Pretty Little Liars

Today I'm going after the soapy-suspense-tv-shows, starting with Pretty Little Liars. This show is deep in the middle of its third season, which is usually at the point where the soapy-suspense-tv-shows start to have problems.

After all, it opens with a grand secret or question. In this case: who killed Allison? Then, it adds a second one: Who is this "A" harassing us?

These two questions can definitely fuel a season. It can fuel two seasons. But eventually, the audience is going to get tired of hitting a wall when they go looking for answers. Therefore, the show had to start giving the audience some answers. So far, Pretty Little Liars has been doing this well, by revealing that "A" is a bunch of people, which makes sense. With all of the things that "A" has done to them, it had to be more than one person. "A" knows all their secrets, seems to have eyes everywhere, yet is nowhere to be seen. It had to be supernatural, which was a viable option throughout the first season, or a bunch of people.

And now, with A being a bunch of people, the show can start revealing the faces of A, without losing the entire mystery. Giving the audience some answers. This way, the show doesn't feel like its treading on water.

A lot of the biggest issues in the first season, one of the characters dating an older guy, and one of the characters being gay, for starters, have been fully resolved by the latest season. Forward-motion is good!

One of the biggest problems people have been having with the show, however, is how relentlessly depressing it is. If this was happening in real life, these girls would need years of therapy at this point. No spoilers, (by saying who it is), but by this point:

1 girl: Has had two of her best friends be faces of A, and been hit by a car.
1 girl: Had a stalker try to kill her and her lover. Then, she killed the stalker.
1 girl: Was drugged and kidnapped.
1 girl: Found out her lover was a face of A, and is now a version of Break the Haughty (or Break the Cutie depending on your opinion of her.)

Now the only question is, who in the lives of the two girls who have not yet had a friend/lover be a face of A, will have a friend/lover be a face of A? Their torment has hardly been even, and each girl handles it a different way, which makes the show fairly interesting for those who are fans of psychology.

For those who are fans of answers, however, either wait a few years for the show to wrap itself up and read the wikipedia, or just read the book series the show was based off of. (The books don't give the answers to the TV show, note. They split ways two seasons ago.)