What do you get when you make a television show built on secrets, lies, and fashion? Well, in the case of Pretty Little Liars, you get a bunch of people confused about some of the basic facts of the story.
The I. Marlene King-created TV series, which began in 2010 on ABC, follows a group of high school girls as they are targeted by an anonymous stalker known as A. The ensemble cast, led by Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Troian Bellisario, and Ashley Benson, went through all kinds of schemes and machinations in the seven seasons of the show.
Unfortunately, that also means that to keep up with everything, fans have to keep track of dozens of different plot threads and characterizations. With all that in the air, some misconceptions are bound to occur. This list compiles all the ways people can be wrong about the show, from outsiders to even the most dedicated fan.
With a plot this convoluted, you're bound to get something wrong, even if you've watched every episode. Problems with the world-building, fan reaction, character development were all noted, among others.
Given that Pretty Little Liars is a notoriously twisty show, you shouldn't feel bad if some of your own misconceptions appear here. Outsiders to the fandom usually have little to no idea what really goes on, and sometimes the plot is too overwhelming for even regular viewers.
We'll be combining problems with the on=screen portrayal of the source material with behind-the-scenes stories and fan response for our entries.
Here are 20 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Pretty Little Liars.
20 “Adrenalized hyperreality” isn’t a real thing
One of the most famous quotes from Pretty Little Liars came during the diagnosis of the original A, Mona Vanderwaal. The Liars were told Mona had been living in an "adrenalized hyperreality" which affected the way she approached reality itself.
Basically, her high intelligence coupled with some mental health issues led her to feel like a god, a drove her to know everything she could about the Liars until she basically believed herself to be omniscient.
The problem is, as interesting as this hyperreality sounds, it's pure nonsense.
The idea of this kind of hyperreality is pseudoscience at best, and lazy writing at worst.
In the show, Mona was driven by her adrenaline to act the way she did, but that doesn't mean people would be correct to think it was realistic.
19 There are real ghosts in the PLL universe
One of the single oddest things about Pretty Little Liars is its canceled spinoff series, Ravenswood.
Set in a town near the main series' setting of Rosewood, it follows a new cast of characters (plus Caleb Rivers from the original show) as they solve mysteries involving ghosts and the paranormal.
This means that in the world of Pretty Little Liars, ghosts are technically real. While everyone will tell you that Pretty Little Liars is meant to be realistic, they're technically wrong.
The town of Rosewood occupies the same world as the town of Ravenswood, meaning that while it may seem like a normal, earthly town because no ghosts appear in the main series, the possibility is still there.
18 The adults and police aren’t helpful
One of the oldest refrains from critics of Pretty Little Liars is that the Liars should just go to the cops, or tell a trusted adult about their problems. Well, the issue with that idea is that not only did the Liars try that on more than one occasion, the police and adults of Rosewood repeatedly proved themselves to be unhelpful and untrustworthy.
In general, it feels like there's about a 50/50 chance any given adult will be either indifferent to the Liars' plight or actively working with A to bring about their downfall.
The police tend to ignore whatever the Liars say, and occasionally try to get them locked up for crimes they didn't commit.
The Liars were probably wise not to just go to the police.
17 Not everyone hated Spaleb
Caleb Rivers left a complicated legacy in the world of Pretty Little Liars. First, it seemed that he had a stable relationship with Hanna Marin, then he left to be part of the spinoff series, Ravenswood. He returned when that was canceled, but after the time jump, he a romance with Spencer Hastings, one of Hanna's best friends, while Hanna was engaged to another man.
This caused a minor scandal in the PLL fandom, with fans howling for the new couple to give it up so the original could have its way.
But not everyone hated Spaleb-- in fact, the actors themselves supported it. While they acknowledge that it may anger fans, Tyler Blackburn and Troian Bellisario each publicly said that they enjoyed the new direction for their characters. The actors specifically said they loved working together, and there was a real romantic spark in their scenes.
16 Not all the mysteries get explained by the end
Pretty Little Liars is a TV show built on mysteries and secrets, as the primary plot is always driven by the revelation of painful backstories and alarming acts. If you think every mystery and loose end in the show was explained and tied up by the series finale, you're in for a rude awakening.
All kinds of minor plot lines were left by the wayside during the seven season run of PLL, even some that seemed to be setups for huge reveals. I. Marlene King had to take to Twitter to explain "what Maya knew" (and didn't give a particularly satisfying explanation), because the show never made it clear.
In the end, there were so many clues and plot threads that some of them just had to be discarded.
15 Ali and Charlotte aren’t actually sisters
Familial relationships on PLL have always been tricky, and this won't be the last time we talk about it here. The character of Charlotte DiLaurentis (also known as CeCe Drake) might have the trickiest family history of anybody on the show, as she was born to Ted Wilson and Mary Drake, and adopted by the DiLaurentis family.
Every part of this had its own share of problems, leading to Charlotte's rise as Uber A, but one misconception that has arisen is that Charlotte is Alison's sister, which is incorrect.
The two girls are related, but biologically, they're cousins.
They were adoptive sisters, but they didn't grow up too closely as Charlotte spent so much time in the Radley Sanitarium and the Welby State Psychiatric Hospital.
14 Aria and Ezra have an unhealthy relationship
Look, we know Aria's tumultuous relationship with Ezra Fitz was one of the most popular couples on the show, one of the reasons fans kept coming back. The fact of the matter is that Pretty Little Liars had a bad habit of normalizing relationships between teenage girls and older men, and Ezra and Aria are the poster couple for it.
Ezra Fitz was portrayed as a sensitive guy, and Rosewood always treats him like a good man, but his actions in the actual show tell a very different story.
He's an adult stalking a group of high school girls, two of whom he has romanced.
The fact that the show continually forgave him for this behavior and had him marry Aria is weird, and while the couple still has its share of apologists, it's time we all realized the truth.
13 Toby wasn't important in the books
Fans of the show who haven't also read the source material may be surprised to hear this, but Toby Cavanaugh isn't a very important character in the original novels.
Spencer Hastings may be his primary love interest in the show, elevating him close to main cast status in some episodes, but in the books she had another man.
That's right: Spencer was more attached to Andrew Campbell and Wren Kim in the novels.
Toby was barely a blip on her radar, as he wound up ending his own life. A far cry from the Spoby we know and love, and fans of the show are likely very happy that the series changed Toby's role so drastically.
12 The As weren’t all working together
One of the most common misconceptions about PLL is that the As, the anonymous stalkers who attempt to control the Liars' lives, were all essentially part of the same cabal of people with the same goals. That's simply not true.
Starting from the first A through the days of Uber A and A.D., the various As have been loosely connected, but rarely strictly affiliated with one another. When an A takes over the game, they do it for their own reasons.
Yes, there was the A-Team, a group of loosely organized henchmen, but the As themselves were never playing on the same team.
11 Aria isn’t the main character
If you went by the advertising alone, you might think that Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) is the main character of Pretty Little Liars. Likewise, with the focus granted to her subplots and especially her romantic interests, there are even some dedicated fans that might think Hale is the anchor for the ensemble cast.
Aria's storylines may be some of the more exaggerated and sensationa on the show, but Pretty Little Liars is very much an ensemble show, with no single main character.
The Liars (Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna) may not all have equal screen time in ads for the show, but they're all equally important.
10 The stars aren’t all the same age
Given that the Liars are all supposed to be in the same year of high school, a logical assumption to make would be that the actors playing them would be around the same age. This just isn't true, as there are surprisingly large age gaps between the stars. Troian Bellisario was 24 when she first played teenager Spencer Hastings, making her the eldest of the main stars. Lucy Hale is the youngest Liar, now 29 years old.
The biggest difference is between the main actresses and Sasha Pieterse.
Pieterse plays the former queen bee, Alison, a character who is ostensibly the same age as the rest of the characters-- but Pieterse herself is just 22 now, making her a full decade younger than Bellisario, She's younger than Bellisario was when she first started playing Spencer back in 2009.
9 Spencer doesn't go after Melissa's boyfriends
You can be the target of some cruel insults when you're the star of a teen show, and Troian Bellisario had to deal with her share of hate for playing Spencer Hastings, a character that had been involved with a couple of her sister's boyfriends. In fact, at one point she even had to handle a news anchor blasting her character for just that.
As Bellisario explained in an interview, these affairs are almost never Spencer's fault.
Bellisario explains that these instances of her being a "man-stealer" are always instigated by the man, and the male character is always over 18.
Spencer was a 16-year-old girl, Bellisario argued, and thus cannot be blamed for the actions of adult men. It's a good point, and one even fans of the series should learn.
8 The main characters aren’t blameless
Throughout Pretty Little Liars, the main group of friends (whom fans dub the Liars) have to struggle their way through a seemingly endless gauntlet of manipulators, criminals, and stalkers. It's understandable that some fans forget that the Liars themselves have committed more than a few ethically questionable acts in the series' run.
Petty betrayals and insults aside, the Liars have also been complicit in more than a few crimes themselves.
Aside from smaller infractions like fraud and breaking and entering, the Liars have even left a few bodies in their wake, though usually these were unintentional.
While they're certainly more heroic than the antagonists, the main characters of the show are definitely not saints.
7 The twin twist didn’t come out of nowhere
The biggest reveal of the final season of Pretty Little Liars came in the form of Alex Drake, Spencer Hastings' long-lost identical twin sister. Alex was bent on stealing Spencer's life, boyfriend and all. The reveal was sudden enough that some fans complained that it came out of nowhere, but that's just not the case.
This doesn't mean that the twist was actually set up well, but the show had been teasing a twin reveal for years before it eventually came. Even in season 7, there were pretty obvious references to Spencer having a twin, even direct lines referencing twins from Mary Drake, Spencer's biological mom who was an identical twin herself.
6 It isn’t all about the fashion
Honestly, if you were to look at ads for Pretty Little Liars without knowing the show's plot, you'd be forgiven thinking that it was all about fashion.
The outfits the Liars wear throughout the series (and in the ads) are always cranked up to 11, so much so that it's hard to believe high school characters' fashion would be so consistently extra.
PLL can be forgiven for having its teenaged characters constantly dress up, but that means fans can also be forgiven for being a little bewildered when the show turns out to be about mysteries and secrets, not fashion.
There's no doubt the costumes add to the show's appeal, but they also gave some viewers the wrong idea.
5 The story isn’t over
Just when you thought you were out, I. Marlene King is here to pull you back in.
Coming in 2019 is the continuation to the story, a spinoff entitled The Perfectionists.
Pretty Little Liars tried a spinoff before, to no avail, but with Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish returning to reprise their roles as Alison and Mona, this one might just work.
Freeform ordered a 10-episode first season of the show back in May, but the release date has only been teased as an unspecified day in early 2019.
Fans who thought there was no more Pretty Little Liars are in for a surprise, because this sequel series filmed in the Pacific Northwest likely has all kinds of twists and secrets in store.
4 A's motivations weren’t all hostile
The thing that makes each incarnation of the anonymous stalker A is that their intentions are almost never directly violent. If the As wanted to physically harm the Liars, they could just do it, but each successive A instead goes out of their way to manipulate and control the main characters-- and it isn't always for negative reasons.
Mona Vanderwaal is one of the most complex characters in the show, and her motivations for starting the original game are shown in later seasons to not be entirely hostile.
Much of what Mona does in the first two seasons comes from her desires for the Liars to live their best, most honest lives--even if she has to cross several ethical lines to do it.
3 The parents aren’t all good guys
Just because Nolan North, Holly Marie Combs, and all the other actors playing the parents of the Liars project a friendly, warm vibe doesn't mean they're actually good people.
No matter what fans of each individual character will tell you, the parents on Pretty Little Liars were just not good at being mothers and fathers.
Just to run down the list: Aria's father Byron had an affair with a substitute teacher, Alison's parents had a litany of hidden abuse and secrets, Spencer's father Peter cheated on his wife multiple times, and that's honestly just the beginning.
Seemingly every parental figure had some kind of toxic or creepy aspect to them, though there were a few exceptions, of course.
2 The show doesn’t follow the books closely
Fans of the source material may have had a bit of a shock when they tuned into the later seasons of Pretty Little Liars and found a story that didn't really resemble the original novels. Likewise, fans of the show who've never read the books may be surprised to learn that the TV show isn't exactly the most faithful of adaptations.
Everything, from overarching plot lines to romantic entanglements to the appearance of the main characters themselves, has undergone at least a tweak here or there from the show's writers.
Adaptations of written works should breathe new life into the story and allow for some changes, but there are some fans of the novels who've been miffed that their favorite characters didn't have the same arcs.
1 It’s huge on social media
Teen shows have always done well with online engagement, but Pretty Little Liars took that to the next level. Even fans of the show might not be aware of just how big a following it had, as it was actually the most-tweeted-about show of 2017 (the year the series finale aired).
Pretty Little Liars was Freeform's highest-rated show when it switched networks, and that series finale actually doesn't even hold the record for the most-tweeted episode in the show's run. That belonged to the season six mid-season finale, in which the identity of Uber A was revealed.
People may think Pretty Little Liars is just another teen show, but when it comes to social media, it's the best of the best.
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What else do people misunderstand about Pretty Little Liars? Let us know in the comments!
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