TV Review: HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: Season 4, Episode 9: He’s Dead [ABC]

How To Get Away With Murder He’s Dead Review

How to Get Away with Murder: Season 4, Episode 9: He’s Dead. This How to Get Away with Murder He’s Dead review finds the midseason premiere to be serviceable if not exactly auspicious.

On the face of it, there is really nothing bad that can be said about Thursday night’s episode. It makes sense and moves the narrative along, and on the technical front there isn’t so much as a jump cut to rub one the wrong way. Yet somehow, nothing that occurs onscreen pops out at us the way it should.

This is especially shocking giving the revelation about Wes (Alfred Enoch) at the show’s end. For a piece of information as game-changing as that was, you would think they would have been able to build up to it better, to say nothing of making the payoff worth it. Instead, however, this potentially-blindsiding discovery barely registers as a blip on the viewer’s emotional radar.

Admittedly, this has been a problem with the show for some time, as I have documented in reviews of previous episodes. While the tension that comes with getting bombshell after bombshell dropped on oneself can be exhilarating, the rush quickly wears off and it becomes almost a chore to keep up with the constant stream of information newly come to light. This episode wasn’t especially prone to this, but it certainly did pop up as in the aforementioned example at the end, thus detracting from its impact.

On the other hand, there is a moment where the music manages to elevate the action to something higher than mere mediocrity. The terse instrumental piece that plays in the background while Laurel (Karla Souza) pieces together what happened to her newborn son not only contemplates what we see very well but is also pleasing to listen to in and of itself, reminding one of Philip Glass’s “Prophecies” from Koyaanisqatsi. I only wish that the rest of the soundtrack was as memorable as this piece.

To reiterate, He’s Dead isn’t a bad episode. It’s just that the show’s shock shtick has become so stale that what might have been mind-blowing two seasons ago comes across as unremarkable at this point. There is certainly still time for the program to once again find the magic that made the first two seasons so exceptional, but that will require growth, not falling back on the tricks that made How to Get Away with Murder worth watching in the first place.

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