Pretty Little Liars first aired in 2010, and only finished in 2017. The seven series are filled with flashbacks, jumps to the future, as well as their present-day drama.
The show follows the lives of four girls, Aria, Spencer, Emily and Hanna. They are all tormented and blackmailed by ‘A’ – an anonymous figure who appeared after the disappearance and presumed death of their friend, Alison.
At the start of the series, Aria Montgomery has just returned from a year away in Iceland with her family, but it’s not long before she gets herself into trouble.
Spencer Hastings definitely has one of the most complicated lives, and she was always in the shadow of her older sister Melissa, and eventually turns to drugs. Emily Fields is a talented swimmer who had trouble accepting her sexuality. Hanna Marin was overweight most of her life and was raised by her mother after her father left to start a new life with another woman.
Alison was the leader of the group, “The Liars”, and was anything but nice. She teased Emily about her crush, ridiculed Hanna because of her weight, taunted Aria about her father’s affair, and reminded Spencer she’ll never be Melissa. So it’s strange they miss her so much.
Each series is as good as the next, although it can get a little complicated, as the sweet town of Rosewood is actually filled with murder, mayhem, and madness. There are 160 episodes in total, which seems fitting as the show is based on 16 books.
Like the books, the show has plot twist after plot twist, such as when Mona is in the dollhouse too, Spencer has an evil twin, and CeCe Drake is transgender.
Despite the show being a teen drama, crime fiction and mystery, it’s also got some romantic and even funny parts to it. Although most of what happens throughout the show is incredibly sad and heart-breaking, like when Hanna discovers one of her friends isn’t who they said they were, and Spencer is committed to the asylum where she was born.
Nearly all the questions we have are answered by the start of season six, but not quite all. That’s why the shows five-year time jump works so well, as the new problems faced by the girls reveal the answers we desperately wanted to know.
Since the shows ended, we have seen the main cast in various other productions. Such as Lucy Hale (Aria) has been in Truth or Dare, Fantasy Island, and Riverdale spin off Katy Keene. Shay Mitchell (Emily) has been in shows such as You and Dollface. Ashley Benson (Hanna) has been in Her smell and Troian (Spencer) has been in Clara.
Sara Shepard, who wrote the sixteen original Pretty Little Liars books, also wrote a book called The Perfectionists (a spin off show released in 2019). This stars some of the original PLL cast including Sasha Pieterse (Alison) and Janel Parrish (Mona).
Pretty Little Liars also had their first spin off series in 2013 called Ravenswood which followed Caleb after he visited the town with the liars.
Pretty Little Liars will continue to be a series that was an obsession for any teenage girl 10 years ago and left us with so many questions throughout all the seven series.
By Laycie Beck
Feature image: Cosmpolitan