How to Win a Golden Globe: Viola Davis’ Top Performances on HTGAWM

Viola Davis’ Annalise Keating is positively a revelation in How to Get Away with Murder. Fearless, brilliant, and ever so real, Annalise is everything we could ask for as a complicated strong female character, so much so that Viola Davis’ portrayal has been nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG award. Here, we’ll take a look at the jaw-dropping moments that are sure to have clinched her nominations.

Fair warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!

3. The Truco Trial

Now, for all that HTGAWM is (somewhat overly) concerned with the murders of Lila Stangard and later, Sam Keating, the "case of the week" format works well in demonstrating that if the Keating 5 isn't actually learning anything useful, then it's because they're simply not paying attention. This scene, in which Annalise runs up against a corrupt senator in court, pushes the boundaries of what a lawyer can get away with and not end up being held in contempt. It also makes the audience sit back and go, "Daaaaaaaang, girl!"

2. THAT Wig Scene (plus a bonus - the 9 words heard 'cross the Shondaverse) 

How to Get Away with Murder frequently tests the levels of credulity with its overarching plot, but this scene, as played by Viola Davis, is such a raw, pivotal moment, both within the Shondaverse, and in the real world. Watching Annalise figuratively and literally take off her armour, the mask that she wears to the outside world, before confronting her husband with proof of his infidelity and motive to murder his mistress was the most heartbreaking -- and shocking -- moment of the show thus far. Viola’s performance highlighted the vulnerability in Annalise’s character by literally stripping her bare (in one take!) in a ground-breaking scene highlighting “an African-American woman [peeling] back her layers, performing an everyday ritual that’s utterly invisible in the overwhelmingly white world portrayed on television.” Plus, her delivery of the show’s last nine words, “Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?” - #FLAWLESS.

1. OH MY GAWM.

***SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER***

For the love of Shonda, if you have not seen the midseason finale,

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. SERIOUSLY.

It’s been almost a month since this episode aired and I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor. Sam Keating is dead and it was my our favorite ex-Gryffindor who did the deed! This, in and of itself? Shocking. Affter watching Annalise succumb to fear and shame and disappointment and sadness in the wake of her husband’s disappearance, my heart shattered into a million shards of glass...until...a last-second flashback. On the night of Sam’s “disappearance,” Wes returned to the scene to grab the murder weapon and apologize to Sam’s bloody corpse. Imagine his (and our) surprise when he hears a gravelly voice respond, “Don’t be.” Annalise knows! And is calmly sitting behind her desk, looking out over her husband’s body sitting in a pool of his own blood. Game. Changer. If she doesn’t sweep awards season for that scene alone, there is no justice in the world. NONE.

How to Get Away with Murder returns to ABC on January 29.

5 Facts We Need to Know About New Girl Before Season 5

We’re about midseason in season 4 of the adorkable New Girl. There’s been a lot of progress and character development especially this season, but as we head towards season 5, I’ve got some burning questions about the series that need to be answered!

1. What is Coach’s last name?

In season 3, episode 11, “Clavado En Un Bar,” we discovered (finally) that Coach’s first name is Ernie.

I’m assuming this is a tribute to Ernie “Coach” Pantusso from the classic show, “Cheers,” but it just seems strange that we have Jessica Day, Nick Miller, Cecelia Parekh, Winson Bishop, Ernie “Coach” and...actually, that brings me to my next question.

2. What is Schmidt’s first name?

We know so much about Schmidt, probably too much, actually. We know that he loves mango “chut-ten-ney,” is a grade-A, 1st-class germophobe, would rather get a tetanus shot than attempt to repair damaged suede, only learned how to do his laundry in season 4, episode 8, and can “reach completion with some very precise and vigorous nipple play.” The catalog of factoids and TMI tidbits regarding our resident douchebag truly never ends. However, we don’t know his first name! We discover that Schmidt is his last name when his cousin comes to visit in season 2, but what is his first name?! Could it be so horrible that he has to go by his surname?

3. Is Nick actually a lawyer?

We know that Nick was once a type-A, plaid scarf wearing, hyper-studious law student, but he’s long since exchanged respectability for the “credit score of a homeless ghost” and a job as a bartender and as the world’s worst novelist ever (Z is for Zombie, anyone?). However, we discovered that Nick took (and passed!) the California bar exam in season 3. Given that  California is one of the few states in which one may take the bar exam and be admitted as a lawyer without having graduated from law school, does this mean that Nick is considered a lawyer? California’s guidelines stipulate that a person who doesn’t attend law school must “read the law” by working with a law firm for a few years, but who knows if Nick actually did so or not? I must know!

4. In what world could Winston ever actually be a cop?

I’m sorry. But I just cannot buy Winnie the Bish in blue. Admitting him to the police force would be a catastrophe of the highest order. I mean, just look at him. Under what circumstances would hiring a man whose idea of a prank is smacking someone in the face with winter sports gear as a police officer be a good idea? I need to see some actual (successful) sleuthing before I can get behind this.

5. MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: What are the rules to True American?!?!

This just seems like the best drinking game in the entire history of drinking games.

50% drinking game, 50% life-size Candy Land, 75 drinking, 20 Candy Land, and by the way the floor is molten lava, 90% drinking and a loose Candy Land-like structure sounds like my kind of game! The writers seem to be having a ball making it up as they go, but I just really need to know how this game works. For science.