Cool I hated his character not Just is he a pedophile he also stalked the liars and pushed I think it was Emily with her Head against a table she could have died And they forgave him He should be in prison for statutory rape,Stalking and Attempt murder But he never got in jail in fact ended up with his victim
Can I just say that Book Noel Kahn was the love of my life? And that I hated what they did to his character in the show? And that I'll never forgive the writers for sacrificing him and Aria's super cute relationship so that she could end up with her predator ass teacher?
RIGHT?! Like I genuinely HAAAATE Ezria!!! And I HATE how Hollywood creates shows that PUSH these sort of inappropriate relationships?! It is disgusting!
Ive never read the books but this is one of my favorite shows and i hate to say it but i love aria and ezras relationship but knowing now that Noel was actually cool in the books and everything, i think that also would have been so cute!! 🥺🥺
I feel like Mona being kept alive in the show had a lot to do with Janel Parrish excelling at the role similar to how Troian Bellisario’s acting skills led to Spencer taking center stage in the later seasons. I can’t imagine how the series would have played out if she had been killed off in the season 2 finale.
With that being said, i think mona had to die in the books. With all that we were given, if mona stayed alive, she would have to be put so far in the back burner, they wouldn’t be able to do her any justice at all
@@Izzy-hb4ij maybe in your opinion, but my opinion is that it was the worst thing she did as A and shouldn't have been redeemed. i just think they could've done anything with her character rather than redeeming her or killing her off
The real villain of the show was I. Marlene King. The fact that she straight up destroyed a character to keep her favorite relationship going says something. Keeping Ezra with Aria was completely inappropriate. Especially when it was revealed that Ezra knew who Aria was before they even met. Meaning he knew she was underage. How could she, as a mother, continue to root for such an inappropriate relationship?
The best part about the books is that it shows what bad people the girls really are. And how they do many more bad things for less understandable reasons than in the show. The books also highlights how the parents are very uninterested and not at all concerned with all the weird things A is putting them through. So, the books are better at the drama and the bs the girls get themselves into.
@@caramaeve They do get better as the series goes on but I think she did a pretty good job of showing how bad their actions are and their effects on others
Imagine If the Allison that was alive and comeback on the show was actually Courtney, and that's why she was so different from the Allison we saw in flashbacks and she was actually running from the real Allison that would be revealed to be Uber A. Just imagine that...
lucas is cooler, he was rly popular and had a crush on hanna back before her makeover so ali got jealous and spread a rumour about him i think lol. caleb doesnt exist in the books
Alison having a twin would have made so much more sense in the show. The Alison-Courtney storyline was such a central part of the book series and I was disappointed they skipped it on the show.
It was honestly one of the best plot twists I have ever read. I remember gasping while reading that in middle school. The show missed out on the best reveal
I liked how in the books the girls aren't as close as they are in the show, which makes sense since it picks up 3 years after Ali's disappearance and Aria was gone that whole time. It makes A even scarier because the girls don't have each other to lean on and are much more isolated and vulnerable. It also just adds to Ali's power - she was the center of the group and once she was gone the group fell apart
I was skeptical of the girls’ dynamic at first. I loved their show friendship so much and didn’t want to “ruin it” in my mind. But I sooo much prefer it in the books. It’s like a slow-burn friendship where they actually have to deal with their Ali trauma before trusting and loving each other. Hanna in the last book saying she wanted Aria, Emily, and Spencer as her bridesmaids BROKE ME
Bi eraser in media is much more common than you’d think. Shows often make bi characters just gay or lesbian or just straight when adapting from books. It sucks, there’s not much good examples in media of bi people.
Ironically though, I don’t think it was meant as malicious, but the writer/creator/director (Marline King, forget what she was, but I think she was the main gal) is gay and I think she changed Emily to being gay to show that representation (which obviously I agree Bi characters should be shown more shows, but I think showing a woman of color as a gay woman in a role not dying and such, it’s still meaningful). Also, I (having read most the books) know she’s 80% woman and 20% men in her sexuality, since she only seems attracted to one and she knew she was gay in middle school. But I think it’s sad we never got other LGBTQA+ characters in a positive light.
@@adamsmoberly saying 80% women and 20% men is just a really weird, mildly biphobic way of describing a bisexual person with a preference for the same-sex. a lot of bisexual people may think they're straight or gay initially, either bc they don't know bisexuality exists and think it's normal or weird to be looking at the same-sex in that way, or bc subconciously or otherwise, they just believe that it's easier to say one or the other. some ppl might be comfortable w describing it that way but idk, to me it's just a bit weird.
@@leilanyx I want to preface by saying that I am not bi and so my personal opinion doesn't really matter but I have definitely heard bi individuals describe themselves and 80/20 or lady-leaning, etc. So I don't know that it's an inherently biphobic way of describing someone. I think it will more depend on the person and the context, etc.
@@leilanyx Sorry I don’t clarify that in a nicer way. I meant she seems attracted to woman more than men, even though she has had romantic relations with a man (and dated a bad one, but we barely see how that came to be), so I was trying to create a visual that I guess I didn’t think about being offensive. I’m Pan, so I do understand why that is fucked up to say in hindsight, but I didn’t mean it in a way ti diminish her sexuality.
I feel the confusion with Mike and Hanna romantically is because it isn’t made painfully clear. Mike and Hanna are very much alike. They both have these personas they play into around their peers in order to fit in. Mike’s perverted nature is how he appears approachable to his teenage boy friends, yet it is shown in fleeting moments that Mike isn’t all that perverted, he just does it to fit in because he’s desperate. He spent years in Iceland being an outsider and was willing to do anything to be “one of the boys”. This lines up perfectly with Hanna’s obsession with popularity. The fact that they get to “unwind” or “be themselves” around each other is what makes them, them. Its just hard to tell because Mike is constantly going back and forth even in private with his pervy jokes, but i think its supposed to be seen as even more of a joke because we’re supposed to know that Mike just really loves Hanna and is a respectful dude in their relationship.
Huh, I like this better than my own. (Note: I only read the first couple of books years ago and just read the back covers over the years and only watch 2/3 episodes till i got annoyed from the description of the characters that were different). I was thinking that Hanna felt that she didn’t deserve to be happy with everything that happened to her and never gotten the help she desperately needed to talk and process it all that she ended up with someone who isn’t good for her because she felt that she deserved that.
I totally relate to the whole being thrown off by the show character images, I'd REFUSE to believe Spencer had blonde hair and Hanna had brunette hair.
It's weird at first but then it kinda makes sense in a way because the books make a point of how Alison & Spencer were competitive towards each other and them looking so much alike plays its part in their rivalry.
oh god ikr I watched the show and then read the books and it's a bit weird imagining hanna as a brunette like idk I feel like the blonde hair really suits. I can kind of see spencer as a blonde
Mona is also blonde in the books which makes a lot of sense too. Mona, Spencer, Alison are all all american queen bee material and they all kinda fight for number 1 place.
the girls in the books making so many bad choices with so many CONSEQUENCES and people whose lives have been irreparably damaged was one of my favourite aspects of the books and why the premise works so much better there than in the series. because it's like. the girls in the show never really do anything WRONG. ofc the treatment from A is gonna be unwarranted either way, the fact that so much of the motive driving each A in the show is so weak and paper-thin because the girls never did /shit/ makes it all soooo less compelling. we still root for these girls. we understand them, they're also just .... kind of vapid and mean and disgustingly rich and never own up to their actions, so we also understand A too. and that is so LOST in the show, and I'll forever be mad about it.
Yes!!!The whole point of them being called pretty little liars is that they lie and A blackmails them until they start to improve their behavior and become better people and win over A!
I love Ali's pretty little lies. It also brings light to Alison's and Aria's relationship and shows that Alison wanted Aria to be her friend and was pissed that Aria didn't pay this much attention to her. In the show they really erased that in order to show that Spencer was the one who stood up. But the tv adaptation is actually the Spencer Show, so. Btw great hair.
I love how that book shows that "Ali" was genuinely hurt when Aria didn't confide in her. It also mentioned how sometimes when Aria was being distant "Ali" would fight for her attention and affection.
I liked the characters in the book a lot more. They have flaws like real people and their actions have weight and consequences. I also like details that they put in with the girls. Like how Hannah is a closet theatre nerd and how Emily is bisexual. The girls’ home lives also seem to have impact on their personalities, like how Spencer is constantly being the best at everything, but she never feels that she’s good enough because her parents compare everything she does to Melissa and how much better Melissa is. Emily has a lot of anxiety (which I related to a lot as a closet bisexual) and her parents were so strict that she was afraid to do anything. Hanna looks for approval in other people who are toxic to her with Allison, Mona, Mike, Kate a little in the beginning because her parents feel so distant in her life. Aria seems to have a messed up sense of relationships and trust, since her dad made her keep this secret affair from her mom for 4 years, her mom kicking her out because of it, and her brother treating her like garbage after she’d been kicked out.
Marlene king definitely should had used much more plotlines from the books but no she decided to . Do shock value then create great storylines in the show 🤯😡🤬
@@silviazakir3899 The first book is just called Pretty Little Liars. There's a prequel (Ali's Pretty Little Lies) but it's spoiler-heavy, so I wouldn't read it until you've read all the way through the main series.
Aria and Noel were my favourite thing about the PLL books! They had such an unproblematic, healthy relationship that was so well developed. Noel was so kind and loving towards Aria in the books, so it was hard to watch him as a villain in the show. Also Ezra’s arc in the books is exactly what should have happened to him. He was a predator who preyed on Aria’s naivety and him going to jail was the perfect resolve. It’s such a shame they tried to romanticise their relationship in the show when it’s just creepy lmao
I haven’t watched the show in years and it’s so creepy to look back now and see how I was manipulated to think that Aria’s relationship with Ezra was cute and mature and that they were such a hopeless romantic couple… I’m 17 now and realizing how the whole thing is creepy and just wrong…. Especially when I remember how old she was when they met 🤢🤢 scary how I watched it and loved their relationship when I was so young …
@@alisondilaurentis2566 Oh my God, I've literally been reading these books since I was eight years old, way before the show ever came out. I already know I'm gonna be in line at my local bookstore to get a copy on the day it comes out
Idk how to feel abt this tbh 😅 Like on one hand im soo excited i need more pll in my life But at the same time its like, how much more are these girls gonna go thru?? What else is alison gonna do to them?? Is that woman not tired?? Alison has truly become the michael myers of the pll books like that bitch just doesnt give UPPP
One thing about the books I will never forget : HORRIBLE, TERRIFIC PARENTS. They are even worst than the parents in the show. You are so lovely with this hairstyle 🧡.
In the books Courtney even tells her mother her twin is threatening her life and her mom is like “shush child here’s some Diamond earrings now shut up” and then the same night her twin kills her and her mom is like “oops”
the only parent I liked what Hanna's mother. She literally came back from Singapore and kicked out Hanna's father after finding her SENT HER to a MENTAL INSTITUTION.
@@kianabennett6858 Aria and Hannah parents are the worst. But Spencer parents were so disgusting as well, all the parents were abusive as hell. It is so difficult to choose the worst parents.
i actually really liked the recurring A giggle! after a while i kinda figured it was mostly in the girls heads and kind of a literary symbol for their connection since no one else but them can hear it. it’s not the most nuanced or artsy thing but i think it fit the books
I feel really bad for Mona in the books. The flashbacks of her getting humiliated and bullied by "Alison" are so heartbreaking, and she literally got burned in the Jenna Thing but nobody believed her when she said "Ali" did it :( Doesn't justify her actions as A, but I can see how she got to that point more than in the series
I live for bisexual Emily in the books tbh. The bi erasure POPPED out in the tv show. Also it sucks Emily ended up with Alison her literal BULLY in the show
I never fully get this complaint about bisexual erasure. She was bi in the books and that should be respected, but most characters in the media who call themselves "lesbian" are actually bi. So there is no shortage of bi characters, they're just not calling themselves bisexual.
The mystery was hands down handled better in the books, plus they left out the time capsule and the main reason Ali hated the girls entirely. I wish they would have kept the book plot as far as the mystery. It was so well thought out regardless of the questionable writing skill lol
I also thought the girls were a little clueless. Like, they really thought Billy the construction worker was A? Seriously? And they jumped to strange conclusions too much. Aria even ratted out Spencer at some point.
I thought it was realistic in that way. I hate how teen mystery shows nowadays depict all these high school characters as basically being on the same intellectual level as the FBI. Real teens wouldn't know wtf was going on or what to do or who to trust and would probably only piece the puzzle together with a whole lot of luck.
Yeah, I love that in some shows! It could have worked. I guess just because it was a mystery I wished they’d pick up on things faster. It was more just the writing in general.
It's so disturbing that they had the source material telling them Ezra is a creep and criminal, yet they choose to promote that ILLEGAL activity as romantic. yikes
One of my favorite things about the book series is that the girls actually GO TO THE POLICE!!!! Even if they’re threatened they always try to talk to law enforcement first, which makes so much more sense than the girls in the show refusing to at all (or only talking to Garrett 🙄). I also like that they showed why they had to be secretive/careful with A - like when Emily told Wilden about the texts & then A outed emily at her swim meet! It showed that they tried to get help but couldn’t rely on the police all the time due to the consequences. Also, am I the only one who really liked the Aria & Sean side plots? Lol 😭 I loved how gentle he was with her when she was dealing with her dad leaving, & it was nice how open their conversations were with each other (her sharing when she lost her virginity, Sean talking to her about how he’s unsure if he wants to wait, talking about their parents).
I liked the way Hanna's self-esteem issues are handled in the book. In her chapters you can see how badly she tears herself down, but in everyone else's chapters, you can see how beautiful she is to them. Also, I liked how there were clues in the earliest few books about the twists much later in the book series. I had to go back and re-read the opening of one of the books just to double check the details that I had missed.
Also I think the books constant need to have men be predatory is just its dramatic way of saying “stay away from older men! Them wanting you is gross!”(but also not really because Spencer and Wren). I can’t count how many older men have made passes at me and then seemingly didnt care when I told them I was a minor. Reading these books as a tween/teen helped me see that grown men wanting me wasn’t flattering. I never had that type of conversation with my parents and I think without the books, I probably would have been a victim, so I appreciate it
I don't understand why they make so many changes in adaptations. They must have liked enough about a book to want to turn it into a show, yet they get rid of many of the elements, so it almost feels like a completely different story. It's also a massive risk, considering the first people who would be interested will be fans of the book, who might not like the changes.
I’m curious to know if you’ve seen all those Tik Toks created by the girl who played Alisons stunt double on the show. She says she was Alison’s double and also played red coat and the black window and confirmed that they were all supposed to be Alison and she was originally A!
@@Kerenscardi from what I’ve gathered, because the writers (or maybe it was the show runner??) wanted to be this huge reveal that “”no one saw coming”” so they changed because so many people had already figured it out- which is stupid, IMO. The whole point of a mystery show is to try and solve it yourself lol. **This is all speculation of course, but it seems like the most likely answer
@@NeonSparkels3867 ugh that is dumb! None of the actual As made sense to me (either that or they had crap motives in my opinion) if you’re gonna do a twist “no one will see coming” at least make it a good if not better one 🙄
@@Kerenscardi to me it kind of had sense that Mona was A and it was handled great. Pretty unexpected and dramatic. But yeah that sucks and also Aria had a lot of potential for being evil
@@fatbitch7168 the lengths she went to to get back at the friends of someone who picked on her in high school felt a little extreme to me though the whole mental illness aspect made it a little more understandable to me Jenna had way more of a reason to be the main A (I think she was a backup or something? Lol never really understood her part in the whole A team thing) would have been great to see her be the main person behind everything, Hannah would’ve been good, Melissa, Ezra, Ian ugh I think I could think of one for every season that would’ve been better than what we got! Lol I didn’t mind the CeeCee reveal and thought it would be a good opportunity-to get to know and explore her character and backstory but of course they killed her off two episodes later! Lol what was the point then?! Geez! Lol
Why does it seem like the creators read the spark notes version of the series and then went " okay I forgot about 80% of what that was so let's write the script! "
That’s for EVERY adaptation (I’m excusing Riverdale for a few things because it was based on the comics and most of the stories were short so they had lots of liberties for it- still don’t like it except the first one) but anything that has a plot/story to follow can have some liberties (depending if they can air it, but since streaming is a thing now, they execs can get darker with it. Hopefully there’ll be a better adaptation and can follow/fix some issues the book has and make it better that the book/show).
Please make sure u read the Alison book called Ali’s pretty little lie. It perfectly explains the whole mental hospital situation between Allison and Courtney
my favorite thing about the books is the aura of distrust it creates about pretty much every single character ever except the girls. it's way more interesting to me than the show in that sense and I think everything about twins was handled 10000x better than in the show. so glad you're talking about the books! they were the popular books of the year when i was in sixth grade
Honestly, Emily was my favourite character in the books because I genuinely felt as though she had the most development out of all the girls and you could see that especially towards the end of the series.
I personally get grossed out with the predator relationships in the show which is one of the reasons I love cruel summer so much they make the relationship something that is supposed to be disturbing not “cute” and call out the fact that it is grooming and not to be romanticized unlike pretty little liars where they are contributing to the problem.
Yeaaaah Cruel Summer made me realize what was really happening with Aria and Ezra and it makes me furious fucking Marlene kept them a thing the whole series.
I read the first arc of the book series (the first four) and I got kinda disappointed because Mona’s reasons actually make sense in the book (her friendship with Jenna) and I wish they kept that in the show, especially because on season 2 Halloween episode, Mona and Jenna kinda befriend, so they could’ve kept the book’s storyline and it would make much more sense than Mona doing it because of Hanna “betraying” her by being friends with the girls again when this happened after (and because of) Mona started threatening them.
I'll admit, I was very disappointed that the show didn't feature the Alison/Courtney plot. Like when they revealed that Alison wasn't dead and that she just skipped town, I was sure that she was Courtney and that real Alison was A and I was excited because I thought they were doing that plotline but with a twist of Courtney being alive and being the 5th liar. Charlotte attacking Mona made me believe it even more because of the blonde hair. Then Cece is revealed to be Charlotte and that theory died and my hope along with it. Then after Alex kidnaps Hanna, the girls receive a text from an A.D. and it revives my hope that it's Alison once again. Then we get Alex's reveal and I am once again disappointed. The books handle Alison soooo much better than the show. She's a much better A than both Charlotte and Alex combined.
Serena you are giving us premium PLL CONTENT! 👏🏽 i read all the books, yes some of it was far fetched like Emily hiding a pregnancy 🤰🏽 but the courtney villain was much better. Also Sara Shepard’s other books are amazing especially influence & the amateurs
I absolutely hate the treatment of Andrew Campbell in the show because he was in the A team for no reason, and his relationship with spencer is so underdeveloped. In the books he has much more development with Spencer and it was better because they have always been competing with each other academically and it would seem fit that they end up together.
i’ve only read the first book (i’m waiting to get the others from the library) but i really liked the focus on the girls and what their lives are like after alison, rather than the show which very quickly became about A and the secrets and solving the mystery. Not that i don’t like the focus on A in the show, i just wish that we got to see more of the girls lives outside of A and the other girls to really feel how A changed their lives for the worse.
Okay idk if I've seen anyone talk about this yet, but it was incredibly messed up that Maya was caught and sent to rehab for smoking weed when she was the only BIPOC representation on the show...the fact that is was specifically weed seemed very implicitly racist to me. Maya was basically the only POC besides Emily for the first few seasons, and she dies so early into the show (I don't know if this is apart of the book or not?). I loved the show growing up but is definitely a reflection of how representation was severely lacking in the 2010s, and unfortunately still is now with film and tv. The show is extremely white, even with the POC characters they are almost ALWAYS mixed or very lightskinned. There were literally no characters that I can think of that did not have any white in them... P.S. also the scene where Allison visits Toby in juvy is RIDICULOUS! It actually made me laugh out loud because Toby was wearing a durag and was talking in slang I think? it was just a very weird scene and they were so clearly trying to make him look like he was in prison with things stereotypically associated with black people. So bad.
maya doesn’t die in the books, her and emily just break up (maybe the third book?) and the storyline with her cousin nate doesn’t exist at all. i’m pretty sure the weed storyline doesn’t happen either but it’s been like 10 years since i read the books, i assume it was meant to be a replacement for emily getting sent away in the books. its so dumb they killed maya in the show, she was the only decent love interest emily had.
In the book it showed Emilys parents being racist to Maya which I think was a very important topic to talk about especially since the readers were so young. Also them killing maya off did NOTHING to the plot, it was so weird.
I was literally so confused when I watched the show then read the books then realized the show was completely not the same and didn't even follow the books.
The original ending was the eight book and I feel like that was the best ending. The girls had finally become better people and solved the mystery. IMO having another 8 books was unnecessary and retconned their development
🌟 Estoy de acuerdo, ese final me pareció mejor y podría haber cerrado todo pero los otros libros fueron innecesarios porque el final era muy predecible 🙄 XOXO desde #Ecuador🇪🇨🙋🏻♂️
the storylines in the second half of the books were amazing and added so much to the series, i couldn't imagine book 8 being the final book. the series definitely feels complete with 16 books.
@@asdzxcx3686 I feel like it regressed their character development for them to start lying again and doing bad things again when the 8th book finished with them learning to do better and relying on each other rather than this imaginary figure of Allison
Also the Pretty little lie’s book written from Alison!!! Oh my god, amazing to read a book in this perspective & learn more about why she is such an evil and manipulative liar!
When I first started reading the books, I wasn’t sure if I’d read them all, just cause there were so many and I had a lot going on. But there was a moment in one of the early books where I knew I had to read all of them. It’s when Emily and Maya win best couple for the yearbook, and they have to go in and get their picture taken. They see the full-page spread for Ali, with a picture of her as a little girl and Maya asks Emily who it is. Emily’s a little taken aback, and she kinda goes “it’s Ali, obviously” and Maya says she didn’t recognize her. That’s when I knew Sara Shepherd had it PLANNED OUT. She knew how to drop FORESHADOWING. Also ps: Maya being the only of Emily’s exes to cry at her “funeral” killed me😪
I want to know so bad why Mona got so close with Hanna but then betrayed her, but had a few scenes with Spencer and wanted to team up! In the books they have more scenes but also not that many! Another good detail is that Mona also has some fire damage on her belly/ripcage area. That's why she's even angrier about the whole Jenna thing. AND Ali and Jenna set up the firework plan! Jenna wanted to get rit of Toby. Their parents would send him somewhere if he'd use fireworks again. BUT that all backfired of course. Still, Jenna didn't blame Alison! But that bish still used the event to control the liars.
Personally even though it is a drastic, not handled well change, I am glad they turned Jenna into a female abuser, just because I think there is a lack of awareness that it can go the other way around as well... I remember in middle school, a policeman came in to talk about his job, he talked about abusive relationships and one kid in my class asked if it could also be the other way around and if so if he had any. The way he described what happened and how the man looked like, is in hindsight pretty disgusting and sad as men as the victim in these cases are often belittled ehich he did as well... So I am glad they at least touched upon it in the show, even though it could and should have been handled a lot better...
I used to curl up in the corner of our local library to read these books. Partly because I had a late book fee I couldn’t afford, and partly because I just loved being there reading these books. You’re totally right about it being hard to get over the difference in appearances between the books and the TV show
There were several moments in the books where I disliked each and every one of the girls and I preferred it that way than to the show because they were liars and I expected it. In the show they had an issue each for like the whole season that they dealt with and then it wasn’t an issue anymore or they overcame it and they were relatable. But the years that they were friends with, manipulated by and complicit with Alison didn’t go away in the books. The books showed that they really were pretty little liars and they didn’t just grow out of it because their friend suddenly died and they grew apart. In the books they all had lasting issues that were patterns that got them in trouble time and time again. Overall, Emily was better in the books though I hated how insistent she was when it came to Alison and then the twin every time though Shepard wrote the ending to close that really well and made it work in Emily’s favor character wise. Show Emily was boring even when in the group I always ignored her. Maya should’ve lasted longer than she did and that relationship should’ve too. Aria I liked better in the books she isn’t as stupid (choosing Noel over Ezra), she has more of a backbone and is just better written. Show Aria was too attached to Ezra and I hated him. It also made her pretty boring. Also she didn’t go through as much in the show which was more suspicious. I liked show Hanna better as a person not as a character who would have gone through basically the worst treatment from Alison as well as one of the worst family relationships. I also liked the addition of Caleb’s character though I wasn’t crazy about it towards the end. Again, I feel like this relationship began to be too much of an attachment like Aria and Ezra’s. Spencer I liked pretty much equally. In the books she definitely has the worst family and it shows the extent of issues she has and why she continues her mess of relationships and competitiveness. In the show they touch on these things as well but they don’t go nearly as hard but Spencer rises as the leader and you get a sense of her belonging in that role there as well. She is more likable in the show too. I like her relationship with Toby, though it was unexpected, I enjoyed this relationship the most because Toby was a good guy, he treated her well but we got to see them stand alone as strong characters alone. They weren’t as dependent on each other and it took a while to get there. Mona was also equally as good. Though she doesn’t last very long in the books her motive, execution and backstory of how she came to be in the position of being A in the first place was so well thought out and well written as well as the clues. So, even though she goes pretty quickly she is memorable and has lasting effects on all the girls. In the show because this is one of the few big storylines they used from the books it is also well done. And aside from the fact Mona didn’t end up being the 5th liar I really liked the way they handled her continuing story in the show. It proved that someone in the writer’s room knew what they were doing. Though I find it interesting that they seemed to mess up nearly everyone else’s characters so badly when they had material from the books to go off of yet wrote the best for a character that they chose to extend beyond their timeline in the books and had no more material for. The books were definitely better!
I DONT understand how the writer could write HANNA AND LUCAS together, write a pretty healthy relationship where they could be themselves (with a bad ending), and let Hanna have such a character development moment, only to let her end up with MIKE, who indeed is such a objectifying ugh boy
LOVE THIS ANALYSIS (team book-noel kahn & tv-mona being alive) ❤️ Another reason I love the book so much is because it gave a real elaborate backstory as to why Ali (Courtney) befriended the liars, we never saw why/how Ali & the girls first became friends in the show. ALSO Ali is so terrifying in the books!!!
what made the books more intriguing was A the serial killer being the narrator of the series which makes more sense since this A person is watching and stalking them and learning their dark secrets. it makes you engage on the girls while trying to figure out as a reader who A really is.
I've been binging your whole playlist for PLL and can I just say, I love listening to you talk about it! You're so passionate about it and I really appreciate that you can still critique it. I feel as if a lot of people don't realize you can do both, love it and critique the hell out of it. It has been a lot of fun watching these! Also, I'm rewatching the series with my husband who has only ever heard me talk about it and right off the bat he's like, "why are they grown ass men hitting on these children???" And then back to your Spencer video, oh my god. He hates her family (with good reason), but it really gets him fueled up when they're so awful and obviously have a favorite and it is not Spencer. He also likes to just say, "call the police. call the police" whenever Ezra and Aria are on screen. Haha.
Alison is A, for sure. But I also loved your idea of how in the show they should´ve made Alison and Aria A,working together in some kind of twisted, codependent way, but I don´t know if Aria being that involved works for the books... I definitely want to read them now!! Thank you so much for this video btw, totally made my day! As always a pleasure to listen to you talk pll
I think Alison definitely should’ve been A in the series finale or been apart of the A team. Maybe even introduce Ali’s twin as A. Then we could’ve seen the liars deal with wondering if the Ali they knew was actually the one who cared for them or wanted to hurt them. I even would’ve probably given Aria a twin because there were so many plot holes that the show left unquestioned about her and her family. I also wouldn’t have had the girls end up with their high school relationships the only couple I would’ve left standing was Hanna and Caleb. Their relationship just seemed more genuine and real compared to the others. I think the way Sara wrote the twin theory was way better than the show because it was someone the audience had already know about. I felt like the writers of the show tried to be smarter than the audience which backfired on them. Good writing specifically with red herrings shouldn’t be super hard for audiences to figure out. Knives Out did red herrings perfectly which PLL should’ve done in the show.
Or a way to make Alex drake as ad work like serena mention is to make Spencer the one who was kidnapped at the end of season 6 instead of hannah and then fans and the liars can wonder if that was the real Spencer or Alex
The books were confusing, but still less confusing than the show. And the reveal in the end is so much better. Also I like how there weren’t as many A’s in the books. Like the show every few episodes there was a new A and it got to a point where everyone was A at one point. The books were, IMO, really quite interesting
I've been WAITING for this video!! I absolutely devoured these books in the 7th grade and I thought the ending and villain were so clever, and thank god Aria and Ezra never got nearly as far as they did in the books. I would get a new book every week, and I'd always finish them on the day I got them, I was obsessed!
I had the total opposite reaction about the girl’s appearances since I read the books before I watched the show. Mona not being blonde irked me especially since there was a bunch of foreshadowing in the books where the girls kept thinking they saw Alison right after getting a note from A but later found out it was actually Mona. They even kept in some of those scenes in the show but never explained it
Omg ive never been more excited for a video!!!! I LOVED the books. The show really took those storylines and basically ruined them. Especially the twin thing. Which is the biggest and best twist/story in the books.....
@@cynthiaholmes5124 exactly!!! And with Alison being the twin you can look back and see it made sense all along. Like she had a plan writing the books. Unlike the show......
i remember i begged my grandma to buy me every book even the last one when it came out i was absolutely addicted the only problem i had with it was tobys death i hated wren and always imagined in my head he looked like keegan instead. (yes i know he’s asian in the books but my middle school self didn’t care) also i loved that the girls lives revolved around more then just A they had their own personal problems and werent a pack they were their own people with own motivations. it made me invested in all their storylines not just one in particular
And ezra was writing a book about the girls and he knew aria was a high school student when they first met and put things in his manuscript for the book that aria told him in the privacy of their relationship
I get it aria can date who she wants but in the books before Alison went missing Hannah would always talk about Sean and how much she liked him so at the same time I can see where Hannah is coming from even if there not that close anymore it still feels like a bit off betrayal in a way
Omggggg I loved this video! Can’t wait for the next one! I know the books weren’t perfect on a lot of things but they made so much more sense as a mystery thriller than the show and it handled issues more accurately. I know they mention a lot of inappropriate relationships between adults and minors but that is a thing that unfortunately happened. At least the book demonizes it and doesn’t paint it in light the way the show does as if it was a soulmates kind of thing. I so much more loved the idea of A being this sociopathic serial killer who’s just uncatchable and a constant shadow hanging over them, than it being a constant mystery that doesn’t makes sense in the end. Can’t wait for part 2!
I haven't read these books but still I did really feel sorry about Hanna and Mona having so little screen time together. It would have made their break up so much more dramatic. It's never really shown why they are best friends. And take into account that we see so much unnecessary stuff concerning other characters and relationships. I mean these girls haven't talked for weach other for a while and now they're suddenly best friends simply because there are some messages? So Hanna just forgets about Mona??? I can't see how that's possible. Btw thanks for that deep dive! Looking forward for a part 2
Serena, this was the video I was looking for! I wanted to know so many things (that got answered here) -how the girls phydical characteristics and personalities differ - how relationships differ from book vs show. -how the show + the book handles (or doesnt handle) serious relationships, mental health, or other issues. And so much more... Can't wait for part 2! Also I dont know if anyone else is thinking it, but I would love a video or 2 just going in depth on Alison in the show vs Alison (+ Courtney) in the books. Ps: people pls Don't @ me if I didnt spell their names right, it's leg day and im on break lmao😂😂
Emily was a bisexual in the books but the show changed her to a lesbian because they wanted Emily to be "more than bi". I feel like the show missed an opportunity to include bi people and Emily could've had a lesbian girlfriend or we could've character created. It just bugs me that the show was openly biphobic and transphobic.
How was it biphobic and transphobic? Because they didn’t include your vision of the character. Really? Wow, you guys put labels on anything that doesn’t fit your opinions. 🙄
LMAOOO how was it biphobic or transphobic 😭? In the books Toby was the one who was abusing Jenna so does that make the show anti-woman? Toby also committed suicide does that make the show suicidephobic?😂see how ridiculous that sounds
@@Yams-Hams7734 Alison bullying Lucas by calling him a 'hermaphrodite' was pretty transphobic and gross. And it was biphobic bc the show erased a bisexual identity to give her something else.
alison was bi in the series so was maya jenna and shana they didn’t erase bisexual representation by making emily a lesbian there were more bi characters than there were gay characters emily was like the only lesbian in the series and it’s less common for a main female character to be gay most shows will make them bi for more romance possibilities
Imagine if they kept the whole thing with Mona up until season 2 but then from s3 the new A is the N.A.T. Club led by Ezra. How iconic would it have been to have a character who we know from day 1 is a creep but then are being manipulated into seeing as a romantic sweet guy actually ending up the big bad? Like the writers literally would have told us from day one but we let ourselves be tricked and then, plot twist. Members include Wren, Wilden and any other known creep. The whole thing escalated from being a creepy stalking club to them basically filming a fucked up reality show aired online. That would work so well with things like the dollhouse episode. Like how messed up would it have been to have that entire thing, them being tortured like that filmed for an online audience? They blackmail members all around the town to help them since they have dirt on everyone via the videos. Some of them come through in the end and help the liars e.g. Lucas, maybe Melissa. Jason did start the club but it was more about spying on his family because they have been gaslighting him for years about one of his first memories ever. He leaves the „Charles“ clue somewhere for the girls to find, giving them the hints to start asking about him and making their way to Jason who would then expose the club. They could even still have the twist with CeCe, but her story isn‘t as convoluted and she isn‘t the bad guy, she actually helps the girls. That way we‘d get rid of that awful trans representation and actually maybe get some decent rep. The person who hits Alison with a rock is a member of the club and Jessica doesn‘t witness it, Alison doesn‘t get buried alive she is left there by her almost killer. She still lives, meets Mona and runs away. Mona by this point is on the liars side. I don‘t know what I‘d do with Alison (and I do love her being A but the Ezra as A theory I have a soft spot for) I also have two possible stories for Aria. 1) either we had gotten our Aria as A plot because by this point she had been manipulated by Ezra so hard she started helping him 2) Ezra had told her about the club by s2 thinking in his own delusion she‘d be on board (not about him being A since by that point Mona would still be A, the N.A.T club being A was something that happens later being inspired by the first A and basically being an escalation because „just peeping“ on girls wasn‘t a big enough thrill anymore, so them terrorizing the girls for clicks is something that happens only from s3 on) mid s1 when Noel sees them and confronts her she still protects Ezra but around s2 after she finds out about the club she actually confides in him not only about the relationship but about the club. From that point on her and Noel work undercover to take down Ezra, in s3 they don‘t immediately connect the club to A because why should they. Around s4 they start suspecting a connection. That would explain Aria being as shady as she sometimes is and seeming like she knows more than the others because she does. In the end we have a huge fallout bc the club being exposed leads to a whole chain reaction of everyone involved getting arrested, Melissa getting in trouble for burying the body, which ofc someone caught on tape, Jenna going to jail for being a sex offender, etc. Is this a perfect theory? No. Is this still better than what the show did? Obviously. Because in my theory there is no „eLlO sIsTaHhH“
Hey Serena, just want to say that I've loved your growth on camera. You're a natural but you can definitely see how confident and outgoing you've become. Also I absolutely adore your top, you look stunning!
This was a great video. I read these books years ago before the show and had re-read them multiple times when Sara Shepard continued the story when the show came out and afterwards. My favorite relationship was definitely Aria and Noel because of Noel’s character in the books. The way he was written in the show upset me so much because of this I remember being so excited when him and Aria were hinted at in the first season of the show and then immediately thrown away for her and Ezra to continue. Ew. I did however find Aria to be a little annoying with their relationship at times like she didn’t always trust him and made him out to be the bad guy while other times she felt he could do no wrong and lashed out at the rest of the girls when taking his side. The other relationship I liked was actually Hanna’s and Mike’s. I did like Lucas and felt, like you said, that they had an emotional connection and I think a lot of that had to do with them being friends first. The reason I liked Mike with Hanna though is because he was very similar to her so even though he was less mature because he was younger and a guy he still valued popularity and didn’t judge her for valuing that as well the way Lucas did. Even though her obsession about it was very annoying at times throughout the book the way she was treated by Alison and Kate living in both their shadows as well as in the first few books also kind of feeling as though she is also in the shadow of her mother a bit the obsession with popularity makes sense and isn’t something she can change that easily, similarly to her ED which doesn’t go away right away like in the show because people that actually go through that don’t just magically get better and never think about it again. Back to Mike, he is shown to be the opposite of Aria, a jock and popular and less mature but for example when him and Hanna break up and even when mentioned by Aria and Hanna throughout the books there is a soft side to him that plays up the inappropriate guy banter when around his peers which Hanna and Aria know, hence the eye rolls from Aria all the time. I also think it plays really well into the relationship between Noel and Mike who I believe to have had the healthiest and reliable friendship in both the books and the show. Mike is younger and idolizes Noel for his popularity and lifestyle and the way other people see him. It is said in the flashbacks that Noel was very much a ladies man and seems to be kind of a jerk and in line of a guy that is more suitable for a girl which Alison’s reputation. This changes when he begins to pursue Aria and we learn more about him. Mike isn’t rich the way he is, he doesn’t have the reputation he and his brothers (Noel’s brothers) do and so he tends to mirror a teenage boy version of what the girls were like when trying to impress Alison. When him and Hanna broke up, he became suspicious about Hanna cheating with Sean, and suspicious about A being back and wanting to protect Hanna regardless of what would happen to him he showed a more sincere side to himself that we didn’t get too much details of though it was implied in some books. I think part of the reason he is given characteristics that are so much more immature is not only because he is kind of playing the part but also because he is Aria’s younger brother and there is several times throughout the books, even in the flashback that mentions Mike and Hanna the first time, that emphasizes that he is younger despite the fact that it’s only one year difference. We not only see him from Hanna’s POV but for a large part of the beginning series we see him through Aria’s as the annoying little brother and her the older, wiser, more sophisticated sibling.
Honestly something that always makes me feel weird is when shows have everyone or most people end up with their highschool sweethearts. Cause I only know one couple who is together who dated in highschool and they broke up for years before getting back together. I know two people who married their highschool sweethearts and both of those couples got a divorce within a year. Idk if this is more common or normal in the US but for me is just so bizarre since I haven't talked to anyone I dated in highschool since, well, I left highschool I do get that if you're writing a show or a book is easier to keep the characters that people are already invested rather than create new characters but it just feels weirdly unrealistic for me
what they did with jenna’s character was pure misogyny. they turn a purehearted victim of bullying AND sa into a mean girl, rapist and bully? i feel like they did it because they wanted to make the liars more redeemable but i hated how the kindest character in the books was a main villain in the tv show.
Nah. Men can be victims too - and even though the show obliviously switched it to make Toby stay in the show bc he was hot and shit and not for a good reason - it is the only piece of media I’ve seen where a man is a victim of abuse. I loved mean girl Jenna also. The fear she commanded among the liars is iconic.
@@isabelas3353 yes, men can be victims but switching a traumatic story around for fan service is beyond disgusting. they could’ve made toby a victim without making jenna a bully, which they were intending to do even before they switched the roles. jenna was always mean in the show, but never in the books. i hated that. they could’ve added in a plotline of toby getting molested and going on to do the same to jenna if what they wanted was to show men could be victims, but clearly it wasn’t since they never talked about it again.
@@delenas mean girl Jenna >>>>> Also, the show handled nothing traumatic well; Hannah's body issues, Spencer's drug issues, Ezra being a pedo, etc. Its crazy to expect the show to handle the abuser twist well when they did a shitty job with everything else. the show just wanted hot guys and drama period. Nah also ur last idea is shitty and portrays male victims in a horrible light.
@@isabelas3353 there’s a difference between an issue being handled badly and dismissed, they didn’t even care to try with toby’s sa. and no it doesn’t, that happens in real life so.. i preferred sweet jenna over a rapist.
I absolutely hate how they villaified every character who was rightfully against the predator teacher relationship in the show😡 its so gross how much they romanticised and glorified aria and ezra 😷
You're totally right, I don't know why Hollywood likes to make relationships between underage people with people older than them that has power over them. For example in Teen Wolf I think it's season four, there's this sexual tension between a cop who is probably 25 or 26 in the show and one of the main characters which is like 16, but I forgot she was she was 16 in the show because she was played by an older actress (maybe the actress was like 25) so the first time I saw them I was like "wow they look really cute I hope they end up together" but then I realized, she was under-age, she was probably 10 years younger than him and it doesn't look bad because because when you see them they look cute (because she doesn't looks young) it's not that creepy because you're watching two people with the same age falling in love and it's like okay fine I don't have a problem but if we actually saw a sixteen-year-old girl or fifteen-year-old girl with her teacher, or with a cop, with someone that has power over them it would be really creepy, and nerve-racking and I think we actually need to stop giving attention and love to those kind of plots because it's really cheap, it's really cringey, it's overused and it's so wrong.
And ironically, Teen Wolf had had a relationship between a teenage boy and an older woman (Derek and Kate Argent) depicted as the grooming it was (she literally seduced him in order to ambush and kill him and his family).
Part 2 is up! ruclips.net/video/WcHFsFlHQDQ/видео.html
yayy
The fact that Ezra ends up in jail in the books already makes them better 😆
frr
YES ! I wished we would have seen Ezra sent to jail in the show !!
Cool
I hated his character not Just is he a pedophile he also stalked the liars and pushed I think it was Emily with her Head against a table she could have died
And they forgave him
He should be in prison for
statutory rape,Stalking and Attempt murder
But he never got in jail in fact ended up with his victim
Love that for him
No Way!!!! I wanted that to happen in the show but great to hear it happened in the books
At least with the books we aren’t haunted by “Ello sistAh”
This is my favourite comment.
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
💀
the first thing my sleep paralysis demon says to me 💀
@@astoldbynickgerr 😭💀
Can I just say that Book Noel Kahn was the love of my life? And that I hated what they did to his character in the show? And that I'll never forgive the writers for sacrificing him and Aria's super cute relationship so that she could end up with her predator ass teacher?
RIGHT?! Like I genuinely HAAAATE Ezria!!! And I HATE how Hollywood creates shows that PUSH these sort of inappropriate relationships?! It is disgusting!
OMG ME TOO I HATE EZRA SO SO MUCH I KEPT HOPING A WOULD KILL HIM
SO TRUE!!! justice for Noel Kahn he was a KING in the books
@I'm So Tired i think wren is supposed to be aeound melissa's age - so mid-late 20s? yeah, it's still weird.
Ive never read the books but this is one of my favorite shows and i hate to say it but i love aria and ezras relationship but knowing now that Noel was actually cool in the books and everything, i think that also would have been so cute!! 🥺🥺
I feel like Mona being kept alive in the show had a lot to do with Janel Parrish excelling at the role similar to how Troian Bellisario’s acting skills led to Spencer taking center stage in the later seasons. I can’t imagine how the series would have played out if she had been killed off in the season 2 finale.
same omg so much wasted potential
With that being said, i think mona had to die in the books. With all that we were given, if mona stayed alive, she would have to be put so far in the back burner, they wouldn’t be able to do her any justice at all
@@ladysnowsu10 mona was a literal psycho i don’t think she deserved redemption in the books or the show, she outed emily and that’s unforgivable
@@delenas She did much much worse than just outing Emily, honey
@@Izzy-hb4ij maybe in your opinion, but my opinion is that it was the worst thing she did as A and shouldn't have been redeemed. i just think they could've done anything with her character rather than redeeming her or killing her off
The real villain of the show was I. Marlene King. The fact that she straight up destroyed a character to keep her favorite relationship going says something. Keeping Ezra with Aria was completely inappropriate. Especially when it was revealed that Ezra knew who Aria was before they even met. Meaning he knew she was underage. How could she, as a mother, continue to root for such an inappropriate relationship?
i actually liked and enjoyed noel and aria. it always broke me seeing her choose that creep every time i rewatch. ugh.
@@Lara-we1ww I liked Jason and aria but still, that was inappropriate, maybe if Aria had turned 18 it would've been better.
The best part about the books is that it shows what bad people the girls really are. And how they do many more bad things for less understandable reasons than in the show. The books also highlights how the parents are very uninterested and not at all concerned with all the weird things A is putting them through. So, the books are better at the drama and the bs the girls get themselves into.
YESSS they didn’t try and justify them either with some halfass excuses
@@caramaeve They do get better as the series goes on but I think she did a pretty good job of showing how bad their actions are and their effects on others
the parents being uninterested isn't necessarily a scored point though
Imagine If the Allison that was alive and comeback on the show was actually Courtney, and that's why she was so different from the Allison we saw in flashbacks and she was actually running from the real Allison that would be revealed to be Uber A. Just imagine that...
Yes I definitely would had loved for that to have happened 😊🤗
Yeah, it would be a much better story than the one with Spencer’s twin
omg i would’ve loved that
OMG that makes so much sense kfkskdksks it was a stark ass contrast
A twist on top of the twist. I like where your heads at.
Also Emily's parents in the book were racist and hated Maya
Right! N i liked that emily noticed their racism too
What race were Emily and her family in the book?
@@cheyenne9393 Emily's family was white and of Irish descent.
@@kianabennett6858 thats funny bc shay Mitchell’s dad irl is irish
@@alicem1961 oh really? I thought she was just Filipino.
Aria and Noel date? Hanna and Lucas also date? And Maya's not dead? I really have to read the books now.
do it!!
aria and noel date and they are wonderful together and noel teaches her how to swim bc he's lovely :(
@@jademerrick8758 istg book noel was a beautiful soul that was wasted in the show :(
And Hannah and Mike date…and they are amazing
lucas is cooler, he was rly popular and had a crush on hanna back before her makeover so ali got jealous and spread a rumour about him i think lol. caleb doesnt exist in the books
I read these books in middle school and was TERRIFIED that they were an accurate depiction of high school lol
Except the whole thing of someone trying to get them and the twin murder thing
@@audreynothepburn7663 it was #relatable tbh/j
sorry for the random question but what book in the series are you meant to read first?
@@silviazakir3899 Pretty Little Liars is the first book
Alison having a twin would have made so much more sense in the show. The Alison-Courtney storyline was such a central part of the book series and I was disappointed they skipped it on the show.
It was honestly one of the best plot twists I have ever read. I remember gasping while reading that in middle school. The show missed out on the best reveal
I liked how in the books the girls aren't as close as they are in the show, which makes sense since it picks up 3 years after Ali's disappearance and Aria was gone that whole time. It makes A even scarier because the girls don't have each other to lean on and are much more isolated and vulnerable. It also just adds to Ali's power - she was the center of the group and once she was gone the group fell apart
I was skeptical of the girls’ dynamic at first. I loved their show friendship so much and didn’t want to “ruin it” in my mind. But I sooo much prefer it in the books. It’s like a slow-burn friendship where they actually have to deal with their Ali trauma before trusting and loving each other.
Hanna in the last book saying she wanted Aria, Emily, and Spencer as her bridesmaids BROKE ME
The show should’ve done it where season 1-early season 3 them being close because A and when A is caught they drifted apart until season 4
I agree wholeheartedly. Them having to grow in to being best friends and training each other again was actually so intersting to read.
As a blue-eyed, freckled, bisexual redhead with abusive parents...I'm really resonating with book Emily.
Omg this hit too close to home for me, too… looks like I’ll be reading the books👀
wait-
me too
Same
I liked the part where Mona found Ali’s old diary and that’s the reason why she knows all of their secrets. Makes a lot more sense that way.
I mean... that's the same in the show.
Bi eraser in media is much more common than you’d think. Shows often make bi characters just gay or lesbian or just straight when adapting from books. It sucks, there’s not much good examples in media of bi people.
Ironically though, I don’t think it was meant as malicious, but the writer/creator/director (Marline King, forget what she was, but I think she was the main gal) is gay and I think she changed Emily to being gay to show that representation (which obviously I agree Bi characters should be shown more shows, but I think showing a woman of color as a gay woman in a role not dying and such, it’s still meaningful). Also, I (having read most the books) know she’s 80% woman and 20% men in her sexuality, since she only seems attracted to one and she knew she was gay in middle school.
But I think it’s sad we never got other LGBTQA+ characters in a positive light.
@@adamsmoberly saying 80% women and 20% men is just a really weird, mildly biphobic way of describing a bisexual person with a preference for the same-sex. a lot of bisexual people may think they're straight or gay initially, either bc they don't know bisexuality exists and think it's normal or weird to be looking at the same-sex in that way, or bc subconciously or otherwise, they just believe that it's easier to say one or the other. some ppl might be comfortable w describing it that way but idk, to me it's just a bit weird.
@@leilanyx I want to preface by saying that I am not bi and so my personal opinion doesn't really matter but I have definitely heard bi individuals describe themselves and 80/20 or lady-leaning, etc. So I don't know that it's an inherently biphobic way of describing someone. I think it will more depend on the person and the context, etc.
@@leilanyx Sorry I don’t clarify that in a nicer way. I meant she seems attracted to woman more than men, even though she has had romantic relations with a man (and dated a bad one, but we barely see how that came to be), so I was trying to create a visual that I guess I didn’t think about being offensive. I’m Pan, so I do understand why that is fucked up to say in hindsight, but I didn’t mean it in a way ti diminish her sexuality.
@@adamsmoberly I’m just saying this kind of thing happens a lot whether the creator had good intentions or not.
I feel the confusion with Mike and Hanna romantically is because it isn’t made painfully clear. Mike and Hanna are very much alike. They both have these personas they play into around their peers in order to fit in. Mike’s perverted nature is how he appears approachable to his teenage boy friends, yet it is shown in fleeting moments that Mike isn’t all that perverted, he just does it to fit in because he’s desperate. He spent years in Iceland being an outsider and was willing to do anything to be “one of the boys”. This lines up perfectly with Hanna’s obsession with popularity. The fact that they get to “unwind” or “be themselves” around each other is what makes them, them. Its just hard to tell because Mike is constantly going back and forth even in private with his pervy jokes, but i think its supposed to be seen as even more of a joke because we’re supposed to know that Mike just really loves Hanna and is a respectful dude in their relationship.
love this!
Huh, I like this better than my own. (Note: I only read the first couple of books years ago and just read the back covers over the years and only watch 2/3 episodes till i got annoyed from the description of the characters that were different). I was thinking that Hanna felt that she didn’t deserve to be happy with everything that happened to her and never gotten the help she desperately needed to talk and process it all that she ended up with someone who isn’t good for her because she felt that she deserved that.
I totally relate to the whole being thrown off by the show character images, I'd REFUSE to believe Spencer had blonde hair and Hanna had brunette hair.
Personally i didn't care about that, i still pictured them as they are in the show, otherwise i'd end up with a headache.
It was the opposite for me: I read the first couple of books first then saw the characters from the show and that threw me off
It's weird at first but then it kinda makes sense in a way because the books make a point of how Alison & Spencer were competitive towards each other and them looking so much alike plays its part in their rivalry.
oh god ikr I watched the show and then read the books and it's a bit weird imagining hanna as a brunette like idk I feel like the blonde hair really suits. I can kind of see spencer as a blonde
Mona is also blonde in the books which makes a lot of sense too.
Mona, Spencer, Alison are all all american queen bee material and they all kinda fight for number 1 place.
the girls in the books making so many bad choices with so many CONSEQUENCES and people whose lives have been irreparably damaged was one of my favourite aspects of the books and why the premise works so much better there than in the series. because it's like. the girls in the show never really do anything WRONG. ofc the treatment from A is gonna be unwarranted either way, the fact that so much of the motive driving each A in the show is so weak and paper-thin because the girls never did /shit/ makes it all soooo less compelling. we still root for these girls. we understand them, they're also just .... kind of vapid and mean and disgustingly rich and never own up to their actions, so we also understand A too. and that is so LOST in the show, and I'll forever be mad about it.
Yes!!!The whole point of them being called pretty little liars is that they lie and A blackmails them until they start to improve their behavior and become better people and win over A!
Why do they have to be bad people though?
@@sarahwagschal7382 so they can improve.
I love Ali's pretty little lies. It also brings light to Alison's and Aria's relationship and shows that Alison wanted Aria to be her friend and was pissed that Aria didn't pay this much attention to her. In the show they really erased that in order to show that Spencer was the one who stood up. But the tv adaptation is actually the Spencer Show, so. Btw great hair.
Oh I loved that book! I think it was my favourite in the book series.
I love how that book shows that "Ali" was genuinely hurt when Aria didn't confide in her. It also mentioned how sometimes when Aria was being distant "Ali" would fight for her attention and affection.
It’s definitely the best book it’s good to read from her perspective
@@hannahogilvie4839 are you talking about Alison's diary book or something from her perspective? (I haven't read the extras yet)
@@mirleemx it’s from her perspective
I liked the characters in the book a lot more. They have flaws like real people and their actions have weight and consequences. I also like details that they put in with the girls. Like how Hannah is a closet theatre nerd and how Emily is bisexual. The girls’ home lives also seem to have impact on their personalities, like how Spencer is constantly being the best at everything, but she never feels that she’s good enough because her parents compare everything she does to Melissa and how much better Melissa is. Emily has a lot of anxiety (which I related to a lot as a closet bisexual) and her parents were so strict that she was afraid to do anything. Hanna looks for approval in other people who are toxic to her with Allison, Mona, Mike, Kate a little in the beginning because her parents feel so distant in her life. Aria seems to have a messed up sense of relationships and trust, since her dad made her keep this secret affair from her mom for 4 years, her mom kicking her out because of it, and her brother treating her like garbage after she’d been kicked out.
frr!!!
Her mom kicked her out in the books whattt ??!!! The books seems so much better
@@annastrausz2045 the books go hard. Emily dates this guy and his mom sabotages their relationship.
@@annastrausz2045 everything in the books is better
Wait how was Mike toxic to Hanna? Did I miss something? 😅
These books had high school me in a CHOKEHOLD. I wish the show would have followed them more closely.
Marlene king definitely should had used much more plotlines from the books but no she decided to .
Do shock value then create great storylines in the show 🤯😡🤬
@@erlandsvedmansundberg7940 the jamaica plot line was hilariously intense, i wish we could have seen it in the show
sorry for the random question but what book in the series are you meant to read first?
@@silviazakir3899 The first book is just called Pretty Little Liars. There's a prequel (Ali's Pretty Little Lies) but it's spoiler-heavy, so I wouldn't read it until you've read all the way through the main series.
Aria and Noel were my favourite thing about the PLL books! They had such an unproblematic, healthy relationship that was so well developed. Noel was so kind and loving towards Aria in the books, so it was hard to watch him as a villain in the show. Also Ezra’s arc in the books is exactly what should have happened to him. He was a predator who preyed on Aria’s naivety and him going to jail was the perfect resolve. It’s such a shame they tried to romanticise their relationship in the show when it’s just creepy lmao
I haven’t watched the show in years and it’s so creepy to look back now and see how I was manipulated to think that Aria’s relationship with Ezra was cute and mature and that they were such a hopeless romantic couple… I’m 17 now and realizing how the whole thing is creepy and just wrong…. Especially when I remember how old she was when they met 🤢🤢 scary how I watched it and loved their relationship when I was so young …
Lmfao same except now I’m 26
Same like Ezra should have went to jail-
ikr I shipped them so much when I was 11/12 and now im rewatching it and I cringe every time they kiss ughhh
Haven’t watched the video yet, but Sara Shepard just announced she’s working on more PLL books, where the girls are grown up ☺️
SOURCE??? If this is real I might literally cry
@@jodiethewriter she posted it on her instagram story! Idk if it’s still up, but she did earlier!!
@@alisondilaurentis2566 Oh my God, I've literally been reading these books since I was eight years old, way before the show ever came out. I already know I'm gonna be in line at my local bookstore to get a copy on the day it comes out
NO WAY????
Idk how to feel abt this tbh 😅
Like on one hand im soo excited i need more pll in my life
But at the same time its like, how much more are these girls gonna go thru?? What else is alison gonna do to them?? Is that woman not tired??
Alison has truly become the michael myers of the pll books like that bitch just doesnt give UPPP
One thing about the books I will never forget : HORRIBLE, TERRIFIC PARENTS. They are even worst than the parents in the show. You are so lovely with this hairstyle 🧡.
In the books Courtney even tells her mother her twin is threatening her life and her mom is like “shush child here’s some Diamond earrings now shut up” and then the same night her twin kills her and her mom is like “oops”
@@Alex2468ful and she even covers up for alison despite the fact she killed her sister aka mrs dilaurentis’s daughter..
the only parent I liked what Hanna's mother. She literally came back from Singapore and kicked out Hanna's father after finding her SENT HER to a MENTAL INSTITUTION.
I think Aria's parents were the worst! How do you kick out your 16 year old daughter for something that wasn't even her fault?!
@@kianabennett6858 Aria and Hannah parents are the worst. But Spencer parents were so disgusting as well, all the parents were abusive as hell. It is so difficult to choose the worst parents.
i actually really liked the recurring A giggle! after a while i kinda figured it was mostly in the girls heads and kind of a literary symbol for their connection since no one else but them can hear it. it’s not the most nuanced or artsy thing but i think it fit the books
I feel really bad for Mona in the books. The flashbacks of her getting humiliated and bullied by "Alison" are so heartbreaking, and she literally got burned in the Jenna Thing but nobody believed her when she said "Ali" did it :( Doesn't justify her actions as A, but I can see how she got to that point more than in the series
I live for bisexual Emily in the books tbh. The bi erasure POPPED out in the tv show. Also it sucks Emily ended up with Alison her literal BULLY in the show
I never fully get this complaint about bisexual erasure. She was bi in the books and that should be respected, but most characters in the media who call themselves "lesbian" are actually bi. So there is no shortage of bi characters, they're just not calling themselves bisexual.
The mystery was hands down handled better in the books, plus they left out the time capsule and the main reason Ali hated the girls entirely. I wish they would have kept the book plot as far as the mystery. It was so well thought out regardless of the questionable writing skill lol
I also thought the girls were a little clueless. Like, they really thought Billy the construction worker was A? Seriously? And they jumped to strange conclusions too much. Aria even ratted out Spencer at some point.
I thought it was realistic in that way. I hate how teen mystery shows nowadays depict all these high school characters as basically being on the same intellectual level as the FBI. Real teens wouldn't know wtf was going on or what to do or who to trust and would probably only piece the puzzle together with a whole lot of luck.
Yeah, I love that in some shows! It could have worked. I guess just because it was a mystery I wished they’d pick up on things faster. It was more just the writing in general.
It's so disturbing that they had the source material telling them Ezra is a creep and criminal, yet they choose to promote that ILLEGAL activity as romantic. yikes
One of my favorite things about the book series is that the girls actually GO TO THE POLICE!!!! Even if they’re threatened they always try to talk to law enforcement first, which makes so much more sense than the girls in the show refusing to at all (or only talking to Garrett 🙄). I also like that they showed why they had to be secretive/careful with A - like when Emily told Wilden about the texts & then A outed emily at her swim meet! It showed that they tried to get help but couldn’t rely on the police all the time due to the consequences.
Also, am I the only one who really liked the Aria & Sean side plots? Lol 😭 I loved how gentle he was with her when she was dealing with her dad leaving, & it was nice how open their conversations were with each other (her sharing when she lost her virginity, Sean talking to her about how he’s unsure if he wants to wait, talking about their parents).
I liked the way Hanna's self-esteem issues are handled in the book. In her chapters you can see how badly she tears herself down, but in everyone else's chapters, you can see how beautiful she is to them. Also, I liked how there were clues in the earliest few books about the twists much later in the book series. I had to go back and re-read the opening of one of the books just to double check the details that I had missed.
Spencer’s relationship with her gay stepbrother was SO BAD LMAO I FORGOT ABOUT THAT
Also I think the books constant need to have men be predatory is just its dramatic way of saying “stay away from older men! Them wanting you is gross!”(but also not really because Spencer and Wren). I can’t count how many older men have made passes at me and then seemingly didnt care when I told them I was a minor. Reading these books as a tween/teen helped me see that grown men wanting me wasn’t flattering. I never had that type of conversation with my parents and I think without the books, I probably would have been a victim, so I appreciate it
Not only did they have her marry her teacher but they gave Noel the craziest and wildest death in the entire show.
I don't understand why they make so many changes in adaptations. They must have liked enough about a book to want to turn it into a show, yet they get rid of many of the elements, so it almost feels like a completely different story. It's also a massive risk, considering the first people who would be interested will be fans of the book, who might not like the changes.
I’m curious to know if you’ve seen all those Tik Toks created by the girl who played Alisons stunt double on the show. She says she was Alison’s double and also played red coat and the black window and confirmed that they were all supposed to be Alison and she was originally A!
Ugh so why did they change it?
@@Kerenscardi from what I’ve gathered, because the writers (or maybe it was the show runner??) wanted to be this huge reveal that “”no one saw coming”” so they changed because so many people had already figured it out- which is stupid, IMO. The whole point of a mystery show is to try and solve it yourself lol.
**This is all speculation of course, but it seems like the most likely answer
@@NeonSparkels3867 ugh that is dumb! None of the actual As made sense to me (either that or they had crap motives in my opinion) if you’re gonna do a twist “no one will see coming” at least make it a good if not better one 🙄
@@Kerenscardi to me it kind of had sense that Mona was A and it was handled great. Pretty unexpected and dramatic. But yeah that sucks and also Aria had a lot of potential for being evil
@@fatbitch7168 the lengths she went to to get back at the friends of someone who picked on her in high school felt a little extreme to me though the whole mental illness aspect made it a little more understandable to me Jenna had way more of a reason to be the main A (I think she was a backup or something? Lol never really understood her part in the whole A team thing) would have been great to see her be the main person behind everything, Hannah would’ve been good, Melissa, Ezra, Ian ugh I think I could think of one for every season that would’ve been better than what we got! Lol I didn’t mind the CeeCee reveal and thought it would be a good opportunity-to get to know and explore her character and backstory but of course they killed her off two episodes later! Lol what was the point then?! Geez! Lol
Why does it seem like the creators read the spark notes version of the series and then went " okay I forgot about 80% of what that was so let's write the script! "
That’s for EVERY adaptation (I’m excusing Riverdale for a few things because it was based on the comics and most of the stories were short so they had lots of liberties for it- still don’t like it except the first one) but anything that has a plot/story to follow can have some liberties (depending if they can air it, but since streaming is a thing now, they execs can get darker with it. Hopefully there’ll be a better adaptation and can follow/fix some issues the book has and make it better that the book/show).
Marlene King really dropped the ball with the show.
No wonder everyone abandoned her when she did the Perfectionists.
Please make sure u read the Alison book called Ali’s pretty little lie. It perfectly explains the whole mental hospital situation between Allison and Courtney
🥰
I absolutely adore the books, they're amazing in so many ways. I'm completely obsessed with the prequel Ali's Pretty Little Lies.
i love it too
my favorite thing about the books is the aura of distrust it creates about pretty much every single character ever except the girls. it's way more interesting to me than the show in that sense and I think everything about twins was handled 10000x better than in the show. so glad you're talking about the books! they were the popular books of the year when i was in sixth grade
Honestly, Emily was my favourite character in the books because I genuinely felt as though she had the most development out of all the girls and you could see that especially towards the end of the series.
Simmm
I personally get grossed out with the predator relationships in the show which is one of the reasons I love cruel summer so much they make the relationship something that is supposed to be disturbing not “cute” and call out the fact that it is grooming and not to be romanticized unlike pretty little liars where they are contributing to the problem.
Yeaaaah Cruel Summer made me realize what was really happening with Aria and Ezra and it makes me furious fucking Marlene kept them a thing the whole series.
exactly exactly
Love Cruel Summer!
I don't know anything about Pretty Little Liars, but I'm so invested in this series of videos LOL
hahah 😅
I read the first arc of the book series (the first four) and I got kinda disappointed because Mona’s reasons actually make sense in the book (her friendship with Jenna) and I wish they kept that in the show, especially because on season 2 Halloween episode, Mona and Jenna kinda befriend, so they could’ve kept the book’s storyline and it would make much more sense than Mona doing it because of Hanna “betraying” her by being friends with the girls again when this happened after (and because of) Mona started threatening them.
I'll admit, I was very disappointed that the show didn't feature the Alison/Courtney plot. Like when they revealed that Alison wasn't dead and that she just skipped town, I was sure that she was Courtney and that real Alison was A and I was excited because I thought they were doing that plotline but with a twist of Courtney being alive and being the 5th liar. Charlotte attacking Mona made me believe it even more because of the blonde hair. Then Cece is revealed to be Charlotte and that theory died and my hope along with it. Then after Alex kidnaps Hanna, the girls receive a text from an A.D. and it revives my hope that it's Alison once again. Then we get Alex's reveal and I am once again disappointed. The books handle Alison soooo much better than the show. She's a much better A than both Charlotte and Alex combined.
Serena you are giving us premium PLL CONTENT! 👏🏽 i read all the books, yes some of it was far fetched like Emily hiding a pregnancy 🤰🏽 but the courtney villain was much better. Also Sara Shepard’s other books are amazing especially influence & the amateurs
I feel like they should've sent Ezra to jail in the show in season one lol, I bet if Ezra didn't have a "attractive" actor they wouldn't keep him.
I absolutely hate the treatment of Andrew Campbell in the show because he was in the A team for no reason, and his relationship with spencer is so underdeveloped. In the books he has much more development with Spencer and it was better because they have always been competing with each other academically and it would seem fit that they end up together.
Ezra a creep that is the right way it should be portrayed
i’ve only read the first book (i’m waiting to get the others from the library) but i really liked the focus on the girls and what their lives are like after alison, rather than the show which very quickly became about A and the secrets and solving the mystery. Not that i don’t like the focus on A in the show, i just wish that we got to see more of the girls lives outside of A and the other girls to really feel how A changed their lives for the worse.
Okay idk if I've seen anyone talk about this yet, but it was incredibly messed up that Maya was caught and sent to rehab for smoking weed when she was the only BIPOC representation on the show...the fact that is was specifically weed seemed very implicitly racist to me. Maya was basically the only POC besides Emily for the first few seasons, and she dies so early into the show (I don't know if this is apart of the book or not?). I loved the show growing up but is definitely a reflection of how representation was severely lacking in the 2010s, and unfortunately still is now with film and tv. The show is extremely white, even with the POC characters they are almost ALWAYS mixed or very lightskinned. There were literally no characters that I can think of that did not have any white in them...
P.S. also the scene where Allison visits Toby in juvy is RIDICULOUS! It actually made me laugh out loud because Toby was wearing a durag and was talking in slang I think? it was just a very weird scene and they were so clearly trying to make him look like he was in prison with things stereotypically associated with black people. So bad.
maya doesn’t die in the books, her and emily just break up (maybe the third book?) and the storyline with her cousin nate doesn’t exist at all. i’m pretty sure the weed storyline doesn’t happen either but it’s been like 10 years since i read the books, i assume it was meant to be a replacement for emily getting sent away in the books. its so dumb they killed maya in the show, she was the only decent love interest emily had.
In the book it showed Emilys parents being racist to Maya which I think was a very important topic to talk about especially since the readers were so young.
Also them killing maya off did NOTHING to the plot, it was so weird.
Durag toby is my sleep paralysis demon. Why they did that, I will never understand.
That durag Toby was wearing made me fall out of my chair laughing
oh god the giggle. I seem to remember the scent of vanilla soap also being an A-radar lmao
I was literally so confused when I watched the show then read the books then realized the show was completely not the same and didn't even follow the books.
Yeah me to Marlene made a terrible decision on not following the books .
Just like what dan and dave did with game of thrones
Serena's commentary about Pretty Little Liars is WAY better than the books or series.
Fr tho haven’t event watched the show but so far have watched 3 of her videos talking about the show
The original ending was the eight book and I feel like that was the best ending. The girls had finally become better people and solved the mystery. IMO having another 8 books was unnecessary and retconned their development
🌟 Estoy de acuerdo, ese final me pareció mejor y podría haber cerrado todo pero los otros libros fueron innecesarios porque el final era muy predecible 🙄 XOXO desde #Ecuador🇪🇨🙋🏻♂️
the storylines in the second half of the books were amazing and added so much to the series, i couldn't imagine book 8 being the final book. the series definitely feels complete with 16 books.
@@asdzxcx3686 I feel like it regressed their character development for them to start lying again and doing bad things again when the 8th book finished with them learning to do better and relying on each other rather than this imaginary figure of Allison
Also the Pretty little lie’s book written from Alison!!! Oh my god, amazing to read a book in this perspective & learn more about why she is such an evil and manipulative liar!
When I first started reading the books, I wasn’t sure if I’d read them all, just cause there were so many and I had a lot going on. But there was a moment in one of the early books where I knew I had to read all of them.
It’s when Emily and Maya win best couple for the yearbook, and they have to go in and get their picture taken. They see the full-page spread for Ali, with a picture of her as a little girl and Maya asks Emily who it is. Emily’s a little taken aback, and she kinda goes “it’s Ali, obviously” and Maya says she didn’t recognize her. That’s when I knew Sara Shepherd had it PLANNED OUT. She knew how to drop FORESHADOWING.
Also ps: Maya being the only of Emily’s exes to cry at her “funeral” killed me😪
I want to know so bad why Mona got so close with Hanna but then betrayed her, but had a few scenes with Spencer and wanted to team up! In the books they have more scenes but also not that many!
Another good detail is that Mona also has some fire damage on her belly/ripcage area. That's why she's even angrier about the whole Jenna thing.
AND Ali and Jenna set up the firework plan! Jenna wanted to get rit of Toby. Their parents would send him somewhere if he'd use fireworks again. BUT that all backfired of course. Still, Jenna didn't blame Alison! But that bish still used the event to control the liars.
Personally even though it is a drastic, not handled well change, I am glad they turned Jenna into a female abuser, just because I think there is a lack of awareness that it can go the other way around as well... I remember in middle school, a policeman came in to talk about his job, he talked about abusive relationships and one kid in my class asked if it could also be the other way around and if so if he had any. The way he described what happened and how the man looked like, is in hindsight pretty disgusting and sad as men as the victim in these cases are often belittled ehich he did as well...
So I am glad they at least touched upon it in the show, even though it could and should have been handled a lot better...
I used to curl up in the corner of our local library to read these books. Partly because I had a late book fee I couldn’t afford, and partly because I just loved being there reading these books. You’re totally right about it being hard to get over the difference in appearances between the books and the TV show
i ALWAYS found it weird that the shows just... erased half of wren's heritage (despite the fact i still dislike him).
I am happy that show actually kept Toby. He and Caleb are my favourites
All the characters were much more interesting in the books than the show. Also love the outfit😍
thanks!!
There were several moments in the books where I disliked each and every one of the girls and I preferred it that way than to the show because they were liars and I expected it. In the show they had an issue each for like the whole season that they dealt with and then it wasn’t an issue anymore or they overcame it and they were relatable. But the years that they were friends with, manipulated by and complicit with Alison didn’t go away in the books. The books showed that they really were pretty little liars and they didn’t just grow out of it because their friend suddenly died and they grew apart. In the books they all had lasting issues that were patterns that got them in trouble time and time again. Overall, Emily was better in the books though I hated how insistent she was when it came to Alison and then the twin every time though Shepard wrote the ending to close that really well and made it work in Emily’s favor character wise. Show Emily was boring even when in the group I always ignored her. Maya should’ve lasted longer than she did and that relationship should’ve too. Aria I liked better in the books she isn’t as stupid (choosing Noel over Ezra), she has more of a backbone and is just better written. Show Aria was too attached to Ezra and I hated him. It also made her pretty boring. Also she didn’t go through as much in the show which was more suspicious. I liked show Hanna better as a person not as a character who would have gone through basically the worst treatment from Alison as well as one of the worst family relationships. I also liked the addition of Caleb’s character though I wasn’t crazy about it towards the end. Again, I feel like this relationship began to be too much of an attachment like Aria and Ezra’s. Spencer I liked pretty much equally. In the books she definitely has the worst family and it shows the extent of issues she has and why she continues her mess of relationships and competitiveness. In the show they touch on these things as well but they don’t go nearly as hard but Spencer rises as the leader and you get a sense of her belonging in that role there as well. She is more likable in the show too. I like her relationship with Toby, though it was unexpected, I enjoyed this relationship the most because Toby was a good guy, he treated her well but we got to see them stand alone as strong characters alone. They weren’t as dependent on each other and it took a while to get there. Mona was also equally as good. Though she doesn’t last very long in the books her motive, execution and backstory of how she came to be in the position of being A in the first place was so well thought out and well written as well as the clues. So, even though she goes pretty quickly she is memorable and has lasting effects on all the girls. In the show because this is one of the few big storylines they used from the books it is also well done. And aside from the fact Mona didn’t end up being the 5th liar I really liked the way they handled her continuing story in the show. It proved that someone in the writer’s room knew what they were doing. Though I find it interesting that they seemed to mess up nearly everyone else’s characters so badly when they had material from the books to go off of yet wrote the best for a character that they chose to extend beyond their timeline in the books and had no more material for. The books were definitely better!
Is it THAT hard to do paragraphs? I can't read through that wall of text.
I DONT understand how the writer could write HANNA AND LUCAS together, write a pretty healthy relationship where they could be themselves (with a bad ending), and let Hanna have such a character development moment, only to let her end up with MIKE, who indeed is such a objectifying ugh boy
book mike is so gross 🤮 every time he’s mentioned i try not to read his lines 🌝
LOVE THIS ANALYSIS (team book-noel kahn & tv-mona being alive) ❤️ Another reason I love the book so much is because it gave a real elaborate backstory as to why Ali (Courtney) befriended the liars, we never saw why/how Ali & the girls first became friends in the show. ALSO Ali is so terrifying in the books!!!
that hair is EVERYTHING
THANKYOU
And she rocks the outfit, too! Never thought a simple shirt and Jeans could look so good!
@@michanone haha you charmer! xx
what made the books more intriguing was A the serial killer being the narrator of the series which makes more sense since this A person is watching and stalking them and learning their dark secrets. it makes you engage on the girls while trying to figure out as a reader who A really is.
I've been binging your whole playlist for PLL and can I just say, I love listening to you talk about it! You're so passionate about it and I really appreciate that you can still critique it. I feel as if a lot of people don't realize you can do both, love it and critique the hell out of it. It has been a lot of fun watching these! Also, I'm rewatching the series with my husband who has only ever heard me talk about it and right off the bat he's like, "why are they grown ass men hitting on these children???" And then back to your Spencer video, oh my god. He hates her family (with good reason), but it really gets him fueled up when they're so awful and obviously have a favorite and it is not Spencer. He also likes to just say, "call the police. call the police" whenever Ezra and Aria are on screen. Haha.
If you wrote PLL, how would you have it end? Also subscribe to see pt. 2!
I've been watching this really good video by marina alexis about how alison should have been A
Just like this! Sara Shepard did it perfectly.
Alison is A, for sure. But I also loved your idea of how in the show they should´ve made Alison and Aria A,working together in some kind of twisted, codependent way, but I don´t know if Aria being that involved works for the books... I definitely want to read them now!! Thank you so much for this video btw, totally made my day! As always a pleasure to listen to you talk pll
I think Alison definitely should’ve been A in the series finale or been apart of the A team. Maybe even introduce Ali’s twin as A. Then we could’ve seen the liars deal with wondering if the Ali they knew was actually the one who cared for them or wanted to hurt them. I even would’ve probably given Aria a twin because there were so many plot holes that the show left unquestioned about her and her family. I also wouldn’t have had the girls end up with their high school relationships the only couple I would’ve left standing was Hanna and Caleb. Their relationship just seemed more genuine and real compared to the others. I think the way Sara wrote the twin theory was way better than the show because it was someone the audience had already know about. I felt like the writers of the show tried to be smarter than the audience which backfired on them. Good writing specifically with red herrings shouldn’t be super hard for audiences to figure out. Knives Out did red herrings perfectly which PLL should’ve done in the show.
Or a way to make Alex drake as ad work like serena mention is to make Spencer the one who was kidnapped at the end of season 6 instead of hannah and then fans and the liars can wonder if that was the real Spencer or Alex
The books were confusing, but still less confusing than the show. And the reveal in the end is so much better. Also I like how there weren’t as many A’s in the books. Like the show every few episodes there was a new A and it got to a point where everyone was A at one point. The books were, IMO, really quite interesting
I've been WAITING for this video!! I absolutely devoured these books in the 7th grade and I thought the ending and villain were so clever, and thank god Aria and Ezra never got nearly as far as they did in the books. I would get a new book every week, and I'd always finish them on the day I got them, I was obsessed!
I had the total opposite reaction about the girl’s appearances since I read the books before I watched the show. Mona not being blonde irked me especially since there was a bunch of foreshadowing in the books where the girls kept thinking they saw Alison right after getting a note from A but later found out it was actually Mona. They even kept in some of those scenes in the show but never explained it
Omg ive never been more excited for a video!!!! I LOVED the books. The show really took those storylines and basically ruined them. Especially the twin thing. Which is the biggest and best twist/story in the books.....
They definitely should had kept the hole alison has a twin instead of making Spencer being the one who had a twin because it didn't make any sense 🤯😡
@@cynthiaholmes5124 exactly!!! And with Alison being the twin you can look back and see it made sense all along. Like she had a plan writing the books. Unlike the show......
i remember i begged my grandma to buy me every book even the last one when it came out i was absolutely addicted the only problem i had with it was tobys death i hated wren and always imagined in my head he looked like keegan instead. (yes i know he’s asian in the books but my middle school self didn’t care) also i loved that the girls lives revolved around more then just A they had their own personal problems and werent a pack they were their own people with own motivations. it made me invested in all their storylines not just one in particular
And ezra was writing a book about the girls and he knew aria was a high school student when they first met and put things in his manuscript for the book that aria told him in the privacy of their relationship
I get it aria can date who she wants but in the books before Alison went missing Hannah would always talk about Sean and how much she liked him so at the same time I can see where Hannah is coming from even if there not that close anymore it still feels like a bit off betrayal in a way
Omggggg I loved this video! Can’t wait for the next one! I know the books weren’t perfect on a lot of things but they made so much more sense as a mystery thriller than the show and it handled issues more accurately. I know they mention a lot of inappropriate relationships between adults and minors but that is a thing that unfortunately happened. At least the book demonizes it and doesn’t paint it in light the way the show does as if it was a soulmates kind of thing. I so much more loved the idea of A being this sociopathic serial killer who’s just uncatchable and a constant shadow hanging over them, than it being a constant mystery that doesn’t makes sense in the end. Can’t wait for part 2!
I haven't read these books but still I did really feel sorry about Hanna and Mona having so little screen time together. It would have made their break up so much more dramatic. It's never really shown why they are best friends. And take into account that we see so much unnecessary stuff concerning other characters and relationships. I mean these girls haven't talked for weach other for a while and now they're suddenly best friends simply because there are some messages? So Hanna just forgets about Mona??? I can't see how that's possible. Btw thanks for that deep dive! Looking forward for a part 2
Serena, this was the video I was looking for! I wanted to know so many things (that got answered here)
-how the girls phydical characteristics and personalities differ
- how relationships differ from book vs show.
-how the show + the book handles (or doesnt handle) serious relationships, mental health, or other issues.
And so much more...
Can't wait for part 2! Also I dont know if anyone else is thinking it, but I would love a video or 2 just going in depth on Alison in the show vs Alison (+ Courtney) in the books.
Ps: people pls Don't @ me if I didnt spell their names right, it's leg day and im on break lmao😂😂
I definitely want to chat a little more about Alison and Courtney in pt. 2 because they’re great characters
Emily was a bisexual in the books but the show changed her to a lesbian because they wanted Emily to be "more than bi". I feel like the show missed an opportunity to include bi people and Emily could've had a lesbian girlfriend or we could've character created. It just bugs me that the show was openly biphobic and transphobic.
How was it biphobic and transphobic? Because they didn’t include your vision of the character. Really? Wow, you guys put labels on anything that doesn’t fit your opinions. 🙄
LMAOOO how was it biphobic or transphobic 😭? In the books Toby was the one who was abusing Jenna so does that make the show anti-woman? Toby also committed suicide does that make the show suicidephobic?😂see how ridiculous that sounds
@@Yams-Hams7734 Alison bullying Lucas by calling him a 'hermaphrodite' was pretty transphobic and gross. And it was biphobic bc the show erased a bisexual identity to give her something else.
alison was bi in the series so was maya jenna and shana they didn’t erase bisexual representation by making emily a lesbian there were more bi characters than there were gay characters emily was like the only lesbian in the series and it’s less common for a main female character to be gay most shows will make them bi for more romance possibilities
Aw a bisexual this is a big reach Lmao. Alison was bisexual yk. Why can’t Emily be gay?
CURVACEOUS is definitely a word :)
Imagine if they kept the whole thing with Mona up until season 2 but then from s3 the new A is the N.A.T. Club led by Ezra. How iconic would it have been to have a character who we know from day 1 is a creep but then are being manipulated into seeing as a romantic sweet guy actually ending up the big bad? Like the writers literally would have told us from day one but we let ourselves be tricked and then, plot twist.
Members include Wren, Wilden and any other known creep. The whole thing escalated from being a creepy stalking club to them basically filming a fucked up reality show aired online. That would work so well with things like the dollhouse episode. Like how messed up would it have been to have that entire thing, them being tortured like that filmed for an online audience?
They blackmail members all around the town to help them since they have dirt on everyone via the videos. Some of them come through in the end and help the liars e.g. Lucas, maybe Melissa.
Jason did start the club but it was more about spying on his family because they have been gaslighting him for years about one of his first memories ever. He leaves the „Charles“ clue somewhere for the girls to find, giving them the hints to start asking about him and making their way to Jason who would then expose the club. They could even still have the twist with CeCe, but her story isn‘t as convoluted and she isn‘t the bad guy, she actually helps the girls. That way we‘d get rid of that awful trans representation and actually maybe get some decent rep. The person who hits Alison with a rock is a member of the club and Jessica doesn‘t witness it, Alison doesn‘t get buried alive she is left there by her almost killer. She still lives, meets Mona and runs away.
Mona by this point is on the liars side.
I don‘t know what I‘d do with Alison (and I do love her being A but the Ezra as A theory I have a soft spot for)
I also have two possible stories for Aria.
1) either we had gotten our Aria as A plot because by this point she had been manipulated by Ezra so hard she started helping him
2) Ezra had told her about the club by s2 thinking in his own delusion she‘d be on board (not about him being A since by that point Mona would still be A, the N.A.T club being A was something that happens later being inspired by the first A and basically being an escalation because „just peeping“ on girls wasn‘t a big enough thrill anymore, so them terrorizing the girls for clicks is something that happens only from s3 on)
mid s1 when Noel sees them and confronts her she still protects Ezra but around s2 after she finds out about the club she actually confides in him not only about the relationship but about the club. From that point on her and Noel work undercover to take down Ezra, in s3 they don‘t immediately connect the club to A because why should they. Around s4 they start suspecting a connection. That would explain Aria being as shady as she sometimes is and seeming like she knows more than the others because she does.
In the end we have a huge fallout bc the club being exposed leads to a whole chain reaction of everyone involved getting arrested, Melissa getting in trouble for burying the body, which ofc someone caught on tape, Jenna going to jail for being a sex offender, etc.
Is this a perfect theory? No. Is this still better than what the show did? Obviously. Because in my theory there is no „eLlO sIsTaHhH“
Hey Serena, just want to say that I've loved your growth on camera. You're a natural but you can definitely see how confident and outgoing you've become. Also I absolutely adore your top, you look stunning!
Thankyou sm, I feel a lot less shy and like you guys are my internet besties ♥️
Thank God you read them! I was always SO frustrated because the book ending was much more satisfying and they could have just followed them.
Yes the ending in the book was much greater than the one on the damned show 😳🥶😡
This is becoming one of my favorite yt channels despite me never watching pretty little liars
I LOVED emily in the books! the writers will never be forgiven for what they did to her character in the show…
This was a great video. I read these books years ago before the show and had re-read them multiple times when Sara Shepard continued the story when the show came out and afterwards. My favorite relationship was definitely Aria and Noel because of Noel’s character in the books. The way he was written in the show upset me so much because of this I remember being so excited when him and Aria were hinted at in the first season of the show and then immediately thrown away for her and Ezra to continue. Ew. I did however find Aria to be a little annoying with their relationship at times like she didn’t always trust him and made him out to be the bad guy while other times she felt he could do no wrong and lashed out at the rest of the girls when taking his side. The other relationship I liked was actually Hanna’s and Mike’s. I did like Lucas and felt, like you said, that they had an emotional connection and I think a lot of that had to do with them being friends first. The reason I liked Mike with Hanna though is because he was very similar to her so even though he was less mature because he was younger and a guy he still valued popularity and didn’t judge her for valuing that as well the way Lucas did. Even though her obsession about it was very annoying at times throughout the book the way she was treated by Alison and Kate living in both their shadows as well as in the first few books also kind of feeling as though she is also in the shadow of her mother a bit the obsession with popularity makes sense and isn’t something she can change that easily, similarly to her ED which doesn’t go away right away like in the show because people that actually go through that don’t just magically get better and never think about it again. Back to Mike, he is shown to be the opposite of Aria, a jock and popular and less mature but for example when him and Hanna break up and even when mentioned by Aria and Hanna throughout the books there is a soft side to him that plays up the inappropriate guy banter when around his peers which Hanna and Aria know, hence the eye rolls from Aria all the time. I also think it plays really well into the relationship between Noel and Mike who I believe to have had the healthiest and reliable friendship in both the books and the show. Mike is younger and idolizes Noel for his popularity and lifestyle and the way other people see him. It is said in the flashbacks that Noel was very much a ladies man and seems to be kind of a jerk and in line of a guy that is more suitable for a girl which Alison’s reputation. This changes when he begins to pursue Aria and we learn more about him. Mike isn’t rich the way he is, he doesn’t have the reputation he and his brothers (Noel’s brothers) do and so he tends to mirror a teenage boy version of what the girls were like when trying to impress Alison. When him and Hanna broke up, he became suspicious about Hanna cheating with Sean, and suspicious about A being back and wanting to protect Hanna regardless of what would happen to him he showed a more sincere side to himself that we didn’t get too much details of though it was implied in some books. I think part of the reason he is given characteristics that are so much more immature is not only because he is kind of playing the part but also because he is Aria’s younger brother and there is several times throughout the books, even in the flashback that mentions Mike and Hanna the first time, that emphasizes that he is younger despite the fact that it’s only one year difference. We not only see him from Hanna’s POV but for a large part of the beginning series we see him through Aria’s as the annoying little brother and her the older, wiser, more sophisticated sibling.
Honestly something that always makes me feel weird is when shows have everyone or most people end up with their highschool sweethearts. Cause I only know one couple who is together who dated in highschool and they broke up for years before getting back together. I know two people who married their highschool sweethearts and both of those couples got a divorce within a year. Idk if this is more common or normal in the US but for me is just so bizarre since I haven't talked to anyone I dated in highschool since, well, I left highschool
I do get that if you're writing a show or a book is easier to keep the characters that people are already invested rather than create new characters but it just feels weirdly unrealistic for me
what they did with jenna’s character was pure misogyny. they turn a purehearted victim of bullying AND sa into a mean girl, rapist and bully? i feel like they did it because they wanted to make the liars more redeemable but i hated how the kindest character in the books was a main villain in the tv show.
louder for the people in the back!!
Nah. Men can be victims too - and even though the show obliviously switched it to make Toby stay in the show bc he was hot and shit and not for a good reason - it is the only piece of media I’ve seen where a man is a victim of abuse.
I loved mean girl Jenna also. The fear she commanded among the liars is iconic.
@@isabelas3353 yes, men can be victims but switching a traumatic story around for fan service is beyond disgusting. they could’ve made toby a victim without making jenna a bully, which they were intending to do even before they switched the roles. jenna was always mean in the show, but never in the books. i hated that. they could’ve added in a plotline of toby getting molested and going on to do the same to jenna if what they wanted was to show men could be victims, but clearly it wasn’t since they never talked about it again.
@@delenas mean girl Jenna >>>>>
Also, the show handled nothing traumatic well; Hannah's body issues, Spencer's drug issues, Ezra being a pedo, etc. Its crazy to expect the show to handle the abuser twist well when they did a shitty job with everything else. the show just wanted hot guys and drama period.
Nah also ur last idea is shitty and portrays male victims in a horrible light.
@@isabelas3353 there’s a difference between an issue being handled badly and dismissed, they didn’t even care to try with toby’s sa. and no it doesn’t, that happens in real life so.. i preferred sweet jenna over a rapist.
I’ll never get over aria ending up with Ezra and that the writers normalized it
I absolutely hate how they villaified every character who was rightfully against the predator teacher relationship in the show😡 its so gross how much they romanticised and glorified aria and ezra 😷
I waited to watch this video after Mike's Mic full recap of the show. Can't wait to see what you say!
You're totally right, I don't know why Hollywood likes to make relationships between underage people with people older than them that has power over them. For example in Teen Wolf I think it's season four, there's this sexual tension between a cop who is probably 25 or 26 in the show and one of the main characters which is like 16, but I forgot she was she was 16 in the show because she was played by an older actress (maybe the actress was like 25) so the first time I saw them I was like "wow they look really cute I hope they end up together" but then I realized, she was under-age, she was probably 10 years younger than him and it doesn't look bad because because when you see them they look cute (because she doesn't looks young) it's not that creepy because you're watching two people with the same age falling in love and it's like okay fine I don't have a problem but if we actually saw a sixteen-year-old girl or fifteen-year-old girl with her teacher, or with a cop, with someone that has power over them it would be really creepy, and nerve-racking and I think we actually need to stop giving attention and love to those kind of plots because it's really cheap, it's really cringey, it's overused and it's so wrong.
Plus I hated the storyline of kate argent basically seducing a teenager version of Derek to me that's straight up rape because he was under age
@@cynthiaholmes5124 TOTALLY! She took advantage of him, it's wrong in so many levels.
And ironically, Teen Wolf had had a relationship between a teenage boy and an older woman (Derek and Kate Argent) depicted as the grooming it was (she literally seduced him in order to ambush and kill him and his family).
why does the book emily on the cover look SO much like nicole kidman in practical magic