Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

Small Talk: Act Normal, Bitch!

Lisin

By Lisin
in Pretty Little Liars [V]

Recommended Posts

Lisin

Lisin

The Small Talk topic is for:

  • Introductions
  • Off-topic chatter
  • Having virtual tea with forum buddies
This is NOT a topic for actual show discussion. When you want to talk about the show:
  • Figure out the nature of the topic you want to talk about
  • Look for an existing topic that matches or fits
  • If there is NOT an existing topic that fits, CREATE ONE!
Examples of topics that populate show forums include (but by no means are limited to):
  • Character topics
  • Episode topics
  • Season topics
  • Spoiler topics
  • Speculation topics
  • In the Media topics
  • Favourite X topics
  • ...you get the idea
Happy trails beyond Small Talk!

If someone can give me a good quippy title for this area I'll edit the title.

Link to comment
Cranberry

Cranberry

Here's a place to chat. If someone can give me a good quippy title for this area I'll edit the title. 

Maybe "Rear Window Brew," in keeping with the "hangouts" theme we've got going on so far here at PTV? It's the coffee shop where Emily works and Toby lives (well, his apartment is above it). The girls spend a lot of time there!

Welcome to all of the TWoPpers! I post in the PLL thread over there (as Cran), and I'm excited to continue the conversation here. Now we have an entire forum in which to snark on Ezra, discuss Keegan Allen's acting skills (or lack thereof), rage over every producer interview, and rejoice when our A theories are proven right only to be retconned half a season later. Ahh, PLL.

Link to comment
Kaboom 2.0

Kaboom 2.0

Hi there and thanks for the welcome! I'm a proud long time TWoP'er and even though I have only been here since yesterday, it feels like another home. :-)

To be honest I have never posted in the TWoP PLL forum since I still have no clue what is going on even though I've watched every episode, sometimes 2-3 times, and rely on Jacob's recaps to help fill me in on things I miss.


Re: quippy title for this thread, I still cannot get "Act normal, bitch!" out of my head. LOL

Link to comment
Kaboom 2.0

Kaboom 2.0

Yay!

I swear I want to snap "act normal, bitch!" at least once every day at work because there some of my coworkers are just out there when it comes to normal daily activities, reactions, etc.

My boyfriend gave up on PLL a long time ago but to annoy him I'll launch into recaps of who went where and with whom, what Aria was wearing, what Hanna said, etc. I think he has a little crush on Shay Mitchell. Oh and when "MIss Parker" was cast as Mrs. D, that grabbed his attention too. Men!

Link to comment
pumpkinspice

pumpkinspice

Hey guys! Long time TWoP lurker here, so happy to have found this site to call home. :)

Can I just say that I LOVE that there are separate episode threads for PLL here? It was so hard for me to keep up the other way.

Can't wait til season 5. I want some answers, damn it!

Link to comment
Cranberry

Cranberry

My boyfriend gave up on PLL a long time ago but to annoy him I'll launch into recaps of who went where and with whom, what Aria was wearing, what Hanna said, etc. 

I do this too with one of my friends -- she's never seen an episode and has no desire to ever see an episode, but she seems to genuinely enjoy listening to me rant about how Aria may as well be on a different show and Ezra is a creep. And it's not like I understand anything any better than she does, anyway!

Link to comment
charlyofoz

charlyofoz

Although I am nursing a broken heart at the demise of Twop, so nice to find a welcome new chat space. Hoping to have fun times trying to decipher the mysteries of who done it, who is a, and most importantly, how can anyone ship ezria???

Link to comment
Cranberry

Cranberry

Feel free to start some threads, too, guys! I made character threads for the five main girls, but I didn't do any for the guys because I don't care about them/couldn't think of a scathing yet humorous title for Ezra's.

Link to comment
PandaTracks

PandaTracks

Hey everybody! I discovered TWoP today and have been reading Jacob's recaps of PLL (hilarious). Why did it take me so long to find such a glorious site, then come to find out it is going to be shut down? Anyways, the TWoP forums led me here. I am excited to have a place to vent my addiction to PLL because no one in my real life is interested in the topic (except my mother, of course).

Link to comment
AmandaPanda

AmandaPanda

Hi, everyone! I'm Amanda. I stopped going into the forums on TWoP about six years ago, so the PLL forums hadn't existed yet. Super excited to get into some conversation about PLL here, though! I write recaps of the show for LeakyNews.com and have made it one of my life goals to try and figure out the timeline of the show. I have a spreadsheet and everything. Love "Act normal, bitch!" for the thread title, but also think Rear Window Brew would be a great title as well. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment
kiddo82

kiddo82

Hi gang. I dabbled a little bit in the PLL boards on TWoP but mostly lurked. I too am excited to have others with which to share my obsession. I mostly just send incoherent and cryptic text to my friends that consist of "What the!?" They don't watch but they're nice enough to humor me.

Link to comment
ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

(edited)

I'm another TWoP refugee and I am soooooooo excited that there's a full PLL forum here so we can separate the discussion into different threads. It's hard to keep track of all the shovels and hoodies and perverts in one thread! And the thread subtitle is AWESOME. I, too, find myself thinking, "Act normal, bitch!" and wishing I could actually say it to people.

have made it one of my life goals to try and figure out the timeline of the show. I have a spreadsheet and everything.

OMG, we are destined to be BFFs! Mr. EB laughs at me because I have spreadsheets for everything, even tv shows. Other people think it's hilarious that I'm so OCD, but I can't tell you how many of my friends started watching Buffy after it ended and thanked me profusely when I emailed them my spreadsheet listing which Buffy and Angel episodes to watch together because there were crossovers. I have spent way too much time trying to figure out the PLL timeline (probably because it's not all entered on a spreadsheet yet!) so as soon as I read your post, I wanted to high five you.

 

 

My boyfriend gave up on PLL a long time ago but to annoy him I'll launch into recaps of who went where and with whom, what Aria was wearing, what Hanna said, etc.

Hey, he needs to know about her crazy feathered earrings!

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
Link to comment
AmandaPanda

AmandaPanda

 

OMG, we are destined to be BFFs! Mr. EB laughs at me because I have spreadsheets for everything, even tv shows. Other people think it's hilarious that I'm so OCD, but I can't tell you how many of my friends started watching Buffy after it ended and thanked me profusely when I emailed them my spreadsheet listing which Buffy and Angel episodes to watch together because there were crossovers. I have spent way too much time trying to figure out the PLL timeline (probably because it's not all entered on a spreadsheet yet!) so as soon as I read your post, I wanted to high five you. 

 

Hi new bestie! That sounds like the most useful spreadsheet ever! I'm watching Buffy and Angel for the first time and just toggling back and forth between the episodes. My fiancé insists that I need to watch Angel, even though I can't personally stand David Boreanaz. At least I've got Cordelia, right? And the PLL timeline is so insane. I'm one step away from setting up a full serial killer wall to try to figure it out. For instance, in the first season, by my estimate, Hanna gets hit by the car around November 1 and then the second half of the season picks up about 3 weeks later. But in an interview I. Marlene King said the entire first season only goes up to about Thanksgiving. I'm thinking the major plot twist is going to be that the whole show is set on an alien planet because they are clearly not operating in an earthly timeline.

Link to comment
Lolabelle

Lolabelle

Ahhh hello Twop-ers and company!  I'm glad there's a place for us to talk about our love/hate relationship with everything PLL.

AmandaPanda- that's some Spencer Hastings level of intense!  I like it.

Link to comment
scarletregina

scarletregina

Last night I dreamed I was eating at a super fancy restaurant and there were special TVs so everyone in the restaurant could watch Pretty Little Liars. The depth that this show has infected my brain knows no bounds.

 

Also, the only scene I remember from my dream was one of Aria with giant feather earrings. I'm sure she was talking about Ezra.

Link to comment
Cranberry

Cranberry

Welcome, TWoPpers! I'm glad to see this forum busy now that PLL's airing again. I recognize many of you from TWoP.

 

And just a FYI for PLL fans because I've been seeing some misspellings in the threads: Hanna's name does not have an "h" on the end, and Shana's name does not have a "u" or a "w" in it. 

Link to comment
dwmckim

dwmckim

(Apologies if this isn't posted in the right subforum but since the dream i'm describing was about being a cast member and what was going on bts, this seemed the best fit)

 

Had the most bizarre dream last night that i was a cast member of PLL and was in a cast meeting with Marlene.  We were getting ready to shoot episode ten and she shared with us that she had just finished the outline for the season 6B premiere.  It was written out in story form (with paragraphs) rather than script form but in my dream this was how she first got ideas for episodes mapped out before transcribing them into scripts.

 

What she shared was so completely bizarre and out there that the general feeling among the cast was that she had really lost it and not in a good way - that we were on a sinking ship and no longer had any faith in our captain but had to smile and keep up pretenses of "Oh yeah - this is really cool and great"  Marlene herself seemed rather psycho like she was super-stressed and would snap easily at the smallest thing which also contributed to our sense that we had to humor her about how exciting her future plans for the show was.

 

When the show picked up after the time jump, it was strongly veering into a supernatural tone - and a random one at that.  The four main girls along with random family members like Mike Montgomery and Mrs. Fields were visiting with Spencer who was now based in London.  There was another girl with them who (in my dream - this is not to be taken as a spoiler just as nothing i'm describing here should be) was another missing girl who was a focus on season 6A also with them who had a rooftop confrontation with some mystical entity.  Mike broke in on this meeting and accused the entity of being the Wicked Witch of the West.  He runs inside to find Aria sleeping and floating up to the ceiling - and then she breaks out into song.  Somewhere among this grumpily mowing a lawn in a semi-zombie like state.

 

So everyone in the cast is exchanging glances as Marlene is describing this and we can tell all of us are thinking "okay - this isn't the same as when we first heard about the dollhouse - this is a completely different show and not where we should be going" but we couldn't actually come out and say this.

 

Also in the dream, i was involved with a pie fight/prank war with Ian Harding.  This is how the dream started before we went to meet with Marlene.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Jenniferbug

Jenniferbug

It's funny you say that in your dream, the show was headed for a supernatural turn. I had a dream a while ago (a couple of episodes before they were abducted and taken to the dollhouse) that the girls were all witches, but for some reason they couldn't know about it. Ali had found out which was part of why she disappeared, but most of the town knew and were actively keeping it from them. Obviously that doesn't really fit in the context of the show, but I think it's interesting that we both had dreams where the reveal had something to do with the supernatural.

Link to comment
DigitalCount

DigitalCount

Another girl who had a rooftop conversation with a mystical entity? Was that written before or after Sara Harvey was on the roof watching the sun rise? Also, how about them lotto numbers?

Speaking of Sara Harvey, why are people calling her Shower Harvey as a derogatory term? Is it just because she takes showers and is mildly uninteresting to a portion of the audience? I was confused.

Link to comment
raytch

raytch

Yes that is exactly why. I get she's traumatized. I do. But the actress is just terrible and the writers aren't using the character's full potential. As someone said on another thread, she literally does nothing but take showers and run away.

Shower Harvey isn't a degratory term, it's snarky :)

  • Love 2
Link to comment
SadieT

SadieT

Speaking of Sara Harvey, why are people calling her Shower Harvey as a derogatory term? Is it just because she takes showers and is mildly uninteresting to a portion of the audience? I was confused.

It's just a joke because she's done little more than raise the Fields' water bill since she showed up in Rosewood and she's dull as dirt.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Crim

Crim

This was triggered by PLL, but it's more of a general issue so I'll post it here.

 

I like a lot of TV shows for various reasons. I can watch despite aspects I perceive as flawed (though I'm likely to just stream those while I'm taking my lunch break), but there are things that bother me more than questionable quality. Sometimes though, when I got to like a show, like in PLL's case, I give the show runners the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they are doing these things with a message that will be later revealed? The subtext is that this is actually wrong; surely, they will make it text later on.

 

Thing is... this gets tiresome after awhile. The more this goes on, and/or the more it adds up, I realize that chances are there is nothing behind the curtain. This is it. (Then I drop the show. For GoT it was the rapes - almost all the sex though, really. In PLL's case it was making A an adult male - but I started watching again after awhile... only to get more and more aggravated at the horribleness of all current relationships.) This makes me so grateful for a show like Orphan Black. Production values and Tatiana Maslany aside, Orphan Black even at its most meandering and disjointed still has the appeal of its very core: a show, and show runners, you can trust. Ultimately, it comes down not just to the craft of TPTB, but to their beliefs/values/ethics, to what they have to say, what they are capable of saying, long term, because as a show goes on and content has to be made up to stretch the seasons, the more it comes down to ideas someone gets and runs with. And there are many things Orange is the New Black doesn't do well, but I don't doubt that the show runners are not just aware that Piper is awful, but that she is written as such, and that is the point. I no longer have that trust in the PLL crew. From the perspective of this season's writing, all the good stuff was just window-dressing. You can run out of plot and ideas, but you don't run out of... not writing dysfunctional interactions that would be at home in The Vampire Diaries.

  • Love 5
Link to comment
DigitalCount

DigitalCount

Crim, I'll probably respond in an intelligent fashion to the good points you raised later (at an actual computer) but first I have to say: how creeped out was I when I saw a McDonald's sign on the way home from work, with all but the letters M, O, N, and A burnt out?

Very.

  • Love 4
Link to comment
DigitalCount

DigitalCount

Also, I had a weird thought last night while walking home: this show is, like, one incestuous relationship away from being GoT. The theorizing in particular reminds me of what I see frequently. They've even got weird interrelationships between the houses, like how Jason is actually the illegitimate son between Houses Hastings and DiLaurentis. They don't really lend themselves to having house mottos though.

  • Love 3
Link to comment
cuddlingcrowley

cuddlingcrowley

Ooh can we please make up house mottoes for them, pretty please??? :D

 

 

I'm game!

 

DiLaurentis --> HEAR ME LIE or BITCH IS COMING

 

Hastings --> WE DO NOT SLEEP

 

Marrins --> GROWING FIERCE

 

Fields --> OURS IS THE DAMN GOOD GENES.

 

Montgomery --> FAMILY, FEATHERS, TERRIBLE JUDGEMENT IN LOVE

  • Love 4
Link to comment
raytch

raytch

(edited)

No no wait

Hastings Family

We Burn Evidence Like No Other

Marrin Household

Never Underestimate Your Lasagna Box

Fields

We Count Our Drug Pills Twice a Day

Montgomery

Ok yours is perfect

Dilaurentis

Brainwashing Kids and Soul Trading Since 1996.

Edited by raytch
  • Love 2
Link to comment
Crim

Crim

(edited)
Montgomery --> FAMILY, FEATHERS, TERRIBLE JUDGEMENT IN LOVE

I don't see a lot of "family" in Montgomery anymore though. The parents are not just off screen and/or busy like the Hastings, but actually gone for long stretches of time and in the more recent seasons they had separate, self-contained story lines. Sure, there is Mike for a few plot lines, but in most of them the idea is exactly how he and Aria are not close or effective support for one another. They are the most isolated and irrelevant in scenes they are not in: it's all about disconnected one-on-one interactions; the Hastings are distant, but you get the sense that them being a (dysfunctional) family is essential in all their interactions.

Edited by Crim
Link to comment
cuddlingcrowley

cuddlingcrowley

(edited)
I don't see a lot of "family" in Montgomery anymore though. The parents are not just off screen and/or busy like the Hastings, but actually gone for long stretches of time and in the more recent seasons they had separate, self-contained story lines. Sure, there is Mike for a few plot lines, but in most of them the idea is exactly how he and Aria are not close or effective support for one another. They are the most isolated and irrelevant in scenes they are not in: it's all about disconnected one-on-one interactions; the Hastings are distant, but you get the sense that them being a (dysfunctional) family is essential in all their interactions.

 

 

 

I don't really get that sense, Crim. Aria and Mike seem like unusually close siblings to me, especially for the age-group they're in where you tend to barely remember you have siblings, and even Byron, God help me, the little he's been shown seems to be trying his best when it comes to Aria. Ella has been more absent but I think the bond is still there with all the family members and they seem a lot more functional than the average family. They all definitely get a long way better than the average family where the parents got divorced, in my experience. Spending time as group is way trickier.

 

(I work for a judge in a Family court so that might be influencing how I see things.)

 

I think the problem is that the parents aren't shown as much anymore because plotplotplot. The in-show reason for it that I interpret is that they're not shown as much because of the wall the girls have created between themselves and their family thanks to their lying, Which is starting come down.

Edited by cuddlingcrowley
Link to comment
raytch

raytch

Are you forgetting that time Aria kept forgetting she even had a brother around season 2?

Jokes aside, I think the Montgomery family is at least always trying to communicate. Even Ella who's mostly absent, she always has good talks with Aria. Even when she was in Ice Cream Castle with zach she was actually there for Aria through the whole EzrA mess (they had a lovely talk at the wedding event).

Link to comment
Crim

Crim

I think we come at this from different angles. Looking beyond what we're shown, then yes, I totally see your point. Looking just at how the screen time is used though... Aria and Mike might be unusually close siblings compared to how teenagers act at that age, but when I think about them I remember these: Mike being pissed at Aria for Ezria (completely legit), Mike's aggressivity when his depression kicked in (true to life, yes), Mike and Aria clashing over Mona, Mike not giving a shit about Aria's past with her (again, totally understandable), Mike acting like Aria was an enemy during that time - which was scary with their parents absent, and Aria having been through the Meredith shit already. How much was this counterbalanced by good moments between them? Maybe I just forgot all that.

 

And I don't see the Montogomery family communication as all that functional where it matters. Sure, they have the heartfelt talks, but it all cracked in crucial moments - Byron's blind, stubborn reactions (how Ezria was handled, Meredith being brought into the house to reenact a horror movie), the cheating fiasco (I don't mean the actual cheating, which happens, I mean stuff like Byron choosing being blackmailed over coming clean, talking Aria into keeping his secret, moving to Iceland), Aria treating Hanna the way she did instead of even considering talking to her mother, the parental reactions as Mike was getting worse. I mean is it The Worst? Is it bad compared to real life screwed up families? No. But is it The Family on this show? I just don't see it that way. Also Aria is, after all, the passive aggressive one with the daddy issues.

 

I see the Marins as The Family, because Ashley is the most on-screen supportive parent and because of what Hanna did for her mother. Actually, the Marins would do pretty much anything, no matter how moral or legal. Since season 1, her mother was Hanna's "weak point"; meanwhile, Aria was spending all her time and energy into sneaking around to protect Ezria. 5 seasons later, I still see Hanna as a Marin and Aria as having issues with the guy(s) who could be her romantic interest.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
Lii

Lii

House Vaanderwaal: SKYNET IS COMING

You knew I was going to.

Seriously though, how do you spell Mona's last name? I feel like that's too many As (um) but can't be bothered to pull up a book on my kindle to look.

SO MANY A'S IN MONA'S NAME

  • Love 1
Link to comment
cuddlingcrowley

cuddlingcrowley

(edited)
But is it The Family on this show? I just don't see it that way. (...) I see the Marins as The Family, because Ashley is the most on-screen supportive parent and because of what Hanna did for her mother. Actually, the Marins would do pretty much anything, no matter how moral or legal. Since season 1, her mother was Hanna's "weak point"; meanwhile, Aria was spending all her time and energy into sneaking around to protect Ezria. 5 seasons later, I still see Hanna as a Marin and Aria as having issues with the guy(s) who could be her romantic interest.

 

 

Yeah, I wouldn't say the Montgomery's are The Family of the show either. Better than the average, sure, but not particulary special. A nice family that's doing their best, that's how I see them. But I think they'd say they're The Family of the show you know? They strike me as being that type (especially Byron and Ella) who'd see themselves as having a real sense of closeness even after the divorce, are not focused on the material and value their children as individuals and whah whah whah unlike the other familys, because they're artsy and hippie and whatnot, hence why it would totally be their motto, imo. Kinda like Aria is the main character in her head.

 

I definitely, definitely agree Hanna and Ashley are THE family of the show, like hands fucking down. That said, I don't think they're aware of that at all.

 

Also Aria is, after all, the passive aggressive one with the daddy issues.

 

 

Hahahaha, you're not expecting me to disagree here are you? You only forgot the hidden anger issues. But aren't we all a tad fucked up by our families? Most of us is, I think. 

Edited by cuddlingcrowley
  • Love 1
Link to comment
raytch

raytch

(edited)

House Vaanderwaal: SKYNET IS COMING

You knew I was going to.

Seriously though, how do you spell Mona's last name? I feel like that's too many As (um) but can't be bothered to pull up a book on my kindle to look.

SO MANY A'S IN MONA'S NAME

ARIA IS THE SHUSHER IN THE OPENING CREDITS. It has been right in front of us for six seasons!

Sadie, that's why I said they "try" to communicate. They're all pretty fucked up (except Ella) but their heartfelt talks are pretty much what sets them out from the Ds and the Hastings. I mean six seasons in and we just start seeing Ali and Jason act like siblings, and even though the Hastings are all trying to protect each other -and sometimes they have nice talks too - they're still keeping things from each others.

Edited by raytch
Link to comment
Preity

Preity

https://instagram.com/p/58OTmqFHns/

People do not like Sara.

Seriously, there were so many interesting characters in the first couple of seasons, why don't we get to see more of them? Jenna, Noel, Melissa, Wren, interesting Alison.... They still have plenty of secrets to spill...

Alison is such a complex character with so many possible storylines, are the writers just out of ideas what to do with her character? Alison and Mona together probably could have solved this mystery 2 seasons ago (or as Mona would put it: 2 personalities ago), instead we have to watch Talia, Sara, Leslie, Johnny, insert random person and all their crap. You can't tell me all those actors are always unavailable for filming.

  • Love 5
Link to comment
DigitalCount

DigitalCount

I feel bad for Sara, because in the sea of Johnny-come-latelys she's basically the first organic one, since she's been part of the story for a while, just off-screen. And also, if we're going to call her Shower, can we call Ezra something like Pezra, since he gives "candy" to small children? I'm a bit amazed that he hasn't gotten a negative nickname yet.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
raytch

raytch

Wow. I scrolled down those comments and I haven't found a single positive one about her. Some people are more respectful than others, saying they have no problem with the actress but they really don't like the character, others are just flat out I HOPE SHD DIES.

Link to comment
Preity

Preity

I do feel kind of bad for the actress and technically Sara hasn't done anything to deserve the hate (which might be the problem). I just really hope they drop the character now though, even if she turns out to be red coat or something introducing her now is annoying.

Link to comment
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...