Plot
The series is based on the novel series of the same name by 38-year-old American author Sara Shepard. The events take place in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, created by the author. Pretty Little Liars tells the story of five girlfriends, high school students aged 16-17, and begins with the disappearance of one of these five girls, Alison, after a pajama party and her mysterious murder.
Young, lively, crazy, and reckless, Alison is the group’s missing girl. When Alison, who takes over the role of the bridge in the team’s reunion, leaves, the series is dragged to interesting turning points with the crackdowns between the other girls. And when the mysterious perverse“, which makes their lives unbearable at every opportunity, sends threatening messages to the lives of our four girls left behind – that is, the element of curiosity – the audience is easily caught. The feeling of curiosity that progresses with a regular continuity and consistency is the biggest trump of Pretty Little Liars.
Who is this ‘A’?
We learn with the girls that the killer is “A” in the first episodes, but the main thing is to find out who “A” is. In the pilot episode of the series, the screenwriters get out of the way by placing a huge time bomb in the middle of the story and laying the floors with plenty of mines. To be knotted together with the characters and unraveled with them is left to the patience of the audience.
Pretty Little Liars is not a soap bubble to be watched so sleepy and slow in this respect. While a new character can be involved in the events at any time, another can be pushed into the background in the same way – what’s worse, he may even die. After all, the game is played on a mine-paved field, accompanied by the ticking of a ticking bomb.
Some of the characters other than the girls in the series were embedded in the script, and the other part was fed into the script as a nomad. For Alison, there is a completely different method. Our remaining girls remember their memories with her through flashback in almost every episode and keep Alison fresh in the audience’s memory.
Girls have their own independent emotional, psychological, and socio-cultural interactions outside of their mutual environment. These are dealt with separately, from time to time, this independent story and people can roll the rocks to the point of the heaviest traffic, which can cause powerful jolts in the main story.
What does it teach us?
• Although it is called a teen drama, Pretty Little Liars proves that it is an ageless series in almost every episode. It is woven with an infinite system of elements and interactions that can capture viewers of all ages from a single point.
• From alcohol addiction to depression, betrayal, honesty, domestic violence, and the power of love… it makes social analyzes and inferences. We can say that it represents a philosophy and sociology trend for each of the main characters.
• With the awareness of security created thanks to the messages transmitted via “A,” the youth of the 2010s are shown the good and bad aspects of their lives, the rewards, and punishments, at the same time. ‘A’ is the Big Brother of the series, and he sees and knows everything and tries to direct them in the direction he wants. On the other hand, those who oppose their commands and duties ruthlessly are destroyed.
• The value of the family is emphasized in each episode. “Family is everything” is one of the main messages of the series.
• The destruction caused by the lies that man tells to his closest relatives, more importantly to himself, is injected softly into the viewer, without suffocating and squeezing. The series creates successful awareness of this issue. The fire of curiosity is always kept warm by the sparks of question marks.
• Popular culture is first embraced firmly and then crushed. One of the most important features of Pretty Little Liars is that messages are always transmitted bidirectionally.
• Stereotypes and rooted ideas are top the list of girls to break down and burn first. Discrimination, sexism, and commodification are literally murdered in Pretty Little Liars.
To sum up, Pretty Little Liars shows us that nothing is as it seems, that people can change, the importance of true friendship, justice will always win, the value of the family and the strength of the woman, sometimes happy, sometimes sad – but never exaggerating.
