As a dedicated and nearly obsessed "Pretty Little Liars" viewer since the show’s pilot on June 8, 2010. This show has thrown me on a roller coaster that I just have not been able to stop riding for the past six years.
The show began with four grown apart best friends, Spencer, Hanna, Aria and Emily, that reconnect with the "murder" of their mutual best friend Alison DiLaurentis, and began getting stalked by some psychopath that calls their self/themselves “A."
If you have not watched this show, you are probably confused as to why murder has quotes around it—long story short, after four devastatingly long seasons, we find out that Alison is actually alive and in-hiding from “A” while someone else was put in her grave.
This show, overall, has dealt with every issue one can face in high school: dating, heartbreak, bullying, failing and lying. However, the show also incorporated many insane aspects that most high school girls do not deal with like police interviews every week, being accused of murder, ditching a dead police officer’s car in a lake to destroy evidence that your mom, who was sleeping with him, may have killed him and being locked up in a mental institution with your stalker.
This show had so many ridiculous dramatic twists and turns without any fulfillment of the viewer's pressing questions that it became more frustrating that enjoyable to watch. So many times, there were exciting finales that ended up leading to dead-ends in the plot and characters that would not return for seasons at a time. However, because of the ever-escalating drama presented in this show over five very long years, it was hard to just give up on a show without a resolution.
So, like many other viewers, I stuck it out through six long seasons of winter and summer premieres that consisted of insane kidnappings and torturing, murdering in self-defense and thinking Spencer’s boyfriend was dead, all to find who “A” was and why. Turns out, “A” was actually Alison’s biological brother who is now a transgender woman who goes by the name of Charlotte, and had been out to get them ever since her family basically abandoned her and left her in Radley, the local mental institute.
This finale to season 6a was such a letdown to my friends and me as I can imagine many other viewers also felt the same way. Of all people to make as “A,” after over five long years, it was Alison’s sibling who tortured their lives and tried to kill all of her friends multiple times and killed her own mom? What!
The end of season 6a was a perfect time to stop watching the show, as the “A” plot conflict had been resolved completely and the girls, who were once again best friends, were off to live their happy, stalker-free lives at various colleges across the nation. It was said season 6b, the winter premiere of the show, would begin on a time jump of five years, after the girls had all finished college with a new plot twist.
After having this show torture me for five long years, I decided there was no harm in watching the premiere show, just to see what it was all about and, boy, was that a mistake. The plot of the new season is that Alison had forgiven Charlotte and wanted her to rejoin society so they can be a family—however, after torturing her friends’ lives for so long, the girls are called back to their hometown to testify in court for their opinions on Charlotte’s possible release.
Charlotte does get released but, the night of her release, Charlotte gets murdered and her death is staged to look like a suicide—the biggest suspects in the case, of course, are the girls who have almost every reason to want her dead. This plot alone was enough to make me watch the new season, to figure out who did this horrific crime to Charlotte, even though she may have deserved it.
Not only was this a dramatic twist that got me hooked after I exclaimed I would no longer watch the show, but even the new character developments of the characters now five years older is enough to intrigue me to want more. Hanna has become an influential figure in the fashion world, Aria is a writer, Emily is still grieving her father’s death and Spencer is now involved with her mother’s campaign for Senator.
Being re-introduced to the older version of these girls, learning more about their new, older lives is very interesting and a definite reason I am watching this new season, as they all live completely different lives now, but are still caught up in their high school days.
New relationships and old relationships that are played out in this new season, only after three episodes, has captivated me for this new show plot. Last episode it was revealed that Spencer and Caleb like each other and hook up. That drove me crazy. Spencer is kissing Hanna’s ex-boyfriend in this season, that alone is enough to get me back week after week. Aria is also trying to help Ezra reintegrate back into normal life, after his girlfriend gets kidnapped in Africa and he turns into a raging alcoholic.
Ezra, as revealed in the past few episodes, also may have a lot to do with what happened to Charlotte—he had knowledge on how to murder and stage it as a suicide, based upon a college paper Spencer had written that he read. Custom of the "Pretty Little Liars" show, they give you just enough drama to entice you and make you begging for more.
With all of these insane and mind-boggling twists and turns, only after three episodes of the new season, it is safe to say that I will be going nowhere other than in front of my television on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. for a long time. Whether this plot gets better or worse, or takes another five years to resolve yet again, my dedication to this insane show will not quiver.
There is a very good chance I will be 28 years old, still watching a show that I started at the age of 15—in any case, you can be sure I will be investigating the death and clues of Charlotte’s death on my free time. Please, Freeform, do not waste another five years of my life. I beg you to make this season and all upcoming seasons amazing, filled with answers and drama.
