More Questions Than "A"nswers

Let's start this post off on the right track, shall we?

There we go.
Now, obviously if you're Anti-Spoilers, then stop reading now. We'll miss you.
I'm going to discuss Pretty Little Liars and Ravenswood all the way up to the shows that aired this past Tuesday night, January 14th. I'm warning you, I'm warning you.
Last chance.
Click away now or forever hold your peace..





Well HELLO everyone else. Let's jump right in to it because I have a lot to cover.

Pretty Little Liars

 Things I'm Loving:

• The Ezra storyline. I know that it's about 50/50 with fans who like it and fans who don't. I LOVE it. I think Ezra as a character was getting incredibly boring and I think the Erza/Aria relationship was played out. But now? So obsessed. Revealing Ezra as "A" was a twist I didn't expect (ok, maybe a little) and it broke the hearts of many fans, which made it awesome. I can't wait until we get to dive deeper into the WHY, but for right now I'm loving the twist. 

• That the audience knows something the Liars do not. I always think that this is an interesting way to change up a plot and for the most part through every other season of PLL the audience has only known as much as the Liars have known. This is interesting because now we know something they don't and I love being able to see them get totally played by Ezra while they still don't know it. I know eventually the Liars are going to find out, which brings me to my next bullet point..
• Aria is going to be crushed. Yes that's awful and that's sad and it's going to be sad watching her come to grips with the situation. However, THAT makes good television. It's going to be such good drama to watch Aria struggle and watch the rest of the Liars deal with her struggles while also struggling on their own. Good drama right there.
• That Hanna messed around with Aria's little brother. I love that so much and I have no good reason why, I just do. Hopefully this is Step 1 in getting Mike back onto the show since he's been MIA for a while.
• That Mona suspects or knows that Ezra is "A". Oh I love this! I loved, LOVED their little encounter in the winter premiere episode. Mona is 5 kinds of crazy and I find it a little hilarious and incredibly entertaining that Mona figured it out before the Liars.
• That Emily isn't being a pushover anymore. Refreshing. Also, she's had some pretty funny lines that Shay Mitchell delivers totally deadpan and that makes them more funny. I also love that she's not happy Ali is alive. None of the Liars seem particularly pumped, but she definitely seems more upset than the rest and it's an interesting storyline. Emily was getting boring, so I'm glad we're spicing her up.
• Spencer. She's just so.. snotty. And bitchy. She's been so bitchy lately! I like it! I think Spencer has many more secrets that haven't been revealed. I don't have any solid proof, but I feel it. I also really like Spencer and Toby and their scenes are always good. I love Troian and I think she's got some mad acting skills.
• Hanna's new friend Travis. Yes. Don't get me wrong, I heart Haleb, but oh man.. I love this Travis kid! I love that we're bringing in a new character who isn't in the middle of "A" world, but just on the outskirts.
• Ali is alive. I think it was also an interesting plot twist to have Ali be alive this whole time and now the Liars know it. Also, bravo to I. Marlene King for throwing that on us in the same episode as Ezra being "A". Two major plot twists in one episode, nice. I like that she's alive because it adds a new mystery to all of the ridiculous shit that happened the previous 3 seasons. 

Things I'm NOT Loving:

• Pretty much anything to do with Spencer's dad. I don't know why but anything to do with him in the storyline bores me so much. The only thing I've ever liked that involved her dad was when it was revealed that Spencer and Jason were half siblings. That's interesting, but otherwise he just annoys me every time he comes onto the screen.
• CeCe.. Just.. Stop. Everything about this character bothers me because I don't feel like the writers ever gave me a reason to care about that character. I mean, the redcoat thing sure, but now that we know Ali is alive, that feels like a stupid. 
• That Jason is MIA. Seriously, where is Jason? If it turns out that he's dead I'm going to kill a bitch. Or maybe kill "A", bitch. #grammarsaveslives
• Melissa. If you want me to give two shits about Spencer's sister, then make me care! I just really don't care. Apparently she's now in London with Wren? And I totally don't care at all. They keep trying to make fetch Melissa happen and she's not going to happen. 
• General storyline plot holes. I think that there are many. I think that PLL has always had many plot holes and I think I. Marlene King and the rest of the writers try to pass those holes off as "secrets" and things that just haven't been revealed, but do you know what they actually are? Plot holes.
• That the Liars are even still looking for Ali. I feel like it's pretty much been established that Ali was a super bitch and for the first few seasons when Ali was "dead" it made sense that the Liars were looking for Ali's killer and that was their quest. Okay. Now? We know Ali is alive and so do the Liars. Emily clearly has issues with Ali and so does Hanna. Honestly, it seemed like most of the girls kind of wanted her to stay dead. So, what's the quest now? Clearly Ali is communicating to the girls and is able to just go around wherever she wants, so why are they "looking" for her? I just.. There's no motivation there that makes sense and if the writers don't come up with a reason to make the audience care, then the whole show is going to fall apart.

• The number of storylines. So many. There are so many and they're all impossible to keep up with. This is probably because they are so underdeveloped because there are so many. See what I'm getting at here? It's piss poor writing. I need the writers to make me care, to give me a reason to care about a storyline. The show drives me crazy so often because it'll begin to weave a complicated storyline and then just drop it. Occasionally to be picked up again 13 episodes later, but by then I neither care nor remember what the heck is going on. A few really good, really solid, really well thought out, really well written storylines would be better.
• The Haleb breakup. So, I fully support Caleb leaving PLL altogether. It had to be done now with Ravenswood in the picture. However, I definitely did not like the way I. Marlene King or whoever wrote him off of PLL. I recognize that it was a tricky situation, but I feel so unsatisfied with the way they left things. It also pisses me off because it's not like they had to rush this writing job. They knew several, several, several scripts ahead of time that Caleb was going to need to be leaving PLL to head to Ravenswood. A slow progression of the demise of Haleb would have been better suited to the show. Instead we got to watch Haleb be better than ever and then breakup. Hanna thinks he cheated on her and he let her think it, but I also sort of think that Hanna doesn't really believe Caleb cheated on her. Their last scene together pretty much told me that. Hanna is just going along with the cheating story. My little theory is that they left things so open between Caleb and Hanna just in case Ravenswood tanks. That way they can bring Caleb back on PLL like nothing happened. 

• That Aria is lying to the Liars about Ezra. I thought it had pretty much been established that when the girls keeps secrets from each other that the situation gets much, much worse. It was again established this week when the rest of the Liars thought Hanna was being shady about the diary. Turns out it was a relatively small secret, but the it had the Liars questioning one another. Aria lying to the Liars frustrates me because there's just no reason for it. Especially now that the audience knows that Ezra is "A", it feels even more annoying. Almost like the writers are trying to drop clues that Aria could be in on it. For the record, I don't think she is, but I do think that the writers are trying to make you question it and a quick Google search just told me that many fans are buying into it. Annoying.

The biggest issue I have with the show at this point is that I. Marlene King over-promises and under-delivers. At the end of every season she tells the audience that we're going to get answers and we don't. She throws more red herrings at us than any other show I've ever watched. It was cute for a while and a little exciting. Now it's annoying. We're heading towards the end of the 4th season and the audience has a lot of questions and very, very few answers. I have a lot of friends who have stopped watching the show simply because they don't care anymore. This is I. Marlene's biggest mistake. 
I will say, that I think with the Ezra reveal and the "Ali is alive" reveal that she's heading a better direction. I'm just not going to get my hopes up.

OH, and if this whole "Ezra is A" thing turns out to be another red herring, I'm done. Seriously, done with the show. I never really believed that Mona was "A" or that Toby was "A". I pretty much figured out right away that those weren't true reveals. This EzrA one? I believe. So if it turns out he's not, I'm done. I might also have to write an angry blog post hate letter to I. Marlene King if that happens.

Ravenswood

 

 Things I'm Loving

• Caleb. Just Caleb being Caleb. Taking charge and taking care of everyone and being adorable and shit.
• Creepy Collins. Oh yea, I like the undertaker guy. I think I like his character because it's been totally painted as this creepy guy with a shit ton (actual measurement) of secrets (i. marlene's m.o.) and unlikeable. However, because they've spent all season so far trying to make him appear this way, I don't buy it. Maybe I've just learned to constantly question I. Marlene King, but I think Collins is probably one of the good guys. Also, he barely has any lines and he just stands there being all.. creepy and I love it.

• Miranda dying right away and Caleb basically living with a ghost. It's hilarious and funny and creepy and it totally shouldn't work, but it does. I love that Caleb and the rest of the gang just chat with her now like it's not a huge deal that they're talking to a ghost. 
• Olivia. I really like her character. 

• That obviously Olivia's "normal" friends and "normal" boyfriend aren't in fact "normal". Clearly something is going on and Olivia and the rest of the gang have no idea and aren't even suspecting it at this point. Another situation where the audience knows something that the characters don't. Makes for some good television.
• Max. Aka the creepy little girl with blonde ringlets and a red coat who likes ice cream. I'm so obsessed with how freaking creepy she is. Her sitting in the back seat eating ice cream and smiling in Episode 6? Possibly my favorite moment of the show, ever. 
• That it's something different. I really do like, especially the further along in the season we're getting, that it has some of the creepy and mysterious elements of PLL that I loved so much in the beginning, but that it's different. The concept for the show is good. I just hope I. Marlene delivers.
• That finally, 7 episodes in, I can tell you what the show is about.

Things I'm NOT Loving:

• That it took 7 episodes before I could tell you what the show was about. I really wanted to like Ravenswood and that's the only reason I kept watching episode after episode. Episode 5 was the first time that I actually enjoyed the show and since then I've enjoyed it more and more. However, if I hadn't forced myself to watch the first 5 episodes, I wouldn't have kept watching. They were killing off main characters and attempting to bring together a group of teenagers and make them friends and also make the audience like a new cast of characters alongside a character most already knew and loved (Caleb). So, I'm just saying I understand that it might have been difficult, but.. I couldn't have even told you what the show was about! I had no idea until episode 5. I think that's a major flaw.

• Remy. I want to like her. I know that the writers clearly want you to like her. She was the first to believe Caleb (again, an established character that the audience already loved) and she's been spearheading most of the main plot line. She also gets a lot of screen time and a lot of screen time alone as the only character. So yea, clearly the writers wants us to like her.. I just don't. I don't really have a good reason for this bullet point, but I just wanted to point out that she's not my favorite.
• That Luke handles every situation with anger. Boring. I don't blame that character for being angry. The kid has had a real rough time lately, but in every single situation now the writers have this character reverting to anger. Almost like he can't play any other emotion. And it bothers me and I think the character could have a lot more depth than that.
• That PLL and RWood feel too connected. I knew this was going to be a problem when the show first was announced. I think spinoffs are good. I watch many and I like many. However, I think it is very, very important that the spinoff can stand alone. While Ravenswood has a totally different concept and is honestly not a thing like Pretty Little Liars (except for all of the dang secrets), because of Caleb still having such a huge connection to PLL, it doesn't feel like it could stand on its own. Someone should be able to watch a spinoff show without having to have already seen the original. For Ravenswood, I don't think that is the case. If someone were watching who hadn't seen PLL, then all of this talk of Hanna and Caleb's dad would be confusing. So much talk of Hanna. So much. It makes sense to PLL fans, but for strictly RWood fans? Why would they care about Hanna? They wouldn't. Again, this goes back to my issue with the way the Haleb relationship ended. 

Overall, I'm liking Ravenswood more and more as the season progresses. It's hard to tell if the show is going to be a total hit or a total bomb yet, but I think the potential is there. I am a little worried that I. Marlene King is going to piss me off though. Over-promises, under-delivers. 


And now I'm done.
This turned into a really long post.
I'm long winded and opinionated.
Whoops.

Oh, if any of you watch Pretty Little Liars AND The Originals, here's a completely hilarious article you should read. I seriously LOL'd.