sunnys-rewatch-blog

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S3, E3

"Kingdom of the Blind"

I finally get to see Aria do something. It's just trying to get ready to perform some musical instrument, and it's with Jenna. When is Aria compassionate, again? I would at least like to see more internal conflict over this.

"I'll trade you Mona for Jenna"- yeah, sure, Hanna- can't have you actually being a friend to Mona. I get that a lot of what she put you through as "A" are probably dealbreakers, and I could respect that- but showing up in her hospital room and pretending to be her friend at such a vulnerable time is unimaginably cruel when she already told Spencer "why" and the reason was that she felt like she'd lost you as a friend. She doesn't have any more answers for you. Losing her only friendship was enough to make her a villain after years of bullying and ostracization- which Hanna never stood up for her during- and she didn't owe her shit else, so leave her the fuck alone. At the very least, wait and let her recover.

"Hanna, you have all the subtlety of a hand grenade"- so do you, sometimes, Spencer.

I guess this episode was supposed to be another point for the "Lucas is 'A'" theory. I still love my version of the theory.

It's kind of unfair of the show to start us off with an antagonist we haven't even met, yet. Speaking of, I feel like S3's "A" picked up where Mona left off pretty seemlessly. Text-wise, they really sound like the same person. I kind of wish there had been more distinguishing features.

I don't know what's going on in this town but it I just had to do a make-up exam to avoid being held back, the last thing I'm paying attention to is someone else's grade on that exam. I cannot overstate how little I care if someone other than me cheated on that exam, that's their problem.

Why is Spencer trying to fight her mom on taking the case? This is weird. None of them can stay quiet.

I like both Ezra and Ella so much better when they're interacting with each other. Ugh! This would have been such a great idea, I might have even rooted for them to get back together.

How and when did they get Jenna out of her car? It doesn't seem like she would want to get out just to be cornered by the Liars. And why couldn't they just have this convo in her vehicle? What the fuck is this?

No, Spencer, don't do this. Oh my god. Why !

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S3, E2

"Blood is the New Black"

"Senior year is not all about skipping classes and dancing for the security cameras at Walmart"- what??? Why did she say that? It was so oddly specific.

I really love these morbid touches to the show- the finger bone corset and the teeth? Awesome. I kinda wish they could have just gone all the way and made it a horror. They do such a phenomenal job with the sets and the set-up for some of their most unnerving scenes, it seems to be the stuff they're the best at. It might even work as a dark comedy. I'm not sure if I wish the whole show had darker shades to it because I'm way too easily impressed (let's be honest, there are some horror movies out there that set the bar *really* low) or because I'm a jaded pessimist who wants to make everybody miserable. I think it would have worked for the show's advantage.

Why are English teachers the only teachers on this show? And why does it seem like everyone is one? Ezra, Byron, Ella, Meredith, Jackie, not to mention Aria wanted to become one and Alison eventually did. Who in the writer's room had a massive hard-on for their English teacher and never got over it? Or feels like the time and opportunity to do their dream job just got swept away in time? Maybe they can write a poem about how their English teacher or teaching aspirations slipped through in time like sand in an hourglass. They just casually have teachers transferring from high school to college and vise-versa like stepping down from a college-level profession to make high school wages isn't a huge demotion.

I am really not a fan of how Aria pushes Ezra on Emily in spite of how uncomfortable Emily is with this the entire time. Aria is literally the worst friend in the group. And yes, it does seem like something a teenager would realistically do but the narrative never holds her accountable. She never has to apologize- if anything, everyone eventually gets along at her insistence, so it looks like she was supposed to be right. It's just more of Aria having compassion only for her boyfriend.

I had forgotten a lot of small details about this flashback scene where Aria and Alison trash Byron's office. It just makes me hate him more. He really was only sorry after he got caught. Also, a little gross that Ali tried sniffing that throw pillow to identity Meredith's sweat. What is she, a bloodhound?

Why do they focus so much on what Jenna does with the inedible parts of fruits and nuts?

It is so weird to me how little empathy (or sympathy) these auxiliary characters have for the mains. Personally, I don't find it hard to understand why Spencer wants to talk to Garrett or why Hanna would want to visit Mona- I find it harder to understand why Hanna's friends have to push her into it, and why everyone is so shocked she would go.

I don't think finding eye drops is a very good indicator that a formerly blind person can see...she lost her vision due to a fire, and that could damage all kinds of things, including the ducts that moisturize your eyeballs...and the skin and hair around your face. I know Jenna is supposed to be able to see right now, this was just a flimsy trail.

I really don't feel like Aria owes Meredith an apology, and I can't put my finger on why. I don't think she necessarily did the right thing, but I also don't know what else to expect from a teenager under these circumstances. She felt like she had to keep the secret or her family would fall apart and, as a kid, what power did she really have? It's understandable that she wanted to make sure the affair was over. The only person who may have owed Meredith an apology was Byron, himself; he regretted the things he said to her and whatever he said to her was his responsibility. Meredith owes Aria an apology for continuing to see her father even after she knew he was married with children. I don't know why she's such a thirsty bitch for this crusty old man.

Why did Mona fake this catatonic state? Like what was going on with that?

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S3, E1

"It Happened"

They really like starting off new seasons with S&M by Rihanna.

Yet another episode I wanted to get toked out for. Job hunts suck.

Don't cemeteries have cameras around?

"Can we make this our anniversary, instead of hers?" -wow, that's super insensitive. A dear friend of mine lost a dear friend to drug use several years ago and to this day will get so depressed around the anniversary of her death that it causes her to miss work. I can't imagine asking someone to strike out their trauma and center me instead. It's so disrespectful. Then again, Emily seems to be the only one affected by this.

One of the last scenes of Toby and Emily we get.

Imagine living in a world where the cops are so efficient they can take you into the station while you're getting ready for dinner and release you with enough time to still make your dinner reservation.

Hanna is pissing me off, in this episode. She spent the last two seasons being a sub-par friend to her, and I don't feel like she ever truly tries to forgive Mona going forward, so this is really just an act..and not even a good one. And it infuriates me, because Mona was literally so desperate for friends it drove her crazy.

This was a good episode. I don't have much to say about it, though.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2 Wrap-Up

Part 2

CW: Reference to teacher/student grooming and SA, the Montgomeries, reference of horrific crimes committed against babies

Okay, so, I might have suggested this before, but I'll say it again anyways. If PLL has to go making the protagonists' families into mini-soaps, I have some ideas that I think would make it a better watch. I would like to see Ezrella play out, and Byron- wallowing in self-pity- stumbles into Ashley Marin's arms; they bond over being separated from their partners or whatever. They develop a romance, we see Byron steamroll over Ashley a few times before he starts crossing boundaries with Hanna and inserting himself in places he shouldn't be, and Ashley finally tells him off. He ends up going to therapy and not making much of an appearance until later. They end up getting divorced and it stays that way, but maybe they could reconcile and become friends later. Meanwhile, on the Ezrella side, Aria is mad into Ezra and he uses this to leverage information from her about Alison's disappearance. I want a couple of scenes where it's blatantly obvious to the audience that he's doing this. Her crush on Ezra could affect her romance with an appropriate suitor (I still like the idea of Shawn/Aria, but Noel could also be a long-standing love interest) or keep her from developing one. Obviously, Ella would find out about the book and kick Ezra's ass out- because in this version of the story, Ella has standards. The showrunners could use the divorce to characterize Aria through her relationship with her brother (I think maybe this was what they were trying to do but it wasn't successful); I desperately want to see some narrative self-awareness on the show that Aria is being parentified and is vulnerable to abuse outside the home. They successfully manage to tell the story of how the systematic emotional abuse of a teenager left her vulnerable to the grooming and predation of an authority figure who pretends to care about her for his own personal gain- Ezra actually very closely matches the predatory teacher personality as documented by the people who study these kinds of things, as does his storyline (the practice of sending teachers to another district after they have been reported for sexual misconduct is a documented phenomenon known as "lemon passing" or "passing the trash"), to the point that I wonder if the writers did it this way as a covert joke on Marlene. However, in spite of the fact that Aria is a textbook victim and Ezra is a textbook predator, the writers seem completely unaware of what they wrote. Aria's family problems and completely inappropriate relationship are always treated like separate, disconnected things; Ezra is supposed to be her "true love" so their relationship isn't even meant to look like a problem that needs a cause and any family problems that are acknowledged aren't handled adequately.

Alright, I have spent far too much time on the Montgomery family, so it's time to move on. I want to talk about how queerness is treated in this show (and most others). This show in particular focuses super heavily on giving their lesbian character an unrealistically robust dating life, even at the expense of her characterization and the story, itself. Emily Fields is a character whose portrayal is designed by a lesbian and acted by a woman who chooses not to label her sexuality and she still reads like a lesbian as written and portrayed by cishets who have no experience in the queer community (except maybe their gay best friend). I'm not saying she's a bad character or even a poor rep, please enjoy my opinion with all the nuance it requires, I'm saying there are things about being queer that aren't directly related to your dating life and would make positive representation. For example, if you're the lone LGBTQ+ in your friend group (*and you usually are not, one friend coming out usually sends a shockwave of friends coming out around you), no matter how good your cishet friends are, you're going to want to find other queer people to share experiences with. Being accepted- even supported and encouraged- doesn't fill the need for a shared community. There's a lot you could do by including queer characters in the story who aren't love interests for Emily (or whatever was going on with Jenna, not to mention CeCe was trans). She is still the first lesbian to come out at her school and her role as a gay rep shouldn't be tied up in having a dating life that goes non-stop. It could have been cool to see the LGBTQ+ of Rosewood through Emily, maybe use her storyline to introduce the audience to some queer issues or represent even more marginalized identities (lesbians absolutely do need to be represented, especially as characters who actually survive the story, but at least anyone you talk to knows what a lesbian is; there are queer identities some people don't even know about, like aromantic and/or asexual, non-binary, gender-noncomforming- this show desperately needs more GNC folks- and although not all intersex people see themselves as queer and should not be forced to take the label, there is room for them in our community if they want to be included). I get that the story isn't meant to be educational, necessarily, but I feel like having an arc where Emily gets involved at that group where she met Samara and gets to know some people and learn more about the community she belongs to would have been a more satisfying watch than most of the filler they put on-screen, and it's not like we never see the other characters with other friends outside the group. We get to see Hanna with Lucas and Aria with Holden. They don't need to be heavy-handed with it, even just having a scene where she uses they/them or even neo-pronouns to refer to someone would be cool. And, being that she's apparently the first gay person to come out at a school where they apparently don't have a support group or alliance, she could very easily end up being someone that the baby queers of Rosewood High go to for advice ("How did you figure it out?" "Do you ever think maybe you should have been a boy?" "What does it feel like to get a crush?" etc). That's something they could do that would increase representation, characterize Emily, and allow them to take a few steps back from putting her in a bunch of meaningless, thoughtless relationships because they felt like they couldn't leave their queer character single for a few episodes. Her storyline and characterization could have benefitted by giving her, and us, time to sit with the trauma and grief of losing both of her first loves the same way in a span of two years. Getting to know some other wlw (specifically) could also help us glean insight into Alison as well.

Speaking of Alison, this season did some very weird stuff with her characterization that somehow goes...nowhere?? They just throw in a bunch of weird stuff she did that seems super disjointed and somehow tells us nothing about her. Why- and how- is she involved in so many relationships? Who is Duncan (to her)? Did he mean anything to her? Why was she taking pictures of Aria while she slept? I want to know more about "Vivian" as a character she made up (*probably with some help from Cece, whom I wish had been introduced by now), I want to know more about her fling with Ian, and they give me "randomly took pictures of Aria, specifically, while she was sleeping." What is this shit? What does it mean? I think they just wanted to throw in something a little creepy and ominous and didn't know what to do with it after to make it a twist (because this story can't just be a story, it has to have a bunch of twists that ultimately add up to nothing) so they decided to attribute it to Alison because she's the one known character no one can ask, right now, and also because she's supposed to be a little mysterious and unpredictable and they figured having her do weird, out of character shit with no hint at her motivation would develop the mystery behind her character. And frankly, I am throwing tomatoes at them.

If any of the characters could have been benefitted by focusing on their family, it's Alison- a character whose backstory we are meant to be interested in by design- because she isn't on screen to develop herself. Strangely, we see very little of them, and almost nothing as it relates to Alison. They develop a little sibling rivalry between Jason and Alison and emphasize it to make him credible as a red herring, but once you figure out that Jason has nothing to do with it, those flashbacks don't amount to much. All siblings have a little rivalry between them. They spend time early in this season on this teenage fashion show Alison was supposed to be really into, they could have done way more with that. I would also like to get a glimpse into Dilaurentis family life, both before and after the disappearance. I'd like to see some sign of the family dynamics that made it possible for Alison to establish a completely different identity in another town and go on flying trips with a teenage pilot. I'd like to see more of Jason getting loaded, or maybe even some drug-related scenes with Alison that could make her a little more complex- like finding and hiding his stash of cocaine and also stealing his alcohol. I also want to see more of what's going on with her parents, I don't even think I've heard her father's name by now. We could get some insight into her character by seeing what's going on with her family, and I desperately want them to show us something "off" with them- especially Jessica, whom we are later supposed to believe is a baby-killing psychopath. Give me something about her that seems insincere, something that seems put-on, something that's cold and callous. Let me hear her talking shit about her dead daughter and drug-addicted son.

Also, let me see Jason and Spencer going head-to-head, because they bring this up like it's common knowledge and it isn't.

I also wish they had done more to develop Alison's relationship with each of the girls. I'm no fan of flashback sequences, especially when there are already so many that you could make a whole season with them- and I don't know if just starting the story that far back in time would work, because we need the context of the disappearance and mystery to be invested in seeing that play out. I guess I wouldn't mind having some flashbacks that occur in the context of one character reminiscing about their friendship- like, making the funeral its own episode or even a two-parter where the characters talk about her, or giving us an episode completely dedicated to the memorial and showing us some scenes there. The stories don't always have to come with dramatic reenactments, though. They could just talk about her with the other members of the group or with other people. Something to give their friendships more depth. So far, I think Emily is the only one whose had flashbacks that show Alison in a genuinely positive light, and that's even debatable because we know Alison was kind of leading Emily on (I'm not sure if that's exactly the right phrase, but I think it works). I want to see more of her complexity realized, and I want to see any social pressures that might have made some of the girls feel obligated to stick it out with a "friend" who was always down to blackmail them for no reason (straight up, usually blackmail is used for leverage or control but this shit gets brought up out of nowhere). I want to see some backing for the phrase "I made you. I made all of you," because that line...I don't know, it definitely has a cheesey daytime drama vibe but part of me thinks it's cool- but it would carry more weight if we got to see it.

Now, last but not least, now that Mona has been unmasked, I want to talk about her diagnosis. First of all, I think giving her a fictitious psychiatric condition is a fantastic idea to avoid further stigmatizing an existing condition (one of the reasons I am thankful that Mona is never explicitly said to be autistic even though she's coded that way- hopefully the people who can pick up on those tendencies in her character won't be as likely to conclude that autistic people are inherently villainous and criminal in real life). However, narratively speaking, it's also a really bold move; your audience doesn't have a real-world context for what you've created, which can damage any empathetic connection we have with the character if not handled adequately. And what did the PLL writers handle adequately? I still go to sleep at night sometimes wondering what the fuck was in that barrel. This is a problem, especially because I don't think Mona is supposed to be the only one of our villains afflicted with it- both Mona and Cece admit to getting "addicted to the game" and Alex apparently came up with the idea to do this very weird and specific thing all on her own. All of their storylines include stalking, both Mona and Alex were replacement stalkers in particular. Alison might have had a variant of it, which would have been cool to explore.

If you're going to create a disorder, you have to create the disorder. Is it genetic? Inherited? Trauma-based? Maybe it's a little-known condition that hasn't gained much traction in the world of psychiatry and hasn't been studied enough to determine the cause. What are the symptoms? What is the onset? I think we could have really benefitted by having an episode focusing on Dr. Sullivan putting the pieces together Criminal Minds-style over the diagnosis, or splicing in some scenes like that in her reveal episode. We could also benefit from spending time in the perspective of these characters- not just seeing what they're doing for a few seconds at the end of an episode, but seeing how this all looks to them.

This mental health diagnosis only seems to exist as-needed for the plot and, to be honest, I don't know what the point of it was. "A state of hyper-reality" isn't even really needed to explain how Mona knew everything that was happening; a lot of what she knew, she learned through Ali's diary, and what she couldn't have learned from there she could probably have learned from her informants- especially since they all have very personal, supposedly secret conversations out loud in very public spaces all the time. She has her own motive. And I really can't imagine setting up something like a fictitious psychiatric condition, you could have a lot of creative freedom with that, and just doing fuck all with it.

It occurs to me now that a lot of what I said may have been repeated, but I'm not too pressed about it. If anything, at least I'm consistent.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2 Wrap-Up

Well, we're here again! I have more to say that fits into a wrap-up post, so here we are. I will probably break this up into a couple of different posts the same way I did the last one.

CW: Book spoilers, show spoilers for all seasons, talk of unaliving, the Montgomeries

The plotline I most want to talk about to open this up is Maya's. I don't know what it is with this show wanting to regurgitate old storylines and presenting them to us with less care than the original. I like Maya as a character, as well as Mayaly- and the way they removed her from the main plot is so similar to the original storyline it's distracting. When I watched the first time, I remember trying to connect them- because what are the odds that to teenage girls around the same age, who both lived in the same house and caught feelings for the same girl, would go missing and die in a span of two years under unrelated circumstances? Why even show us this if they weren't connected? They emphasize so much how Maya kept finding Alison's stuff- could she have found something she shouldn't? But no, it's just a bizarre, unbelievable coincidence. I can't understand for the life of me why they did it this way. Even if I accepted that Maya needed to be killed off- which I don't- there are other ways to accomplish that. A freak bus accident. She could have unalived herself in the panic over having to go to True North again. Running away to California would have been a fine exit. They didn't have to kill her. She could have broken up with Emily because she figured out Emily was still in love with Alison and never got over her or because she couldn't get over Pam sending her off like that. I would have loved to see Alison and Maya interact.

Noteworthy about the books- Maya broke up with Emily because Emily cheated on her. I understand that the TV show writers were going for a less morally complicated version of Emily, I'm just mentioning it because following the cannon would not have required them to kill her off. If they were going to kill her off, that should have been integrated into the main plot somehow.

Incoming rant about the Montgomery Family:

Season 2, we get way too much of the Montgomery Family Drama. In fact, the writers fell so in love with their storyline they decided to re-use it for Hanna. As a writer, myself, I'm not trying to be an "every letter written needs to propel the story forward" person; character development scenes that are a little slower, without much action going on, can be vital in getting the audience invested in the character and invested in the story's conflicts. The problem is, the characters who get the development in these scenes aren't the characters who are involved in the central story- they're the characters we have a vested interest in keeping separate from the central storyline; we want to keep them clueless to the protagonists' shenanigans. Even knowing that Byron eventually becomes a red herring doesn't give any weight to his presence. They don't need to obsess over Aria's family this much to lay the groundwork for other conflicts. I don't even know why they did it, maybe they thought they could characterize Aria through the people around her, but there are way too many scenes where Aria isn't even on screen with them to be characterized by her reactions and interactions.

Another issue is that not a single member of the Montgomery family is likeable. Byron is a miserable, low-life, cheating piece of shit man who abused his authority over a university student and then asked his teenage daughter to cover it up and paid off her friend to keep it a secret. His lack of insight runs so deep that he can't even draw the parallels between himself and Ezra, and it never seems like he feels any genuine remorse over what he did, he was sorry that he got caught and that there were consequences for his actions. It's obvious that he expects to be the center of attention, he never compromises and he feels entitled to what ever he wants at all times. All of his scenes are deeply unpleasant.

Ella, I almost like. She's the one with the least drama, usually the first to try to be reasonable and tries to mediate between her husband and her kids. Her major flaw is that she completely loses her perspective when it comes to Byron. I don't see nearly enough effort to hold him accountable for what he did to the kids and while she has the most insight into how said kids are feeling, it's not nearly enough. Her husband is so toxic and so deeply unlikeable that her efforts to defend him- especially to Aria- push her into "intolerable" territory. I don't understand how she can be so outraged with Ezra and so forgiving with Byron when they both essentially did the same thing.

And, lastly, Mike. I have absolutely no idea what we're supposed to get out of his storyline, they give us a few storylines that are supposed to be "concluded" (I guess) with him getting therapy and medication, but it didn't really add anything. It was a clumsy plotline I'm frankly not invested in. He isn't an important enough character to warrant this much screen time; when he is there, he's treated as little more than an object for other people to squabble over. His whole personality is basically "do a bad so everyone else can be upset." What the hell did him being depressed have to do with breaking and entering? They never tie this up.

I have been wracking my brain to come up with something that would make The Montgomery Family Drama tolerable to have on screen. We see the other characters' families, sure, but not enough of them to make their own spin-off. We see the others' family members when they have something to contribute- they're a suspect, they're adding another layer to the mystery, they're causing tension for the protagonists. We see the Montgomeries when the writers need to kill time and don't know what else to do. What if we spent this much time on characters who were just plot-adjacent? What if they dedicated an end-credits saga of Paige coming out? It would make about as much sense and I don't think anyone would be bothered to watch it. Did Holly Marie Combs and Chad Lowe have iron-clad contracts that they need a mini soap-opera worth of time to be on screen? Anyways, this ranting is getting kind of unproductive, so moving on-

If you're going to spend this much time on characters who are adjacent to the plot, it needs to be purposeful. I think that idea I had for an Ezrella match could have made for an interesting watch, it would at least have added some level of intrigue and thrown a much-needed wrench into the status quo. Watching Byron be a terrible husband and father gets really old, really fast. Ella choosing to repair her relationship with him when it is blatantly toxic and abusive makes her confusing and unsympathetic; it makes me wonder how much she really cares for Aria. How do you go back to a person who used your daughter like that? Is "deal-breaker" not in your vocabulary? If someone treated my cat half as bad as Byron treats their kids, I would kick them out.

This sentiment might give me away as a nostalgic 90's kid but I was a huge fan of Charmed and I was so excited to see Holly Marie Combs in something else, it is so depressing that I just can't like her character in this- at least as she's written in these early seasons.

If they couldn't make The Montgomery Family Drama relevant to the plot, they could have at least told us a story- maybe give us something about men's mental health. They brought up Ella's ignorance about psychotropics, they could have debunked it. Byron has obvious anger and control issues, I mean Ella really should have at least insisted on couples counseling before trying to make it work with him again. The only character who really becomes a better person through this arc is Mike, and all of that happens off-screen. They hardly bother to put him on-screen when he's doing anything but providing ammo for an argument. I watch Byron steamroll right over Ella time and time again, watch her try to mediate between her husband and her kids, and I wonder- what is the point?? Because they never reach the conclusion that this upbringing was horrible and traumatic, and made Aria a prime target for grooming and other forms of relational trauma. They don't even reach the conclusion that this is a shit marriage. There's nothing cohesive enough to call it "the point.".

Finally, if you want to characterize Aria by showing us her family, she should be on-screen to react and interact with them. I can't speak for anyone else, maybe this worked for you, but I didn't feel more connected to Aria's character by watching her parents fight over her brother in front of the police station. Or over Mike taking medication. Or even the background conversations they have about Ezra. It's like the writers are just so bored with Aria when she isn't in an Ezria scene that whenever she has a scene away from him they just play a game of hot potato to see what other member of her family they'd rather write for.

On the topic of protagonists' families, is there a reason they all have to suck? The only half-way decent parent in this show is Wayne Fields, and the showrunners make damn sure he has no impact on the story. We get several episodes of Pam being a homophobe, Peter and Byron are adult toddlers who spend most of their time being volatile and destructive, Veronica and Ella are soggy egg-noodles of women whose main personality trait is "staying with my awful husband for no obvious reason," Ashley is impulsive and selfish and not very bright, and Tom is a fucking deadbeat loser. The Hastings family is the only one where it seems intentional and actually tells a story, so I don't feel like having them on my screen is a waste of time. And I can't tell if the writers are aware of how terrible all the parents are. Here's a question, for all the showrunners portraying child abuse to an audience of children; if all the parents are is drama and conflict,would it kill you to write a story where cutting off your parent(s) is the right thing to do?

I still have some to say about what I would have liked to see with the Montgomery family, but this post is so long already I don't think anyone will read it. I hope to have it up within the next couple of days.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E25

"Unmasked"

Why is Aria eating icecream but no one else has any? What time of day is it supposed to be? I thought it was supposed to be some time in the morning. I feel like I missed something and it's only the opener. Also, not that this matters because the writers didn't really try that hard to keep Aria's dietary choices consistent, but neither icecream nor frozen yogurt is traditionally vegan-friendly.

Mona, I am begging you, make friends who are genuinely interested in you.

What was that hint at Ezria's sex life supposed to do for me?

Okay, no one in the history of hotels has ever asked a potential guest if they are going to check in by knocking on the car window.

Vivian Darkbloom and Mary Smith. I would have better believed her name was "Jane Doe," although how cool would it be if she had checked herself in as "Mary Drake?" 😎

So sad for Emily with this whole Maya business.

"No matter how hard I try, I just can't stay away from you"- *sigh*

They really tried to give us Alfred Hitchcock in this episode the whole way through.

I love Paige in this tuxedo get-up. I wish we had more GNC characters on this show. How can this show claim to be about fashion and yet deny me my double-denim lesbians? My lumberjack wlw? Where is the plaid??? I want queer men in halter tops. You made me watch a show about a bunch of upper middle class teens and none of them show up to prom in a swanky, androgynous full-body suit? Give me custom looks. Give me hot girls in binders and cute boys in poodle skirts.

This reveal episode makes me wonder what would have happened if they had gone ahead and assimilated Mona into the group during the course of the show.

Dr. Sulivan being a better parent to Hanna than either of Hanna's actual parents.

As much as I enjoy the "Psycho" references this episode, I know some fans interpreted it as Mona having DID. I did for a little while, and I have seen other fans use it in PLL conversations. I'm actually not really sure what they were trying to imply, with doing the scene this way; it may not have meant anything.

Do I have to say that I really don't like what they did with Maya's storyline?

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E24

"If These Dolls Could Talk"

How does Alison know Spencer just found out about Jason? She's also talking to Spencer like she doesn't know they think she's dead. Why is Spencer talking to her like they don't think she's dead??? Just a casual update in the middle of the night.

These characters must have some very odd sleep tendencies if they can't tell for sure if they woke up in the middle of the night...that was a very lucid and clear conversation to be having at a time when your dream/reality barrier is blurred. I think it might be a common phenomenon for people with ADHD to confuse their dreams with reality- I certainly do, from time to time- and Spencer does canonically have ADHD. I wish "a fuzzy dream-life barrier" was established with her character before now.

Did this phone not have a "silent" mode?

Wait a second...Alison referred to herself as "A.D"??? I really want to believe something more interesting happened, here.

I wonder what this show would have been like if they hadn't stuck to making Jenna an antagonist so hard. These writers in particular would have fumbled it and made it an excruciatingly hard watch, but if they had been competent with the story, I think I would better buy Jenna as a wild-card anti-hero whose storylines tend to overlap with the Liars' and whose decisions can be helpful, harmful, or neutral to the protagonist's goals than Mona. I think they meant for Mona to be the ambiguous, morally gray "frenemy" who makes unpredictable decisions but they didn't do enough with it. Mona is criminally obsessed with being a member of the clique, whereas Jenna would be completely detached from it. It could have added something, in my opinion.

There is no reason for this random, creepy child at the doll store.

This child has surprisingly vivid memories about a weirdly specific thing that happened a year ago. That's pretty sus. A psychic child I would buy. I love that this city is close enough that a bunch of teenagers can easily go there after school but far enough away that Alison just had a completely different identity there.

The way these characters go about trying to get answers really baffles me, sometimes. Melissa was looking for Ian using "she/her" pronouns? Why would Spencer show that to her and then threaten to involve the police? There's no subtlety at all. If they aren't shoving videos in peoples' faces, they're breaking into houses.

Oh my god, the amount of guilt-tripping Ella's trying to do to Aria for calling out her father for something he actually, reasonably did. Poor, poor Byron- being shut up for once in his fucking life! This selfish fucking hothead needs to learn to shut his fucking trap more. They don't take into account how their family was affected by this trauma at all.

"He knew how she died! That was never in the paper!" I'm still pretty sure that was aired on the news, just before it was announced that there may be a killer at large in Rosewood and no one reacted to this news at all.

Man, this doll imagery is fucking epic. This show could have been an awesome YA horror/thriller.

"You're not gonna break up your family to keep us together" so keeping her family together is her job, again?

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

Non-Rewatch Related/Personal Update:

Another long hiatus! These stretches between posts may become more frequent as I'm hoping to be offered a second job soon and won't have as much time to watch and make commentary for a while. I know that may lose me some followers and some interest, but unfortunately it can't be helped.

I just wanted to explain that I have been offline for a while because my sister had her baby three weeks ago! I am now a very proud auncle to a child who is very, very strong and very, very smart. It has also been an adjustment.

I finished season 2 tonight, and will type up the last couple of episodes soon. Thanks to everyone who is still following me or who joined during my offline period.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E23

"Eye of the Beholder"

CW: Book spoilers

I see more of the "Aria is 'A'" theory, in this episode. I always hated the theory, probably because I don't like Aria, but also because she is literally on screen so fucking much that the plot of the actual story can't move forward. She's too busy making out with Ezra or fighting with her parents to be "A."

"If only we could harness Mona's sense of entitlement, we could light the Eastern Seaboard"- I don't see how Mona's being entitled, here. This was a beloved and memed quote back in the day but what is she taking about?

I guess Alison trusted Duncan if she gave him her real name. Also, this dude had it bad for her. I really wish he had been a bigger part of the story, because his intro here set him up to be a really interesting character. This random guy who obviously cared about her a lot, and apparently to whom she talked so much about her friends that he could identify them. I remember thinking he might have some connection to the Charles DiLaurentis plotline- he does bare a striking resemblance to the family- but no. They just throw him in here to give us something to do and make it look like they're actually going to tell us a cohesive story that will all make sense together. They build him up then let us down. Just what happens when they run out of pre-existing cannon characters to make suspicious and it hasn't been long enough to re-use any of their still-viable red herrings.

I also wish Maya's disappearance was bettet worked into the story. It ends up being it's own random side mystery with no connection to anything, which makes the story more confusing, even if temporarily. It ends up looking like the actress wasn't going to stay on-board for the whole thing and they forgot to write an ending for her until the last possible minute. It seems so rushed and half-assed I don't think they gave it any thought at all. I do realize that Emily's relationships have to have an expiration date if they want to make Emison endgame, and death is usually the default ending when they don't want to villainize either of the characters, but there were things they could have done besides inserting a second "stalker" storyline. I might not be so upset about them deciding to end her life if it at least felt thoughtful. Fun fact: according to the fan wiki, Maya breaks up with Emily because Emily cheated on her.

Does it need to be said that I hate how easy it is to tell whom the writers want us to like in this story based on how they react to Ezria? The Liars have virtually no problem with it besides extremely brief shock- not because they're still highly impressionable teens who are weirdly familiar with "Lolita" but may not understand how it's supposed to be read- rather, because they're the protagonists and we're not supposed to have any complicated feelings about them. Noel? Jackie? Villains, because they were against it. We're supposed to like Ella (I guess) so she has to come around to it. There's no nuance to it at all, the show doesn't even give any credit to the opposite viewpoint.

The more Ezra and Ella interact, the more I wish Ezrella had been a thing.

You can get a pilot's license at 16???

The man who fucked one of his university students, asked his daughter to help him cover it up, and fucked up every last one of them with trauma beyond belief has no room to be accusing someone else of wrecking his family. Was the point of this just to make me hate Byron so much I would want Ezria to go on out of pure spite?

Can literally any of the PLL parents stop being annoying. Mrs. Hastings is going to give me an aneurism.

Jenna Marshall is personally cursed to be in every burning building.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E22

"Father Knows Best"

I am missing half or more of my notes on this episode, and as a result this post is going to be extremely short. I came back to the last episode I was on to get back into the swing of things and found myself over half the way through, but I thought it was important to just get this one completed and put it out there and get back into this.

In case anyone is concerned, I have been pre-occupied...I live with my sister and her boyfriend; my sister is pregnant, and in the last trimester her pregnancy has become high-risk. She could have the baby any day and we're crossing our fingers that she makes it to her 37th week, but there's a lot of work to be done to prepare.

Without further ado, here are the few sentences I had to say about the last twenty minutes of this episode.

I love Wayne Fields. He's the only decent parent and likeable dad on this show. I get really tired of watching Byron and Peter being in a perpetual pissing contest to see which of them is the most self-important jackass. Wayne shows up for his family, and actually reminds me a lot of how my dad used to be.

"Can we not discuss this, here?"- Spencer, you brought it up here.

I like the creepy doll imagery. It makes me wonder what this show could have been like as a horror.

An interesting idea- maybe the "Vivian Darkbloom" character was supposed to look like Aria. Maybe that's why Alison took so many pictures of her, sleeping? To figure out how to do her makeup to make her face look more like hers? Thematically, it would make sense to model a character named as an anagram of the writer of a crime novel after one of the characters who most closely resembles the victim of said crime in terms of plot. The child being preyed upon by an older man. Chronologically, it doesn't make sense because Aria doesn't even meet Ezra in the bar until a long time after those pics were taken, so I don't think it was Alison's motive- just something the writers did.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E21

"Breaking the Code"

Hanna is also time-blind, another feature of ADHD

Why don't they tell Jonah "Vivian" went missing? They could even explain that they haven't heard from her in a long time.

I think I'm one of an extremely small group of fans who don't hate Paige, but I really don't like how they did this whole relationship thing with Emily. It feels really disrespectful the way they start setting this up, like Paige is just here to make sure Emily isn't single for too long.

The red herrings, I remember being exhausted and annoyed the first time around, the second time isn't much better.

Mona setting herself up as another one of "A"'s victims is...thought-provoking.

Oh, good, more Spencer/Wren...okay.

It's infuriating how the girls are never nice to Mona until they think she's getting text messages from "A," too.

Why don't the Montgomery parents understand when they need to give their kids space? Like, I don't want to talk about what's bothering me in the throes of the turmoil, either.

Poor Emily. Damn.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E20

"CTRL: A"

Aria is so concerned over Holden's bruise, I wish the "twist" could have been that he was in a BDSM dungeon or something. I hear those riding crops leave wicked bruises.

I should be honest and say that I decided to watch this episode for enjoyment and figured I'd remember what I wanted to comment on- but it's so similar to E19 in terms of characters and setting I'm getting what I remember of both confused.

"Pretty Little Liars" alternative titles: "Peter Hastings Should Have Kept It In His Pants"

Is this how martial arts training works? It kinda looks like a bunch of kids just doing their own thing while some announcer guy just mumbles inaudibly over the speaker.

Aria is such a fucking hypocrite. This kind of shit makes me hate her.

Also, did the writers just make a comparison between what Aria is doing with Ezra and learning martial arts when you have a condition that could kill you?

Alison and Maya paralells...trying to get Emily to run away with them. This conversation was directly framed to emphasize the similarities.

The "Hefty" file

The Montgomeries being like "It's getting hard to stalk you while you're up in Philly" fucking shut up. I have seen way too much of this family, and for no reason.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

Just a random post

With spoilers. You have been warned.

So, I watched the next episode in my queu today during my break at work. I didn't have much to say about it, and I'll probably have to rewatch it with a clear head later, but I thought I'd throw out some random thoughts I sometimes have while doing this.

You other fans ever wonder what the show would have been like if it had been any other character to go missing besides Alison? Completely hypothetically, of course; I'm not sure if the show could have drummed up quite as much intrigue over any of the other protagonists as they were actually written. But sometimes I wish we could have gotten to see Alison getting involved in the detective work. She might have had a push/pull effect, in that she would be the one constantly pushing and driving them forward (push) while still struggling to hang on to whatever secrets she had between her and whichever friend went missing (pull). Having her be present to watch the other girls find out about the things she was hiding could be cool. Depending on who else was left, this could leave her in a revolving wheel around the group- at times, teaming up with them, and at other times going solo.

Specifically, I think my favorite idea would be for Emily to go missing- if for no other reason than the romance. I would have loved to watch the other girls slowly figure out that Alison was harboring a mutual crush on Emily. I would like to think that Hanna would figure it out first, but she was no closer to figuring out Emily's sexuality before she came out than any of the other girls, so what I imagine more is...maybe "A" revealing it to them somehow.

Spencer could have been an interesting one, too, for two reasons: one, being that she's the most academically inclined and has the most ties to the law and law enforcement, someone else would have to fill that role (Alison? Hanna?), and two, for all of their family connections. What if Alex had just kidnapped Spencer right at the start?

There's a lot of ways this story could have gone, if you think about it.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E19

"The Naked Truth"

There's no way this photo was taken without Kate's knowledge or consent. First of all, who just goes around naked in the locker room when no one else is in there? This picture has to be staged. There isn't even anyone in the background. She's obviously posing, completely at ease. She didn't even try to pretend she was stunned or upset, or to cover up with anything. They didn't even check on the details, like the date or time of day? Whether or not Hanna had an alibi? If we're assuming this picture was taken during class, they need to talk to the teacher too.

Why did Hanna have, like, the entire student body on her phone? I get that she's supposed to be popular, but she doesn't seem to have all this...excessive familiarity with people.

Starting to really hate Ashley Marin.

This principal is way the fuck out of line. Emily never had his name in her mouth, and even if she had committed a crime, since when is the school legally authorized to punish her? She did her time- completed her community service program- what is she supposed to do? How long should she be punished by not being able to do things she enjoys? Second, he fucking asked her to be here, one way or another; he said he wanted them to come be truthful. He doesn't get to decide that her truth is an "attack" on him. This is the exact reason people resort to dishonesty; you say you want my truth, but you're going to punish me if my words aren't your words. You don't want to hear my thoughts. You want to hear your thoughts coming out of my mouth.

Not to mention, the girls were only charged with this crime because Rosewood PD was either too stupid or too lazy to look into the question of how a group of girls gained access to evidence that should have been in police custody. Are they not at all concerned that this happened? Either a teenager figured out how to break in to a police department and steal critical evidence for a murder case completely undetected, or a police officer is taking evidence out (probably unauthorized) and using it to frame a bunch of kids for a crime they had no way of committing in the first place. They just said "This is fine." If I were Veronica, I would have demanded to see how that evidence made it into their hands before settling on a charge.

And I want to clarify that I would understand it if Emily had been convicted of a violent crime, especially if there were good chances of her re-offending, or if she committed some crime that would affect other members of the team- like stealing peoples' wallets or cell phones. But like...she touched a shovel. Her crime was literally just touching an object. Tamborelli can go suck a fat one.

Emily, so far, is the only one who's apologized to Mona for how they treated her, and I don't even remember seeing Emily present for those bullying scenes. I wish there were more moments of accountability like this on the show.

"Remind me again why we volunteered to do this"- because they didn't want to hire any other actors for these roles.

This is probably the episode where Mona became one of my favorites.

How did Alison come to the conclusion that 220 women wanted to change Armin Miewes' extreme sexual fetish? First of all, I think he was gay- second, he was on a deep web forum exclusively for cannibals. This is what happens when you skim the headlines and don't read the articles.

Can the school legally keep all these kids overnight?

When your friend's mom is a lawyer and you still have to rely on a teenager to get you back on the team.

Mona deserved better friends than these girls. I'm sorry, but she did.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E18

"A Kiss Before Lying"

How are you telling me Caleb can blow up this garbage graphic to get a detailed photo of "Alison's" fake ID/driver's license? I don't even think they can do this in law enforcement.

"Why would Ali need an ID that didn't even look like her?"- looked like her enough for you to identify her in half a second.

"We just have to generate more heat"- girl, can you not grab his face while he's driving???

Ashley cares about nothing except how she looks.

This is a very cute Mayaly scene, but I think Emily is a little insensitive to how Pam's homophobia also affected Maya.

"Because, based on how you treated Hanna, everyone's gonna see how ugly you are without any help from me" ahh! Yes, this is precisely why Spencer was so many fans' favorite!

Why does Aria act like hanging out with Holden is weird? Aren't they childhood friends? They haven't seen each other for a while. If I were to meet up with a childhood friend I haven't seen in a few years I would be hyped to hang out with them.

I really don't understand why Maya was made out to be "in the wrong" for this stupid weed joke. Pam went through her personal belongings without permission to find anything she could to justify her homophobic rampage so she could split the two of them up, went behind her back to report it to her parents- people she didn't even fucking know- and got Maya sent off to some religion-based rehab for months. By the time she got back, she may have been behind in school, her family ended up moving again, she has to go to a different school, now, and the boy she hooked up with while she was away became her stalker. It's clear that this was a traumatic experience for her based on how she reacts when she's thinking her parents might send her off there, again. And now that I've been exposed to weed, I have no idea how Maya kept it a secret from her parents- especially if she was smoking in the house. That stuff has a potent, noticeable smell. Anyways, Pam owed Maya an apology just as much as she owed Emily one. Em got one, Maya didn't. Emily thinks that just because her relationship with her mom was repaired while Maya was away that Maya's relationship with her should be made a blank slate and that's not how this works. The correct response would have been for Pam to say something like "I was way out of line, and I'm sorry. I would like a chance to honestly get to know you," not for Emily to be mad. It would be forgivable for a teenager to think like this, except that the narrative validates it.

If Hanna makes a habit of going through people's photos without permission, she's going to see stuff she really doesn't want to. What if Spencer had an OnlyFans?

I hate Byron more every time his bitch ass is on-screen.

Hanna is the one who's out of line on this whole flashdrive thing. I'm sorry, but this situation involved everyone- not just her- and she had no right to try to make that decision without consulting them.

Garrett stopping Caleb like that is complete abuse of police authority.

"Darkbloom" is no one's fucking last name. They just call her that like it's totally normal.

And where the fuck is this place? Ali seemed pretty shocked that someone she knew would see her here, but why would Hanna go a super long distance to get her hair done? Why are they treating the wig like it's Alison's actual hair- or was the wig part of...whatever she was having done?

I had a pretty thorough analysis of Alison's personality way back when, I feel like this monologue about how she gets tired of being herself was definitely part of it. This was a concerning interaction. I am also super curious to know about this "Vivian Darkbloom" character- why was she made? Just as a separate identity to Alison? What was her personality? I guess I'm supposed to infer that Alison was using an alias to track down the person who was stalking her and her response to Hanna might have just been a lie, but this doesn't at all seem out of character for her. She spends a lot of time in the flashbacks lying about who she is, and then says something to the effect of "If you can't believe your own lies, what's the point?". It sounds an awful lot like Alison DiLaurentis didn't like herself very much.

Did none of the adults in her life notice she was doing this? To be fair, I have known some young kids to do similar things and kind of experiment with themselves, so maybe it isn't super weird.

I feel like there's a subplot in here about "Lolita" and a story full of underaged girls being in completely inappropriate relationships with older men- especially Alison. Not to harp on it too much, but "Lolita" was meant to be read as a crime novel, and some humans somewhere read this book and found a fire romance story. The glorification of child predation...they drop it in here so casually, are there a lot of teens in this day and age reading "Lolita?" Like enough that someone who's never read it would have memorized the cover? I don't even remember hearing that it was a book until I was eighteen, maybe seventeen, and I don't think any of my friends read it. I was familiar with the term from anime, but I thought it was a Japanese word. I guess I didn't ask a lot of questions about it. For the record, I have heard nothing positive about the impact of this book. I wonder if them dropping this book in here like this is their way of paying homage to a book that provided inspiration for this story.

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E17

"The Blond Leading the Blind"

Toby and Emily used to have such a great friendship and there's nothing left of it just because he started dating Spencer. Whhhyyy.

Holden was genuinely interested in Aria when he asked her out...I do love the idea of queer tension in his martial arts. He could be demisexual (ace-spec), bi- or pan- romantic. Yeah! But, also, can we talk about how they all assume he's gay because he's never tried to kiss Aria without her consent? Did we really just say "all wlw get in Emily's car without asking- all straight men to Aria's car!"? Trying to kiss Aria is now the hetero rite of passage.

Is he supposed to be canonically gay, though?

Why is Garrett making so much conversation with Caleb? Do they even know each other?

Mona has every right to be mad at Hanna. Like, she really could have gone and made way better friends if she didn't spend so much time obsessing over this group. Straight up, Hanna always has time to show up for the other girls' issues- like, physically walk up to their houses in the middle of the fucking night- but she can't return Mona's phone calls while she's going through a breakup? Not to mention the so-called friends Hanna keeps showing up for largely stood by while Alison bullied and ostracized her and they don't do much at all to address that. It comes off like Hanna was probably friends with this girl squad because she felt like she was under pressure to be popular.

Why is Wren being so flirty with Spencer in the hospital?

"Jenna would kill and eat her own mother to get back at us"

For someone who regrets SA-ing Toby, Jenna sure keeps acting predatory with him every chance she gets.

Is Ezra even a good teacher? So far, the people doing the most raving about him have been students who were really into him. He seems to give his male students an especially hard time. This college student is trying to get constructive criticism on his work, and Ezra is just dunking on him because "it's not realistic." Let me side-step how unrealistic his whole life is, right now. When a teacher in an English class gives you a creative writing assignment, isn't it usually based on some school assignment or module you're teaching? Like "write a poem similar to Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven'" or "Reimagine this scene between Hamlet and Ophelia?" Ezra sure hands out a lot of creative writing assignments for a teacher who doesn't even teach creative writing. What was the prompt? Did he specify that "gritty realism" was an inherent piece of whatever assignment he handed out, or does he just like kicking other men in the balls? Because if this guy didn't understand the assignment, that's constructive criticism for him as a teacher.

I get that his inability to enjoy the wistful romance is supposed to be an indication of his mood or whatever having to separate from Aria but all they've shown me successfully is that he cannot demonstrate any teaching or leadership skills, or any objectivity, unless his romance life is going perfectly. Maybe Byron was right about him being mediocre. Why am I supposed to see this man as such an amazing teacher? And I feel like it's a huge red flag that he's specifically like this with men, I just can't put my finger on it.

Are Aria's parents really going to be okay picking their daughter up drenched from the rain?

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E16

"Let The Water Hold Me Down"

I really don't consider the destruction of inanimate objects to be on the same psychological level of, like, committing a murder, at least not in this context.

Why would they wait until morning to come investigate the lake, under these circumstances? They really just said "Hope this teenage kid makes it to sunrise." Why does emergency services have a closing time? I understand why they may not have been able to do some things, but I feel like swimming or even rowing out there with waterproof flashlights isn't out of the question, especially not when you're talking about a kid.

Spencer should know she doesn't get to make statements like "You're cute and he likes you" without setting up a new ship, even a casual one. The brainiac and the artist. I would love to see it.

Maya really did deserve more.

It strikes me as odd that the daughter of a lawyer doesn't know how strict HIPAA protocol is.

Why does Spencer have more natural chemistry with this random blind boy than literally any of her in-cannon couplings so far?

The interaction between Spencer and Mona was kind of sweet.

What is with the high school boys of Rosewood showing up in places they don't belong- and in the creepiest fucking ways??? Toby shows up in the back seat of Emily's car, now Lucas shows up in Hanna's house. No one is nearly as upset about these things as they should be.

Why is it always the Chinese food "A" keeps fucking with?