The Looped Seriality of How to Get Away with Murder

Abstract

For its conceptualization of How to Get Away with Murder’s serial storytelling as looped seriality, the chapter highlights the show’s investment in temporal loops, as well as the loops between viewer responses and the show itself, recalling the “feedback loop” of seriality studies. The research of feminist audience studies, for example, on soap operas, feminized ‘guilty pleasures,’ fandom, or viewer communities, provides relevant starting points. Additionally, the chapter utilizes methodological conceptions of ‘Black Twitter,’ second screen viewing, and social television. Three areas emerge as especially relevant to explore how the interactivity of looped seriality surfaces in the show’s Twittersphere. First, the chapter relates the 'Who Dunnit'-hashtags to the conventions of detective fiction or murder mysteries. Second, the chapter interrogates internet humor and specifically memes and GIFs as another crucial site of looped audience engagements. In a third instance, looped seriality is applied to understand the show and the viewers' interactive reciprocity when it comes to the ritualized consumption of (alcoholic) beverages and snacks as a different kind of TV dinner.