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Although Shonda Rhimes didn’t create How to Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM), the addictive new thriller boasts the hallmarks of Shondaland shows: frenetic but wildly enjoyable storytelling, breathless monologues, and an impressively diverse cast, who fully commit themselves to the outlandish plots.

HTGAWM follows a group of law students at Philadelphia’s fictional Middleton University, and their charismatic professor Annalise Keating (played by Viola Davis, whose masterclass performance is unquestionably the best part of the show). The pilot’s opening scene uses a framing device that seizes the audience’s attention immediately, as we see the students burying a body, late at night, as a campus bonfire night roars on behind them.

Like Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, HTGAWM introduces a large ensemble cast, anchored by a compelling female protagonist. However, Annalise’s moral ambiguity sets her apart from Olivia Pope’s “white hat” ideology and Meredith Grey’s attempts to be a “good person”. Morally dubious white men such as Walter White and Don Draper have been revered on television for years, yet women (and particularly black women) are still expected to be “role models”, frequently assigned the responsibility to represent their race and gender in a positive light. Thankfully, Annalise doesn’t care whether you like her or not, pointing out, “We’re all capable of terrible things” (which could be the tagline for the show).

There’s no denying that the series is incredibly gripping, as each episode bounces between the Case of the Week and the events surrounding the bonfire night. Viewers who rolled their eyes at the melodramatic plotting that defines Rhimes’s other series will likely be unimpressed by HTGAWM’s breakneck pacing and outrageous cliffhangers, but fans of those soapy dramas will no doubt be hooked from that first scene.