Pretty Little Liars: Summer School Review
By Sioph W. Leal
Pretty Little Liars: Summer School (originally Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) brings back Noa Olivar (Maia Reficco), Tabby Hawthrone (Chandler Kinney), Faran Bryant (Zaria), Imogen Adams (Bailee Madison), and Mouse Honrada (Malia Pyles) six months after they faced the mysterious ‘A’ last season. Back in Millwood, all the girls are forced to attend the morning summer school, but this wouldn’t be Pretty Little Liars without a threat to the liars, and this comes in the form of Bloody Rose Waters.
Much like the first season, Summer School feels like a love letter to the horror classics, often taking inspiration from the classic movies and even some new ones, such as Five Nights at Freddy’s. With Bloody Rose lurking in the shadows of Millwood, the design of this new threat helps move the Pretty Little Liars franchise truly into the horror genre. With moving fully into the genre, the main girls also must embrace their fates as a ‘final girl,’ often leading them to become hardened and more cautious than they were in the final season.
This season, the girls are alone, while previously their mothers featured prominently in the first season, especially through flashbacks. It's Noa, Tabby, Faran, Imogen, and Mouse’s turn to face off against this new threat alone. Though the girls only have one of them, as hardened as they have become, they each need to lean on each other. One of the issues of the previous season was that it focused more on certain liars than them as a group. Well, season two fixes this. As the season progresses, each girl takes the lead in their own episodes, giving the actresses their well-deserved time to shine in their final girl performances as they manage to deliver compelling, heartbreaking performances surpassing the original series.
A shorter episode count does detrimentally impact Pretty Little Liars: Summer School in terms of pacing, but that isn’t due to the writing. Had Pretty Little Liars: Summer School had extra episodes; this season could have thrived. The pacing issues are saved by the scenes that involve Bloody Rose torturing her chosen liar, but sometimes this tension is distracted by some subplots, mostly involving the romantic entanglements of the five liars.
A horror movie or series can only be as good as its antagonist, and Bloody Rose is an interesting watch. Covered in bloody bandages, revealing only one eye, the inspiration for Bloody Rose is clearly from 1992’s Candyman, but she holds her own in the havoc she brings to Millwood. Of course, she does lack the same screen presence that Archie had, but her relentless pursuit of the liars more than makes up for this.
Pretty Little Liars: Summer School is a fantastic horror teen drama and manages to feel fresh in a world where teen dramas are a little oversaturated due to streaming. Despite the shorter episode count, Little Liars is a strong follow-up to Original Sin, elevating the genre and making for an enjoyable watch.
The first two episodes of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School will debut on Thursday, May 9, streaming on Max, with a new episode premiering weekly until June 20. Six episodes were screened for review.