Pretty Little Liars S01 Wrap Up

Lorraine: File another thing under the “hey, we may struggle in real life but on the Internet, WE FINISH THINGS,” category! Here’s is a show appropriate celebration gif!

 

Pretty Little Liars is truly the essence of guilty pleasure TV. Nothing ground breaking happened here, but I’m also hard pressed to remember a “bad” episode. It felt like one long story told in 22 parts. None of it is stand alone. It begs to be binge watched and while there is plenty of snarking material, there isn’t much here to truly discussed. I mean, how many different ways can you say, “pedobear” and “sucky police work?”

The highlight of the season was of course the girls themselves. I believed their friendship and it’s that friendship that keeps the whole ploy together. The low-light for me is the lack of resolution to everything. As you watch each individual episode, you get the feeling that lots of things are happening, but sitting and looking back in retrospect, I am truly asking myself, “did anything happen?”

The answer for me is, “not much.” It was fun watching it anyways.

1. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Despite the stupid ass body missing thing, the ending was tension filled and fast paced. A great ending to a season filled with tension. Aaaand lost evidence.
2. Someone to Watch Over Me – HANNA SLAPS JENNA.
3. Monsters in the End – The funhouse was sufficiently creepy, the girls are great friends, and a Spoby kiss. A nice balance of all things.
4. Careful What U Wish 4 – Alison’s murder became even creepier as the girls saw the full murder video, plus a dance, and a flask in Hanna’s purse.
5. The Perfect Storm – So much happened in this episode, but of course the best thing was MariskaMom’s SLAP DOWN.
6. A Person of Interest – The girls get so many happy moments in this episode, it’s hard not to consider it a favorite. And then things get worse.
7. Keep Your Friends Close – Ezra’s horrible poetry was a highlight, but mostly I’m happy Ezria got caught, those reckless idiots.
8. There’s No Place Like Homecoming – I have a soft spot for dance shenanigans and A got around in this episode, from fortune cookies to tarot cards.
9. Reality Bites Me – It’s hard not to rate these episodes by our recaps, but can we talk about The Sisterhood of the Traveling Lipstick and Ezra Fitz as a sex offender? Classic.
10. Can You Hear Me Now? – The first real insight into what a terror A would be, what with her/him breaking and entering and wasting perfectly good lipstick.
11. The Badass Seed – A long flashback that the girls remember at contrivantly plot appropriate moments, but naked Caleb in the show. Yeah.
12. The New Normal – Mama Fields digs herself a little out of her asshole hole by laying a SMACK DOWN on Paige’s homophobic dad.
13. Je Suis Une Amie – High marks for age appropriate love.
14. Moments Later – My favorite version of Alison was a drug induced one in this episode, so there’s that.
15. The Jenna Thing – This episode gave us our first real look into who Alison was. AKA a bitch.
16. Know Your Frenemies – Hanna got my feels, Emily got my feels, and we learned that maybe Toby was just a victim of a creepy soundtrack.
17. If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again – The best mother’s day card in the world.
18. Pilot – Not a bad pilot as pilots go, but still pretty expositional and, well, pilot-y.
19. The Homecoming Hangover – Like a real hangover, in that I don’t really remember what happened.
20. Salt Meets Wound – It can basically described with, “things get worse for the girls.”
21. Please Do Talk About Me – One long flashback the girls remember in contrivant pieces is this episode’s downfall.
22. To Kill a Mocking Girl – I feel sad that this episode ends up at the bottom of the list, since it isn’t “bad,” it just introduced the straggler characters and story lines.

 

Sweeney: WE FINISHED A THING! HECK YEAH! GO US!

This is the first time we’ve done a non-Buffyverse wrap up post and we chose a radically different show to do it with. This show has an awesome addictive quality to it that makes it highly watchable, but it also makes everything sort of run together. This, in turn, makes it a thousand times harder to judge the episodes all on their own. We’ll try, though. (LOL, as if judging things is hard for us.)

1. Someone to Watch Over Me – TALK SHIT, GET HIT.
2. Monsters in the End – This was a solidly suspenseful episode; I was legit scared for Spencer in the funhouse. SPOBY KISS.
3. The Perfect Storm – MariskaMom’s slap down was one of my favorite moments of the season.
4. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Tension filled and fast paced, but I’m annoyed by how little was actually resolved. Still, a fun episode.
5. Careful What U Wish 4 – Dances! Flasks! Moderate development in the what-happened-to-Ali plot!
6. Je Suis Une Amie – The shipper stuff is a pretty significant part of enjoying this show, so there was a lot for me to enjoy here.
7. A Person of Interest – This is where we learned that Jenna is playing the flute of feels all across Traumaland, so obvious soft spot.
8. There’s No Place Like Homecoming – This was a really fantastic dance episode. Pretty dresses and suspense and fun times.
9. Reality Bites Me – Speaking of rating by the recaps, how ’bout that Sex Offender Registry card Sara made for Pedzria?
10. The Badass Seed – Caleb shower scene. Enough said.
11. Know Your Frenemies – Yay for learning that Toby’s not actually all that evil!
12. The New Normal – Yay Mama Fields for taking her suck level down a few notches!
13. Moments Later – +1 to Lor’s comment about drug-induced-fake!Ali > all other Ali scenes.
14. If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again – Hanna and Spencer have definitely gotten the worst of the A-harassment, but I appreciated all the mother/daughter feels, if nothing else, from Hanna’s unfair torment.
15. Salt Meets Wound – That bit where Spencer kisses Hanna’s head before leaving was super precious. YAY friend moments.
16. Can You Hear Me Now? – The never-ending Verizon ad, Hanna’s shitty father, and another bad decision from Wren that would ultimately be blamed on Spencer. Pass.
17. The Homecoming Hangover – This is when we met Gossip Cop. It was before I realized how much worse Rosewood’s detecting skills were going to get.
18. Keep Your Friends Close – Ezria got caught and still no actual repercussions because The Great Contrivance Spirit loves them for no apparent reason, except to annoy us.
19. Please Do Talk About Me – A particularly obnoxious Aliback and confirmation that the actress playing Jenna can’t, in any universe, pass for a high school student.
20. The Jenna Thing – We didn’t know these characters very well and got right into learning what a bitch Ali was. I struggled to care too much in the beginning and this episode didn’t help.
21. To Kill a Mocking Girl – I don’t really remember this episode.
22. Pilot – I dislike this episode for the way it tries to push Aria as the primary protagonist. Especially because she still sucked a lot back then.

 

Sara: I’ve never gotten to do a Wrap Up post, so YAY! It really is the most fun finishing things! I wouldn’t know because of how I so rarely do it in my regular life.

Pretty Little Liars is kind of a hard thing to rank episode-by-episode, because they aren’t stand alone style things. I haven’t disliked any episode in the entire first season, so I think that’s pretty impressive for the show writers. I mostly based my ranking on “stuff happened” or “stuff didn’t happen.” People tend to complain about things never happening on this show, but I disagree. We get a lot of information on most episodes; it’s just kind of all over the place.

I noticed that I like a lot of the later episodes better, and I think a huge reason for that is because the writers started incorporating more friend moments in, and that is the main thing that makes me fall in love with this show over and over. I could see this premise getting old after a while, but the four actresses have a great chemistry together and when they get to do fun teenager-y scenes, they nail it.

1. Someone to Watch Over Me – JENNA GETS SLAPPED AND IT’S THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED.
2. For Whom the Bell Tolls – The most suspenseful episode yet, and it makes me super excited for the start of season 2.
3. A Person of Interest – Toby abs! Hanna and Caleb have tent sex! Emily looks so happy!
4. Monsters In the End – It feels like there’s a lot happening, or maybe it’s just that I’m pretty invested in these characters now. I want to be friends with them and have slumber parties and get stalked by A.
5. Careful What U Wish 4 – Another dance, and so. much. happens. Plus Aria’s Crazy Face bumps this one up higher. And CALEB!
6. Keep Your Friends Close – Hanna got hit by a car! It was kind of awesome! Plus getting to know Mona more was fun. Even though she’s a bitch, I kind of love her.
7. The New Normal – Lots of wonderful friend moments to enjoy.
8. Je Suis Une Amie – Spoby! And Haleb! I’m an easy shipper to please.
9. The Badass Seed – Half naked Caleb in the shower. Enough said.
10. The Perfect Storm – Because I love the shit out of Mariska Mom in this one.
11. There’s No Place Like Homecoming – Two things: 1. There’s a dance. 2. A’s skills with the fortune cookie.
12. Can You Hear Me Now – Stuff starts happening! Toby is joining our cast as a regular character, which I like even though I mocked his face at first. Plus the first big! secret! is revealed about Aria’s dad. The only negative to this episode is how gross EzraFitz gets when he’s trying to defend Aria.
13. Reality Bites Me – The first episode where the PLLs felt like genuine friends to me.
14. The Jenna Thing – I like this episode because it gives so much backstory. I’d actually forgotten that we learned about The Jenna Thing by episode two. Exposition YAY!
15. Moments Later – When Noel Kahn was a suspect for a hot minute.
16. The Homecoming Hangover – Nothing memorable except for Spencer and Alex dancing, which was adorable.
17. Know Your Frenemies – A helps Ezria but makes Hanna eat cupcakes. Life is so unfair.
18. Please Do Talk About Me – Again, nothing super memorable except hating the shit out of Alison.
19. If At First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again – This followed a heavy info filled episode, so it’s kind of slow. On the plus side, A is hilarious sometimes.
20. Salt Meets Wound – This episode just made me uncomfortable a lot.
21. Pilot – Pilots are typically not the best a show has to offer.
22. To Kill a Mocking Girl – Not a lot happens here besides men being gross.

 

What do you think? How does your list compare?