(no subject)
Firstly I'm gutted about Mona, she was one of my favourite characters (along with Spencer and Hanna), and I always thought that she brought a lot to the show :( Her friendship with Hanna especially was one of my fav's, and her whole dynamic with Spencer.
Overall I've been a lot more into season 5 so far than I was last season. I loved the first three seasons, but then a lot of season 4 felt like stalling for time to me and stretching the mysteries out a little too much. It had its moments, but I did wonder if they were holding back because they wanted to wait one more year for Sasha to turn 18 and be able to work more hours, then they would have a whole new story avenue with Allison being alive and coming back to town. It just felt like they struggling with what to fill season 4 with in the meantime? Season 5 has definitely been a return to form for me though, I've really been enjoying getting more of Allison POV's and exploring all the ramifications of her coming back to town. I'm not sure what to make of Allison so far actually, but I'm not really on-board with how fast the show is jumping to portray her as a villain. She was humanised a lot in early season 5, we saw her looking sad and shedding tears when she was completely alone and had no one else to play too, so I cannot believe that she is just a pure sociopath who is playing everyone. Maybe I'm being too naïve, but I believed her when she seemed hurt at Emily and the others cutting her off and thinking that she's A. But then, given the way that Toby and Ezra were painted as more sinister when we were supposed to believe that they were A (still wondering what was up with the glass planted in the punching bag after Jake warns Aria about Ezra??), we can probably dismiss Allison as a suspect now that the show is so clearly pointing to her being A! I wouldn't be surprised if 5B takes the time to explain her reasons for everything that she did. Present-day Allison does seem pretty different to me, a lot more subdued compared to how she was in the flashbacks when she was the leader of the group, yet all the other characters seem to be seeing is the mean girl they remember at 15. Not that you can necessarily blame any of them for feeling that way I suppose, but still I can't help feeling kind of bad for her...She's been on the run since the age of 15, her Mother was killed before they had a chance to reunite, and it seems like she doesn't have anyone really in her corner. But then I feel bad for Jenna too, so maybe I'm just a sucker for the more villainous characters :P
And honestly I'm really not a fan of the way they handled Caleb's character with the spin-off. I didn't like how much time it took up in the Halloween episode last season, it felt like it was more about setting-up a plot for the spin-off, rather than putting the characters first. The intro of Miranda had nothing whatsoever to do with what was going on with PLL, and then the way that Hanna told Caleb to stay and take care of Miranda just seemed so forced and random. And then this season he is telling Hanna all of this weird stuff, while fireflies hover outside and a Ouija board moves? I've nothing against the spin-off, but I feel like it hurt PLL to keep bringing all of that supernatural stuff into the original show. Yeah we needed an explanation of what happened to Caleb I guess, but lol I couldn't even follow what Caleb was talking about in those scenes from 511, and then the cliffhanger ending on the fireflies outside was a very odd moment to me
And why is Ezra going to Aria's for Thanksgiving, is he not still her teacher?? I thought that Aria's father still hated him last time I checked and didn't approve of their relationship, especially once Ezra was back teaching at the high school? I can't believe how quickly the writers got Ezra and Aria back together and glossed over his original agenda with her. I ranted about them in my previous entry though, so I won't repeat myself :P
Oh and one last observation is that I'm not really a fan of these random new characters that they keep introducing. Shauna being presented as A was so bizarre, especially when they all seemed to believe that was A taken care of and Allison could now return to town, even though Shauna had been a presence in the show for all of five minutes! And CeCe's character didn't really work for me either, I never felt like she and Allison had particularly similar mannerisms, and I found it hard to buy that a woman in her late 20's/early 30's (?) would have been hanging out with a 14/15 year old girl. The way that they used her for the red coat mystery worked for me more than Shauna ever did though, Shauna just seemed to come out of nowhere and become a massive part of the ongoing mystery all of a sudden
Does anyone have any theories on who A is, what are the current popular theories?