Pretty Little Liars in the Media

[dwmckim]

Okay, so here's what i'm thinkin'.

 

Marlene is active on twitter as are other of the creative PTB.  You and i know full well the show won't answer all the dangling mysteries & plotthreads.  

 

So after the show aired, i say we tweet Marlene any and all q's that weren't answered in the Summer(Episode) of Answers with #unAnswered

[SadieT]

Not gonna lie, I would get a kick out of the #SummerOfAnswers being another Charles is A moment because the fans on social media will flip the fuck out and sometimes the reactions to this show are better than the actual show.

 

Here's my full expectation:  We will get answers.  We will get resolution to the show's main mysteries.  BUT - we WON'T get answers to any of the subplots, red herrings, questions and characters that aren't directly connected with the main mystery and as a result the finale will be unsatisfying because we're still left hanging with many of our long-time questions unresolved and doomed to be left that way because if they aren't touched upon now, it's near impossible any closure could come after diving headfirst into a five year time jump.  

 

 

Yeah, pretty much this. There's too many questions to be answered and I honestly think most of those questions have no answers, but were rather thrown out there as red herrings and filler, and the writers have no interest in tying them up now because they served their purpose in stretching out the mystery of the show and are no longer relevant to the main plot, which revolves around that particular labor day Alison went missing and Charles's story. 

 

Like there's all these questions about Cape May/Beach Hottie and the NAT club that were introduced early on in the series to make Wilden, Jason, Ian, Garrett, etc. look like suspects, but if none of those people are A/Charles, I doubt we'll ever get a resolution to any of those storylines. Even if one of them is Charles, there's still a good chance we won't hear anything about those past storylines. 

 

And as another example, there was that time Ali shows up at the Hastings with a bloody lip and then later ghost Ali shows up to waltz with Spencer in Radley and tells her "girls fight dirtier than boys," but it's never revealed who hit her and it probably doesn't really matter so it won't ever be mentioned again. 

 

Or the whole "Maya knew" thing... we never found out what she knew and probably never will. Although I'm guessing she knew Alison was alive.

 

And what type of flowers does Veronica grow in her yard exactly? Hanna said petunias and Spencer corrected her and said her mom grows azaleas, but drunk Veronica told the other drunk moms that Jessica was buried 10 feet away from her lilacs. Will we ever get a definite answer on this?! 

 

But the number 1 question I want answered... where the hell is Pepe? Seriously, did Mr. DiLaurentis get rid of Alison's dog when she went to prison, because that would be a real dick move, even for him.

 

There's a couple of lists of unanswered questions floating around tumblr, some consisting of almost 100 questions, and I expect 90% of those questions will remain unanswered. 

[Cranberry]

Yeah, all we can bank on getting for sure are:

 

Who killed Toby's mom

Who hit Ali with the rock

Who killed Bethany

What is A's motivation

Who is Red Coat

Who is the Black Widow

Who is A/Charles

 

That's already quite a bit to answer in one episode, so the chance of having NO questions left after this ep is pretty much zero.

[mercfan3]

To be fair, a lot of those questions have already been answered..but people don't believe the show. (For instance, Wilden killed Garrett because he was going to spill info to Spencer.) 

[Lii]

This show is one of the biggest examples of how not to storyboard I can think of in recent memory, my god. Answer one, ask one, guys. Not let every single tiny thing pile up into mountains of unanswered redundant nonsense. There is so much stuff that could have been used as seasonal plots like the NAT Club stuff, and have it be over, done with and answers given, with whatever clues are relevant to the central A mystery being derived from the solution of that. How hard is it, seriously?

[Giuliano Lanzilli]

Can someone give me more examples of the allegedly sexist/misogynistic/homophobic jokes and posts Travis' accounts are riddled with (besides the "You made me soup" one)?

Edited August 9, 2015 by Giuliano Lanzilli

[Crim]

Here's my full expectation:  We will get answers.  We will get resolution to the show's main mysteries.  BUT - we WON'T get answers to any of the subplots, red herrings, questions and characters that aren't directly connected with the main mystery

I'm more pessimistic than you are. I think that the answers we get will not only leave those older plots unclear but will kinda negate them, in that the answers will make it impossible to tie up all the previous seasons loose ends at a later date. The time jump will mean a clean slate (except maybe for Black Widow) and this will be it. What the writers had planned (or at least sketched out) back in season 1 - 3, before they knew they'd have 6 seasons, has already been written over time and time again. Maybe I'm just cynical, but was Charles even part of the original plan or was it something to stretch for the 2 seasons renewal? So then, what about the dollhouse and Sara? All the pointless filler we got and the show has a time jump after season 6A. Was having a half season post-time jump intended from the start or was the timing decided by when the writers just threw the towel in? All the MK tweets can't honestly answer that because there is no way she'd say "Well, we had to wing it." I do wish she'd say "#SummerOfAnswers is just about us doing the best at this point. But we will start fresh and give you the best show we can once again."

[mercfan3]

So, I was thinking about what Troian said..about how she plays Spoby like something has been broken between them since he was on the A Team. 

 

I wonder if Tyler plays his scenes with Ezra like he hates him? We've seen Caleb let his feelings known to anyone who has harmed Hannah..whether it be her step sister (That dress gives you back fat), Mona (he pretty much always tells everyone how much he hates Mona), Ali (the scene in the classroom) Ella's X (he punched him and called him a pervert for hitting on Hannah)..

 

Yet nothing for the teacher who stalked his girlfriend for years, was dating one of his girlfriends friends..and how just creepily hangs out with them? You'd expect Caleb to make a snarky comment..but I don't think he can because of the issues with fans. But still..you can just feel that Caleb doesn't like Ezra. So I wonder if that's a acting choice on Tyler's part or if that's what Marlene wants. 

[cuddlingcrowley]

Yeah, all we can bank on getting for sure are:

Who killed Toby's mom

Who hit Ali with the rock

Who killed Bethany

What is A's motivation

Who is Red Coat

Who is the Black Widow

Who is A/Charles

 

 

Also who is part of the A-team and some answers about the lodge fire. 

 

I will say I'll be disappointed if we don't get to see Jenna, Lucas, Noel and Melissa again, even if it's just in flashback. Those are the great supporting characters that made the show what it is and they need to be on the episode.

 

I'm perfectly ready to accept we will never know what the exact answers are to some questions given the time constraint, but we should also realize that one answer can encompass a lot of questions so we'll probably be getting more than we realize. For instance, if it finally gets revealed Melissa indeed is part of the A-team and was lying her ass off the time with Spencer on the bridge, then "Melissa!" becomes the answer to loads of questions in regards to events we know she was linked like the fire Lodge, the ghost train, the night of a thousand yellow tops and so on.

 

I'm a lot more concerned about getting an answer to smaller mysteries like:

 

And as another example, there was that time Ali shows up at the Hastings with a bloody lip and then later ghost Ali shows up to waltz with Spencer in Radley and tells her "girls fight dirtier than boys," but it's never revealed who hit her and it probably doesn't really matter so it won't ever be mentioned again. (...)

Or the whole "Maya knew" thing... we never found out what she knew and probably never will. Although I'm guessing she knew Alison was alive. (...)

 

And also what actually went down with Ian. It's likely Charles killed him but still, I want a straight answer on this one. Same goes for who was the blonde who kidnapped Mona.

 

(I think it was either Melissa or Paige who gave Alison the bloody lip. I'm leaning more towards Melissa.)

 

More than getting answers, I'm extremelly worried about how they'll handle Charles sob story. I hope against hope Marlene who's resposible for pitching this storyline keeps in mind that ChArles was noticeably more extreme than MonA in his terrorism of the girls, and MonA, while not a walk in the park, was never "forgiven" by the girls.

 

 

So after the show aired, i say we tweet Marlene any and all q's that weren't answered in the Summer(Episode) of Answers with #unAnswered

 

 

She'll be answering questions about this show for the rest of her life.

Edited August 10, 2015 by cuddlingcrowley

[Lii]

Sadly, if the show can make the fans forget about EzrA (or was it the other way around?), it can very likely pull this idiotic sob story for ChArles off as well.

[SadieT]

Bunch of new articles and interviews came out today talking about the finale and the time jump. Nothing too note-worthy in them, except Sasha says there's a reason she hasn't posted any photos of herself on set. Apparently Alison goes in an unexpected direction in the future and she's not allowed to reveal much about it.

http://prettylittleliars.alloyentertainment.com/sasha-pieterse-interview-big-a-emison-time-jump-81015/#1

http://zap2it.com/2015/08/pretty-little-liars-sasha-pieterse-time-jump-new-problem-5-more-finale-spoilers/

http://www.mtv.com/news/2236066/pretty-little-liars-rhys-matthews/

http://m.etonline.com/news/169628_exclusive_pretty_little_liars_troian_bellisario_shay_mitchell_react_to_a_identity_i_was_shocked/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/pretty-little-liars-finale-spoilers-814190

[cuddlingcrowley]

Is the information in those articles considered spoilers? I really wanna discuss them but I'm unsure what's the right forum. 

[Cranberry]

Probably safest to take the discussion to the spoiler thread just in case.

[Cranberry]

[Cranberry]

Pretty Little Liars: A unmasked as CeCe Drake as fans blast show for 'transphobic storyline'

 

Pretty Little Liars boss definitively answers who was behind the show's biggest mysteries

[dwmckim]

 

 

Who knocked Jenna unconscious and left her to drown? (Season 4, Episode 9)

That was Charlotte because Jenna knew Ali was alive. That’s something we have not discussed on the show so that’s totally new information.

 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, concrete evidence that Marlene knew full well her "No More Lies" shirt-and-dance was itself total BS and that 6x10 wasn't even gonna be revealing "all the answers". I've seen more answers in post-episode interviews/articles like this one than on the show itself.

[Artsda]

Pretty Little Liars: 'A' Defends Finale's Biggests Twists, Previews Charlotte's Future With Alison in Season 6

http://tvline.com/2015/08/12/pretty-little-liars-cece-transgender-vanessa-ray-finale-interview/

[WhosThatGirl]

I highly doubt that this storyline was the plan from the beginning. Just saying. A lot of things don't add up, so no matter what that article says, it still doesn't make sense.

[Artsda]

Pretty Little Liars Boss on Charles' Transition, Ali's New Man and the Show's Future After Season 7

http://tvline.com/2015/08/12/pretty-little-liars-spoilers-alison-married-charlotte-future/

[justcris]

This mess of a finale reminds me of a Teen Wolf after after show (available here: http://www.mtv.com/shows/teen_wolf/teen-wolf-season-5-ep-4-after-after-show/1736751/playlist/) with Cody Christian (Aria's brother Mike) where they asked him what's the biggest difference he sees between Teen Wolf and PPL and he says something about how on TW they pay a lot more attention to details. I thought that was so telling!

[itainttippithebird]

So, Heather Hogan posted her recap/thoughts about the A reveal. On the one hand, I'm releived she critiques it, but on the other, I can't help but feel a little betrayed by her ultimate defense of it? It feels like she's given this show so much credit over the years that she feels like she has to come to their defense? Which, as someone who did the same thing, I can almost get, but then, NO.

 

http://www.autostraddle.com/pretty-little-liars-episode-610-recap-i-feel-a-lot-safer-when-im-in-charge-of-what-happens-to-me-302360/2/

[DigitalCount]

I think Heather Hogan lacks integrity. I agree with a fair number of her points, but calling Kenneth the main villain defies logic so hard I can only assume it was done in bad faith.

[Sakura12]

For me it's not whether or not they were sensitive to the subject of CeCe being Trans, what bothers me is it seems the only reason they went with that was for shock value. This show is a big scribbling mess of plot holes and red herring (so many red herrings) I Marlene King needed a shock and pulled that one out. I don't doubt that they had CeCe on their minds for being A, but I really don't think the CeCe is Charles came about until recently. 

[Jack Shaftoe]

Heather Hogan virtually always blames the men and the patriarchy in her PLL recaps. Somehow it doesn't seem to bother her that the two main villains are a woman and a transgender female or that Jessica was easily worse than Kenneth. Nah, it's always Toby this and Ezra that, like they are the ones going around dropping bodies and talking about how fun it is to torment people. If a man had done what Mona has done, Heather Hogan certainly would never describe him as "our beloved [insert the male equivalent of Mona here] Vanderwaal." Never, ever.

 

Here is a quote from the latest recap:

 

At its core, Pretty Little Liars is a story about the way men assume ownership over women’s bodies, strip away their agency, deprive them of their of autonomy, deny them subjectivity, and silence them.

 

Talk about seeing what you want to see...

Edited August 12, 2015 by Jack Shaftoe

[DigitalCount]

I'm hoping they get raked over the metaphorical coals in press. Also, maybe this is overly cynical, or a bit Pollyanna-ish--not sure which--but I don't know if they were really looking to be sensitive or raise awareness or make a shocking twist or anything. I think they just wanted to make it hard to guess who was the culprit. "If it is Charlotte no one will see it coming! Brilliant!"

[Artsda]

Marlene King says new Pretty Little Liars mystery has 'some connection' to the past

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/12/marlene-king-pretty-little-liars-finale-interview?hootPostID=a5dfe800d2439689471a934e5016073c

[methodwriter85]

Given that Marlene King refuses to even answer if Charles/Charlotte actually did a full transition, I really wouldn't put it past the show to decide later on that "Charlotte" wants to be a man instead, and becomes a guy that nobody recognizes to torture them again.

[itainttippithebird]

Well, I'm totally with Heather Hogan in her reading of the show, riiiiight up until this tepid defense of the CeCe plotline, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, I guess.

 

The show's writers, directors, and actors have all given interviews confirming that the intention of the show is to point out how young women are victimized by patriarchal control and violence, so it's not like she's making it up out of nowhere...

[Sakura12]

Given that Marlene King refuses to even answer if Charles/Charlotte actually did a full transition, I really wouldn't put it past the show to decide later on that "Charlotte" wants to be a man instead, and becomes a guy that nobody recognizes to torture them again.

 

That's what I was thinking. They took back every other A reveal Toby, Ezra and Mona why not Charles/CeCe. 

 

The show's writers, directors, and actors have all given interviews confirming that the intention of the show is to point out how young women are victimized by patriarchal control and violence, so it's not like she's making it up out of nowhere...

 

What? how? Everything started with a girl, Alison who also blinded another girl, Jenna who was raping her step-brother, then the first real A was Mona, a girl and big A is a Trans woman, CeCe. To me that looks like a bunch of girls terrorizing and victimizing other girls. While all but one of the girls have horrible fathers, they aren't victimizing them. They do have the adult males hitting on teenager but then they have adult male Ezra treated like a romantic hero. That is them trying to have it both ways. But again they don't really focus on the girls being victimized by the males. The focus is girls hurting other girls. 

Edited August 12, 2015 by Sakura12

[Jack Shaftoe]

 

The show's writers, directors, and actors have all given interviews confirming that the intention of the show is to point out how young women are victimized by patriarchal control and violence, so it's not like she's making it up out of nowhere...

 

They could say whatever they want but saying it's the "core of the show" is a stretch, to put it mildly. The Liars have been victimized by Alison and Mona - what's that got to do with the patriarchy exactly? Unless one happens to think teenagers can't be mean to each other in a society with real gender equality, that is, which is wishful thinking if I ever saw one. And Jessica is just as much to blame for the Cece situation as Kenneth is, if not more. And people disliking transgender people and all kinds of other "others" is certainly not exclusive to patriarchy. All this talk about various male characters taking agency from the female ones is weird, considering the reviewers are doing a form of that by blaming say Kenneth for Cece and Alison's crimes, or even Jessica's crimes. Did he screw up big time? No doubt. But not allowing female characters full culpability is in my opinion an expression of basically same condescending bullshit that drives a lot of the patriarchal attitudes in the first place.

 

And frankly, if we really need to blame somebody else for how Cece turned out, I would start with the Radley staff. Whatever story Kenneth and Jessica told them, if Cece were really innocent in regards to injuring Alison and didn't suffer from any mental illness at that age, it really shouldn't have taken them long to establish that fact. So they were either bribed or terribly stupid, or probably both.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Jack Shaftoe

[DigitalCount]

Well, I'm totally with Heather Hogan in her reading of the show, riiiiight up until this tepid defense of the CeCe plotline, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, I guess.

The show's writers, directors, and actors have all given interviews confirming that the intention of the show is to point out how young women are victimized by patriarchal control and violence, so it's not like she's making it up out of nowhere...

The thing is, if you just watch the show, you get a story about how a girl was nearly killed by her trans sister, another mentally ill girl killed a mentally ill woman before in turn being killed by a combo of two insane geniuses, the mom covered it up, then the trans sister went on to take over the role of torturing a group of completely unrelated girls from one of the mad geniuses. Let's not forget how the undead girl blinded another girl who raped her brother. The secondary storylines have things like Ezra stalking the Liars and the NAT club, the latter of which I'm convinced was a perversion of the original intent for Jason to verify everything he saw by recording it (because of the gaslighting).

It reduces agency, in my opinion, not to let these people own their actions. People aren't puppets for whom you can flip a murder switch by putting them through enough trauma. Yes, Charlotte suffered because of the patriarchy. Everyone's got a sob story, but not everyone becomes a killer. It does the characters a disservice to say "oh if only the cops weren't such predators, or Ezra wasn't such a creep, none of this would have happened."

[Perfect Xero]

To me this show is mostly a gender inversion of the normal noir thriller. Women are in the dominant roles, the heroes and the main villains; the male characters are relegated to love interests, femme fatales, gal Friday's, and damsels in distress. Every guy on the show has been involved in something shady, mostly because in the world of noir none of the supporting characters are complete innocents.

[manbearpig]

Maybe part of the whole patriarchy angle is because the men are much less defined than the women on the show; obviously we have our leading ladies who are all different and get plenty of screen time, and shadier characters like Mona and Allison getting a lot of focus and sympathetic traits even when they have done something horrible. For the first two seasons, before A was definitively revealed, we didn't necessarily know* about Mona being A. There was still plenty of girl/girl hostility like with Alison blinding Jenna and Hanna slapping Jenna, but for that period it's easy to see the show from a certain angle because the men in Rosewood were basically a series of ill-defined creeps of varying degrees, and even the male characters we're supposed to like, such as Ezra and Toby, would probably be presented as villainous on most other shows. (I'd hope). It's a lot murkier now that our two big bads, Mona and CeCe, are both women. But we've also seen plenty of good women on the show, like our four leading ladies, who, while flawed, are all still basically good people stuck in a bad situation, where as, there's been about one nice male on the entire show. Emily'd dad. Maybe Aria's love interest who was ill? Holden?

 

I don't know. I feel like I've just typed that out and lost my point somewhere...

 

*I'm sure plenty of people guessed, though.

[jjjmoss]

http://headlineplanet.com/home/2015/08/12/ratings-pretty-little-liars-surges-for-summer-finale-most-watched-since-2014/
 

Tuesday’s “Pretty Little Liars” summer finale was the most-watched episode since the March 2014 season four finale.

The revealing episode garnered a whopping 1.39 adults 18-49 rating with 3.087 million total viewers.

I guessed 3.2 million because that would tie for biggest finale jump. So pretty close, 3.1.
Highest 18-49 rating since Grave New World 2 years ago.

 

UnMAsked got 3.69 million and a series-high 1.6. 

[Sakura12]

Probably because most people were like me that just wanted to see if they would reveal the real A. The finale was the only ep I watched this season. And it has made me give up the show all over again. 

[jjjmoss]

Yeah, most eps this season were under 2 million. Overall viewership for 6A was down 6% from 5A. If it wasn't for the finale, it would have been down 11%.

Edited August 12, 2015 by jjjmoss

[SadieT]

Well, I'm totally with Heather Hogan in her reading of the show, riiiiight up until this tepid defense of the CeCe plotline, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, I guess.

The show's writers, directors, and actors have all given interviews confirming that the intention of the show is to point out how young women are victimized by patriarchal control and violence, so it's not like she's making it up out of nowhere...

Heather Hogan has somewhat of a relationship with Marlene and some people on the show. They follow her on twitter and have made it known they read her recaps. I think Keegan even retweeted her latest one, which makes me think she might have felt compelled to take it easy on them for this mess because I really don't think the writers intended to offend, I think they honestly misjudged how the reveal would be received and didn't realize their lazy exploitive writing would not go over so well.

My thing with the whole the girls being victimized by the patriarchy theme of the show is that it's absolutely true. The girls are victims. Not just of certain men on the show, but the basis of the show is that someone is torturing these young girls and they have no one to go to for help because they won't be taken seriously if they do. Because we as a society don't take young girls seriously. Or women in general. The reason why the girls never went to the cops or their parents is because they knew no one would believe them, that they'd be dismissed as liars or drama queens or attention seekers, and devaluing the feelings and experiences of young women is something very real that happens and is in fact a consequence of the patriarchy. It's what leads to rape culture and why multiple rape allegations from many different women made against a powerful man were widely ignored until a male comedian spoke up about it. Because who cares what a bunch of silly women have to say. But I don't think the show does a good job of showing that that's the problem.

Another issue I have is that there's several older male characters on the show who get involved sexually with underage girls, yet rarely are these men called out for their predatory behavior or for violating these girls. Look at how the characters initially reacted to Alison hooking up with Holbrook. The liars' first reaction is to be disgusted by HER behavior, saying she must be using him. It didn't even occur to them that maybe he preyed on her, maybe he saw how vulnerable she was at the time and used that to seduce her. And while Hanna does later awesomely call him out and say he didn't have to do her bidding because he's a grown up police officer and Alison's just a girl, there's still an underlying feeling of blame being leveled at Alison for it.

Toby later reiterates this notion early in this season when he's telling Spencer to keep Alison away from Lorenzo because she has a history using cops... she, a teenage girl, is the problem. Not the adult police officers who are trying to sleep with her. Mr. DiLaurentis has the same attitude. He finds an older cop alone with his daughter in his house and his reaction is to yell at her for playing games and manipulating the situation.

And when Melissa finds out that her grown ass boyfriends are cheating on her with teenage girls, first Ian with Alison and then Wren kissing Spencer, she gets mad at the girls. Blames them for trying to steal her boyfriends, instead of questioning why these men are pursuing 15/16 year old girls.

Then there's Ezra's entire existence. This man is a straight up sexual predator who has used and manipulated Aria in the grossest ways imaginable and we're supposed to see him as a good guy and a viable love interest. We're just supposed to ignore the damage he did to Aria because he's romantic or whatever.

So while there's plenty of reasons to read the show as a criticism of the patriarchy despite all of the girl-on-girl crime, I feel like the show is kind of blind to the fact that they're perpetuating the problem.

Edited August 13, 2015 by SadieT

[itainttippithebird]

Totally agree, SadieT. I overlooked the Ezria bullshit because I either thought a. nobody's perfect or b. they're going to turn it around SOMEday and it's gonna be great. But last night made me realize that's pretty naive of me, after all.

 

Part of why I wish HH had gone harder is EXACTLY that relationship with the showrunners. She has their ear, she has the opportunity to show them how hurtful and damaging this was, but (I feel like) she wimped out on it.

 

And then to have people like her and Jacob Clifton describe people's legitimate concerns about damaging trans representation as rushing to judgment or "throwing a fit" or, worst of all, not truly "GETTING IT" - that just cuts to the quick.

[cuddlingcrowley]

Another interview with Marlene. In this one she adresses that infamous flashback between Alison and Toby and how that would fit in the timeline and it's as hilarious as you would expect! MORE. I'M DYING.

 

And another one! Some good news, finally!!!!!

Edited August 13, 2015 by cuddlingcrowley

[Jack Shaftoe]

 

My thing with the whole the girls being victimized by the patriarchy theme of the show is that it's absolutely true. The girls are victims. Not just of certain men on the show, but the basis of the show is that someone is torturing these young girls and they have no one to go to for help because they won't be taken seriously if they do.

 

I thought they had nobody to go to help because of all the blackmail possibilities. It's not like the Rosewood police investigates complaints made by male characters any more seriously, they are simply utterly incompetent in all respects. The mean girl phenomenon has some connection to patriarchy and people dismissing girls bullying other girls as not so important in the grand scheme of things but still I am more more inclined to blame Alison, Mona and the likes than the people around who let them get away with it.

 

 

The reason why the girls never went to the cops or their parents is because they knew no one would believe them, that they'd be dismissed as liars or drama queens or attention seekers, and devaluing the feelings and experiences of young women is something very real that happens and is in fact a consequence of the patriarchy.

 

But the girls did to the cops. Quite a few times actually. Sometimes they were believed, sometimes they were not. More importantly, male characters had just as much trouble being believed by the bunch of morons known as Rosewood PD, so again, what you are describing might have been the intention but it's not really what we saw on screen.

[Kromm]

Then there's Ezra's entire existence. This man is a straight up sexual predator who has used and manipulated Aria in the grossest ways imaginable and we're supposed to see him as a good guy and a viable love interest. We're just supposed to ignore the damage he did to Aria because he's romantic or whatever.

I wonder if anyone's ever done a tally on how many characters on this show should have done jail time and haven't (and probably won't even in the extra five years)?  Probably all of the protagonists are on that list, but it might eventually come down to every last character who appeared on the show for more than an episode or two.

That's no defense of Ezra and all that shit. In fact, it makes it look even worse.  Because most of the other crimes can just justified as ridiculous over the top story manipulation, whereas Ezra is just someone who in the real world would be labeled a predator.

[itainttippithebird]

 

I wonder if anyone's ever done a tally on how many characters on this show should have done jail time and haven't (and probably won't even in the extra five years)?

 

Yeah, I mean, SIDE NOTE - after the jump, Aria should be coming back from a 5 year stint in prison for the involuntary manslaughter of Shana Frigg, goddammit! That's NEVER going to come back. Sigh.

 

Tanner was right on her heels, but then when Mona died it was like, welp, sorry, we can only handle one murder at a time in Rosewood!

Edited August 13, 2015 by itainttippithebird

[itainttippithebird]

Yup, this pretty much sums it up: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/game-fcking-over#.gxE1LEy96

[WhosThatGirl]

Her reasoning for the Toby/Ali/Toby's mom flashback is not good at all. Thats all I have to say. Next season better give me something good.

[mercfan3]

I don't understand why she didn't just get younger actors/actresses for those roles. Is the budget really cut that tight? 

[Cranberry]

She's pulling that explanation out of her ass. Like someone said in the comments on this interview:

 

Charles wasn't the only age she slaughtered in the finale. She made Wilden a police officer at the age of 12, and Bethany older than Charles when she clearly wasn't. Marlene must think we're idiots, trying to pull a Mr. DiLaurentis by telling us that we're not seeing this, it's all imaginary, as if Toby's memories are just as fake as Jason's. Right? Well what about the Halloween episode which was the year before Alison went missing? You know, when Toby said it had been a year since his mother died? She'd have done a better job apologizing for her mistakes rather than lying to try and cover them up.

[itainttippithebird]

Ugh, what's so frustrating about this is that these kind of HUGE inconsistencies make it impossible to play along as a viewer. If no one can be trusted to be anywhere near their supposed AGE, even, how are we supposed to trust anything as reliable info for puzzling out the mystery?

 

I mean, WHO CARES anymore, after this disaster, but you can't have it both ways - you can't have people invested in trying to figure out your mystery AND then completely disregard your own super basic canon facts AND then expect people not to be pissed about it.

 

WHATEVER, y'all, I'm out, at least for a bit. I've given way too much emotional energy to this for the last 24 hours, I better back awayyyy from the keyboard for a bit for my own mental health.  xoxox

Edited August 13, 2015 by itainttippithebird

[mercfan3]

As for the male predatory behavior. I actually think the show comments on it. They have restrictions (Ezria tween fans)..and yes.we see the women blaming other women..but the show itself..comments on the grossness that is of this men. (Even Ezra, although they do it..subtly. ) They even had an entire episode dedicated to it. 

 

The timeline thing is just a mess..and really, there was no reason to make it such a mess. Have the Bethany/CeCe/Marion scene happen with actresses of the proper age, and a different event that caused CeCe's diagnosis. There was legit no reason to do that. 

Edited August 13, 2015 by mercfan3

[dwmckim]

http://headlineplanet.com/home/2015/08/12/ratings-pretty-little-liars-surges-for-summer-finale-most-watched-since-2014/

 

I guessed 3.2 million because that would tie for biggest finale jump. So pretty close, 3.1.

Highest 18-49 rating since Grave New World 2 years ago.

 

UnMAsked got 3.69 million and a series-high 1.6. 

Something that should be mentioned in discussing the ratings...ABC Family kind of manipulated them a little - since this was The Big Episode, it would have been embarrassing if the numbers weren't there which is probably why they only aired the episode once last night (instead of also having the usual encore showing a couple hours later) - this forced people who normally watch the later airing to tune in to the earlier one and get all this numbers counted together instead of being divided.  (Not taking into account those that found out too late that the second airing wasn't happening that night.)

[Jack Shaftoe]

 

As for the male predatory behavior. I actually think the show comments on it. They have restrictions (Ezria tween fans)..and yes.we see the women blaming other women..but the show itself..comments on the grossness that is of this men. (Even Ezra, although they do it..subtly. ) They even had an entire episode dedicated to it.

 

The relationship with the most screen time and the most promotion is a textbook example of male predatory behavior (well, if you can take baby squirrel Ezra seriously, that is, I for one have never been able to do so). There is a grand total of one character who has been adamantly opposed to it - Byron, and even he came around eventually, plus his attitude was deliberately portrayed as more of patriarchal possessiveness and hypocrisy than genuine concern for his daughter. This alone would be enough to prove that exposing the evils of patriarchy is not the core of the show, IMO. Are there shows who are much worse in that regard? Sure, at least here we don't have the liars stealing each other's boyfriends or being unable to concentrate on anything but their romantic relationships or swooning over a serial killer but that's not much of an achievement. I still remember all the TwoP posters who were sure the writers were going to stick with EzrA, that this was the plan all along, only for the book reveal to come along with Marlene revealing they only though of this "amazing twist" in the beginning of season four (IIRC),

 

In other news one of the comments on autostraddle even said that "[Cece] still ranks lower than Lorenzo and Dad of the Century on the Characters Most Evil Chart. Really, Lorenzo is more evil than Cece now? I am sure that if Jessica had done what Kenneth did and vice versa, some would be still calling Kenneth the evil one and Jessica the victim because god forbid we allow female characters the agency to be villains, not victims. The recap includes this gem:

 

 

The thing about Mona and Alison that gets us, I think, is that they made themselves hard and mean because it was their only way to fight back against the brutal world.

 

Really, the only way to fight back is to torment people who never did anything to you? So it would be okay for Toby to torment random people because his mother died and because he was raped? Or is it just women who enjoy that privilege? I wonder why Heather isn't okay with Sara helping Cece then, I am sure she has a long sob story too, she was just fighting back in the only way possible, right?

Edited August 13, 2015 by Jack Shaftoe