Looking back at the addictive Pretty Little Liars

This year I was persuaded by my housemates to watch Pretty Little Liars. I came into this show with many preconceptions and thought it would be another trashy teenage American high-school drama. And yes, I was right, but what I didn’t expect was that I would be hooked from the start.

It is worth mentioning before we get into this review that the acting does leave a lot to be desired and the actors look nothing like the age they are meant to be in the show. For example, I think one of the actors who was playing a sixteen year old was in their 30s in real life.

And yes, some of the plot lines are really strange, such as the seeming attempt to make the audience sympathise with the romantic relationship between a teacher and student, presenting it as a wholesome relationship. In addition, sometimes the plot does veer off into random directions which simply can’t be explained, like how one of the characters closest to the girls ends up being ‘A’.

However, I found myself gripped to the show, unable to watch just one episode a day. My evenings at uni would be spent with a bottle of rose wine and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream, in front of the TV, watching four or five episodes. The way that every single episode left you on a cliffhanger, almost made it impossible to stop watching.

Pretty Little Liars captivates you from the first episode, where a young girl (Alison) is out with her friends having a sleepover in a barn, and in the morning she has disappeared, later being found dead. The series follows the girl’s friends (Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer) as they try to navigate high school without Alison. This is made more complicated by the fact that the girl’s receive messages from an anonymous messenger known as ‘A’ who torments them throughout the series. The series follows the girls as they try to live their high-school lives while simultaneously being under the grip of ‘A’, who uses the threat of exposing their secrets in order to get the girls to do things for them. The focus of the series is on the girls trying to discover who ‘A’ is while also attempting to keep their lives in relative normality under the ‘A’ threats.

You soon begin to develop favourites between the girls, and I remember spending hours with my housemates arguing over which one was our favourite. Each girl comes with an intrinsic backstory and a special relationship with the deceased Alison which impacts them throughout the series. My personal favourite is Aria Montgomery. She has the most interesting past in my opinion and a really intriguing storyline. She saw her father cheating on her mother with a student and then is made to promise not to tell anyone, placing lots of pressure on her relationship with her parents. Eventually, the truth comes out and her parents separate. Meanwhile, she develops her own romantic relationship with her teacher, and it is this which ‘A’ tries to use to force Aria to do things for them.

The early seasons always end with the girls feeling relatively safe and on the heels of ‘A’, just for the new season to throw this up in the air. This was especially strong in the season 2 finale where the girls catch ‘A’, who is placed in a psychiatric ward, only for the girls to keep receiving messages from ‘A’ again in the next season. These constant changes in emotion are one of the reasons that it is impossible not to be gripped by the show, as well as the constant cliffhangers that force you to watch the next episode. In just a few episodes you can feel so many emotions and even despite the poor acting, you are constantly on edge.

The high school aspect of the show makes it seem so relatable to us. From the university applications to school sports to exams, the show deeply resonated with me. And I think this show, intentionally or not, shines light on an issue which has now grown so big today: cyberbullying.

The series contains plenty of other hard-hitting messages which are equally relatable to everyone. Your secrets will eventually come out, and be careful who you trust…

★★★★