Just Hear Me Out: ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Would Have Been So Much Better If It Ended At Season 2

Pretty Little Liars was, and I can not stress this enough, a cultural reset.

Debuting in 2010, the FOX8 show quickly became one of the most sought out shows for teenagers and adolescents around the world. You just couldn’t escape it. Along with Gossip Girl, this was one of the first TV shows that used phones as a central plot device and let me tell you, the gen-z and millennials could relate. 

But, if you fast-forward a good 7 years, the show came to its inevitable conclusion (sort of). The show’s final season received so much backlash, the Game of Thrones finale was suddenly as good as Breaking Bad’s. Fans were pissed off and the brilliant empire that I.Marlene King had built was shattered to pieces. So, what happened? How did a show with so much potential stray so far away from its core? Well, let’s break it down. 

Pretty Little Liars Would Have Been So Much Better If It Ended At Season 2

The Promising Beginning Of Pretty Little Liars 

The premise of Pretty Little Liars was golden. Five best friends, one of them dies and suddenly almost every secret in their tiny, little town is uncovered? That’s Agatha Christie-level good. Credit must be given to I. Marlene King for her ability to keep us all on our toes guessing who A is, because Lord knows, every single character was a suspect. And that’s genius. 

The Dip In Quality 

But, there came a turning point (I would probably say Season 5, but the choice is up to you), where fans went from being on the edges of their seats and dissecting every clue in the hopes of working out the villain before the show told us, to passively watching the show because we were no longer that interested in the lives of the characters.

Who’s at fault for this? Well, I hate to be the one to say it, but I. Marlene King and her team of Pretty Little writers. 

Breaking Down The Issue

The fundamental issue of Pretty Little Liars was essentially I. Marlene King and the way she wrote the show. Instead of having the entire mystery planned out from the very beginning, King took a more adaptive approach and wrote the season to constantly outsmart the audience. The issue here was that Pretty Little Liars fans were so clever, that they would often work out the plots ahead of time, causing I. Marlene King to pivot.

This ultimately manifested in heaps of abandoned plotlines, a confusing timeline, and an overall dip in the quality of the show.

One day we went from trying to work out who A is, to suddenly trying to comprehend convoluted plots that would be near-impossible to follow (unless you were streaming each episode back-to-back and without commercials). 

Can We Talk About The Plot Flaws?

Also, there were many plot flaws. As I’ve already mentioned, in an effort to keep on top of the audience’s guesses, I. Marlene King would often pivot towards the unbelievable, keeping us somewhat entertained but at the sacrifice of a consistent, well thought out show. 

For example, let’s break down the ‘A’ reveal. In Season 6, it was revealed that ‘A’ was the one and only, CeCe Drake. Immediately, this was a shit idea because CeCe Drake wasn’t even introduced to the storyline until Season 3. And with the announcement of CeCe Drake as ‘A’, came a bunch of follow up questions that we never got an answer to. Like, why did she date Jason when she knew he was her brother? Seriously, I.Marlene?! Incest?!?!?!?!? Wow, maybe this is Game of Thrones…

And don’t even get me started on the final season of the show where they pivot to Spencer as the main character and the villain the whole time was her evil twin sister who was only introduced at the very end? 

This is lazy writing, I.Marlene. Lazy. 

In A Perfect World…

Ultimately, Pretty Little Liars would have been a great – dare I say, a perfect – show, if it had ended at the end of Season 2.

Mona could have been the perfect sole A. None of this A Team bullshit. Even though we were teased with plenty of side-characters, Mona had the perfect motive for becoming A and killing Alison. Think about it. She was completely rejected by the friendship group when they were younger and Hannah’s subsequent ditching of her later in their high school years would have been the cherry on top. No one would have seen it coming. Plus, Mona is an icon.

I rest my case.