Introduction
On the night of 10 July 2014, I began exercising while watching Netflix before bed. I picked out a TV show from near the top of Netflix's recommendations, figuring I'd watch one episode. By the time the first episode closed, I said to myself, "This is intriguing. Just one more episode." Unfortunately, like Frog and Toad eating cookies, I didn't stop after just one more. I continued on for several more episodes until I became so tired that I couldn't stay awake.
That dangerously addictive show was Pretty Little Liars (PLL). [Note: This review contains no spoilers.] Among fiction I've encountered, PLL may be rivaled only by Harry Potter in terms of its ability to draw the audience deep into an extended thicket of interwoven mysteries and puzzles. (That said, I don't consume as much fiction as many people do, so my ability to make comparisons is limited.)
General comments
Many TV shows start a new conflict each episode and resolve that conflict by the end. They have to return the situation of the characters back to the way things were. There may be exceptions for special episodes where new permanent developments unfold, but most episodes of such TV shows are self-contained and independent of other episodes.
In contrast, PLL isn't divided into independent parts. It's one long, interconnected story, where every new event depends on the entire history of the show up to that point, and every little detail may (or may not) turn out to be relevant later. It's impressive that the PLL writers are able to craft such a tightly woven storyline despite having different people write different episodes and not being able to go back and revise episodes that have already aired.a
Unlike with most other shows, I found myself thinking about PLL even when I wasn't watching it. I kept mulling over the puzzle pieces and the various theories that they suggested while brushing my teeth or going to bed. This is, of course, a common experience among PLL viewers, and it explains why fans have written so much about the show on the web. PLL is one of the most Tweeted shows of all time. There are at least ~5 podcasts devoted to analyzing PLL on iTunes. Of course, similar points can be said of other complex TV shows as well:
the Web has created a forum for annotation and commentary that allows more complicated shows to prosper, thanks to the fan sites where each episode of shows like "Lost" or "Alias" is dissected with an intensity usually reserved for Talmud scholars.
But PLL is not just a mystery. I also appreciate the drama and romance, although it can be predictable at times. It's nice that PLL's characters are often more realistic than those in many other TV shows, although there are plenty of exceptions to this statement, such as the fact that the residents of the town where PLL takes place aren't more suspicious of all the strange events that occur. Some of the motivations of the characters are also a bit strained at times.
One of the goals of PLL's writers seems to be introducing the show's mostly teenage audience to classics of literature and film, from To Kill A Mockingbird in season 1 to Twelfth Night in season 7. In interviews with PLL's writers and directors on the Bros Watch PLL Too podcast, we learn that a number of the scenes and visual framings of the show are inspired by old movies, especially those of Alfred Hitchcock. The writers and directors are film buffs and artists who appreciate getting to express themselves, even if it's through what many write off as "just a teen show".
When I was in middle school, I wanted to become a director of photography because I was fascinated by interesting camera angles in movies and how they could help tell a story nonverbally. The hosts of Bros Watch PLL Too do a nice job of dissecting PLL shots, and their interviews with PLL's directors confirm that many of those interesting shots were done intentionally.
Podcasts like Bros Watch PLL Too and Taking This One To The Grave remind me how enjoyable it can be to analyze literature: characters, themes, symbolism, and theories about how the story will unfold. I haven't done this much since high-school English class. Literary analysis is sort of a Rorschach test, where the interpreters see connections that the author probably didn't intend. It can be frustrating when literary analysts assume that they're uncovering the true intentions of the writers, since that's often not the case unless the symbolism is very strong. But seeing connections between concepts in a work of literature, whether intended or not, is just fun and expresses creativity.
PLL's theme music is "Secret" by The Pierces. That song includes this line: "No one keeps a secret". That's a central theme of the show—that the truth has a way of making itself known eventually. Most of the drama of PLL could have been avoided if people hadn't told lies in the first place. Thus, PLL is, in many ways, an elaboration of the famous lines:
Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!
Of course, in the real world, not all (or even most) secrets are exposed, but the lesson remains instructive.
Humor
While PLL is typically characterized as a thriller, drama, or mystery, the show is also filled with levity, including both deliberate comic relief from characters like Hanna and implicit absurdity from the crazy events that occur.
I notice that one of the best predictors of whether I'll finish a movie or TV show is whether it contains some amount of lightheartedness. While the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why is seemingly quite similar to PLL (both are mysteries about a girl's death and what happens afterward), I haven't yet gotten around to finishing 13 Reasons Why, probably in part because it's too serious.
In contrast, the Scream movies, while seemingly horror films, contain a fair amount of humor, including laughing at themselves, which makes them more digestible.
Comments on the series finale
This section has no explicit spoilers but might still give away some information.
The 1.5-hour series finale of PLL was possibly my favorite episode of the show, because it was at times sweet and at times crazy, in classic PLL style. It was clear that showrunner I. Marlene King was able to play around and have fun with the episode. The finale also did wrap up many of the mysteries of seasons 6 and 7 elegantly.
However, many of the comments on Twitter and YouTube were very negative, with some people saying they wasted 7 years of their lives waiting for answers that never came. It's true that some answers remained unresolved. The writers are not perfect (though they come pretty close). Personally I'm not very bothered by unanswered questions because I can make up my own answers, which keeps the mystery alive. Plus, in real life, most of life's little mysteries are never resolved. It's unsurprising that the PLL characters wouldn't unpack every last mystery either.
I don't understand why viewers would be so negative about about a work of fiction. The purpose of fiction is to have fun, and taking a negative attitude makes things less fun. Why not appreciate how amazing the TV series was, rather than focusing on a few points that you feel were its flaws (and that others may not consider to be flaws)? Benjamin Light of Bros Watch PLL Too expressed a similar sentiment: "I feel bad about the kind of narrow way that some people watch a show. [...] It just seems like not a fun way to watch a show, personally."
I try to avoid reading negative comments on PLL because they make me feel somewhat disappointed, and there's no reason for that. In domains like politics or science, negative criticisms are important for improving the accuracy of one's beliefs, but in the realm of fiction, there's no similar reason to bring everyone's mood down. The ideological echo chamber that's common in politics actually does make sense for matters of taste that don't have real-world consequences.
Footnotes
- I wonder if mysteries look harder to create than they actually are. Maybe if you have the full story arc mapped out, it's not that hard to keep feeding the audience new tidbits of information over time, although writers have to be careful to remember what audiences know and don't know at any given point, especially when trying to misdirect audiences toward false conclusions. Writing a mystery might be like creating a jigsaw puzzle, just slightly harder: You start with a finished picture, carve it into chunks of information, and let the audience slowly put together the pieces. However, whereas you can usually tell what a puzzle will turn out to be a picture of with only a fraction of the pieces in place, a mystery needs to avoid spilling the beans until the very end. (back)