Pretty Little Liars starts new era- jumps five years in secrets

By Ryan, January 28, 2016

By Alexis Ancel // News Editor

It’s been six and a half years since the Pretty Little Liars pilot first aired and four teenage girls began their war with the anonymous and all-knowing “A.” In those six years, or two years in Rosewood time, the stakes got higher, secrets grew darker and, in turn, A became the evil mastermind we love to hate.
What started as cryptic text messages from a blocked number threatening to reveal their secrets gradually escalated until A was blowing up houses and murdering members of the Rosewood P.D. But after two years of seemingly endless blackmail, threats, torture and manipulation, the liars are finally free from A’s chokehold. For now, at least.
After making a time jump to account for the four seasons the girls spent in senior year, season 6B starts back up with brand new stories and lies to tell. Here they are five years older, independent college graduates living new and improved A-free lives.
Spencer finds success in politics using her natural drive and determination rather than amphetamines, Aria’s new secret relationship with a hot author nerd is no longer against the law and Hanna is now in New York City working for the designer brands she used to shoplift.
After six seasons of watching them fantasize about going to college and being happy, it’s nice to know it actually happened. But naturally, some things never change. Poor sweet Emily is still getting screwed out of happiness at every turn, Toby is still chiseled perfection without a shirt on and the PLL producers are still starting practically every season with a murder and a funeral in that little white church. This funeral, low and behold, was for none other than Charlotte DiLaurentis, the psychotic murderous kidnapper previously known as A.
But these girls are not the same liars we watched leave for college back in August, nor is the twisted town they left behind, as evidenced by Radley Sanitarium’s transformation into a posh five star hotel and the breakups of the beloved Ezria, Spoby and Haleb. Having packed six and a half seasons into two school years, PLL fans have never had more than three months worth of lies to catch up on, let alone five years. While it’s possible that this time jump could change the dynamics a little too drastically, it’s more likely that this fresh start is exactly what the show needs. It’s time to start convoluting new storylines, introducing more irrelevant characters and watching new relationships form then crumble to the ground.
PLL writers are well known for convoluting a storyline to the point where it’s practically comical. We’re well aware of that, and believe me, we’re throwing popcorn at the screen every time Aria and Ezra break up or another blonde shows up wearing that awful yellow top. But even despite PLL’s irrationality, there is something about the show that makes it impossible for die-hard fans like myself to quit.
What the producers may lack in realism, they make up for in their ability to create characters impossible not to fall in love with. After six and a half years spent rooting for them, playing detective alongside them and yelling at the TV when they run into the woods alone, we can’t just abandon these girls no matter how absurd the storyline gets.
Despite their flaws, felonies and increasingly stupid decisions, the liars have become a part of ours lives, which is precisely what keeps us coming back week after week. And let’s face it, we always will.