I was skeptical of Pretty Little Liars (PLL)at first. As a show aimed at teen girls, I had a hard time taking it seriously. I had read and loved the books, but assumed the show would be a poor imitation of them. I could not have been more wrong.
Once I started watching PLL, I couldn’t stop. It is unbelievably addicting, and I watched five seasons in the course of three months. Oops. It surpassed all of my expectations and had me preaching its gospel by the end of the first season.
It is easy to make assumptions about a show named Pretty Little Liars- that it’s trashy, anti-feminist, and insubstantial. But PLL is none of those things. For the uninitiated, PLL is the story of four friends whose ringleader, Alison DiLaurentis, goes missing during a slumber party and the events that spiral out from it. The main characters are tormented by a mysterious figure named A who seems to know things about them that only Ali had known. They spend the seasons caught in a web of secrets and lies, trying to figure out who A is and keeping them from revealing their secrets.
PLL is all about women. The five main characters are women, as are many of the secondary characters, and these women represent diverse skin colors and sexualities. Women are the centerpiece of the show, it is about the friendships between women, their goals, their determination and their secrets. The characters are nuanced, flawed and imbued with the fierce desire to protect those in their lives. They fall in and out of love, yes, but the main story is always about their friendships with each other, their relationships with their family, and their relationship to the mysterious A. The men of the show live in the background, and the women are center stage.
PLL is a feminist work because it focuses on the lives of women and the internal and external challenges they face. The women of PLL are determined, intelligent and loyal and they will do anything to obtain their goals and protect those around them. They take charge in the hunt for A and don’t stand back to let a man do the work for them. They are strong but flawed, coping with their demons and doing their best in difficult circumstances. There are no limits on what these women can do. They chase after what they want, and while there are men in their lives, they don’t need them to get what they want.
I love PLL because yes, it is addicting and sexy and suspenseful, but also because it shows a diverse cast of women who are nuanced and who can do anything. I love that this is a cast of characters who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals and who know that if they want something done right, they have to do it themselves. If you haven’t given PLL a try yet, I encourage you to give it a try on your next Netflix procrastination binge, and I bet you’ll like what you see.
