Emmy Episodes: How to Get Away with Murder

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the fourth year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

How to Get Away with Murder: Season 5, Episode 5 “It Was the Worst Day of My Life” (C)

I usually enjoy the process of going through and sampling the episodes submitted for Emmy consideration each summer, but I really can’t stand this show. I’ve never found it to be compelling, even in comparison to a similar show that used to get nominated, “Scandal,” and this episode, the first of three I’m watching back-to-back this year, didn’t change my mind at all. I still don’t like the format, starting from a point of retrospective analysis and asking direct questions like, “What could I have done next?” The specifics of who’s sleeping with who or what laws were broken by every single character aren’t terribly relevant, and I can’t say I retained much of the supporting plotlines. What I was watching for here was the nominated guest performance by Glynn Turman, who won the Emmy for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series back in 2008 for a powerful turn as Blair Underwood’s father on “In Treatment.” There was no way that those two performances could compare, but Turman still performed admirably, demonstrating his character’s commitment to being heard and to getting the truth out so that he could finally be exonerated. I don’t think he’ll win, but he wouldn’t be a bad choice even if some of his fellow nominees’ roles were stronger. I also recognized Teddy Sears from “The Flash” and “Masters of Sex,” but his appearance as a prison psychiatrist was most noteworthy for the absurd and immediate proclamation by the judge that his testimony was entirely biased when he hadn’t thought to consider it a moment earlier.