I started watching Pretty Little Liars based on a few reviews here and there that added up to
the points summed up in this post, so it seems irrelevant to reinvent the wheel on the pitch. In short: it's a fantastically fun show with a lot of relationships between women and as of episode 2x13, I recommend it unreservedly.
- The fun of it is a lot more plot-based than character-based for me. I like all the Liars and think they're all great pictures of young women in a whole handful of tough situations, but the momentum comes from how quickly and inventively A makes things happen.
- I'm actually watching this as a fantastic secular criticism of religion. A is everywhere, A knows all, A can do anything. You cannot escape A, your devotion must be eternal and will never be enough. A is both a constant reminder of mortality and a teasing glimpse of a potential type of afterlife. A giveth, and A taketh away. A's motives are unknowable and unquestionable; A works in mysterious ways.
- It manages to both show us the destructive power of secrets, and to be fair about why people keep them.
- It's still a somewhat notable thing for a show to have a young queer woman of color, but PLL doesn't...act like it's doing anything notable with Emily? And it's really refreshing to watch. Emily has little to no internalized homophobia, at least by the time we meet her, but she has a lot of heartbreakingly realistic struggles with homophobia out in the world, particularly with her parents.
- It just really warms my heart to watch these young women be supportive of each other. The truth that kids can be hurtful to each other, I think, gets used as an excuse to only ever show young women at their worst, and therefore always each others' worst enemies. PLL doesn't force all of the Liars to be overly and unrealistically nice to each other all the time, but the show is big on quietly, unobtrusively modeling ways women can support each other in difficult times. Hanna tactfully but deliberately works to make Emily feel safe to come out to her friends. Aria is kind and non-judgmental when Hanna explains her struggles with bulimia. Spencer doesn't get along brilliantly with her sister, but she spots and tries to help with the red flags of Melissa's relationship with Ian.
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