Yes, I am in my early 30's. Yes, I know that Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family is a show designed for teens. Yes, I know that some people are rolling their eyes at me for loving this show.
So what? It's my TV and I'll watch what I want to.
It all started back in the Fall of 2010. Pretty Little Liars (PLL from here on out) was in its first season and starting to gather fans. I was NOT a regular watcher of ABC Family back then since it was geared towards teens. (Although, if they were showing a Harry Potter marathon weekend, I was right there watching.)
One day, I was alone in the house and bored out of my mind. I was flipping through the channels and landed on PLL. I watched a few minutes just to get a sense of what it was. I think it was the 2nd episode. (Each season is 22-23 episodes long and there is a break in the middle. So that premiere season, the show started in June 2010 and in August, they had a mid-season finale. When this happens, ABC Family will do a marathon showing all of the episodes leading up to that nights new one.)
So, I watched that episode. And then the next one. And the next one. Yes, I got hooked. So hooked that I had to find the Pilot episode so that I could figure out what happened that night Ali went missing. (At least, what the writers WANT you to know happened.)
I was hooked. And then I got my husband hooked along with me.
Because here's the thing: That show is NOT just for teens. Some of the things that they deal with are far more mature than most teens that I know. As the writers like to say, it's Hitchcock for teens.
Proof? Click here.
Or be lazy and read this:
~ PLL Season 3 Finale, ‘A dAngerous gAme,’ Becomes
1st Series in TV History to Amass Over 1 Million Total Airtime Tweets;
~ Tuesday’s #1 “Most Social” TV Series Each Week Throughout the Season
~ Finale Is Tuesday’s #1 TV Telecast for 11th Consecutive Week in
Females 12-34
Cable TV’s #1 Telecast in Women 18-34 and Women 18-49
~Wraps as ABC Family’s Most-Watched Original Series Installment Ever in
18-34s
~Surges by 1 Million Total Viewers Based on Full Week of Viewing and
Adds 1.3 Million Additional Views Via VOD and Online
You see those ages, right? Females, 12-34? Women, 18-34? Women, 18-49?
I found out online that the show was developed based off a series of books by Sara Shepard. So, being an avid reader, I loaded them onto my Kindle and away I went reading about the girls. In the beginning, there were only 8 books and I knew that I could read them before the second half of the season aired in January 2011. But my thoughts on those books are for a different day, a different post.
The TV series was developed by I. Marlene King and I have to say, I am enjoying HER version of events much more than the books. Following Marlene on Twitter is amusing. She posts clues, or misdirects, when she can or wants to. I admire her as a writer and a person from what I have seen her say and Tweet.
And after each episode, I read the weekly recaps by Heather Hogan at AfterEllen.com and Jacob Clifton at Television Without Pity. Warning: You CANNOT just read their recaps and understand the show. They usually put their own spin on the dialogue and events which in my opinion, makes them funny as heck. If you only read those recaps, you're only learning about 3% of what the show is actually about.
But since this a mystery show, there are tons of questions that pop up each week, each season, and when some of the questions don't get answered quickly (or at all), it leaves me feeling wounded. I like answers. I don't expect them RIGHT NOW but over time, you have to have them.
WARNING: RANT AHEAD
I was a HUGE fan of Heroes on NBC when it first aired. I made it through the first few seasons and then I couldn't take the unanswered questions or the GIANT loophole in the writing. (In the future, Peter WOULDN'T HAVE A SCAR. He saved the cheerleader and was impervious to wounds just like Claire.) The biggest writing blunder really angered a lot of us fans. I posted with some great people on a Heroes Forum on Myspace and we were ALL so angry at the oversight by the 11+ writers on that show. And since so many other questions went unanswered, I couldn't handle watching it anymore.
I pray that this doesn't happen with PLL. I truly enjoy the show and don't want to lose my interest due to questions from season 1 NOT being answered by the end of season 3, which aired this past Tuesday, March 19. In the season 3 finale, I felt let down. I was only shocked by one moment and was then weighted down with even more questions.
I am doing this part of the post for myself, more than anything. Here, I will keep a running list of the most important questions that I want an answer to sometime soon. If they get answered, I will update the post to show this has happened.
Unanswered Questions as of the Season 3 Finale of PLL:
1) Who pushed Ian off of the bell tower? S1, Ep 22
2) DID Ian die from being pushed, or was he actually shot in the head like we were lead to believe when his body was FINALLY found, even though A wrote the "suicide note"? S2, E 4
3) WHY was Maya's death not A-related? What possible sense does it make for her random stalker to be her killer when every other dead person has SOMETHING to do with A? (I have really strong feeling about this one. I don't like the randomness since she was discovered in almost the EXACT way that Ali's body was discovered AND she was also Emily's love interest, like Ali.) S2, Ep 12
4) Why was Jenna in Jason's house, alone, and who set the fire that almost killed her? Was the fire meant for Jason? S2, Ep 23
5) Who tried to run Caleb's mom off the road... in CALIFORNIA? S3, Ep 4
6) Why in the WORLD was Toby trying to turn Lucas into roadkill if in fact Toby is NOT evil? Was Toby just trying to scare him off? S3, Ep14
7) Who was the Queen of Hearts in the Halloween episode that attacked Spencer and then got taken down by Paige? S3, Ep13
8) The girls went to the Halloween Store and got a hold of the credit card numbers used to purchase Queen of Hearts costumes. It was said then they would have Caleb track them down and figure out who bought them. What happened with that? S3, Ep 20
9) The day Mona was locked up in Radley in the 2nd season finale, a person with a Red Coat visited her and Mona said, "I did everything you asked me to". But in the finale for season 3, she told the girls that she had never seen Red Coats face and that it was in Radley that she gained a partner. Huh? If she was already taking orders from Red Coat BEFORE getting tossed in the Nut House, then how did she just gain Red Coat as a partner during her 7 month stay? Is Mona lying, as per usual? And was Red Coat wearing a mask during the visit? Really? A mask wearing individual walked into to see a new patient? S3, Ep 24
Not episode or season specific:
~Where in the heck does A get all of this money? The gadgets, cars, airline ticket to CA, money for booze (to drink or put all over Jason's front porch)?
~Which brings me to, A must be over the age of 21 with the amount of alcohol he/she imbibes legally in airports and liquor stores. Right?
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