Pretty Little Liars 3.12 The Lady Killer

Didn’t see that one coming; BetrAyal, indeed.

Pretty Little Liars 3.11 Single Fright Female

Since the past few weeks have been Maya central, it’s nice to see an episode that is a lot more pro-Alison than the show has been in a while, at least where screen-time is concerned. The attention that the show has been lavishing on its new mysteries has been great to see, especially since it seems like we’re building to something, but I like that the show isn’t just dropping all past story-lines completely.

Pretty Little Liars 3.10 What Lies Beneath

For the first time since the early part of this season, it finally feels like the show is starting to pick up the pace, and dive into the one of the year’s biggest questions; what happened to Maya? Last week we were introduced to the personal loss that her death brought about, this week we took a step towards the truth as more information about her final moments was brought to light and the liars' game against A took a creepy turn.

Pretty Little Liars 3.09 The Kahn Game

If the point of this episode was to get to the truth, it wasn’t entirely successful. Though it played around with some interesting characters, and introduced a few new connections between them, there was very little about this episode that felt necessary.

Pretty Little Liars 3.08 Stolen Kisses

Emily aside, Maya was never as big a presence in the lives of our Liars as Ali was. Stolen Kisses was the first episode to really dive in head first into the mystery surrounding her death, and though she lacked a connection with Aria, Hannah and Spencer, a lot was done to negate that by making her death an important event in all of their lives, and opening her up to them in a very personal way.

Pretty Little Liars 3.07 Crazy

Pretty Little Liars is really stacking up the stories this season. Though I discussed last week the idea that some of these stories might be a serious weakness, sometimes they can all be strangely enjoyable, even if it gets a little hard to spot the calm in the middle of this mystery storm.

Pretty Little Liars 3.06 Remains of the 'A'

I’ve said before that I’ve always been a bigger fan of the episodes of Pretty Little Liars that place mystery ahead of real-life drama. That becomes an even bigger issue when anything resembling normality starts to become a drain on the show, and that’s never been a bigger problem where Aria and Professor Dullsville are concerned. Why should we care about Ezra’s dwindling funds, when there’s a lot more fun to be had elsewhere?

Pretty Little Liars 3.05 That Girl Is Poison

After a hot streak of episodes that have boasted some of the greatest material to come out of Pretty Little Liars so far, That Girl Is Poison felt like the first episode to step down off that pedestal, and revert back to more traditional (at least in this shows eyes), and consequently bland, storytelling. Though the show is still attempting to focus on its stronger story arcs, there was a bit of a struggle to really find something concrete to drive them this week.

Pretty Little Liars 3.04 Birds of a Feather

This week emotional baggage and personal catastrophe took center stage, as the new A started to turn up the heat on their own form of justice. Spencer had to face her sister’s misdeeds; Hanna’s secrets took their toll on her relationship with Caleb; Emily continued to struggle with Maya’s death; and Aria, well Aria didn’t do much of anything this week, but more Holly Marie Combs isn’t a bad thing, right?

Pretty Little Liars 3.03 Kingdom of the Blind

It’s almost become a regularity to finish every episode of Pretty Little Liars with a monster headache. There’s always so much going on, the tangled web of lies and deceit growing messier with every untruth that’s spoken, and every mistake that’s covered up. It’s an ailment that’s become tolerable, since it’s this battiness that keeps me so invested in these girls’ lives. Kingdom of the Blind was a testament to that fact, and was full of so many head-spinning story distortions you’d almost need a vacation to get over the stress of it all.

Pretty Little Liars 3.02 Blood Is the New Black

A lot of the show’s previous inhibitions with regards to pacing have been shed completely as of Blood is the New Black. There’s little evidence of the writers desperately trying to drag things out, which became a huge issue before A’s reveal last season. Instead, they’ve replaced delaying tactics with new exciting twists, and the show is all the better for it.

Pretty Little Liars 3.01 It Happened "That Night"

At some point during the past two seasons, Pretty Little Liars transformed into something beyond a standard teen genre show. I’m not sure if it was after Spencer battled Ian in the bell tower, or when the girls were framed for Dr Sullivan’s disappearance, or when Emily brazenly confronted A, but it’s happened, and during It Happened “That Night” it felt like the show had embraced that side of itself full on. Everything felt more mature, darker and sinister; a more cohesive from of its original first season self.