she's come undone

My sister sent me this quiz http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/which-pretty-little-liar-are-you I'm an Ezra and she's an Aria so read into that how ever you want, but I think both were accurate so with a sample size of 2 the quiz is 100% accurate.
Now on to the recap

It’s like what they say “hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn” (also a new stage play by Tyler Perry). Man, Aria went to town on Ezra’s place! Hanna should have taken her to that plate throwing place her mom took her to after Caleb left for “Ravenswood”; Aria would have had a field day there. At least Hanna talked her out of reporting Ezra to the principal (if you know of a teacher having sexual congress with a student PLEASE report it to the proper authorities immediately) but in this case it would ruin the show and in real life they are both over 25 so it’s ok.

I was surprised by many things, when did Ezra have time to write a book with a full time teaching job and full time stalking 4 girls job? And how did he get a book deal so easily? How did Aria never see any of the box loads of files he had in his apartment before? Why did he not get his locks changed? And why is Toby’s apartment bigger and nicer then Ezra’s (even before it was trashed), I guess it’s a social commentary about how little we pay teachers.

My prediction though is that Ezra was meeting with his publisher to stop the book from being published and will explain to Aria that although when he first met her it was for the book; once he got to know her he truly fell in love and that is why he is destroying the book and they will get back together. That’s why the writers did not have her tell the principal cause if he is in jail they can’t get back together.

Spencer, if Toby does not know what a cronut is and when you tell him he thinks it’s disgusting you should dump him. Although not eating cronuts could explain his ripped abs. Any way I was amazed she was able to talk to her parents out of sending her to rehab. Everyone knows that an addict will say anything to keep using. Plus we all know none of the Liars are going to college, they will stay in high school till the show is over. But if they were not sending her to rehab they should have done a “Trainspotting” detox where she is locked in her room and babies crawl on the ceiling. Well since, thanks to A’s one move this week, she is still using so it’s not too late.  Plus we found out that she hit Ali with a shovel while she was hopped up on pills.

Emily you made sending something to a PO Box so difficult. You just mail it; you could have done it at school. Also don’t send cash through the mail, it will get lost or stolen. I would think that Ali would be using Bitcoin by now. What’s with Paige, I did like that they acknowledged that it’s been a long time since the two had been together but you’d think they would want to make out or something instead of fighting.

Hanna, you saved everything this week, you kept not one but two people out of jail (Travis’ dad and Ezra) and have been a great friend! The only real question is who will be you next love interest, Travis or the detective Holbrook? You’ve kissed both. If it was up to me it would be Holbrook, you read the same books (does Hanna still read?), he has a good job that you can use to help you find Ali and protect you from A. Also is it just me or is the only time a guy wears a suit is when he’s going to court. They say next week will be shocking and will have a lot of Ali so I hope it is good.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

Free Fall

So is Ezra A or as he told Aria just writing a book or a little of both? We probably won’t find out the answer till the season finale but he sure has a lot of surveillance hardware for a true crime novel. Plus they make sure that he is extra creepy and we know he’s working with Mona and she was A. That said I still don’t think he is A.

Side note: if you were like me you were wondering what B26 (the pass code to the cabin) means, it was the song on the jukebox when Ezra and Aria met and he later titled a poem he wrote about her B26. It’s ok if you did not remember that, I didn’t. But what kind of security system was that, it looked like he taped an iPad to his wall. Anyway I wouldn’t read too much into the B26, the code probably required both letters and numbers and the others Aria tried just had letters.

Spencer, drugs are bad, if it weren’t for drugs they would believe you that “Ezra is freakin’ A”. But if it were not for drugs you would not have figured it out. So they’re good?! Either way she is kicking the habit cold turkey and that was before her mom knew about it, invited Toby over to sit in a dark room till Spencer got there and then leave once she arrived, but he did give her a “nice’ gift (scrabble square necklace, what a nerd). Spencer here are some tips, things in black & white did not really happen and screaming “I’m not crazy” always makes you look even crazier. Somehow you did come up with a plan and convinced Emily and Hanna to go along with it, Kudos.

It was nice to see Emily and Hanna team up, and it looks like Hanna is totally over Caleb and has gotten on with her life, good for her. She also got over her fear of snakes. They never explained Spencer’s plan so I’m not sure what went wrong but they did not catch Ezra, A or the person pretending to be Spencer pretending to be Ali (probably Mona, which is why she missed the movie date with Mike; why couldn’t he pause it). Even though the plan did not work Aria did find out that Ezra is not who he said he was and was using them to write his book (I hope he had a copy or saved it on a computer) she will get over this but it will take a couple weeks, they may even get back together. Look at Hanna getting over Caleb, or Spencer when she found out Toby was A. The real problem is that Ali out there without any money and no Shanna to help her, will she survive, will she contact the Liars for help, we will just have to wait till next week to find out.

The one thing that I found odd with this episode besides the fact that the zoo sign was facing into the zoo letting people who were leaving the zoo know that it was a zoo they were leaving, was the ski lift. Since when was the cabin that close to a ski slope, why was the lift in operation when there was no snow, who was working it, why did they not need a lift ticket and how did Ezra get in while the bar was being lowered? But if a go picking apart every little detail I would be here all day, plus the two of them stuck there with nowhere to go made that scene, it was a little scary but also intimate. And we never find out how they get off the lift and how Aria gets her keys back, I guess it will be a deleted scene on the DVD.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

shadow play

What a unique episode! Last night thanks to drugs Spencer took us into a "Film Noir style" world of PPL. I could tell that everyone involved in making the episode (actors, writers, costume designers...) had a lot of fun with it.  The question is did the fans like it. My guess would be no. From experience many people are put off by Black and White films, in a HD, 3D environment many people won't give a classic B&W film a chance. Maybe fans liked this one and it will open them up to viewing some classic Film Noir (the Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon or my fav Sunset Blvd) but I doubt it.

The episode lacked any purpose other than to play film noir dress up. It doesn't further the story, add any clues or revel any secretes. You could watch this whole season without this episode and not miss a thing. I also didn’t like that they went back to the 1940's they could have kept the costumes and B&W but still do it present day, it’s a drug induced vision, it doesn’t have to make sense. Since they did decide to do it in the 40's there were scenes that seemed forced just to show that they were in the past, like the whole Aria explaining the camera to Paige, everyone in the 40's knew that it would take a week to develop film; the only point to put that in was to let people today know there was a time where pictures were not instant. Also 15 cents for a cup of coffee was expensive back then.

One thing I did like was seeing Paige and Toby, we have not seen either one for a while. However I was a little confused by their roles. Paige and Emily are out and have been for a long time so why does time travel change that? It was nice to see what I think is the first ever film noir lesbian scene but the rest just came off as another “look what it was like in the past” you could not be open about your sexuality. And what was Toby a cop, P.I. or just a Bogart want to be, either way the writers were not clever enough to write a scene where he takes his shirt off.

My suggestion would be that they should have picked a specific film or couple of films to homage. I think “the Third Man” would be a good one to do, with Ali as the Orson Welles character (you can look it up to see why). For the most part I think this episode was a fail, it had the Film Noir look but was lacking the feel. I hope they enjoyed making it and more importantly will get more people interested in Classic films (although I doubt the will happen) but I think this is the last B&W episode we will see. I would like to know what drugs Spencer is on because I think it would be fun to have my own Film Noir hallucination! Can’t wait till next week where it looks like we will finally find out that Ezra is not A.

Well that is all I have to say about that.  

about me

My name is Michael and I am a 29 year old male, not the normal demographic for PLLs. So why am I writing a PLL blog? Well it all started almost a decade ago when I need a quick gift for my sister. She was in high school at the time and I had no idea what to get her. I was at Target and was looking through the books and and saw the first PLLs book and it was in my price range and thought she would like it. She did not plus she made me read it as well.

After that it became a joke between us. We would buy the next book in the series for the other's b-day. We kept doing this for a couple of years until the forth book since the story was getting weak and you find out Mona is A so we thought it would be a good place to stop. Also I don't think either of us would be able to read another PLL book. So we thought our relationship with PLLs was over but really it had just begin.

They had turned it into a TV show! Now I don't know about you but if I read a book and they turn it into a movie, TV show , or play I'm probably going to watch it, no matter how bad it might be. So even though I was not a fan of the books I decided to start watching the show and my sister did the same. We had to see what they kept and what was changed, like Emily's appearance.

My sister was away at college at the time so I would email her my thoughts on the most recent episode so we could discus and dissect each show. I thought it would only last a couple seasons but boy was I wrong, it was a huge hit and will keep going till the Liar's fifth senior year. In the time its been on the air my sister has graduated college and has moved to Israel, so I still continue to write to her each week about PLLs.

Last week I was talking to her and she mentioned that a friend of hers also watches the show, so she has been forwarding my e-mails to this friend. So I thought maybe others would like to read my incite into PLLs as well and therefor I should write a PLLs blog. Being that I am not part of the target demographic gives me a different perspective of the show. For instance there are many references to Hitchcock films that I recognize but I doubt a middle schooler would pick up on.

So that my story,

enjoy