ABC's How to Get Away with Murder is the definition of sinful melodramatic pleasure. Week after week, Viola Davis’s Annalise Keating and her group of interns showed audiences the depths of delicious depravity to which they would constantly sink. There was something soapy about the show, but there’s no denying that it was compulsively watchable from the first season until the last.
However, not all of the episodes, and not all of the seasons, were made alike, and while some were rather forgettable (if anything on this crazy show is truly forgettable) others managed to make quite an impression on the critics (and on audiences).
Best: Who’s Dead? - Season 3, Episode 9 (9.5)
This is one of those episodes that really showcases how well it manages to balance the melodrama and the human psychology components of its narrative. Of course, Viola Davis is simply extraordinary as the morally ambiguous Annalise, and she continues to find new ways of exploring the depths of this woman’s character.
However, there’s also plenty of other drama offered up in this episode among the various other characters and their conflicts, feuds, and, of course, sexual escapades.
Worst: He Betrayed Us Both - Season 5, Episode 9 (7.7)
Any show, even one as tautly woven as this one, is bound to start hitting a few narrative snags as it marches into some of its later seasons.
This episode has quite a lot going on in it, and while it isn’t bad, it doesn’t have the same sort of cohesion that is evidenced in other episodes (even from the same season). What’s more, there’s also a flashback, and while that sort of device was fine in the early seasons, by this point it can get a bit tedious.
Best: What Did We Do? - Season 2, Episode 9 (9.6)
There’s no question that the first couple of seasons of this show were when it was at its best. The cast was still fresh, the murders were still very interesting, and all of the pieces just seemed to fit together. This episode is the show at its finest, with twists, turns, murders, and a fateful shooting that will have echoes through the rest of the show.
What’s more, it also has some very interesting questions about identity. It’s high-pitched melodrama at its finest.
Worst: I’m Going Away - Season 4, Episode 1 (7.7)
Given that this was the very first episode in the fourth season, this had a lot riding on it. It attempts a bit of a reset (not unusual for this type of show), and so the characters are dispersed in some interesting ways.
Once again, it’s not necessarily a terrible episode in and of itself--and there are some very good scenes with Annalise--but on the whole, it just doesn’t quite measure up to the ones that came in the previous season.
Best: Live. Live. Live - Season 4, Episode 8 (9.6)
While season four had one of the worst episodes, it also had one of the best. Once again, this episode showcases all of the things that fans love about the show. The events and melodrama are dialed up to about as high as they can go, with all manner of absolutely crazy things happening.
In fact, so much happens in this episode that it’s bound to make some wonder just how the writers (not to mention the actors) managed to pull the whole thing off.
Worst: I Hate The World - Season 6, Episode 4 (7.8)
Even a show as great as this one was bound to start running out of steam as it advanced into what would be its final season. The sixth season has some of the weakest episodes, including this one.
The narrative energy seems a bit lacking in this outing, and the pieces don’t quite seem to fit together quite as neatly as they should. It’s one of those episodes where the series really leans in on the soap opera aspect of its plot, without a lot of the payoff that it provides elsewhere.
Best: Are You the Mole? - Season 6, Episode 9 (9.7)
While the sixth season had its fair share of weak episodes, it also produced great ones like this one, that really showed how the series could shine. There’s so much to love about this episode.
Of course, Annalise is always one of the chief pleasures of this drama (who doesn’t love Viola Davis?), but what really makes this episode work is the revelation that a certain character may not be as dead as everyone had assumed he was.
Worst: I’m The Murderer - Season 6, Episode 7 (7.9)
As with so many of the other episodes in this season, there are just too many things going on at the same time for it ever to truly come together.
While previous seasons--and episodes in this season--had done a decent job in keeping everything from falling apart, by this point, it was hard not to wonder whether the series as a whole will end up falling apart under the weight of its own ornateness.
Best: Stay - Season 6, Episode 15 (9.7)
Say what one will about this show, there’s no doubt that it goes out with a bang. Somehow, it manages to pull together all of the various pieces that it had set in motion during the season and brought them to a fitting conclusion.
It probably goes without saying that it ends just as it began: with all sorts of crazy shenanigans and too-good-to-be-true plot twists. However, it’s certainly true that its fans, and probably the characters, wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Worst: I Want To Be Free - Season 6, Episode 8 (8.6)
Like so much of the final season, this episode becomes a bit uneven throughout its runtime. It helps that this series never really had what one might define as a bad episode, but even so, this is a rather distracting one, with lots of plot points and threads that seem to amble along without adding up to much of anything.
It’s another indicator that it was probably for the best that the sixth season of this show ended up being the final one.