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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?
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Re: (Cont'd)
Date: 2014-12-02 11:57 am (UTC)And agreed on everything with Ezra and Aria. It's especially frustrating when it seems like a lot of viewers would have been on-board with it? I don't doubt that they have their fans, but on articles for the show I'm reading there seems to be a lot of disgust for Ezra in the readers comments, so I'm wondering how much of it is about fearing audience reaction, or if it's just that the writers themselves romantise that character and don't want to lose the relationship? It reminds me a little bit of Gossip Girl when a lot of the audience were hostile towards Chuck/Blair by the end, they always has that hardcore group of shipper support, but the majority seemed to have soured on them in seasons 4/5. I always felt like it was the writer Stephanie Savage herself who was so into Chuck and so into that couple getting a happy ending, because she herself was romantising the story that she'd been telling. Could that also be a factor with Ezra and Aria maybe? I'm just not feeling all that much support for them from the general audience, although admittedly I've not been that exposed to the fandom
And it confused me a little with Toby actually because at first it was presented as him obviously being A and Spencer feeling very betrayed, then after the fake-out with her believing that he was dead, it just all seemed to shift to her believing that obviously he wasn't the main A and he was just working with them because of ~reasons~. Which made more sense, but then why didn't Spencer address that in the first place when she first found out and confronted Toby, and then why did she just change her mind about him being A for real before even getting his explanation? Like I think it's a little bit open for Toby for not to have been completely sincere there because it was pretty shady the way that he just took off after Spencer found out about him visiting Radley, and then was missing for weeks and leaving Spencer to believe that he was A, like why not just confide in Spencer and secretly work with her from when she first found out what was going on, instead of leaving it until Spencer is a complete mess and ending up in a catatonic state? We never really got that moment of him talking Spencer round, once she believed that Mona had killed him she just seemed to completely change her mind on Toby's motives off her own bat, but there is still a possibility there of him not being all that he seems?
Re: (Cont'd)
Date: 2014-12-04 08:36 am (UTC)Yeah, that's something I was hoping for when I heard Ravenswood was cancelled because his arc there made quite a huge impact on him, something that affected his and Hanna's relationship when he returned briefly in 4B, that to suddenly dismiss it would just make no sense. I'm just happy that they didn't forget about it and his arc got some kind of closure.
Could that also be a factor with Ezra and Aria maybe?
Oh, I have no doubt that's a contributing factor to what is being decided regarding their storyline. The fact that they hardly ever receive any kind of serious consequences of their relationship really shows that kind of romanticizing of unhealthy relationships. Seeing Aria and Ezra get back together after everything that has happened is not only unrealistic, it's completely dismissing development of character. Of course, the producers will handwave it because ~tru luv conquers all obstacles~ kind of messaging (which is exactly the kind of ridiculous cheese their relationship was built on) and it's just stupid, imho.
I'll admit to not really delve that much into the fandom, but from some observation there seems to be quite a large fanbase for their relationship. Why though, I'm not entirely sure, especially what the show has been trying to pull to make them more ~complicated or whatever. But then I'm sure some of those fans are possibly fed up with the show making excuses or bailing out of interesting concepts.
We never really got that moment of him talking Spencer round, once she believed that Mona had killed him she just seemed to completely change her mind on Toby's motives off her own bat, but there is still a possibility there of him not being all that he seems?
This is something that I wished the show had expanded on, because what happened to Spencer was absolutely crucial to her development. She was destroyed, she went through hell, she was emotionally and psychologically damaged (which doesn't make sense when they brought in the whole pill popping thing later and why that couldn't have been a bigger part of her unraveling), and the fact that they just dismissed it and didn't go deeper into that with her and Toby talking about things was really lackluster and anticlimactic. This is something the show lacks of in terms of dealing with the longer affects of what a character goes through.
As far as Toby himself, I don't think there's more to him than what we've seen. I think they tried to make it seem there was something more to him about his reasons why he joined the "A" team, but it turned out to not really do much good. I think this is also part of the show's problem concerning this "big reveals" that turn out to be red-herrings and duds. First with Toby and then with Ezra....making a character go darker and have another ulterior motive for something is not a bad thing. Ezra would have made an intriguing antagonist had they gone through with what was being setup, even if he wasn't "A" they would have continued with the predatory male thing which seems to be a common theme on the show anyway, and it would have raised the stakes and brought something new to the story. Basically, I wish the show was more up on taking those kinds of risks.
Re: (Cont'd)
Date: 2014-12-04 08:28 pm (UTC)And I get the feeling that it was meant to be seen as all just a mislead with Toby I agree, but at the time I thought that it was really weird how he never even attempted to explain to Spencer what was really going on, that he just disappeared for weeks and left his girlfriend feeling absolutely devastated and betrayed. Yes he ultimately confirmed Spencer's suspicions that he'd only been working for A because he wanted to help them from the inside, but he never really gave a reason why he couldn't have let Spencer in on the true story earlier once she had found out about him visiting Mona at Radley. It almost came across like he left Spencer to have a mental breakdown in order to convince Mona that he really was on her team and Spencer had to believe that too, but that seems kind of a cold stance to take from someone that was in love with Spencer... Although incidentally one of my favourite Spencer scenes ever come from that arc when Spencer screams "die" and attacks Mona in response to "Who's looking cray-cray now, Spencer", that was AWESOME
Re: (Cont'd)
Date: 2014-12-05 12:41 pm (UTC)So true.
It almost came across like he left Spencer to have a mental breakdown in order to convince Mona that he really was on her team and Spencer had to believe that too, but that seems kind of a cold stance to take from someone that was in love with Spencer...
I'm torn on the subject, myself. It was quite an effective tactic to be convincing to both the characters and the audience, but at the same time, once Spencer joined in she was able to go under the radar to get in contact with Toby, then it really shouldn't have been a hard task on doing the same thing to explain himself earlier on. I mean, I definitely liked Spencer's arc during that, as painful as it was seeing her go down that road, because I love watching Troian's acting as she spun out of control. But, idk, I felt that in the end everything she went through sort of disappeared in light of the revelation, you know?
But I have to admit, this made me really wish they had extended that storyline a bit more, especially with Spencer being recruited and both she and Toby being on the inside and seeing the goings on and whatnot. That would have been interesting, imo.
Re: (Cont'd)
Date: 2014-12-05 12:51 pm (UTC)And yeah it's a shame that they had Spencer's friends find out about her working with A in the episode immediately after that cliffhanger, I guess that PLL does unfortunately sometimes have that tendency to build up to a really cool revelation, and then backtrack and have it fizzle out