PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: Thoughts on Season 3

Just as I was about to give up on Pretty Little Liars, things began to get pretty interesting. With Mona coming back to school and Toby’s connection to A revealed to the viewers you knew it was going to be a very different show. However, some things never change and I’d like to talk about those first.

For the record, I don’t care about Aria and Ezra. In fact, I’m a bit over the teacher/student relationship, which was never healthy to begin with. And now there’s a child being thrown in to complicate things further. Aria should walk away at this point. Ezra is a father! She is only a high-schooler for cryin’ out loud! Aria would be better off with Ezra’s kid brother, or better still, alone. Doesn’t she have enough on her plate with her parental disorders and A trying to kill them and Alison’s murderer still on the loose? I’m saying NO to Ezria.

Paige is MIA for now, and I have to admit to a certain amount of relief in that area as well. Look how focused Emily is on the ongoing investigations into Alison’s summer with Cece. I don’t care about this couple either. I much prefer Emily on her own. She’s angsty enough.

I’m over Hannah’s lippiness (this should be a real word) toward her mother. Ashley is only trying to give Hannah an open door so she won’t have to shoulder her problems alone, but Hannah treats her like her worst enemy, and a stupid one at that. Of all the parents on this show, Ashley is the one I like the most. She’s the smartest one and I so want her to find out all about A and what the girls have been going through for three seasons. They come close, but they never completely allow Ashley to delve more into this mystery. It’s very frustrating.

I think my favorite storyline so far this season is Spencer finding out about Toby. I know her scenes were supposed to incite heart-wrenching emotion and many tears, and I’m sure it did for many fans. But I was whooping it up in my living room. I couldn’t wait to see a new Spencer emerge out of the ashes. And while the phoenix has not yet risen, her emotional melt-downs are awesome. I’ve been having a bit of an argument with my daughter about this because she doesn’t think that Spencer should take her hurt out on her friends. I say that her friends are the only ones she can take out her hurt on. Isn’t that what friends are for?

And by the way, when she lashes out at them, she speaks the truth. Why should they continually mourn for Alison, a girl who used them, manipulated them, verbally abused them at her will and basically kept them all on a string making them dance to any tune she was feeling at the time. In short – she was a Mean Girl! She did horrible things to those girls!

And why should the girls constantly keep so many secrets? Isn’t that what A’s hold is on them? Why not just let it all out and turn the tables on A once and for all? Send A on the run for a change. Spencer is right when she says that it’s all those secrets that have gotten them all into this huge mess with A in the first place.

Even while I believe that Mona is trying to have Spencer committed, I’m loving this new Spencer. I know she is still evolving but I can’t wait to see what comes out of all of this. Spencer has always been the brains of the group. She could very well be Mona’s perfect adversary. The Anti-Mona. Please make it so!

Finally, although there are some things that truly annoy me about Pretty Little Liars, there are some things that are working really well, and even more things that I’m looking forward to. I’m very happy they have gone back to Alison’s murder. They had gone so far away from it as to almost forget about it, and this season they are bringing things around again. Bring it!

Pretty Little Liars airs on Tuesday nights at 8/7c on ABC Family.