can she do? Annalise promised her students that she’d protect them.

Soon enough, the police determine that Sam’s body had been burnt in a woods somewhere, so of course they investigate the conveniently located woods near the college campus. And what should turn up? A ring! Could it be the ring that Michaela lost on the night they disposed of Sam’s body? After a panicky few moments from viewers and students alike, the police dust the ring for prints and find one from Nate (Annalise’s lover) as she had Frank plant the print and the ring the previous night. Nate gets arrested for murder and while Sam’s sister is still angry at Annalise, saying that he’s the reason her brother is dead, the fact that it’s being written off as a crime of passion gets her (and her students) off the hook.

The episode closes with Annalise crying in her bed, on the phone to her mum asking her for help.

The Gay

There was little gay this week as Connor was too busy being a nervous wreck to go and she his sort-of boyfriend Oliver. But! There was new info in the ‘bisexual Bonnie Winterbottom’ stakes!

Apparently, no one told Bonnie that Sam’s body had been found and she had to find out for herself the following morning. She’s in tears in the kitchen but we already know that she disliked Sam and wasn’t interested in him like that (he kissed her but she was not about that life). The reason  she keeps sobbing is because she thinks that Annalise doesn’t trust her any more. So that, along with the fact that Bonnie desperately wants to protect Annalise from the police (even if it means she has to dump her students in it) makes it seems as though Bonnie’s concern stems from more than just platonic, friendly feelings.

Also this tweet from Oscar nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe proves that I’m not the only one on the good ship #BisexualBonnie so there’s that!

The Ugly

Other than some ugly morals? There was nothing ugly about How to Get Away With Murder this week, it was a perfect episode.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How To Get Away With Murder – 111 Recap – Best Christmas Ever

Welcome to another How To Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM) recap! HTGAWM also known as the show where the lead characters are trying to get away with murder…and are doing a pretty rubbish job at it.

This week on the show Annalise breaks the cardinal rule of being a good lawyer; dobbing your own client in.

As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

As you’ll recall, last week saw the police scrabbling around for clues in the disappearance of Sam Keating. Believed to be on the run, no one has any idea where he is and he’s wanted for the murder of Lila, his mistress. Only, Sam’s been dead for a good few weeks, so good luck with that one.

Furiously trying to hold on to some sort of normalcy are the people who killed him and those who helped clear it up: Annalise (Sam’s wife) and her students Connor, Wes, Michaela and Laurel who are back at school following the Winter break. Laurel set every viewers’ heart swooning by yelling at her uninterested family in Spanish, Wes has been suffering nightmares, Michaela bought a new engagement ring (her old one got lost amongst the bags of Sam’s corpse) and had arguments with fiancée Aiden about the wedding (and over his possible flirting with another man), Connor was metaphorically beating male love interests away with a stick and Annalise just drank herself silly and ate pancakes and chocolate for an entire week.

Snap back to reality and Annalise finds herself dealing with a morally murky new case. A woman who claimed to have been arrested for a DUI actually confesses that she desperately needs Annalise’s help as her husband has been holding two women captive in their basement. No one wants to take the case since the woman technically helped her husband in all of this, but Annalise is adamant.

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The first plan of action is to put forward a plea deal; the woman wants to be spared from jail-time for aiding her husband and will take three years of probation instead. With a plea deal (possibly) on the table, Annalise’s right hand aid Bonnie records the woman’s explanation to the police that one of the women being held captive is heavily pregnant and that her last was stillborn and she doesn’t want that to happen again. The police raid her home and arrest her husband; the women are safe, but what of that plea deal? The judge refuses to accept the plea deal without hearing from the victim’s themselves.

So, what do the victims have to say? It’s revealed that the woman used to sneak them food and take care of the captive women whenever she could, it portrays her as sweet, caring and definitely not in support of her husband’s ways, well, until one victim says “She gave us milk, she said it would help put us to sleep so we wouldn’t have to know what [her husband] was doing”. Yup, the victim just revealed that the woman was helping her husband rape the women by plying them with milk laced with drugs, so that they wouldn’t have to be awake for it. Annalise and co. have no chance in defending this one.

Bless her determination though as her students get to work on finding a way to get out of this mess. Wes thinks he’s on to something when playback of her recorded confession features “Lynn deserves to keep this one” as if to say that Lynn’s first baby wasn’t stillborn but the baby is being looked after by someone else. Could it be that the woman is hiding a child? Yes, yes it could, but she refuses to give up her location until Annalise confirms that plea deal. But this is Annalise, one of the state’s greatest lawyers – she heads out and comes back after a conversation with the DA – tells the woman “congratulations” and reiterates the favourable terms of the deal.

They wait. And wait. And wait some more, until the police return with the little girl. She’s safe but she’s malnourished and the woman is glad, says she knows she won’t want to see her, probably not until she’s 18. “You won’t be out of jail by then”, replies Annalise. Wait, what? Annalise “Sneaky” Keating strikes again – she lied about the plea deal and the woman fell for it. She’s going to jail after all, much to the approval of all of Annalise’s students and just about everybody watching the show. Case closed, good luck in prison, you’ll need it.

Meanwhile, the search for Sam has its peaks and dips. On the bright side, Frank (Annalise’s other aid) stole Connor’s car and destroyed it to get rid of the evidence of Sam’s body that was left all over it when they moved the body. But Sam’s sister is snooping around – she wants answers and it takes a home-cooked meal and an emotional plea from Annalise to convince her that Annalise has no idea where Sam is and that he’s not the person they thought they knew.
It’s all for nothing though. Wes’ girlfriend Rebecca alerts him to a real life nightmare that’s worse than the ones that have been ruining his sleep; the police have found Sam’s body.

The Gay

As mentioned, Connor just can’t keep the boys off of him and even his sister tries to set him up with a guy when he heads home for the holiday. But he’s lovesick, he’s enamoured by computer hacking pro Oliver and is doing everything to win him back after Connor’s confession of drug addiction (which he lied about to explain why he was so shook up the night of Sam’s murder) tore them apart.

Connor buys him a Christmas gift, has a movie night with him and does everything to prove that he is boyfriend material. But does Oliver buy into it? He does; he explains just how hard he’s fallen for him and they kiss.

The two of them are really quite sweet together (even if most people don’t see Connor as a particularly good guy) so it’ll be nice to see if they manage to shack up and have a real relationship with the cops at Connor’s heels.

The Ugly

There were a few scenes in this week’s episode where the hookup between Bonnie and Asher (one of Annalise’s students) became a problem. Although he eventually promised to stop being a jerk towards her, Asher had been treating Bonnie miserably since she shrugged him off after they slept together the night Sam was killed.

At one point he says that he could file a sexual harassment suit against her which is the thing that lands the scenes in the ‘Ugly’ part of this recap. Not only would that be a really awful thing to lie about but the show has skirted over the fact that when Asher and Bonnie slept together, Bonnie was drunk. It’s murky, but what they did was potentially rape, so it’d be interesting to see if the show does ever address this point.

Expect another HTGAWM recap next week.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How To Get Away With Murder – 110 Recap – Hello, Raskolnikov

Welcome to another How To Get Away With Murder recap! How To Get Away With Murder also known as the show where the title is about both the lawyers and the defendants. Gotta love those murky waters.

This week in the show we see Annalise and her flock of law students continue to hoodwink the authorities but they’re skating on such thin ice that they put the new iPhone to shame.

As always, this recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out what went down in the show this week.

The Plot

As you’ll recall, the previous episode of HTGAWM was balls to the wall insane. We finally witnessed Sam’s murder as a scuffle with Annalise’s students (Wes, Laurel, Connor and Michaela) and Rebecca (Wes’ girlfriend, Annalise’s client and one of the main suspects in the murder of Sam’s lover Lila) saw Annalise’s husband being flipped over a balcony, knocked unconscious and then clunked in the head with a trophy by Wes when he woke up and tried to kill Rebecca. The students then moved his body, burnt him and threw away the remains but not before Annalise came home, saw him lying in a pool of blood in the living room and was joined by Wes soon after as he showed up to retrieve the murder weapon. To be fair, Sam probably deserved it (Cell Block Tango and all that) but admitting that the students did it and that Annalise knew it had happened would put them all in jail.

Cut to this week’s episode where Annalise is lying through her teeth to the police, telling them that Sam has probably fled since she left the house after threatening to have a DNA test done, proving that he is the father of his mistress’ unborn foetus which would suggest that he is also the person who killed her. In order to save their skin, she’ll have to lie to her students too and have Wes convince them all that she knows nothing about Sam being killed.

Things are already off to a bad start though as while Wes explains to the police that he and his studious pals were at a study group (and then at the school bonfire) the night Sam disappeared, Annalise has called Rebecca into her office to say sorry for previously trying to cover up Sam’s affair (his mistress was one of Rebecca’s friends). Consider the seed of doubt planted and considerably watered in Rebecca’s mind then as she later asks Wes if Annalise knows, telling him that the apology was weird and that’s it even weirder that he’s not freaking out about it. Uh-oh.

While they wait for the rest of the police interviews take place, the plan of action is to get the charges dropped against Rebecca and drop Sam right in it. Granted, the police will have a hard time arresting a dead man but this is important nonetheless. Laurel and Frank (one of Annalise’s aides) stick Sam’s hair in a bag to get a DNA test for Lila’s foetus and after a computer search (done by Connor’s ex-boyfriend) pulls up no travel evidence Bonnie (another aid) and Asher (another student and also the person Bonnie slept with the night Sam was killed) have to go and get Sam’s laptop out of evidence so that they can use his phone’s data to prove he travelled. Complicated? Yes and it’s fruitless too when they discover that the prosecutor is keeping it from them as she aims to get Rebecca thrown in prison.

More problems and more lies when the judge won’t let Annalise look at the records of the abortion clinic that Lila went to prior to her death and then she’s forced to lie to her lover, Nate, when he asks her point blank if she knows something about Sam’s disappearance. And then, we have lies from Laurel too who tells the police that Sam used to look at her in a sexual manner and then we see her pumping Frank for questions just to find out what Annalise knows. These students sure are good at planting the seed of suspicion.

It’s a dangerous game and Connor wants out, he wants to work with Michaela to turn Wes and Rebecca in for Sam’s murder. They are technically in the right! Well, forgetting the fact that they saw their friends kill a guy and then lied to the police about it, but it’s not like a technicality matters, right? While those two are considering throwing everybody under the bus, some solid wins get secured for the team – Michaela figures out that security footage of the clinic Lila went to could be used as evidence while Frank delivers news that Lila’s foetus was indeed Sam’s.

Could it have all been for nothing though? After looking relieved when Frank tells her, Annalise is forced to explain to him what happened. Meanwhile, during Asher’s police interview he tells them that he saw Connor’s car outside of the Keating’s house when he showed up to retrieve the trophy that Michaela had stolen from him earlier in the evening. Though, during Bonnie’s interview she tells the police that Sam knew Lila was pregnant and that he made a pass at her to stop her from telling that fact to Annalise. Whether the police believe her story however, is yet to be seen.

Cut to a bit of good news and the footage from the clinic not only shows that Lila was there, but that Sam had shown up too and was clearly quite unhappy with her. In the courtroom, the woman on the desk in the clinic heaps more dirt on Sam’s name when she explains that not only did he seem angry at Lila, but that he was trying to force her to get an abortion that she most definitely did not want. The whole things allows Annalise to get the court to appoint a forensic expert to check out Sam’s laptop too. Oh, and Michaela explains away Connor’s parking spot by saying that they got out at the Keating’s and walked to the bonfire from there!

Flash forward to the next day in court and it’s all kicking off. Connor is still pushing the ‘let’s sell them out!’ thing to Michaela, saying that they’ll need Laurel to do it and Frank has just dumped Annalise right in it by yelling at Laurel (who’s playing coy) for keeping Sam’s murder a secret. With the court bustling and Michaela and Connor stepping in to convince her to join their plan, Laurel doesn’t have a chance to tell Wes about anything. Court is in session and the verdict says…that Sam was at the murder location at the time of the murder, alright! The verdict is also that Rebecca is now free, hall-flippin-lujah.

As for the rest of that drama, it seems that Laurel is going ahead with Connor and Michaela’s plan. Well, sort of. They pull up to the police station only to be greeted by Wes and Annalise, as tipped off by Laurel. Annalise convinces them to drop it because she knows everything, even if she won’t tell them how she knows it. They agree and she says they’ll help them get away with it too.

So yay! Our many musketeers can live a happy life (until the next episode airs, anyway). Their class has the final assignment for the year (to figure out how four people can get away with murder in unusual circumstances), Rebecca and Wes celebrate Christmas around an adorable little tree, Laurel reconnects with her sort of on/off boyfriend and Annalise goes home.

Wait, did I say that they’ll live a happy life until the next episode? Just kidding! Sam’s sister shows up right at the police station (after Connor has finished his interview) and tells them that everything his wife says is a lie. Connor lets Annalise know, but this one is going to get ugly.

The Gay

There was limited gay in this episode, sadly. Connor and his ex boyfriend had a stern word or three, as Connor’s lie of being a drug addict was brought up, so it seems unlikely that they’ll be getting back together anytime soon.

Also, in terms of subtext we had Bonnie offering Annalise a shoulder to cry on if she needs it. That hardly means that Bonnie is queer for certain but I’ll be holding out for #BisexualBonnieWinterbottom until it happens.

The Ugly

There’s nothing to be said about HTGAWM on the ugly front. As usual, this was a good episode and if you aren’t watching the show already then you really should fix that.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How to Get Away With Murder – 109 Recap – Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me

Welcome to another How to Get Away With Murder recap! HTGAWM aka the show that teaches you how to outwit and bullshit your way through the legal process!

This week on the show, we finally found out who killed Sam!

As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

Dramatic as ever, the episode opens with Annalise packing a bag for Sam. She’s done believing his lies! She’s done loving him! The argument is pretty heated as the two yell things at each other, about Sam possibly having killed Lila, about Annalise cheating with another man and about their marriage being a total wreck. It leads to Sam’s hands around Annalise’s neck, saying she’s just a piece of ass. He is not a good guy, at all and Annalise leaves to get some space.

Just Sam alone in the house drinking himself into a stupor, it gives Rebecca the perfect opportunity to sneak in and use the thumb drive she got from Nate (Annalise’s ex-lover) to steal incriminating data from Sam’s laptop. After Wes tells them about Rebecca’s plan and that Sam may have killed Lila, he, Connor and Laurel are already on their way to stop her though, so will she do it?

She gets a good way into the house until Michaela, who’d showed up just minutes earlier to present the immunity trophy (that gets them out of the end of semester exam) to Annalise, points her out to Sam, not realising what’s going on. Uh oh. “Call Wes” she tells Michaela before sprinting up the stairs to Sam and Annalise’s room, locking the door and sticking the thumb drive into his laptop. He soon makes it through the door, relegating her to the bathroom laptop still in hand. With Sam banging furiously on the bathroom door and Michaela hyperventilating down the phone, the only people who can rescue Rebecca are the three musketeers.

As they show up and escort Rebecca out, Sam pounces, needing Laurel to get the thumb drive before he does. But Sam fights Wes off, stands up and chases Laurel out. But as he comes for her, Michaela saves the day, throwing Sam over the balcony of the staircase, screaming as he hits the wood and hits the ground with a thud. Yeah, he’s not getting up anytime soon.

Oh, but he is. As the group are fighting amongst themselves over what to do, Sam gets up and starts strangling Rebecca. Wes steps in just in the nick of time, hitting him over the head with the immunity trophy. Ok, he’s as dead as a dead thing now, no doubt about it.

In order to clean up this complete and utter mess, Wes cleans Rebecca up and puts her in a motel, telling her not to go anywhere. Then, he hotfoots it back to the Keating’s to get the trophy, aka the murder weapon aka the thing that’s going to tie them to Sam’s murder. “I’m sorry”, he says, staring at the body. But, a murder weapon is useless unless they do something about that large, adult body that’s just sitting in the Keating’s front room. They vote (Wes rigs it in his favour) and they go and get the body.

They have good time to do so too as Annalise is busy making her case to Nate, telling him how awful Sam is and proceeding to have sex with Nate in his apartment. Chivalry’s not dead, I guess?. Meanwhile, the group hit up the bonfire for an alibi, heading back to get the body. Body rolled up, weapon cleaned up and blood splatter wet wiped away, they do their bit to dispose of Sam’s very dead self.

Also having heterosexy funtimes, is Bonnie who is drunk out her face. First she makes out with a guy she met at a bar and then she visits Asher (another one of Annalise’s students) to sleep with him. She really is having her fun tonight! At least, in a drunk, gross stupor anyway.

As for the less sexy happenings of corpse disposal, the group of students is burning Sam’s body (with scenes of Annalise returning home and leaving an emotional voicemail for Sam edited over the top – thanks HTGAWM producers!), mashing it up and fitting it into bags. They then proceed to dump that gross ish in a dumpster (as you do) because an incinerator is too much effort? That’s the general gist, so I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if that proves to be the thing that lands them in it. Oh and Michaela’s engagement ring came off at some point too (she doesn’t know when) and that’s definitely going to cause problems further up the line.

What follows the death is a lot of emotions, naturally. There’s Laurel who’s proving to Frank that she actually likes him and trusts him (enough to get him to put the trophy back at Annalise’s), Michaela visits fiancée Aiden’s mother to sign a pre-nup and Annalise makes a plea to Bonnie, explaining that she’s worried about Sam.

All of them join up again in the office not long after, fretting that someone is onto them. Bonnie explains the situation to everybody. Well, some of it. Sam is missing, she says, Annalise has called the police and she wants everybody to be completely honest when they ask them the questions.

AND THEN! The show flashes back to when Wes picked up the trophy! “I’m sorry,” he says. “Don’t be,” replies Annalise. YOU GUYS, SHE WAS SAT AT HER DESK, SHE KNOWS SAM IS DEAD, SHE KNOWS HER STUDENTS PROBABLY KILLED HIM, EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING SO MUCH!

Phew, everybody get that? HTGAWM is pure fire.

The Gay

Minimal gay in this episode of HTGAWM. After they got rid of Sam’s body Connor visited ex-boyfriend Oliver, visibly shaken. Oliver let him stay over but when he asked Connor what was wrong he lied through his teeth and told Oliver that he was high when he showed up and that he has a drug problem.

Hardly the best pillar to build a relationship on, but there you have it.

The Ugly

The biggest issue I had with this is that Bonnie and Asher had sex while she was under the influence. Technically, this is rape. Asher as a law student should know this. He’s a rapist now and I’ll be incredibly disappointed if the show doesn’t address this at some point.

This is the last HTGAWM episode until the new year (where it’ll air six more episodes) so you can expect a new recap then!

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How to Get Away With Murder – 108 Recap – He Has a Wife

Welcome to another How to Get Away With Murder recap! HTGAWM also know as the show where everything happens all of the time and it’s a wonder that I’m able to recap it at all!

This week on the show, more of Everything happened. It was honestly one of the most dramatic pieces of television I’ve seen in my life and I hope Emmy voters are paying attention.

As always, the recaps are split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

As mentioned, so so much happened this week. The series started with the death of Sam Keating, main character Annalise’s husband, and finally we’ve gotten up to the night of his death.

Before we can get to that (we find out who killed Sam next week), Annalise has to decide whether she trusts her husband or not, following on from the surprising revelation that Sam’s dead mistress was pregnant before she died. Annalise hasn’t decided whether or not to believe him when he says he didn’t know that she was pregnant but it weighs on her mind as she takes her new case.

The family that Annalise is defending have come into a spot of bother as after taking some medication, their client appears to have killed their nanny. She has no recollection of the event because her medication renders her unconscious and so Annalise and co. want to deem that it wasn’t premeditated and that it wasn’t her fault.

They’ll need luck though as when put on the stand, the defendant’s son explains that he loved the nanny, like he loved her loved her. Not only does this provide his mother with a motive but it also completely blind sides Annalise’s team, leading her to yell at Bonnie (who’s meant to tell her about things like these) and Connor (who spoke to the son beforehand) for not doing their jobs properly.

It’s soon rectified though as Connor puts on his best ‘I’m a heterosexual and can relate to being in love with a woman I swear to go’ face to go and talk to the defendant’s son, learning that the nanny gave him an STD. Connor explains that this means diddly squat in the larger scheme of things, or so he thinks anyway as some quick thinking smarts from former pre-med student Michaela solves the case.

Putting the defendant’s husband on the stand, Annalise accuses him of sleeping with the nanny too and says that he and his son caught the same STD from her. Is she right? Of course she is and despite the husband trying to worm his way out of it, the dirty cheater soon offers an “I’m sorry” towards his wife, admitting that he killed the nanny after finding out that she was sleeping with he and his son, before framing his wife for it. Case won – and while the defendant is mad at Annalise for saving her bacon but putting her husband in prison, Annalise says she’ll thank her later.

Also having trouble with men are Laurel, Michaela and Rebecca.

All Laurel wanted was a few hookups with her sort-of boss! Some light cheating with an asshole to compliment her genuinely lovely boyfriend! Sadly though, as they make it to his place (they’re literally on the floor kissing) his girlfriend shows up and puts an end to it. Yikes!

Michaela’s plans are more simple, as her fiancé Aiden wants her to sign a prenup that she, naturally, doesn’t want to sign. Her wanting to stay married to him forever and ever and ever and all that. His mum isn’t having any of it though, having heated words with Michaela over dinner that leads to her seemingly threatening to ruin Michaela’s cushty life. Hm, I suppose we’ll see that one play out sometime after next week.

And then, there’s Rebecca.

As it’s now been brought to light that Lila (Sam’s dead mistress) was pregnant before she died, Nate (Annalise’s ex-lover and former cop) has instructed Rebecca to go and get a sample of hair from the Keating’s bathroom in order to prove that Sam was the father. When a visit to their house goes pear-shaped (specifically, Sam throws Rebecca out, saying she’s not welcome without Annalise around) Nate gives her a USB and tells her to stick it in Sam’s laptop and steal as much data as she can, wanting to use the files for evidence. Sadly though, Rebecca’s boyfriend Wes sees her with Nate and after explaining herself he’s not so approving. After arguing about it she hightails it out of Wes’ apartment, USB stick in hand. We don’t see what she does next, though.

The Gay

With Connor unable to exchange sex for evidence (for a change), the only gay was left up to Bonnie. And by gay I mean ‘subtext that I’m going to latch onto like a desperate barnacle’.

Specifically, in a late night meeting, Bonnie and Sam have a conversation about the dead girl, Lila. Bonnie says that on the night that Lila died she came to their house looking for Annalise, presumably to tell Annalise that she was pregnant with her husband’s baby, only, Bonnie turned her away and told her not to bother.

What does this mean? It means that if Lila was going to tell Annalise and that she was unwilling to keep the pregnancy a secret anymore, then Sam must have known about it already. Bonnie says this and Sam suggests that they keep his knowing a secret from Annalise and then he kisses her. When will this man learn not to cheat…

Immediately after agreeing not to tell Annalise, Bonnie tells Annalise. In tears, Bonnie stands in Annalise’s study she tells her everything she knows – including that Sam kissed her because he thought he was finally giving her what she wanted. Well, wasn’t he? It’s implied that she didn’t want that all and judging by the way she literally gets on her knees and presses, sobbing against Annalise’s legs for her to understand that her husband is The Worst, we’re all inclined to believe her.

Annalise does at least trust her/think fondly of Bonnie and her opinions anyway because the episode ends with Annalise telling Sam that she’s told the D.A to take DNA samples from everyone in Lila’s life to find out who the father is. And of course, that means that Sam will have to provide DNA too.

The Ugly

Other than the fact that #BisexualBonnieWinterbottom is still not canon, there wasn’t really anything wrong with the episode.

My nails are bitten, I’m at the edge of my seat and my popcorn has been ready for consumption for weeks in anticipation of the next episode, so expect another recap then.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How to Get Away With Murder 107 Recap – He Deserved to Die

Welcome to another recap of How to Get Away With Murder! HTGAWM also known as the show that teaches you more about the legal system than a law text book the size of your noggin.

This week on the show there were girl alliances, girls getting things done together and then the subsequent fall of those alliances and everything going to crap.

As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly. Read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

Annalise didn’t have a filler case to take this week no, she was back at it trying to smoothen out the kinks of Rebecca’s defense instead. Suspected for killing her best friend and college student Lila, Rebecca risks being painted as the crazy drug dealer who stole her best friend’s boyfriend and proceeded to strangle her dead. Lovely.

Rebecca doesn’t take it quite so seriously though and Annalise rightly reminds her of the horrors of prison.

It all gets cut short when a news broadcast suggests that Rebecca slept with Griffin, Lila’s then boyfriend. Not only that but there’s very good reason to suspect that in an effort to paint Rebecca as the relationship wrecking ‘slut’, it was the prosecution behind the leak.

Naturally, this is the best time to get a gag order put in place and so that’s exactly what they have done that very same day. But at the hearing to have the gag order, Griffin’s defense requests a second autopsy on Lila’s body and given that it could be used to suggest that Rebecca killed her, Annalise and co. must now do everything in their power to stop it.

The afternoon before the hearing. Annalise fretting that she has no way to stop the second autopsy, her students likely doing the same and who should walk in? The prosecution! Rather than getting into a slinging match with Annalise she actually proves to be of good use, handing her a folder with a case that proves that the expert (the one who wants to convince the court to let them do a second autopsy) is a dirty cheating liar unfit for the job.

Annalise plays the hand that the prosecution dealt her but the next logical step is to do what else they can to stop the autopsy from going forward…and that’s where Laurel and Frank come in. The two of them tail Lila’s mother to a park, sweet talk her by appealing to her best interests and voila, just like that the emotional plea of a mother with a murdered child puts a hold on the second autopsy. Temporarily, at least.

And this is where that momentary ounce of girl power crumbles – the prosecution then puts forward her very own autopsy expert leaving her one step away from a checkmate. Sadly, Annalise’s ex-lover Nate doesn’t want to play ball when she asks for help and he instead criticises her methods last week when she had Frank plant evidence. But Annalise’s loss is our gain as we soon get to see her drunk students flirt with assistants to get info out of them. It’s pretty flipping hilarious.

More last ditch attempts are at hand when Annalise makes Rebecca break the gag order and tell the press that Griffin raped her. The judge, the prosecution and Griffin’s defense are all frustrated with the way things are going so the judge just grants a second autopsy. Yikes!

With Rebecca off the hook, she takes a moment away from all the legal-ish to go shopping. Nate shows up. He says he knows she didn’t kill Lila and that he wants to help. Hm.

As for what the second autopsy showed? Lila was six weeks pregnant, which is big news considering that she was also sleeping with Annalise’s husband!

Meanwhile in heterosexual corner – Michaela is having to sign a pre-nuptial agreement ahead of her wedding to Aiden (Aiden he who slept with Connor when they were in school), Laurel, unsure of whether or not to take a job at legal aid with her boyfriend decided to cheat on him with Frank, while Rebecca and Wes finally got together.

The Gay

Feeling sorry for himself about Oliver, the guy who dumped him several weeks ago for cheating, Connor has a random hookup with a guy (who also has a boyfriend) as though that will make it any better. He also tried to give Oliver flowers, only to be turned away at the door by Oliver’s new love interest.

As for any queer women on the show, all we got was Rebecca saying that she’s ‘good at flirting with girls’ when she asked if she could go and flirt with the assistants.

I’m also still holding out hope for #BisexualBonnie. Yup, let’s make that hashtag trend, people.

The Ugly

The scenes I didn’t like this week were the love scenes.

Never mind the fact that Laurel and Frank appeared to have sex against a pillar (???) but Wes and Rebecca’s love scene was mixed in with a scene of the second autopsy and Connor’s love scene seemed shoehorned in.

It wasn’t the content just the way in which it was done, so not a huge issue but one that stayed on my mind following the ending title screen which I suppose is enough to warrant a mention.
I’ll be back next week with another recap.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How to Get Away With Murder – 106 Recap – Freakin’ Whack-a-Mole

Welcome to another How to Get Away With Murder recap! HTGAWM also known as the show where the law is upheld but so are nude photos, illegals means for legal gains and on occasion, analingus.

This week in the show, there were more rights to be upheld and Viola Davis was incredible (as per usual).

As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

Many moons ago when Annalise Keating was just a young fiery whippersnapper (as opposed to y’know, a slightly older one) she watched the case of David Allen, a (then) young black man who was charged with his girlfriend’s murder. She’d been shot dead and, as per a witness statement, Allen had run down the road screaming and brandishing a shotgun shortly after. Pretty damning stuff.

But the evidence was all circumstantial, meaning that while it didn’t mean Allen was completely free, the evidence didn’t necessarily guarantee that he did it either. With the evidence possibly leading him to death row, Annalise and co. scoop up the case, determined to free this man or at least get to the bottom of what really happened.

Going over his case though, the team think they’ve hit the jackpot when the defence lawyer who worked with Allen years before said that there was a man with an alibi. He was a drug dealer though, and wasn’t necessarily reliable but it was something that could have gotten Allen off the hook nonetheless.

But that man died 15 months ago from a drug overdose, taking Allen’s alibi with him to the grave.

Feeling defeated, Annalise and her team get back to work trying to figure out what really went on. Further bumps in the road for them though when it turns out that Asher’s dad was the judge on the Allen case. Speaking to his father in a really intense debate, Asher confronts him plainly and asks why the day he met with the prosecutors is the only day in his entire career that’s not accounted for. And why just a month after he sentenced David Allen was he enlisted for a much higher position in the courts?

His father, obviously, doesn’t have answers for him and promptly throws Asher out of the house but it does give him a bit of extra ammunition. A high profile senator was the one who got his dad the job and so, voila, the team now has a potential motive for a framing.

“Your dad sent a guy to death row for no reason” from Laurel is what it takes to bust the case wide open. Charging at the rest of the law students, Asher trips and falls, unceremoniously into a box of paper. Smooth. But in the process he recognises a logo from the key witness’ building. Could it be that the key witness is somehow entangled in this corruption too?

Of course it is and it’s what Annalise uses to blitz holes into the prosecution’s case against their client. In one of the most well acted scenes I have ever seen on television, Annalise criticises the senator, yells at him across the courtroom saying that he displaced so many people, ruined so many lives and had an innocent woman killed and for what? To complete a housing development and make millions of dollars it seems, and with opposition from Allen’s girlfriend growing in momentum the senator had her killed and implicated her boyfriend for the murder.

Or so it seems at least. The case gets sent to retrial but until then (and a guilty verdict) but David Allen is set free. Another thrilling win for Annalise Keating and the plucky, young students.

Because this is a drama show though, Annalise still has an awful lot of other dramatic-ness on her plate in this week’s HTGAWM. Namely all of the stuff with her husband.

Having being confronted by photos of his naked body being found on a murdered girl’s phone last week, Wes, a law student and friend of the key suspect in the murder is demanding answers. He wants Annalise to find Rebecca (the suspect) and bring her home after she ran away following the nudes revelation in the last episode.

This is Annalise though so she doesn’t take anything lying down and instead does what any powerful lawyer with a legal problem has…she breaks the law. Specifically, she makes Frank (her right hand man) break the law for her and sees to it that the phone with the nude photos on makes its way into the car of Griffin O’Reilly (star quarterback and another suspect in the murder).

Little does Annalise or Frank know, that Nate, Annalise’s former lover, now has proof that Frank put the phone in the car. Well, Frank did it in broad daylight which seems silly, but Nate was having someone tail Griffin and keep surveillance on him, photos and all, so there’s a very good chance that everyone will land right in the poo in the next few episodes or so.

The Gay

There wasn’t really much gay in HTGAWM this week. Or any maintext queer content at all, but you know me, I love a good bit of subtext and this week HTGAWM delivered it in a small but significant way.

Last week Annalise discovered that Bonnie had landed Nate in it with the police (Nate’s employers), but had defended Sam Keating (Annalise’s husband) in the process. Surely this means that Bonnie has a crush on him? Well that’s what Annalise thinks but after Sam thanks her for putting up with all of he and Annalise’s “crap”, Bonnie literally tells him that “it’s for Annalise, I’d do anything for her”. Shippers start your engines!
Or at least, do it quietly, since one of HTGAWM’s flash forward scenes (the ones that cover the night of Sam’s murder) reveal that she slept with Asher.

She might still be queer! She might still be in love with Annalise too. The show definitely seems to be pointing in the direction of Not Heterosexual Bonnie at least, so we’ll keep you posted.

The Ugly

This was a near perfect episode for HTGAWM actually. Obviously there was no maintext queerness which is always a disappointment in any show but other than that I don’t think I can fault it. Good job ABC.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How to Get Away With Murder 105 Recap – We’re Not Friends

Welcome to another How to Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM) recap! HTGAWM also known as the show based around upholding the law despite its core premise being that the characters have killed somebody!

This week on the show, more laws were (probably) broken, shots were had and wallpaper proved to be a plot device!

As always, our recaps are separated into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

In HTGAWM this week, the defendant lucky enough to be privy to Annalise’s law skills is a boy who shot his police officer father dead after he and his mother suffered years of abuse. It’ll be a tough sell for Annalise and her law students given that a) no one likes a ‘cop killer’ and b) the prosecution has all of the money and muscle that you’d expect from a government agency.

Thankfully for Annalise, there is one pretty significant way that she cans win this in her favour – the jury. As the American judicial system goes, the lawyers can pick who they want to be on the jury. By asking the right questions and knowing enough about the person and what they are more likely to support or be against (based on age, race, gender and class) they can predict (or at least subtly influence) how the jury will think.

The jury is going to take a serious amount of persuading though as on the very first argument of the trial, the judge rules that the abuse as documented on the defendant’s blog isn’t allowed to be evidence. It takes some quick thinking from Laurel, who’s sat in the stands with a Windows tablet (love those Microsoft sponsors!) searching through the boy’s blog, to use a character statement as an excuse to get the blog into evidence. Round one won.

But, even with the bucket loads of evidence suggesting that the deceased was a terrible person the jury could still vote against the guy who killed him, y’know on account of the fact that he killed a guy.

Even with some help from Connor, who uses a gay hookup app to get proof that one of the people on the jury spoke about the case with someone outside of the jury, there are still a few more people to win over. And that’s where Laurel rockets herself into the position of ‘the one to beat’.

Showing up to the court, coffee in hand, eyebrows on fleek, Laurel ‘slyly’ leaves a bit of paper on a bench, knowing that a member of the jury was about to sit down on it. Unbeknownst to a lot of people, it’s legal for jurors to rule based on their emotions not just the facts presented to them and so in a case like this, where a boy killed he and his mother’s abuser, that’s a pretty big deal.

With the member of the jury admitting that she shared that information with her fellow jury members, the case is dismissed and the defendant gets community service instead. Annalise meanwhile, is rightfully pissed that *someone* tampered with the jury in the first place.

Annalise’s right hand guy Frank knows that it was Laurel but stays quiet and, because of that fact, he earns half a make out from Laurel – woo romance! She then heads over to see her other love interest and proceeds to have sex with him awkwardly on a desk, it really is her lucky day.

Flash forward though and this week’s scenes about the murder of Annalise’s husband Sam show Laurel heading over to Frank’s after they set the body alight, Frank apologising for something awful he’s supposedly done. Does this mean that Laurel will ditch her bf and fall for Frank’s beardy lumberjack-ness instead? Does anybody really care? Who knows!

We do know that Sam probably deserved it though as this week’s HTGAWM episode features Annalise confronting him about the nude-y pics found on Lila (the murdered student)’s phone. He throws her on the bed and leaves. While she’s waiting for his cheating, lying self to get home she cracks open a bottle and then makes her way over to Nate’s (Nate being her ex-lover) only for him to tell her that Sam doesn’t have an alibi for Lila’s murder. Dun dun dun!

Also, Rebecca, another suspect in Lila’s murder, uses the bathroom at Annalise’s house and sees wallpaper that featured in the nude photos, realising for the first time that Sam was the one who Lila was having an affair with. She tells Wes (Rebecca’s next door neighbour and Annalise’s student) and he confronts her about it too. And that’s where this week’s episode ended; drama!

The Gay

The gay was non-existent this week, save for a gay joke from Asher at Connor’s expense.

And, after the scene last week with Bonnie where she got chided for looking at a woman’s behind, this week the show seemed to suggest that Bonnie actually likes Sam Keating instead.

It comes about when Nate explains that he lost his job because someone (it was Bonnie) told the police chief that he was investigating Sam. Annalise confronts Bonnie about it and accuses her of trying to protect her husband, again with the drama.

I’m still desperately clinging onto the theory that Bonnie is Not Heterosexual because there has just been too much pointing in that direction to suggest it, also, the show’s creator has said that gay characters will be featured because they are a part of real life. Yes Connor is gay but assuming that they haven’t forgotten that queer women exist too, I think it’s right to be hopeful for the future.

The Ugly

HTGAWM is consistently brilliant – the only thing that bothered me about this episode was the apparent U-turning of Bonnie. As mentioned, I’m hoping that Annalise’s inference that Bonnie is protecting Sam is just that – inference – and not Bonnie suddenly being in love with Sam when that hasn’t really been hinted at.

We’ll soon see which of those is right though as I’ll be back with another recap next week.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How to Get Away With Murder 104 Recap – Let’s Get to Scooping

Welcome to another recap of How to Get Away With Murder! The show that is so brilliant I can’t even pretend to make fun of it with an oversimplified synopsis!

This week there was more death, more lawyering and the slightest hint of a queer female character, woo!

As always, things are split up into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

In How to Get Away With Murder’s fourth episode, the world’s favouritest lawyer Annalise Keating has two cases on her plate this week.

The first task? To get Annalise’s old friend off the hook for a spot of insider trading. The woman, says Annalise, is a billionaire. She had cleaning jobs and built her company from the ground up, making waves in a male dominated industry. I’m starting to understand why her and Annalise are friends.

The client says she didn’t do it, naturally, and tells Annalise and her ragtag bunch of law students to look outside of the company for the culprit. Catching the person who framed her is the only way to get the case thrown out early and save her business, so it’s especially important.

Annalise being Annalise, she sends the law students to look at the woman’s employees only. Everybody hates their boss, her employees are likely no different and when billions are on the line? You’d better believe that one of those mammajammas would stab her in the back at the faintest sign of weakness.

After some interviewing from Asher, Michaela, Connor, Wes and Laurel, the team deems that everyone at the office is squeaky clean! Like a toilet bowl in a bleach advert. Well, almost everyone. Connor chooses to follow up on a lead of the woman’s assistant. He thinks highly of his boss but he’s been in the same position for 8 years, even on a good wage that’s got to irritate and so Connor being Connor attempts to get answers the only way he knows how: by having sex with him. When Connor leaves, the assistant makes a phone call and, having bugged the room, he is able to confirm that the assistant is in cahoots with someone else and that the client was telling the truth after all.

Trying to get some answers out of him, the next day they confront the assistant and the boss yells some truly awful things at him, even insinuating that his family was right to throw him out. And then while I (and probably you too) were patching up our battered heartstrings, the poor, law-breaking soul jumped out the window and killed himself.
There’s a life lost now and the stakes are much higher – they need to avenge him and find out who he was working with. Compiling the rest of the interviews and some truly incredible interrogation from Annalise, it’s revealed that one employee used a smoke break to get their boss out of the way while the other made the trades that got her into this mess in the first place. If this interrogation scene didn’t make you throw your hand in the air and yell some sort of expletive in admiration, then frankly, I don’t know what will.

As for Annalise’s other case, law student Wes stuffed things right up when he visited the suspect last week to tell her that another suspect was dumping her in it, implicating her for the murder. At the end of last week’s episode we learnt that she confessed to murder meaning that this week it was up to Annalise and co. to prove that not only was Rebecca (the suspect) coerced into confessing by the prosecutors but that her written and video statements should be dismissed.

Annalise puts her crack team to work and Bonnie is forced to blackmail the video statement out of the police chief. After watching Nate (Annalise’s ex-lover and cop) root through Sam Keating’s car (seeming to suggest that he is a suspect) she has the perfect leverage and uses it appropriately.

Reviewing the tape, the team have proof that Rebecca was forced into confessing to the crime. The judge agrees and they get her out on bail, Annalise and co. save the day once again.

Rebecca being set free also lets her speak to Wes again and tell him the passcode for the murder victim’s phone, he having found it a few episodes before. What’s on the phone? Nude photos of Annalise’s husband. Oh boy. Wes heads right over to Annalise’s house to tell her and obviously, she confronts him with it at which point I rubbed my hands together with glee. It puts her husband as suspect numero uno in the case, even if he does end up dead a few months later.

As for the whole, ‘Sam Keating gets murdered’ thing, the flashbacks with the law students show them trying to dispose of his body once again. In this sneaky reveal we find that Asher (typical straight white boy extraordinaire) knows that they were at the crime scene. How will it all play out? Who knows! But it will sure be fun along the way to finding out.

The Gay

As mentioned, Connor finds a new partner to do the horizontal tango with this week, but it doesn’t sit right with his Not Boyfriend Oliver when he listens to the audio recording about it. Oliver promptly throws him out, Connor having to stand in the hallway with his underwear.
What does it mean for the Not Boyfriends? Again, who knows! This show is full of mystery.
Meanwhile, less canon queerness took place on Bonnie’s first attempt to get that video recording. She spoke to the District Attorney, which proved fruitless but as she was walking away the D.A said to her “tell Annalise to send Frank next time, I prefer him watching my ass walk away”.

Does this mean Bonnie is queer? Does it mean that she just appreciates an attractive behind? Both are plausible! How to Get Away With Murder likes to play its cards close to its chest so I suspect we won’t find out for a while. I’ll recap the snot out of any queer maintext queer activity once it happens though.

The Ugly

Aside from that suicide making me uncomfortable (which I suspect was the intention) I have nothing bad to say about HTGAWM this week. It’s fast becoming one of my favourite programs so if you’re reading these recaps without having watched, I highly recommend catching up.

I’ll be back next week with another recap.

‘How to Get Away With Murder’ Gets Full Season Order

‘How to Get Away With Murder’ is ABC’s new drama, which so far is dripping with mystery and gooey intrigue. Headed up by Peter Nowalk (producer and writer for Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal) and executively produced by Shonda Rhimes (the creator of those aforementioned shows) ‘HTGAWM’ is off to a brilliant start.

Hopefully you’ve been tuning in (it airs on Thursday nights on ABC, if you’re in the United States) and not just living vicariously through my recaps but so far, in addition to all of the murders and lawyer-ing up the show has proved itself to be incredibly queer friendly. Main cast member Connor is a gay, white male and while that’s hardly good news of those of us looking for more diverse characters to fall in love with (though two of Connor’s love interests have been men of colour) it’s still good news for those of us who like LGBT media that the show has now received a full season order.

Critically a ‘full season order’ is not the same thing as ‘being renewed for season 2’ which is what we’d all like to hear but it does mean that ‘HTGAWM’ will be upholding the justice system all over our teevees for the next few weeks. The show was designed to have 15 episodes in its first season but as we’re just at the 4th episode now (it airs this Thursday coming) and it has already been given a thumbs up, that’s fantastic news.

All of the appropriate appendages crossed, ‘HTGAWM’ will get a second season. At least, it has a very good chance of doing so. It’s been the most watched show of the Fall pilot season, getting 14.3 million viewers in its first week and by week two that had only dipped to 12.2 million which is phenomenal.

Hopefully those high ratings continue and that ‘HTGAWM’ adds a queer woman or two to the mix soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGVpoXLeHTM

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | How to Get Away With Murder – 103 Recap

Welcome to this week’s How to Get Away With Murder recap! HTGAWM, also known as the show where one no-nonsense lawyer teaches a bunch of up and comers the ways of the justice system, with her students trying to awake and alive despite having diets that consist almost entirely of instant ramen!

This week on the show, more crimes were committed and the overarching mystery from the show’s premiere got even more delicious.

As always, our recaps are sectioned in The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so keep reading to find out what went down.

The Plot

There are two murder cases on Annalise’s mind this week, as the talented and intimidating lawyer has to ponder whether or not she’s going defend the school’s star quarterback in the murder case of fellow student Lila Stanguard.

But, before Annalise can make a decision she has to go and bust out a client’s friend out of jail in the name of good business practices, she explains to her grumbling gaggle of recruits.

Things aren’t easy, breezy and beautiful though as on their way out of the precinct they’re surrounded by SUVs and several government officials jump out and inform them that the freed woman is not who she says she is. No, she’s not just a highly strung suburban mother who got caught being ‘intimate’ with a stranger on a park bench, she’s actually a wanted fugitive whose fingerprints were found on a fragment of a bomb that killed a janitor during a protest demonstration several decades ago.

Annalise takes the case only to discover that plot twist! It was the ringleader (who is already in prison) who was behind it all. They go to visit the man, who, despite having been locked up for years, seems pleased as punch to see his ex-activist teammate. She also happens to be his ex-activist…lover? Wild. They hold hands across the table and stare longingly into each other’s eyes and the man agrees to take the fall for her if they put him on the stand in court. Ah, middle-aged heterosexual love is a beautiful thing.

As promised, he goes on the stand but because nothing can ever go right for these people, he dumps the defendant right in it. ‘She was the one who suggested the bombs’ the dirty, no-good criminal explains, incriminating her and potentially seeing her go to prison for 10 years. His betrayal is soon explained though as Annalise accuses the man of having spoken to the government to set up a deal. She’s right, because this is Annalise Flippin’ Keating we’re talking about, and he soon buckles under her questions to reveal that he’d be given early release for testifying against her client.

They break for a few hours and Michaela uncovers some pretty big evidence. But before she can even finish her sentence, Annalise gets a phone call from Frank saying that their client has gone missing. We skip across town to see the client and the man who “betrayed” her sitting next to each other on a bus, kissing and all loved up. Love’s young dream.

With that case flushed down the toilet, Annalise still has to figure out whether or not she’s going to take the quarterback’s case, which involves enlisting her cop friend/ex-lover to find out how her husband is involved in the case. She needs to find out if her husband’s alibi checks out so that if he didn’t kill Lila then maybe the quarterback did.

‘It checks out’ the cop tells her after a bit of investigating, but in his actual sleuthing scenes we find out that not only is her husband’s alibi a lump of old baloney, there was actually a six hour window during which he could have killed the girl. It’s all very, very messy.

The quarterback meanwhile, makes his case to Annalise and her students. He tells a cock and bull story about cheating on Lila with Rebecca. Wrong move buddy boy, Rebecca is actually Wes (one of Annalise’s students)’ next door neighbour and in an effort to bust her out of jail, where she’s being held as a suspect in the murder already, Wes goes to see her. Rebecca doesn’t want to hear any of it though, unfortunately, and she calls the guards to have Wes taken away. He manages to shout ‘the quarterback is pinning it on you!’ as he leaves she pays any attention to that, but it might have cause more trouble than it’s worth.

Luckily for Rebecca, Wes pleads with Annalise to help her out because she’s poor and needs the best team she can get. The law is meant to work for everybody, not just the rich kids and those who are incredibly privileged. Aw, he’s got a good heart in him that lad. Annalise agrees and takes on the case. It might be a short one though as by the time they get to the jail to see Rebecca, she’s already confessed to Lila’s murder.

But did Rebecca actually do it? And how does she fit into everything? It’s not clear but we do see Rebecca again when the show has one of its flash-forward scenes. Wes, Laurel and Connor are trying to move the body of Annalise’s freshly dead husband, Michaela is crying in the corner and Rebecca looks shaken up. Laurel manages to talk Michaela round though and the team pushes on to ditch the corpse.

Their plan hits a bit of a snag though as whilst they’re putting the body in the car, Michaela makes the shocking revelation that her engagement ring is missing, presumably lost somewhere in that body bag, at the crime scene or somewhere just as incriminating in between. She freaks out, having wanted no part in this in the first place whilst the others manage to convince her to go with them to a bonfire which will serve as their alibi.

The Gay

There was plenty of queer activity in this week’s episode, but I can’t say that it was particularly good. We meet Michaela’s fiancé Aiden at which Connor makes various ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ suggestive jokes given that he and Aiden knew each other in boarding school.

For reasons I can’t adequately describe other than ‘Connor wanting to be an asshole’, he tells Michaela that he and Aiden hooked up back when they were teenagers. It’s heartbreaking really, to watch one man effectively get outed and to see his fiancé realise that she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did.

Aiden promises that he is Totally 100% Heterosexual and things between them seem to be fine, but Michaela threatens that she’d destroy his career in politics if he ever cheats on her.

The Ugly

Rather than having issue with the way that Michaela handled the Aiden/Connor bombshell – her reaction was valid and she never says she’d have an issue with him being bisexual, just an issue with him being gay since she wouldn’t want her future husband to be a gay man which is understandable – I actually have more of an issue with the missed opportunity.

Bisexual Aiden would have been brilliant! The writers could have written him as bisexual and left him and Michaela happy together, without doing the typical ‘cheating bisexual’ trope.

So it’s not a huge deal, just a minor sadface of an event. I’ll be back next week with a new recap nonetheless.

Weekly Recap: Gotham, Faking It and HTGAWM Have Strong Second Weeks

Hundreds of channels! Hundreds of TV shows for you to choose from! But definitely not enough time to watch everything! With the Fall TV season upon us, with even more shows debuting, you’re probably a bit overwhelmed. Furthermore, every show you choose to watch runs the risk of disappointing you.

New programs might fall flat, returning programs might step on your toes like a giant in heavy, metal clogs and when there are gay characters involved you know the risk of stuffing it all up are only that much higher. So to save you the trouble, we’ve taken a handful of promising shows from this year’s fall lineup and will watch them, recap them and deliver the verdict on how well they fared each week.

For readability, things have been broken down into ‘The Plot’, ‘The Gay’ and ‘The Ugly’ which are pretty self explanatory. Read on and see what we thought!


Gotham

The Plot

On Monday night we sauntered over to the city, the city of Gotham, where every piece of scenery is out of a time warp, everything is devoid of colour and it hasn’t stopped being overcast in about three decades.

This week, Bruce ‘Snot Dribble’ Wayne is toughening himself up (the show is set in the years before he becomes Batman) by sticking his hand over a candle. I’m not entirely sure why he doesn’t just go on an extreme adventure holiday or something a lot less painful but his eye-rollingly stupid antics have at least been carried over from the season premiere (he stood on the roof of his mansion as if he was threatening to jump off) so that’s consistent, I guess. It also lets new detective on the block James ‘Jim’ Gordon step in and assume the father figure role for young Bruce, also helping Jim build up his ‘good cop whose morals are being tested’ persona.

When Jim’s not being a friend to troubled children, he’s also saving the homeless youth! The big police plot of this week features he and partner Detective Harvey Bullock as they attempt to thwart a couple of child snatchers who are rounding up homeless kids and shipping them overseas for unknown reasons. After a run in with the Mayor of Gotham, who is as corrupt as a two decade battery and doesn’t care about the children’s wellbeing, they eventually save the day and stop the snatchers. We don’t find out where the kids were being shipped but we do at least get some good scenes with young Catwoman (known as Cat in the show) as she is saved from the juvenile system.

The Gay

There was somewhat less of our queer, justice dealing favourite, Renee Montoya, who dogood’ed her way into our hearts last week with her tailored suits and the maintext history she has with Jim Gordon’s girlfriend, Barbara. This week, Renee and her partner Crispus Allen were trying to uncover a corruption plot featuring the disappearance of Penguin, the villain whose life Jim spared last week and has now turned to cold-blooded murder.

Barbara, meanwhile, rats out the Gotham police force to the local newspaper after Jim explains that the Mayor won’t let him rescue the children. It’s a really short scene but it’s significant just because Barbara’s moral code is clearly so black and white (just like Renee’s) in comparison to Jim’s grey one and this could potentially be what breaks her and Jim up. Good news for Barbara/Renee shippers but less so for the future Police Commissioner.

There’s also a scene with mob boss Fish Mooney, who is planning to usurp fellow crime leader Carmine Falcone. Falcone shows up, asks who her lover is and then proceeds to have his goons beat her lover (a male bartender at Mooney’s club) to a pulp. Lovely. There have been rumblings that Mooney is Not Straight though, so with this lover scared off maybe she’ll find the arms of a woman next time.

The Ugly

A big problem for Gotham’s writers is not being too obvious about upcoming storylines. This is a prequel to all of the comics and movies we’ve seen featuring Gotham’s superheroes but sometimes it feels like certain lines are included just to wink at viewers who are clued in. It probably seems weird to those who know nothing about the universe, which is unfortunate.

We’re only two episodes in though, so while it’s a little off-putting, there’s plenty of time for Gotham to find its footing.


Faking It

The Plot

This being Faking It, almost everything about the plot is gay! The not-gay action here is the subplot with Shane and Liam.

These two bros for life get a thirdwheel in the form of Theo, a new addition to the cast and Liam’s potential new bestie. Ditching Shane’s plans for a Frozen sing-along costume party, the three go out to a bar for some not-so-legal underage drinking and after a fight with the patrons they end up hightailing it the hell out of there. Liam is hurt and still upset that Shane didn’t tell him that Amy loves Karma and Karma (Liam’s crush) was only faking being a lesbian.

Maybe it’s just my continued apathy for Liam but I think he was probably being a crying pissbaby about this! Shane was trying to be a good friend to both he and Amy, protecting them both in the process, something which Liam doesn’t give Shane a chance to explain, so for now they’re on the outs.

The Gay

Shimmying over to Casa de Raudenfeld and Karma and Amy are having a girls’ weekend! Except Amy having told Karma she’s in love with her and them trying to figure out a way to be platonic friends and not suffocating close ‘soulmates’ means that awkwardness soon ensues.

So, what’s a girl to do? Amy brings in her step-sister Lauren, who came out (read: was outed) as intersex in last week’s episode and who soon invites her #Karmy shipping buddies over to get the party started.

The party atmosphere soon devolves after a game of truth or dare goes awry with Karma having to discuss what it was like to have sex with Liam, Lauren almost reveals that Amy slept with Liam too and Lauren is nearly outed once more. There’s also a scene where Amy and Karma almost kiss which nearly made my head explode but overall it’s nice to see that they’re dealing with the tension in a genuine way.

Also, Shane and his boyfriend may have broken up? An advice seeking session saw Shane putting the phone down on him. The scene seemed shoehorned in so here’s hoping it will get covered next week.

The Ugly

Following the truth or dare sesh, the next morning Lauren does come out to her two best friends and her and Amy have a heart to heart which made me realise that Lauren is without a doubt my favourite character on the show. But, Amy and Karma nearly outed her the previous night and neither had an apology for Lauren which was downright rude. For a show that’s already been heavily criticised for this you’d think they’d do more to leave it out, but alas, hopefully they’ll move on from it.


How To Get Away With Murder

The Plot

Fresh on the TV block this year, How To Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM) is now in its second week as Viola Davis plays the insanely talented and powerful lawyer, Annalise Keating.

This week’s case features a widower being put on the stand for his wife’s violent, brutal murder. Whether he did it or not, it’s the team’s challenge is to make sure the jury thinks he’s innocent but this is a job that becomes all the more difficult when it’s revealed in court that he was also a suspect for his first wife’s murder too. Yikes!

After some leg work by Alfie – and some mumblings from his fellow classmates that he is Annalise’s favourite – and a point made my Laurel that as a hunter, the client couldn’t have done the murder because the kill was too messy, he actually goes free. It actually turns out that the client’s daughter did it and tried to frame him but they don’t dob her into the police because, well, that’s not their jobs.

Annalise’s life isn’t all roses and won court cases this week though as she’s gradually starting to suspect her husband for the murder of one of his students. He knew the girl well according to emails (that Annalise has snooped through, naturally) and so she turns to her lover, a police officer (who was put on probation after helping her out last week) to check out his alibi. To make matters worse, her husband is worried that their marriage is going through a rough patch so after almost breaking down to her boyfriend, she has sex with her husband and hides her tears afterwards. I’m pretty sure I watched the whole thing with a shocked look on my face because Viola Davis is such a good actress that it hurts.

We also find out more about the shocking reveal at the end of the premiere that Annalise’s husband has been murdered. The above storyline happens in the past (with her husband’s murder taking place two months later) but it’s threaded together impeccably well. What we learn is that Wes is trying to protect his neighbour Rebecca after she becomes his girlfriend at some point during the two months. It’s not much but it’s a delicious mystery to follow.

The Gay

Connor is the only gay lead in the show (so far) but he’s being represented incredibly well!

After getting a guy into bed last week to help solve a case, he enlists him again for some computer hacking. Some overtime, a delayed dinner date and some refused apologies later and the two have a bit of a rough patch. It lasts for all of 5 minutes though because Connor soon wins him over with food and sex, of course.

I can’t fault the way he’s being presented and I’d love for there to be a queer woman on the show who’s given the same opportunities, but if you’re looking for any gay content at all, How To Get Away With Murder’s plot and representation means it’s highly recommended

The Ugly

I can’t say a bad word about this show! The only downside to it is that it doesn’t air seven times a week, so I’m impatiently waiting for the next episode, but I can live with that. Just about.