With her AP Biology textbook open, computer turned on and her PAKS scattered across her desk, senior An Dinh was determined to finish her work only to spend the rest of the night eagerly posting statuses regarding the finale of the ABC drama, Pretty Little Liars.
“It has ruined my life, to be honest,” said Dinh. “I’m just obsessed with this show.”
The show involves complex relationships, blackmail, and lots of lying. After queen bee Alison DiLaurentis is found dead, her four friends are left to deal with her murder and an anonymous stalker, “A”, who knows all their secrets and the killer’s identity.
“It keeps me on my toes,” sophomore Joslyn Amaya said. “I like it because it’s so dramatic and intense,” Amaya said.
Junior Jamarcus Lacy agrees. “[The show] always has something that you want to figure out. It keeps you coming back.”
The season three’s finale averaged about 3 million viewers and generated more than 709,000 tweets during the finale, showing just how large the fan base is.
Despite the show’s popularity, some consider it an annoyance.
“[All the hype] is ridiculous because it’s taking up my newsfeed,” junior Jim Luu said. “In their statuses they’re just screaming with a lot of exclamation points.”
Dinh also knows about the show’s social media impact, “Before and after every episode, there would be at least five statuses on Facebook about how crazy the new episode will be or was,” Dinh said.
So is Pretty Little Liars realistic or rubbish?
Freshman Ana Jaramillo believes it is realistic.
“There has been shoplifting and people who can hack into things,” Jaramillo said.
However according to Dinh, some elements are far-fetched.
“Teachers and students don’t normally have relationships, and people in real life certainly don’t leave their doors unlocked as much as the characters do.”
Realistic or not, Amaya thinks the characters aren’t role models.
“They lie a lot, have sex, which isn’t good,” she said. “They aren’t the type of person I would be.”
Dinh feels the same.
“All in all, they lie too much to be looked up to.”
Lacy said much of the appeal of the show is in the elements viewers can relate to.
“Even though Pretty Little Liars is known for its quality of engaging entertainment, the producers create a personal appeal to its audience,” said Lacy. “Whether it’s attaining to high expectations, living in broken families, longing for acceptance by society, or dealing with the constant conflict of gossip, the characters deal with the insecurity that teenagers relate to.”
