So, there might be an explanation for all those “Pretty Little Liars” plotholes
Tuesday night is the beginning of the very, very end for Pretty Little Liars. As much as it’s sad and exciting, you can’t be a true Pretty Little Liars fan if you haven’t noticed along the way that some things just *don’t* make any sense sometimes, yet we suspend our belief in the name of getting to the bottom of this whole “who is Uber A” thing. Thanks to Cosmopolitan’s oral history of the show, there’s now a proper explanation for Pretty Little Liars plotholes: they were there on purpose.
It was never supposed to be realistic. Like how there’s no attendance requirements for their school (or dress code, Aria) or the fact that the liars live in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. There is also never any snow, except for one Christmas episode, and it’s eternally cardigan weather. Or the fact that the girls never, ever go to the police because one officer was a bad apple in Season Two.
The Pretty Little Liars cast and crew didn’t care about any of that, it was about creating a suspenseful, beautiful world with well dressed teenagers.
Blame it on Jakub Durkoth, the show’s production designer, who said,
"I created a little box that hung on the wall in the art department. If you asked a logic question, you had to put a dollar in it.
So creative staff had to pay if they wanted things to make sense or, say, give the girls some sneakers instead of heels to run through the woods in. Or notice that Aria and Ezra’s relationship was statutory rape. Yeah, that’s kind of a big one. But the logic jar prevailed.
The cast also talked about that, by the way. Ian Harding, who plays Ezra, said that early on a company dropped its advertising for the show because they didn’t like “the relationship.” And Harding told Marlene King, the showrunner, “No shit, our relationship is illegal!” But it wasn’t about Aria and Ezra! It was about Emily and her girlfriend Maya. Harding joked:
"So I could be seen as a statutory rapist, and people are like, 'I know, but love knows no bounds, as long as there is a penis and a vagina involved.'"
Whatever. Between the great (and sometimes scandalous) relationships, the never-ending suspense, and great clothes, we’ll take some of the unrealistic plotlines. The liars have more than enough to deal with — who needs to add snow to that?
