Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists - An Unworthy Successor

environmentalis: to save the planet we must recycle! marlene King: say no more

Did I watch this show? No Did I watch its predecessor? No Am i about to watch an 53-minute video about it? Hell yeah

The fundamental problem with this show's premise is: why? Why do Alison and Mona have to solve Nolan's murder? They weren't involved and it has very little to do with them. That's a faulty premise right there.

her talking so seriously about how intense the school is and how everyone needs to stay on top but the background music is a violin cover of poker face is sending me

The thing with Alison’s “redemption arc” is that it just was never meant to work. This girl was so absolutely terrible that people were HAPPY she was dead and the second “a” came around ALL of the people closest to her, immediately assumed it was Alison. Like the fact they would think she went missing for a year, and came back but not completely STRICTLY to blackmail and scare them was the biggest indicator that this character was NEVER meant to be a good person. PLL’s biggest downfall was following the books for the first 2 seasons and then going off the rails afterwards. Because all the stuff the setup in those first 2 seasons was completely flipped on it’s head afterwards because in the books Alison was a literal MONSTER

We need to introduce Marlene King to Roberto Aguirre and see what show they make.

I cannot believe that the people who made The Perfectionists looked at the role of "rich matriarch" and went "You know what? Get that woman from Gossip Girl to play the exact same role again!"

“It’s like the writers saw Allison as Prince Zuko when she’s always been more like Azula” That is truly the most honest interpretation of Ali’s character in either PLL show. Marlene is quaking right now lmaooo

They did the same mistake as the gossip girl reboot; by including teachers in a story of students especially in college where Professors couldn't care less.

The worst part of Alison's character was not that she was just a villain that girl was actually evil the shit she would do was borderline sociopathic, she screwed with not only her friends and played a few mean girl tricks like anyone who was just kinda pissed off and sad about something in high school, and you learn to grow past it as you grow up and turn into an adult no she messed with everyone in that school, adults, anyone who got in her way she made sure to actually destroy them. You don't just get over that and be like "yeah I was kinda a mean girl back in high school, but I am totally a nice person now" no Alison was actually evil and nuts you can’t just brush that over

you’ll never know what this comment said

What I want, one day, is a mini-series that begins like one of these tv shows. High drama, with barrowed plots, etc. But when something happens, like the shooting of newt, or some murder, it takes a sudden turn to a hyper-real style, almost beyond documentary. All of a sudden, the police arrest and treat these characters with the same level of scrutiny they treat real suspects. the addition of hard legal processing. A sex scandal actually plays out with a firing and public out cry. It is only one season and ends with everyone in jail or utterly ruined. An almost satire, or something

Love how Marlene King thought she could get away with that horrible finale so she decided to make a new one thinking she still has the support from the original PLL fans. 🤣

I SOMEHOW completely forgot that Emily and Alison got married and I just started laughing SO HARD

My premise for the show: Take a repentant but deeply flawed Allison and put her in a new town. She's having a depressive slump after Emily left her and she's questioning whether she can really escape her past. She makes new friends in this city and things seem to be going alright, but her sadness keeps cropping up. When she's upset she starts to fall back into old habits - she becomes meaner and short with people to try and give herself some space. She feels bad about it after the fact, but in the moment she gets that sense of power she used to have. It comforts her. She keeps up trying to be a better person, but she starts keying into all the juicy, scandalous gossip of the town like she used to. She can't help but collect information, but claims to herself that she'll never use it. Then something changes. Someone tries to kill her... again. Allison survives but she freaks out, she's sent into a panic and slips back into her old self completely as she tries to figure out who's after her. She starts lying, manipulating, and blackmailing people to try and find out the culprit but now she has a boatload of old and new enemies out to get her. They bring up the terrible things she's done, frame her for crimes suspiciously like what she used to do in the past, and make her life a living hell. And who's the ringleader this time? It's Mona. A pissed off, vengeful Mona who's sick of seeing Allison getting away with her happy life, facing no consequences, and pretending she's better now. In her words, all she was doing was revealing to Allison and everybody else who she really is beneath the surface. The whole story leads up to their one final showdown where Allison kills Mona then has to make her final choice: Does she run away again, go into hiding, and start another happy life - proving Mona's point? Or does turn herself in for everything she did and start taking the steps to be the better person that she wants to be? (I have not seen a single episode of any PLL properties, so please forgive me for any inaccuracies.)

I truly believe the Perfectionists would’ve been an incredible show if it wasn’t a PLL spinoff. Like, I thought the storyline and characters were pretty interesting. But trying to tie it all back to Rosewood with Ali and Mona really took me out and made me not like it. PS. Dope video as always

Am I the only one that gets a fatphobic vibe with how the show treated Alison? Because when the actress was skinny, she was allowed to be a popular mean girl who did horrible acts to others. The actress started to gain weight thanks to her PCOS. Instead of letting her be the popular mean girl and a villain like she always was, they slowly declawed her and made her nice out of nowhere, coming off as completely OOC. Like they couldn't imagine a fat girl in that role. If that's the case, that's pretty fucked up.

Two things. First, both Janel Parrish and Sasha Pieterse are criminally underrated actresses who deserve far better work (I will throw in Trojan Bellisario as well). It's a shame that they are primarily known for such melodramatic substandard work. And I am saying that as a fan of PLL. Second, you make a good point about why Allison doesn't really deserve a happy ending. Now, I like a happy ending just as much as the next guy, but there comes a point where certain characters really don't deserve one due to their past actions and behavior. Dexter is another case in point where a character didn't earn a happy ending because of his many, many crimes. To give Allison (and Dexter though I haven't watched the reboot so I don't know what is going on with the character) a happy ending negates everything that character was in the first place. I believe you are entirely correct with your assessments of both Pretty Little Liars and The Perfectionists. Despite some interesting concepts and ideas both suffered from a lack of good writing, good character development, and most of all, interesting conflict. My hat is off to you, Friendly Space Ninja. I don't know if I could ever again sacrifice so much of my time willingly on such poorly constructed ideas and plots. It all feels like a waste now punctuated by temporary bouts of enjoyment and interest that only string along the audience without giving any real conclusions.

Funniest moment of this show was Marlene trying to ignore the messy events of the PLL finale by having Mona say Alex & Mary Drake simply “escaped” her underground PRISON in PARIS... Even the writers knew they shouldn’t have added that stupid dollhouse scene in the first place 😭😭😭

22:00 - one of the big mistakes the original PLL made, in my opinion, was diverging so much from the books in terms of the girls' friendship. In the books, the girls aren't really friends. They don't tell each other about the harassment from "A" until much later into the plot. The girls don't really hang out or talk, and that makes it a lot easier/more realistic for "A" to manipulate them. In the books, "Alison" (actually her evil twin Courtney) brings Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and Aria together despite them all being so different. The reason she does that is because she can't hang out with the real Alison's friends without giving herself away, and the core four are irrelevant enough at the time that she knows she can socially control them. So when Courtney is gone, there's really no reason for the core four to stay together. I think that made the books a lot more interesting than the show, and it makes more sense that the girls drifted apart after Alison disappears.