The fans of Pretty Little Liars walked down the nostalgic memory lane and returned feeling “nauseous” and “disgusted”.
If you have ever reminisced over the films and shows you grew up watching and ended up discovering major blunders as an adult, you are up for witnessing a 'winner' here.
For the uninitiated, Pretty Little Liars, a teen mystery thriller series, follows the lives of four high school girls whose lives take a turn after the disappearance of their leader. Inspired by the novel series written by Sara Shepard of the same title, the show spans out as the group of teenagers are stalked and blackmailed by a mysterious person named "A".
The series that premiered in 2010 features an ensemble cast, headed by Troian Bellisario, Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Sasha Pieterse, and Janel Parrish.
I remember eating up this content, as a teenager, believing that this is how probably romance looks like and shipping the couples in the show. Up until now, for me, the majorly disappointing portion, apart from the depreciating quality of the script, was the revelation of “A” (I waited for years only to witness the underwhelming ending).
However, Twitter users have delved into the fact the writers of the television show sold us “predators” and “pedophile” as romantic characters. One of the main characters Ezra Fitz is being seen as a professor who used his power and position to exploit his student, Aria Montgomery, a 16-year-old girl.
The insider's point of view
In an interview, Ian Harding, who plays the role of Ezra in the teen drama, was asked about his perspective on the TV relationship that is “totally wrong and illegal”.
“The thing is, I've never really seen it as — obviously on paper it's inappropriate,” Ian said.
“I've never looked at this like the movie The Woodsman with Kevin Bacon, where it was like, he's a pedophile. I mean, they fell in love and it's kind of an unfortunate meeting time. She's in high school and not old enough, legally, but he's very young! He's not like a 70-year-old and she's not 10. It's never really dawned on me as something that's uber-taboo,” the actor explained.
Even so, he mentioned "a little weird" instance when he encounters teenagers. "...A 12-year-old from Ohio will be like, ‘I'm in love with you.’ And I wanna be like, 'You need to watch it'," Ian said.
Online critics lay open Pretty Little Liars
Disclaimer: Any die-hard Pretty Little Liars fan, put down your defensive shield and head to the Twitter thread unveiling the sickening details of the series.
Netizens highlighted that the show makers normalised having a relationship with older men in numerous ways. Pointing out that the key viewers as well as the actors in the show were teenagers.
However, a social media user argued that Pretty Little Liars is "fiction".
Whatever be the explanation to make the show seem like a work of fiction completely away from reality, the fact is that at a young age the content that we are exposed to undeniably influences us.
Referring to the plot and making a sensible remark a Twitter user highlighted that the show could have been set in college rather than high school.
Anyhow, the hopeful prospect of the social media dissection of the series is that viewers are criticising the “horrific” we have been fed over the years.
7 years ago, when the series was still running, a fan filed an online petition demanding to "stop romanticising pedophilia". She expressed her concern over the problematic relationship between Ezra Fitz and Aria Montgomery. While highlighting the aspects of their relationship the fan urged to not "promote sexual abuse and underage relationships and stop making statutory rape into a good thing" in the petition.
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