Publication Date
2024
Document Type
Contribution to Book
Abstract
The usually large number of scriptwriters associated with contemporary television’s dramatic serials renders the attribution of primary creative or authorial ownership particularly difficult. The result has been to ascribe written imprimatur for a series to the head writer/showrunner. Yet, there are other, conflicting ways to understand authorial influence or control over a TV series, for example, through producing entities. Thus, How to Get Away with Murder (2014-2020) is a Shondaland production, part of the Shonda Rhimes collection, and readily identifiable as a significant entry in the Rhimes compendium.
Although an executive producer for How to Get Away with Murder, but unlike her role in Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, Rhimes is not credited with writing a single episode of How to over the course of its six-year run. The greatest writing influence is attributed to the show’s creator and showrunner, Peter Nowalk. But even here, distinctions become imprecise. Nowalk is himself a product of Shondaland, having served variously as writer, executive story editor, and supervising producer on Grey’s Anatomy, as well as an executive producer for Scandal. Prior to becoming an executive producer and the showrunner for How to, Nowalk was already deeply immersed in the Shondaland universe. And even as showrunner and head writer, Nowalk is credited with writing only 11 of the 75 total episodes produced for How to Get Away with Murder. Clearly, many other writers have a direct impact on the scripted shape of an ongoing TV series.
This chapter explores several of How to Get Away with Murder’s distinctive written features as a way of placing the show within the Shondaland universe but, also, to outline some of its unique characteristics. First, I consider the program as an example of serial storytelling, part of the proliferating serialization that has become associated with the exemplary quality of TV dramas in the twenty-first century. At the same time, serialization opens such dramas up to reproaches of pursuing a soap opera stylistics, particularly for serials headed by or starring women, as in the case of Shondaland productions. Second, How to, like many serials, relies upon an ensemble cast of characters and multiple subplots, with all the attendant complexities such ensemble storytelling entails, common attributes of Rhimes’ productions. Finally, How to Get Away with Murder is distinct in its signature time-shifting techniques, deploying intricate uses of flash forwards, merging time periods, and flashbacks to frame its stories.
Page Range
157-167
Book Title
The Works of Shonda Rhimes
Book Publisher
Bloomsbury
Book Editor(s)
Anna Weinstein
Book Edition
1st
Book ISBN
978-1-5013-9970-1
Recommended Citation
E. Deidre Pribram. “Ensemble Storytelling in How to Get Away with Murder.” The Works of Shonda Rhimes. Ed. Anna Weinstein. Bloomsbury, 2024.
Document Version
Publisher's PDF
Included in
Communication Commons, Screenwriting Commons, Television Commons
