History Series / HowToGetAwayWithMurder

* FiveManBand: Although their characters are much more complex than the roles of a FiveManBand, Wes, Laurel, Connor, Michaela and Asher, who make up the Keating Five, are effectively one of these, where Wes is TheLeader, Connor is TheLancer, Michaela is TheSmartGirl, Asher is TheBigGuy, and Laurel is TheChick.

* FiveManBand: Although their characters are much more complex than the roles of a FiveManBand, Wes, Laurel, Connor, Michaela and Asher, who make up the Keating Five, are effectively one of these, where Wes is TheLeader, Connor is TheLancer, Michaela is TheSmartGuy, Asher is TheBigGuy, and Laurel is TheChick.

** In their Four Man Band, Wes is the OnlySaneMan, Laurel is the ButtMonkey, Connor is the CasanovaWannabe, and Michaela is TheSmartGuy.

* FiveManBand:
** Wes, Laurel, Connor, Michaela and Asher, who make up the Keating Five.
** Following [[spoiler:his death, Wes]] is replaced by Oliver.

->''"I don't know what terrible things you've done in your life up to this point, but clearly your karma's out of balance to get assigned to my class. I'm Professor Annalise Keating and this is Criminal Law 100 -- or, as I prefer to call it, How to Get Away with Murder."''

* DrivingQuestion: Each season has several, mostly based around the flashforwards.
** In season one, who killed Lila Stangard? And why did the four law students murder [[spoiler: Annalise's husband]]? The latter was answered in the midseason finale, and the former in the finale proper - though that just raised a host of new questions along the way, the foremost being [[spoiler: who killed Rebecca?]]
** The second season premiere answers that last one, and then gives us these: Who killed the Hapstalls, the season's mystery. [[spoiler:Who shot Annalise?]] And who killed [[spoiler: Emily Sinclair]]? The latter two of these are answered in the midseason finale, being replaced by a major new one: [[spoiler: what did Annalise and Eve do to Wes' mother?]] This was in turn answered at the end of the season, which leads into [[spoiler: who shot Wallace Mahoney?]]
** Season 3 begins with a whole new set of questions, beginning with who is harassing Annalise on campus? And more importantly: [[spoiler: who burned her house, and which of the cast got consumed by the flames?]] The mid-season finale answers this and leaves two major questions: [[spoiler: Who killed Wes and how did he die?]], which were answered in the finale - but left the mystery of [[spoiler: why Laurel's father wanted Wes dead]]. This was answered pretty nonchalantly in 4x06; the main mystery throughout the first half of the season was a series of flashforwards that featured too many different things to be explained as one main question: instead the promotional materials used the question of 'what happened that night?' [[spoiler: although, arguably the first flashforward set up the mystery of 'where is Laurel's baby?', it was only in the final moments of the midseason finale that we knew definitively the baby was even alive.]]

** Season 5 gave us a new mystery, Who died at the wedding? We also drive further into our main character's back stories with the follow-up questions: Who is Gabriel? And what happened to Bonnie's baby?

** The final season has to answer what happened to Laurel and Christophe? How did Annalise died? And lastly who is the mole? The midseason finale hit us with [[spoiler: Who killed Asher? And Is Wes alive and how?]]

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Wes accidentally walks in on Annalise having sex with Nate, but she seems surprisingly cool about it. When he later meets Sam Keating at a school function, it is a different man than he saw Annalise with. She confronts Wes to get him to keep quiet about what he saw. Wes assumes that getting a job at her firm is a bribe to keep him quiet, but she denies it and assures him that it's because of his skill. [[spoiler:This isn't really true either: Annalise gave Wes the job (and made sure he'd get into law school) for her own personal reasons, without really thinking of how skilled he might be. But, him walking in on her and Nate didn't factor into it.]]
** And, of course, the first case of the series is based around a business executive's affair with his secretary after she tries to kill him for ending their relationship.
** Lila was cheating on Griffin with [[spoiler: Sam Keating]], but Griffin wasn't aware. However, [[spoiler: Annalise]] plants evidence in his car that he ''did'' know in order to make the police suspect him for Lila's murder.
** The case in 1.08 has the defendant's husband cheat on her with their nanny -- who was ''also'' sleeping with the defendant's son.
** Frank thinks that [[spoiler:Laurel's baby]], which has been assumed to be Wes', is actually his; although that's later disproven, it still means that [[spoiler:Laurel cheated on Wes with Frank sometime during their relationship.]]

* LatinoIsBrown: {{Zigzagged}}. Laurel is Mexican-American, with a light complexion, but her father has black hair (that's graying) and olive skin. Her brother Xavier has very similar looks to hers.

* BadDreams: Wes experiences nightmares from the night of [[spoiler:Sam's murder.]]

** Frank and Bonnie [[spoiler: are killed when Frank assassinates the Governer and the two are caught in a crossfire.]]
** Michaela [[spoiler: is one day sworn in as a judge, but has lost touch with all of her law school friends after betraying them one too many times and is implied to be all alone.]]

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon: Asher picks up the gun [[spoiler:Simon had just accidentally shot himself with]]. He admits he did this to the police, [[spoiler:because if he lied and they found his prints on the gun, it would cast doubt on the story he, Michaela and Oliver told the detectives]].

* AccidentalMurder: Subverted. [[spoiler: Michaela ''thinks'' she's committed this by pushing Sam off the second floor railing in self-defense, but [[NotQuiteDead Sam]] ''somehow'' survived that]].

* HardHead: Sam is [[spoiler: thrown over the stairs by Michaela and even starts bleeding from his ear, but manages to survive.]] This is subsequently {{Subverted}}, as [[spoiler: he dies when Wes whacks him in the head with the trophy.]]

** In 4.08, [[spoiler:when Laurel begins to prematurely give birth, it cuts back to the scene where Laurel wrestled Frank off of Connor from the beginning of the episode; this time we are shown that Frank accidentally hit her in stomach as he let go]].

* BaitAndSwitch: The final season indicates that Annalise was murdered with flashes of her funeral where [[spoiler: a still alive Wes]] is in attendance. In the series finale, it's revealed [[spoiler: instead of present-day the funeral is in the far future as Annalise died of old age and it's not Wes at her funeral but Christopher grown into the spitting image of his late father]].

* BaitAndSwitch: The final season indicates that Annaliese was murdered with flashes of her funeral where [[spoiler: a still alive Wes]] is in attendance. In the series finale, it's revealed [[spoiler: instead of present-day the funeral is in the far future as Annaliese died of old age and it's not Wes at her funeral but Christopher grown into the spitting image of his late father]].

** Zigzagged with Annalise, who was dating and sleeping with Eve before leaving her for Sam; she reconnects with Eve as well in Season 2. In the past, she was not as comfortable with her sexuality as she seems to be in the present. Annalise and Eve's previous relationship was derailed when Annalise became concerned with the idea that she was a lesbian; she went to Sam shortly afterward, implying that it had something to do with this concern. Further, Eve seems convinced (at least in the flashbacks to ten years in the past) that Annalise is actually a lesbian in denial. In Season 3, two men hit on Eve and Annalise at a bar; Eve says that she's a lesbian, whereas Annalise says "It's complicated." In 6.11 "The Reckoning," Annalise's mother asks if she's a lesbian, Annalise says "I don't know," and Ophelia has difficulty accepting that answer ("How can you not know? Either you like ladies or you don't").

** Zigzagged with Annalise, who was dating and sleeping with Eve before leaving her for Sam; she reconnects with Eve as well in Season 2. In the past, she was not as comfortable with her sexuality as she seems to be in the present. Annalise and Eve's previous relationship was derailed when Annalise became concerned with the idea that she was a lesbian; she went to Sam shortly afterward, implying that it had something to do with this concern. Further, Eve seems convinced (at least in the flashbacks to ten years in the past) that Annalise is actually a lesbian in denial. In Season 3, two men hit on Eve and Annalise at a bar; Eve says that she's a lesbian, whereas Annalise says "It's complicated."

* BaitAndSwitch: The final season indicates that Annaliese was murdered with flashes of her funeral where [[spoiler: a still alive Wes]] is in attendance. In the series finale, it's revealed [[spoiler: instead of present-day the funeral is in the far future as Annaliese died of old age and it's not Wes at her funeral but Charlie grown into the spitting image of his late father]].

* HollywoodGenetics: Laurel and Adrian are much lighter than their father. While it's possible one might have their mother's fair looks, two is pretty unlikely given dominant traits of darker hair or skin.

* LatinoIsBrown: {{Zigzagged}}. Laurel is Mexican-American, with a light complexion, but her father has black hair (that's graying) and olive skin. Her brother Adrian has very similar looks to hers.