The fifth season of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

American

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms t ...

series ''

How to Get Away with Murder ''How to Get Away with Murder'' is an American legal thriller television series that premiered on ABC on September 25, 2014, and concluded on May 14, 2020. The series was created by Peter Nowalk, and produced by Shonda Rhimes and ABC Studios. Th ...

'' was ordered on May 11, 2018, by ABC. It began airing on September 27, 2018, with 15 episodes like the previous seasons and concluded on February 28, 2019. This was made in a deal with

Viola Davis Viola Davis (; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, she is the only African-American to achieve the Triple Crow ...

that the series would be a limited series with only 15 or 16 episodes per season.

Plot

Season 5 picks up after Annalise's (Viola Davis) class action victory in the Supreme Court, with Michaela ( Aja Naomi King), Connor (

Jack Falahee John Ryan Falahee (born February 20, 1989) is an American actor and singer. On television, he portrayed Connor Walsh on the ABC legal thriller ''How to Get Away with Murder'' (2014–2020) and Frank Stringfellow on the PBS historical drama ''M ...

), Asher (

Matt McGorry Matthew David McGorry (born April 12, 1986) is an American actor, writer and activist. He is best known for playing John Bennett on the Netflix comedy-drama series '' Orange Is the New Black'' and Asher Millstone on the ABC legal drama serie ...

) and Laurel (

Karla Souza Karla Susana Olivares Souza (born December 11, 1985) is a Mexican actress known for her roles as Laurel Castillo on the ABC legal drama series ''How to Get Away with Murder'' and Marina Hayworth on the ABC sitcom ''Home Economics''. Early lif ...

) moving on with the next chapter of their lives.

Cast and characters

Main

Annalise Keating Annalise Keating Esq. (née Anna-Mae Harkness) is a fictional character in the legal drama series '' How to Get Away with Murder''. Series creator Peter Nowalk is responsible for creating and developing the character, and American actress Viola ...

* Billy Brown as Nate Lahey *

as Connor Walsh *

Rome Flynn Rome Trumain Flynn (born November 25, 1991) is an American actor, model and musician. He is best known for his portrayal of Zende Forrester Dominguez on the CBS daytime drama ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' for which he won the Daytime Emmy Award ...

as Gabriel Maddox * Aja Naomi King as Michaela Pratt *

as Asher Millstone *

Conrad Ricamora Conrad Wayne Ricamora (born February 17, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Oliver Hampton on the ABC television series ''How to Get Away with Murder'' (2014–20). As a stage actor, he is noted for his roles in th ...

as Oliver Hampton *

as Laurel Castillo *

Amirah Vann Amirah Charline Vann (born 1980) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing attorney Tegan Price in ''How to Get Away with Murder''. Life and career Amirah Charline Vann was born in 1980, in Queens, New York. Her father is ...

as Tegan Price * Charlie Weber as Frank Delfino *

Liza Weil Liza Rebecca Weil (born June 5, 1977) is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Paris Geller in the WB/ CW comedy-drama series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007) and its Netflix revival series '' Gilmore Girls: A Year in ...

Bonnie Winterbottom Bonnie Winterbottom is a fictional character created in 2014 by Peter Nowalk. Portrayed by Liza Weil, she is a Philadelphia-based associate attorney who works for Annalise Keating's firm, and is one of the main characters on the ABC legal drama ...

Timothy Hutton Timothy Tarquin Hutton (born August 16, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at age 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in ''Ordinary People ...

as Emmett Crawford

Recurring

John Hensley John Carter Hensley is an American actor, best known for his role as Matt McNamara on ''Nip/Tuck ''Nip/Tuck'' is an American medical drama television series created by Ryan Murphy that aired on FX in the United States from July 22, 2003, ...

as Ronald Miller * Tamberla Perry as Theresa Hoff *

Jessica Marie Garcia Jessica Marie Garcia (born March 23, 1987) is an American actress. She made her acting debut as Sierra on the drama series ''Huge'' (2010), and subsequently played Becky on the sitcom '' The Middle'' (2012–2014). Her breakthrough came with pla ...

as Rhonda Navarro *

Glynn Turman Glynn Russell Turman (born January 31, 1947) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera '' Peyton Place'' (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson ...

as Nate Lahey Sr. * Elizabeth Morton as Julie Winterbottom *

Laura Innes Laura Elizabeth Innes (born August 16, 1957) is an American actress and television director. She starred as Dr. Kerry Weaver in the NBC medical drama '' ER'' from 1995 to 2007 and reprised her role from 2008 to 2009 in the final season. She also ...

as Lynne Birkhead *

Cynthia Stevenson Cynthia Stevenson (born August 2, 1962) is an American actress. She first played a leading role in the syndicated parody comedy series ''My Talk Show'' (1990–91), before starring in a number of sitcoms, including '' Bob'' (CBS, 1992–93), '' ...

as Pam Walsh *

Melinda Page Hamilton Melinda Page Hamilton (born August 22, 1974) is an American actress, best known for her role as Odessa Burakov in the Lifetime comedy-drama series ''Devious Maids'', and for her leading role in the independent film '' Sleeping Dogs Lie'' (2006) ...

as Claire Telesco * Terrell Clayton as Jeffrey Sykes *

William R. Moses William Remington Moses (born November 17, 1959) is an American actor. Early life Moses was born in Los Angeles, the son of actress Marian McCargo (1932–2004) and advertising executive Richard Cantrell Moses Sr., who married in 1951 and divor ...

as Special Agent Lanford

Guest

* Mia Katigbak as Joanna Hampton * Heidi Sulzman as Molly Keener * Teya Patt as Paula Gladden *

Tom Verica Tom Verica (born May 13, 1964) is an American actor, director, and producer, best known for his role as Sam Keating in the ABC drama ''How to Get Away with Murder'' (2014-2020). He also played Jack Pryor in the NBC critically acclaimed drama ''A ...

as Sam Keating * D.W. Moffett as Jeff Walsh * Jim Abele as Ted Walsh * Dante Verica as young Gabriel Maddox *

Famke Janssen Famke Beumer Janssen (; born ) is a Dutch actress. She played Xenia Onatopp in '' GoldenEye'' (1995), Jean Grey / Phoenix in the ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2014), and Lenore Mills in the ''Taken'' film trilogy (2008–2014). In 2008, she ...

as Eve Rothlo *

Tess Harper Tessie Jean Harper (''née'' Washam; born August 15, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her first film role in 1983's '' Tender Mercies'', and for the Academy Award for B ...

as Sheila Miller *

Cicely Tyson Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson recei ...

as Ophelia Harkness * Gerardo Celasco as Xavier Castillo

Episodes

Production

Development

''How to Get Away with Murder'' was renewed for a fifth season on May 11, 2018, by ABC. In July 2018, series creator and

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

Peter Nowalk Peter Nowalk is an American television writer and producer. He is best known as the creator of the legal thriller, ''How to Get Away with Murder''. Early life Nowalk was raised in Point Pleasant, New Jersey and graduated from Point Pleasant Bo ...

told ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...

'' his plans for the fifth season, confirming that the wedding between

and

's characters would take place, as well as a flashback episode further exploring the marriage between

and

's characters Annalise and Sam Keating, respectively. Additionally, he stated that the season's flashforwards were expected to be "twisty, and more fun", and tonally different. The first table read occurred on July 13, 2018.

Casting

In June 2018,

was promoted to the series' main cast after appearing in a guest capacity in the fourth-season finale. In July 2018,

was promoted to the series' main cast after recurring in the fourth season. Later that month,

joined the main cast.

Filming

Filming for the season started on July 19, 2018.

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the fifth season has a rating of 83%, based on six reviews, with an average rating of 7.67/10. Writing for ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'', Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya criticized the "messy" storytelling of the season and the series as a whole.

Ratings

References

External links

* * {{How to Get Away with Murder 2018 American television seasons 2019 American television seasons

Season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...