Why Pretty Little Liars has me disappointed...

(Prior warning since I don't do Recaps for this show, that this post DOES contain spoilers) 

Flashback to a few years ago. Pretty Little Liars was on its third season and I was loving it. I thought the show was great, suspenseful, and all around entertaining. If we're talking midway through season 3, I had thought that the twist they pulled saying Toby was part of the A Team was fantastic. Now, of course, I was 14 at the time and didn't have the knowledge of what made a TV Show's writing so great, but still, even today, I look back and still that it was a great plot twist.

Now we move to present day. I still watch the show, but I'm am certainly in no way as big a fan of it as I was before. The reason why? Well that's what I'll be talking about in this post.

Pretty Little Liars quickly climbed to the top of my list of favorite shows just as quickly as it fell to the bottom. Over the past two or three years, the show's writing has decreased, the plot feels repetitive, and the shoe has overall become a repetitive cycle. It's entered the endless plot of revealing someone to be 'A', but having that person be a decoy for the audience. They did it with Toby, who was trying to protect Spencer, and then with Ezra, whose storyline was misunderstood to the girls, and now Alison, who seemed to be very quickly revealed to not be part of the Team, or rather at least not the leader.

The show's quality has decreased dramatically over the years, and I hate to see it become something I don't want to watch anymore. I still do, maybe because I hope that it could redeem itself and because it was one of my favorite shows in the past, but it's sunk to the bottom of the priority list, being that the time slot is shared with a show like The Flash. Instead, I record it. Supernatural and Agent Carter are both also on Tuesdays, which means Pretty Little Liars usually gets watched on Wednesday afternoon.

Another thing that bothers me is the fact that the girls seem to still be written similar to how they were when they started. Now, they're becoming more sneaky, trying to get around A, but they know it never works out, that A will always beat them, yet they still refuse to tell the cops. They still act so naive when they're in situations where A could be around. Take the previous episode (5x12) for example, the scene where Aria and Spencer were looking in the freezer (I think that's what it was). Spencer had thought to put a wrench between the door preventing it to close, but not in a way that would help them. Instead, Aria could have stood watch at the door while Spencer investigated. They've been in the same situations countless of times and seem to never learn how to actually go about things. Also, they go into the woods and other unsafe places alone all the time, and every time, something seems to happen.

The issue with a show like this, especially going on for more seasons than it needs, is the fact that it should have ended after five seasons if the story was written a different way.  I find it hard to believe that if this were to occur in real life, the people would actually let it go on for years before going to the police, and apparently, the girls have no intentions to, being that the show has been signed for both a 6th and 7th season. At this point, I want the actual A revealed. I keep watching for that reason, but if it's not revealed soon, I don't know if I'll be able to, mainly because the show makes me so frustrated. It has turned to be predictable, and filled with even more clichés than before (ex. going into a worn out building and guess who's there... A!). I would much rather watch another season knowing who A is, what their motivation is, finding more about A, than being left to try and guess again, like I have been for the past almost five seasons. I mean, do we even know the character they'll say is A?

Every show has its low points, but for me, Pretty Little Liars has hit that low point and just hasn't gotten out of it. I'm hoping, for the sake of the show, that it picks up for the end of season 5, season 6, and season 7. One of the most disappointing things to happen with TV shows is when they start out great, but become worse and less enjoyable overtime. I guess we'll see what the end of seasons 5 and future seasons bring to the show. I'm interested to know what others think about it, because the majority of people I've spoken to feel the same, so feel free to comment below.

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