Warning: This article contains spoilers for Pretty Little Liars
We’ve all been there. We’ve found a show that finally sounds interesting, binge-watched the first and second season when, suddenly, the plot is convoluted, dialogue is incoherent, and characters lose their entire personality. It’s frustrating and all too common and makes us wonder why screenwriters and producers keep making the same mistakes, especially after doing so well. Pretty Little Liars or PLL was a hit from the pilot episode. Based on the series by Sara Shepard, it’s about 4 friends who are being threatened by “A” after the disappearance of their popular, yet mean, clique leader. PLL blew up among teens, for the petty teen drama and the overall mystery surrounding the girls’ friend’s disappearance. However, it quickly overstayed its welcome when it started to stretch into a long seven seasons, in what could’ve been two. As the seasons progressed the show’s major flaw came into the spotlight: the writers kept changing their mind.
First, the writers seemed to have wanted every character to be A. A ended up being three different characters: Mona, Toby, and Charlotte. If you don’t remember or haven’t heard of these characters, don’t worry, that’s inconsequential to the point I’m trying to make. I watched this show over the course of a few months, so each reveal should’ve evoked another emotion besides shock, such as anger, happiness, or sadness. With Mona being revealed in season two, I was empathetic towards her character and I remember being confused why there were five more seasons after this. This is when the show started using “A team” meaning that there were more people after the girls and I was nearly ready to quit watching then and there. I only decided to continue because the subplots were working nicely.
However, as the show progressed further, instead of fleshing out characters, relationships, and plots that were working, they added new ones such as surprise siblings, nearly everyone faking their death at some point, and the last few episodes being a full on thriller mini series (which I will get into). Why the writers did this, I can’t be sure, but I do know for a fact that it got viewers divided. A positive review by Itsdaisy states, “I really liked the season finales (the best was Seven!) and the dollhouse episodes. Everyone says that people get bored at season 3 but I didn’t! For me that was one of the best seasons if you’re patient with it!” Itsdaisy describes it as “the perfect binge” and honestly, I’m inclined to agree with them. If you don’t want to think extra hard and are willing to overlook morality issues, bad character development, and plot holes, binge watching is a perfect way to claim you’ve watched this popular show and enjoyed it without lying. It also gives you little time to think and process this show and, let’s be honest, you probably won’t even remember it in the next few weeks.
A less-positive review by Liam Doyle states, “The show is honestly good for the first 4 seasons, but after that it takes a serious dip, the plot loses its meaning, the character development actually goes backwards and spoiler alert season 7 is literally garbage.” In this review, Doyle also makes some other remarks such as “this is what happens when you listen to fans”. This brings me to my second question: what was PLL trying to be? Pll started as a teen drama with a hint of mystery and the official genre for it is even drama. However, by the end of this show, it feels like a wannabe thriller. In Season 5, episode 25, the 4 girls are all put into a dollhouse. The transition to this is crazy as they were in the back of a van being transported to a different prison as accessories to Mona’s “murder”. I put quotes around that because at the end, you find out she didn’t even die. I honestly wasn’t that surprised when I watched it. In the dollhouse, Mona is cosplaying Alison and, through what feels like a billion Jigsaw-esque puzzles, everyone finds out A is Charles, Alison’s brother. Charles, in later seasons, turns out to be Charlotte, a minor character that we barely see and, truthfully, I forgot about until this moment. Going back to Doyle’s review, the writer seemed to take every possible fan theory and mash it up into one show when their original idea, created in season one, would’ve been fine: A is Aria, one of the 4 girls.
Overall, I’m not bashing anyone who enjoyed this show, I honestly kind of did too. I just don’t think this is the type of show one digs in for a deeper meaning and consistent plots and character development. Pretty Little Liars is a prime example of why shows get worse the longer they run. Through contradictory hints to help solve the mystery, switching genres every few episodes, and a serious identity crisis for the writers, it is exactly what writers should strive to NOT go for if they want a long running show.
Works cited
Review of Pretty Little Liars, by Itsdaisy on Google, 3 years ago.
Review of Pretty Little Liars, by Liam Doyle on Google, 2 years ago.
