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Postmodernism is everywhere and it is definitely in Pretty Little Liars. Postmodernism is a big component of this episode called "Grave New World."

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When we left our Liars in the ' Pretty Little Liars' mid-season finale they were in Ravenswood, tracking down the mysterious Red Coat and desperately seeking their deceased friend Ali (Sasha Pieterse) at a costume gala.

Will they all survive to tell the tale in the most revealing Halloween episode yet?

This episode picks up exactly where the last one left off, with the Liars heading to the party at the Ravenswood Cemetery (resplendent in period clothing) to try and find Ali and figure out who is trying to kill her, which certainly switches up the who already killed Ali mystery.

Ezra (Ian Harding) -- who may or may not be on the A Team -- calls Aria (Lucy Hale), asking where she is. She tries to brush him off at Spencer's (Troian Bellisario) insistence but instead tells him exactly where she is -- very smart. As the girls walk away, he emerges in a military outfit with a gas mask under his arm.

The girls continue to case the party when they see someone else in a vintage army uniform (like the one Ezra is wearing, and the same costume they found in the lair Red Coat led them to) and postulate that he may be Board Shorts. They see him pulling a blonde away from the party and decide to follow.

Outside the tent, Mrs. Grunwald (Meg Foster) warns Emily (Shay Mitchell) that she and her friends need to leave, Hanna (Ashley Benson) is distracted by two little twins in red coats and Aria finds the blonde girl inside an empty grave. Said blonde informs Aria that the soldier is her cousin and that he was most certainly not the person who did this to her.

The girls meet up when they spy a blonde in a red coat (Red Coat's red coat, to be precise) run into a nearby mausoleum. They chase her, only to find that she has disappeared into thin air.

Seeing no leaves by one of the statues, they move it out of the way to discover a hidden staircase which they immediately head down. As they do, the stone door behind them shuts on its own.

Spencer leads them down the increasingly windy passageway when the lights go out. Aria turns to talk to Hanna when she finds that she isn't holding onto the hand of her friend, but another statue.

The lost Hanna finds herself elsewhere beneath the mausoleum when she sees the message "HELP ME" written on the wall in something red. As Hanna checks to see what it is, the lights mysteriously go out. Frightened, she runs until she discovers a wooden door which leads into a very nice -- if spiderweb-covered -- home. Heading further into the house, the Gas Mask soldier eerily arrives, unbeknownst to Hanna.

Caleb (Tyler Blackburn), meanwhile, is on his way via a creepy, retro bus to meet the girls when he awakens to find a young girl seated next to him who says she's on her way to see her family. Caleb and Miranda (Nicole Anderson) bond over their deceased parents, the fact that they have both grown up in foster homes and their tragic back-stories. She seems to bristle a little when Caleb mentions he has a girlfriend named Hanna.

After finally arriving in Ravenswood, they part ways, with Caleb going to find Hanna and Miranda heading to her uncle's house, who she plans to surprise with her existence.

Caleb won't find Hanna in the cemetery, though. She is inside the mysterious house, having located a rotary phone since she and her friends have conveniently no cell phone service in the creepy town. While she struggles to get a call out, she finds herself locked inside the frosted-glass rooms as several disembodied lights surround the box before disappearing.

Still searching for their missing friend, the Liars find Hanna's crushed hat and the "HELP ME" message and assume that A has kidnapped her.

Meanwhile, Miranda arrives at her uncle's, which appears to be the same creepy house that the girls are trapped in and under.

As the remaining Liars arrive in the house, a red substance drips from the ceiling and they hear a voice that is decidedly Ali's, yelling, "They'll find out. My friends know I'm here!" Excited, they rush to the door and open it to discover an empty hallway. When Aria and Emily turn back around, Spencer has gone missing as wells.

Things aren't going well for Hanna, either. Still locked inside the phone booth, she sees Ali's blurred face through the glass being drawn away by the Gas Mask soldier. Scared by the strange things she's seen, the door opens and we find Miranda standing on the other side. Things get off to a rocky start between the two girls, but they eventually form a tentative truce and agree they need to get out of the house.

They eventually find their way to a room full of coffins, and Miranda has a flashback to herself as a young child, with a man who says cryptic things about her parents' wishes and his hopes for forgiveness. This mystery will most likely be a huge part of the new series spin-off, ' Ravenswood.'

The Gas Mask Soldier accidentally reveals himself to Spencer, who goes all ninja on him and cuts him with a pair of shears, but as she tries to remove his mask he fights back and knocks her unconscious. Thankfully he doesn't kill her, and she is soon discovered by Aria and Emily.

They once again go in search of the disembodied Ali voice to discover it's been a tape recording all along. Enter Grunwald to tell them they shouldn't be there. Again. She admits that she doesn't live there but is the home's caretaker, saying that the tape was a session she had with Ali and that it had been stolen months ago.

Miranda meets back up with Caleb in the cemetery and reunites the lost lovers. A distraught Hanna runs to him and fills him in, saying that she thinks A is Ali. However, when she goes to show him the entrance to the place below the mausoleum, the statue won't move. And to add plot twist to plot twist, they find a gravestone reading "Miranda Collins" with a picture of someone looking suspiciously like Miranda on it.

Hanna receives a call that the girls are OK, and they head back to meet up with them. Worried about Miranda, who is adamant about staying in Ravenswood, Hanna and Caleb share a passionate kiss and she asks him to stay behind to watch over Miranda, thus securing his exit from 'PLL.'

The Liars are reunited, and they discover they have a flat tire and no spare when a car pulls up behind them. Out of the headlights arrives Ezra, who says he was worried and looking for Aria. He agrees to drive them all home.

When they're back at Spencer's house, though, they see a figure in a red coat standing at the side of the road. They chase the figure into the backyard, where the girl removes her hood and turns to the girls. It is unmistakably Alison (or a twin), who looks at the girls with tear-filled eyes and asks, "Did you miss me?"

The girls ply her for questions, but Ali says she is in danger, that he's coming for her and she wants to come home but she needs their help to do so. She also implores Hanna to remember what they discussed at the hospital. The reunion is cut short by the arrival of footsteps as a frightened Ali begs them to be quiet. It's Ezra, and he has Aria's cellphone. The girls are not surprised to find Ali gone, and they eye Ezra with a mixture of shock, suspicion and fear.

Back in Ravenswood, Caleb finds his name and photo on a headstone in the cemetery as the plot gets even thicker.

'Pretty Little Liars' will return on January 4, 2014, and if you cannot contain yourself until then, you can take a turn with the mystery and horror-filled 'Ravenswood.'

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'Pretty Little Liars' Recap: 'Grave New World'

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When we left our Liars in the ' Pretty Little Liars' mid-season finale they were in Ravenswood, tracking down the mysterious Red Coat and desperately seeking their deceased friend Ali (Sasha Pieterse) at a costume gala. Will they all survive to tell the tale in the most revealing Halloween episode yet?

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Catch up on the latest Pretty Little Liars news and gossip, while enjoying daily quizzes, listicles, videos and other exclusive content.

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Postmodernism is probably a word you've heard tossed around in conversation about paintings that look like plain blocks or movies you thought didn't make any sens. However, you may not know the definition of postmodernism or where it comes from. Postmodernism is the ideological response to modernism, which can be defined as the rejection of traditional ideas about how the world works and how we can make sense of it. Before modernism, it was generally thought that everything could be explained through religion or science. Modernism was a rejection of this concept in the sense that many people became disillusioned with the idea that religion or science could be used to explain everything, believing instead that religion and faith were "holding back" progress for humanity. Modernism was the beginning of creating things for the sake of creating them and using them to explore oneself and humanity more thoroughly. Modernists generally believed that this was the best way to understand how the world works; you must truly understand yourself before you can understand humanity and the world around.

Postmodernism rejects this, and basically everything, in an extreme and sometimes nihilistic manner. Postmodernism says that everything is relative and constructed by political, social and historical perceptions, therefore nothing can be adequately explained by any sort of grand theory, idea, or meta-narratives. Postmodernism is often very self-referential and ironic. Often times, postmodernism can be used to critique the way certain things work or they way certain things are. Often times, however, postmodern works of literature or art may just be absurd for the sake of being absurd. Many, many television shows of the last 20 years or so adopt at least some form of postmodernism. Here are some fantastic examples of postmodernism in current television shows.

1. Bob's Burgers

Bob's Burgers is one of my personal favorites, and it constantly utilizes pop culture references to make the viewer feel like they are "smart" or "smarter" than those who don't get the references. There are examples of this all throughout the series. In Season 3, Episode 2, it's Halloween and Tina, Gene, and Louise are all dressed up and ready to go Trick-or-Treating. While the kids are getting ready to leave, Linda asks about everyone's costumes. She sees Louise and says "Ooh, Wolverine! Scary!" and Louise says "I'm Edward Scissorhands." Unless you've seen Edward Scissorhands and at least one X-Men movie or comic book, this joke won't make any sense to you. On the opposite side, if you have seen or know of both of these references, you immediately feel rewarded for being "smart enough" to understand the joke. Also, if you've ever seen Bob's Burgers, Bob always has a burger of the day. The burgers all have corny, dad-joke type of names. However, a lot of them also contain pop culture references. In Season 1, Episode 10, the burger of the day is the "Hit Me With Your Best Shallot Burger" which is obviously a reference to Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." In Season 1, Episode 12, the burger of the day is the "One Fish Two Fish Burger" which is a reference to the classic Dr. Seuss book.

Community is another fantastic example of postmodernism within television shows. As the Idea Channel on YouTube has suggested, Community may even be a "Postmodern Masterpiece." This show is littered with self-referential jokes, pastiches of countless film genres, and discussion of postmodern ideas within the episodes. There is a western episode, an apocalyptic episode, a love story episode, an action episode, etc. In the pilot for Community, Jeff Winger says "I discovered at a very early age that if I talk long enough, I could make anything right or wrong. So, either I'm God, or truth is relative." A quote couldn't be more postmodern than that.

3. Family Guy

Family Guy might be the King of pop culture references, and I think everyone knows that at this point. Every single episode contains some sort of flash reference where they make fun of a celebrity, an event, or something similar. In Season 3, Episode 3, a tobacco company buys the toy company that Peter works for. The tobacco company begins placing advertising into the children's toys, and in one instance, they flash to an advertisement that uses the 1954 television show "Lassie" to jokingly show how companies place advertising in their products. In Season 5, Episode 14, Brian and his black roommate are watching television when the results of the OJ Simpson trial are released. Brian's roommate is happy about the not guilty decision, while Brian is angry about the decision. Family Guy even occasionally references postmodern ideas outright, such is the case with Season 10, Episode 21, where Peter paints a picture of a family on a couch. However, instead of painting them as they are, he paints them with the two males as they are and the two females making out in their underwear. When the family gets angry about the painting, Peter says "I painted the truth. My truth."

While Ed, Edd, and Eddy may not be current, it's still a phenomenal show with loads of postmodern tendencies. Characters on this show frequently break the Fourth Wall. For those who don't know, the "Fourth Wall" is an imaginary wall between the characters of a show or performance and the audience. One very recent example of this is Deadpool, which is a fantastic movie as well. The whole character of Deadpool is based on the idea that Deadpool knows he's a character in a fictional universe, and he loves pop culture references and talking to his audience. In Season 2, Episode 4, Eddy decides to create a show where the kids in the cul-de-sac can showcase their talents. He has them audition, and when Rolf comes to audition he says his piece is called "the dance of the hairless otter" to which Eddy responds "Next! There's no budget for subtitles." In Season 2, Episode 13, Edd says "I think I've lost ten pounds this season!"

Breaking Bad is a very different example of postmodernism. In this series, as many of you probably already know, Walter White is a chemistry teacher at a high school, and he also works at a car wash. As a result of working at the car wash without proper safety precautions being taken, Walter ends up getting lung cancer. Also, his wife Skyler is pregnant with their second child. Walter doesn't make very much money and quickly realizes that the cancer is terminal and he isn't going to be able to leave enough money for his family to survive without him. His brother-in-law, Hank, is a DEA agent, and after seeing a meth bust on television, Walter asks to accompany Hank on one of their meth busts. Long story short, Walter ends up finding one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman, who also cooks meth, and they team up together to make the purest meth on the streets. Initially, Walter does this so he can make enough money to support his family after his death. However, as the show goes on, Walter slowly descends into wickedness. Without spoiling too much for anyone who might not have seen the show yet, Walter does some very, very awful things. He becomes coldhearted and cruel. Breaking Bad is truly one of the most fantastic television shows ever made, and I strongly recommend watching it if you haven't already. You'll love Walter in the beginning, and throughout, you'll slowly go from admiration for his strength and toughness, to disdain for the awful lengths he'll go to reach his goal, despite who it affects in the process.

These five television shows are just a handful of television shows that showcase the existence of postmodernism in television. The examples given are also only a handful compared to the amount of examples you'll find in each of these shows.

Cover Image Credit: Reddit

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Sorting at Hogwarts is a big deal. Being sorted into a house is essentially being placed into a family while you are away from home learning about witchcraft and wizardry. Your house is made up of the people you will live with, go to classes with, play Quidditch with and everything in between. You basically spend 24/7 with them. Your Hogwarts house is your home away from home.

When you get sorted into a house, it is based on your personality traits. The people in your house are typically like-minded people who display the same characteristics as you.

When you're a first year at Hogwarts, the minute you set foot in the castle you are swept into the Great Hall to have the ancient Sorting Hat placed on your head. This Sorting Hat decides which "family" you'll be spending your seven years with.

For some, it is very obvious which house they will be in, due to certain personality traits they possess. For others, they may exemplify traits that fit a multitude of houses and are uncertain where they may end up.

To find out where you belong, you can take the official "Harry Potter" Sorting Hat quiz at Pottermore.com. For all you muggles out there, these are the characteristics that the houses possess and what your house says about you:

Gryffindor: The house of the brave, loyal, courageous, adventurous, daring and chivalrous. Those who stand up for others are typically Gryffindors. Brave-hearted is the most well-known Gryffindor characteristic, and Gryffindors are also known for having a lot of nerve.

Gryffindors are people who hold a multitude of qualities alongside the ones listed, making them a very well-rounded house. People who are Gryffindors are often people who could fit nicely into another house but choose to tell the sorting hat they want Gryffindor (there's that bravery). "Do what is right" is the motto Gryffindors go by.

Being a Gryffindor means that you're probably the adventurous and courageous friend, and you are usually known for doing what is right.

Ravenclaw: The house is known for their wisdom, intelligence, creativity, cleverness and knowledge. Those who value brains over brawn can be found here. Ravenclaws often tend to be quite quirky as well. "Do what is wise" is the motto they strive to follow.

Though Ravenclaws can be know-it-alls sometimes, they most likely do know what the wisest decision is.

If you are known for being the quirky friend, the smartest in the group or just great at making wise decisions, you're definitely a Ravenclaw.

Hufflepuff: This house values hard work, dedication, fair play, patience, and loyalty. Hufflepuff's are known for being just and true. "Do what is nice" is their motto.

Hufflepuff is known as the "nice house" and believes strongly in sparing peoples feelings and being kind. This is not to say that Hufflepuffs aren't smart or courageous. Hufflepuffs just enjoy making others happy and tend to be more patient towards people.

If you ever find that you are too nice for your own good and cannot bear to hurt someone's feelings, congratulations, you are a Hufflepuff.

Slytherin: This is the house of the cunning, prideful, resourceful, ambitious, intelligent, and determined. Slytherin's love to be in charge and crave leadership. "Do what is necessary" is the motto of this house.

Slytherin is a fairly well-rounded house, similar to the other houses. They are loyal to those that are loyal to them just as Gryffindors are and are intelligent as Ravenclaws.

Slytherin house as a whole is not evil, despite how many dark wizards come out of this house. That is merely based on the choices of those wizards (so if your friend is a Slytherin, don't judge, it doesn't mean they are mean people). Slytherins do, however, have a tendency to be arrogant or prideful. This is most likely due to the fact that everyone in Slytherin is exceedingly proud to be there.

What Hogwarts house you're in says a lot about the person you are, the traits you possess and how you may act in some situations. But in the end, your house is really just your home that is always there for you. Always.

Cover Image Credit: Warner Bros Pictures

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Guess what I have to do this week? You guessed it, explain a poem in a paper. And while I like reading poetry, writing it and analyzing it is the worst. There are definitely people out there who disagree with me, but it's because they have the talent that I lack.

1. Denial

It can't be that hard, right? A one-page minimum shouldn't be too hard. And besides, the poem I'm doing is one of my favorites by that author, wait no, one of my favorite poems ever. "Annabel Lee." It'll be fun.

2. Anger

Wait a minute, what's all this metre nonsense? And rhythm? This doesn't even have a set rhyme scheme! I don't know anything about this, I've never been proficient in poetry, or even music! GAH!

3. Bargaining

Well, I can't change the poem now, and the alternatives aren't as great. Maybe if I just ignore that rhyming and rhythm stuff for now and focus on the literary stuff I know, it will be easier. And maybe I'll figure out why there's a weird rhyme scheme.

4. Depression

This is still quite the task... And usually once I look at these things, I never want to again, isn't that sad? But I really like this poem and I don't want that to happen. Yet... why?

5. Acceptance

I have to do this anyway, it's a part of my grade, and it's not like it's a 10-page essay or anything. Or god forbid I chose a poem with 10 stanzas or 20 lines per stanza. These things usually turn out fine, and even if they don't, I have time to bring up my grade. Just get the literary themes, the history, attempt the metre, and it'll be OK.

Yes, poetry can be daunting, but once you get the hang of at least the basics... the paper will be passable.

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Five Examples of Postmodernism in Television

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Postmodernism is probably a word you've heard tossed around in conversation about paintings that look like plain blocks or movies you thought didn't make any sens. However, you may not know the definition of postmodernism or where it comes from.

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This review contains spoilers.
4.13 Grave New World
It's good to have Pretty Little Liars back, especially after that doozy of a cliffhanger they left us with in the summer finale. Most fans probably wanted more Ezra in this episode but, as the producers warned us months ago, there are slightly more pressing issues to address in this Halloween special. The first is the pilot for spin-off Ravenswood, which took up a little more screen time than I would have liked, and the second was Alison. She's alive, and she's finally decided to reveal herself to the liars.

Starting with the Ravenswood stuff, Caleb has now left Rosewood at Hannah's request and moved to the creepiest town on earth in order to uncover a secret involving him, his family and an equally mysterious girl he met on the bus. It helps that Hannah and Caleb are still very much an item as of right now (how long until that changes?!), and that he has her permission to stay but, without him around, we're devoid of any trustworthy men. We thought we could count on Ezra, but recent events have shown us otherwise (I've never trusted Toby, for the record).

Removing Caleb and Miranda from the episode, there isn't much left of note. Ezra was around throughout the episode, wearing the gas mask and suddenly confronting the liars face to face - isn't it funny how that starts happening as soon as the audience know the villain's identity? I jest. A confrontation between him and Spencer leaves him with a pruning shears mark on his right palm that will surely be difficult to hide, but I'm always sceptical of people's identities behind masks since last year's Halloween special. Was the gas masked attacker always Ezra? Surely the liars would have seen his cut hand while he was driving them home?

Most of the episode was about watching the girls point at suspicious things, chase suspicious things and fail to catch suspicious things, and it might have been the weakest Halloween special yet. The first was the clue-heavy flashback episode and the second was the Halloween train. I don't know about you, but there's something about a moving venue that makes things much more exciting. I appreciate that the episode finally confirmed that Alison is indeed alive, and it doesn't appear to be her twin or another imposter, but we still have to wait to have the questions raised by Ezra's reveal answered.

Like the third season finale, the episode is only revelatory if you haven't been paying much attention for the last four years, and the idea that Alison is actually alive has been floating around since the pilot. We now know why she's been in hiding, and that it's almost certainly something to do with Ezra, but we have absolutely no clue why. I still doubt whether the writers would really make Ezra into a predatory murderer after all this time (though I live in eternal hope), so there's the possibility that his interest in Alison isn't a sexual/romantic one - it's never been confirmed that he's 'board shorts'.

Things to note are Alison's line to Hannah about remembering what she told her in the hospital: "You four remember more about that night than you think you do." We've been told that Spencer might finally reveal the reasons she didn't wake up with the other three liars 'that night', and it's likely that it's this Alison is referring to. What do you think? There was also the couple at the party wearing distinctive red coats - one of which was a child and the other an adult woman. Does this reawaken the twin theory anew? It's still possible we might be meeting Courtney DiLaurentis at some point.

This was an average episode of Pretty Little Liars that just happened to air as the Halloween special but, with Alison now confirmed as alive and Ezra's reign as A suspect #1 chugging along nicely, I won't hold that against it. Goodbye Caleb, we'll miss you!
Read Caroline's review of the previous episode, here, and read Kaci's thoughts on the Ravenswood premiere, here.
Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

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Pretty Little Liars season 4 episode 13 review: Grave New World

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This review contains spoilers. 4.13 Grave New World It's good to have Pretty Little Liars back, especially after that doozy of a cliffhanger they left us with in the summer finale. Most fans probably wanted more Ezra in this episode but, as the producers warned us months ago, there are slightly more pressing issues to address in this Halloween special.

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Rosewood - the sleepy suburb with big secrets
The town of Rosewood is full of secrets. Its sleepy, bucolic streets and charming old homes hide scandal, treachery - and murderers. The setting for ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars ( PLL; 2010-present), Rosewood is simultaneously peaceful and frightening; we are more likely to hear crows cawing than children playing. Here, four high school girls - Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer, known collectively as the Liars - try to figure out what happened to their friend Alison, presumed dead at the start of the series. Their efforts are hampered by a mysterious figure called "A," who seems to know their every move and deepest secrets. The Liars are thus caught between searching for answers about Alison, uncovering A's identity, and keeping their school, family, and love lives on track.
PLL is indebted to the dramatics of teen TV and the melodramatics of the Gothic. Emerging in the late eighteenth century with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto(1794), and typified in works like Matthew Lewis' The Monk (1796), Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), and Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), the Gothic is a flexible and adaptable genre, "provid[ing] authors with imaginative ways to address on Grademiners.com contemporary fears". 2 It's also often regarded as a way to explore women's anxieties and vulnerabilities. As Anne Williams explains, "gender is crucial in the Gothic". 3 4

Surveillance and paranoia, doppelgängers, and high levels of emotional intensity are mainstays of both the Gothic and PLL. Throughout the series, the Liars' every move is carefully monitored by A - the cryptic letter used to sign the threatening notes, texts messages, videos, and creepy packages they receive. From the very first message ("I'm still here bitches, and I know everything"), A is set up as a malevolent and omniscient figure.

A's messages to the Liars fall into two categories: critique and instruction. The former are pointed reminders of A's ongoing surveillance, as they tend to pick apart the Liars' actions throughout the day: "Now I know TWO secrets. Hanna got dissed...and Emily got KISSED!" ("Reality Bites Me"); "Look at you, all alone in a crowd. I win!" ("The Goodbye Look"); "Hey Em, some cream with your coffee?" ("Save the Date"); "Cut Mona off? Big mistake. You're not the only one who can slice and dice" ("Mona - Mania"); "I buried your mom the same way I watched her bury you" ("Run, Ali, Run"). The feeling that someone is always watching is characteristically Gothic, echoing classics like Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), in which a heroine is trapped under the watchful eye of a powerful, often capricious, figure.

A also exercises power over the Liars' behaviour through instructional messages - commands to be obeyed out of anxiety and fear. In "Know Your Frenemies," for instance, A preys on Hanna's insecurities about her weight by directing her to a local restaurant to pick up an order for "Hefty Hanna," and to eat the entire thing in full view of anyone passing by. From dictating nerdy dance partners ("Careful What U Wish 4") to forcing Emily to come out to friends and family ("Keep Your Friends Close"), to just "Act normal, bitches" ("No One Here Can Love or Understand Me"), A monitors and manipulates the Liars' behaviour. Like other Gothic stories, PLL is "full of constraint, entrapment and forced actions. Scenes of extreme threat and isolation - either physical or psychological - are always happening or about to happen". 5

A typically unnerving text from A

A's messages even appear in private spaces, such as bedroomsThe paranoia and suspicion generated by A's constant surveillance reminds us that in Rosewood, no one is who they claim to be: "people and events that initially seem innocent and straightforward become dark and sinister when viewed more closely". True selves and real motivations are hidden behind facades of doting boyfriends, caring parents, and do-good cops - a typically Gothic theme of doubles or doppelgängers that further complicates the messy threads of identity and guilt the Liars are trying to unravel. Their dawning realization that A isn't an individual person, but rather a host of unknowns working together is one of the show's most significant doublings. It amplifies the level of menace: A is no longer a singular threat, but multiple ones, and none of A's potential identities are clear. Doubling exacerbates the show's larger climate of fear and distrust, for if A isn't one but many, then the potential for betrayal increases as well.

This is exactly what happens when parts of A's identities are exposed. The first A to be unmasked is Mona Vanderwaal, one of Hanna's closest friends, who is determined to exact revenge for feeling she has lost Hanna to the Liars. In another classic Gothic move, Mona is committed to Radley Sanitarium - an dark, imposing building crawling with ivy and surrounded by intricate wrought-iron fences. Toby, Spencer's boyfriend, is next A to be identified, although his motives differ from Mona's. Toby's behaviour is itself a deceit, a strategy to protect Spencer from A's more nefarious machinations. Even deception is doubled in PLL: Toby's betrayal of Spencer is actually a betrayal of A.

Radley Sanitarium, where Mona is committed after being unmasked as AThe most recent A to be uncovered is Ezra, the high school's English teacher and Aria's on-again off-again boyfriend. However, Ezra's true purpose in Rosewood was to get to the bottom of Alison's apparent death for a true-crime novel he's writing. Seducing Aria was premeditated, part of Ezra's plot to worm his way into the heart of Alison's story. Yet even this isn't the end of A. Ezra is shot by a shadowy figure in a dark hoodie, indicating that A's identity has once again doubled. The Liars are far from safe - each time one A is revealed, another steps up to take over. The broader atmosphere of surveillance and suspicion is relentless; the Liars, it seems, will never truly be free, and never fully know whom to trust.

The shadowy figure, presumably A, taking aim at Ezra
These elements help tie the show's strong Gothic underpinnings to its teen TV setting. Part of what makes A so chillingly effective is how A and the Liars - like so many other characters on contemporary teen TV shows - are always plugged in. The technologies of https://grademiners.com/dissertation-help that mediate relationships and identities are key to the series' deceptive and manipulative practices. An incoming text message may be the show's most ominous sound effect, as we never know if the message will be helpful or hurtful. These devices create "a distinct sense of paranoia, where women feel that their behaviour is being continually observed and subsequently judged".
Yet the Liars have an unshakable faith in one another, if not in themselves. While teen TV is usually known for its dramatically shifting allegiances, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer stand by each other throughout all of A's attacks and the not-unreasonable idea that any one of them could be A. Their resolve challenges early Gothic tropes of female passivity and victimization. 8 ; although they may always be a step behind, they never stop trying to write essays out of A's labyrinthine schemes - even after years of terror and abuse. Part of "a long and shifting generic mode able to articulate female fears at different historical moments," PLL's Gothic elements are central to the show's depictions of growing up female in the age of smartphones and social media. 9 Because, as Alison tells her friends, "Sometimes lies are more interesting than the truth."

Image Credits:
1. Rosewood - the sleepy suburb with big secrets
2. A typically unnerving text from A
3. A's messages even appear in private spaces, such as bedrooms
4. Radley Sanitarium, where Mona is committed after being unmasked as A
5. The shadowy figure, presumably A, taking aim at Ezra
Please feel free to comment.
NOTES

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Andrea Braithwaite / University of Ontario Institute of Technology

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"Buckle up, bitches. Nothing is as it seems": Gothic conventions in Pretty Little Liars Andrea Braithwaite / University of Ontario Institute of Technology

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Rosewood - the sleepy suburb with big secrets The town of Rosewood is full of secrets. Its sleepy, bucolic streets and charming old homes hide scandal, treachery - and murderers. The setting for ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars ( PLL; 2010-present), Rosewood is simultaneously peaceful and frightening; we are more likely to hear crows cawing than children playing.

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This month, P retty Little Liars concluded its seventh (and final) season, making it the longest-running original series on ABC Family (recently renamed Freeform ). It has become a cult classic, a teen obsession, and a fascinating portrait of a show unraveling to the point of surrealism. The series' success is partly due to what the writers got right -- their knack for fascinating portraits of female friendship, their Hitchcock-ian ability to layer subtle terror over a picturesque setting -- but also all the things they did wrong.

Showrunner I. Marlene King initially planned for two seasons, and wrote a clear narrative arc based on that timeframe. When PLL was eventually renewed for three more seasons, King announced that she would solve the central mystery at the end of the fifth season, saying, "If it goes beyond five, I'm screwed."

A s the series progressed, it became clear that King's team was writing itself into a maze with no solution. This didn't dampen my enthusiasm at all because the failings of the writers created something utterly brilliant. If you imagine all of the inconsistent story-lines as a single, intentional text, it becomes a challenging, post-modern masterpiece. It destabilizes reality with circular plots that cannot exist in linear time. It critiques the arrogance of certainty, and reveals the violent power structures beneath the suburban idyll. Or at least, it can seem that way at 2am, after you've watched seven episodes back-to-back.

There is an expectation of a contract between TV shows and viewers; unless a show is explicitly promoted as something avant-garde or absurdist, viewers anticipate a rational narrative, that mysteries will be solved, questions will be answered, and time will flow in a predictable fashion. Hell, even shows that meddle with time-travel create rules.

Early experimental filmmakers were the first to thwart those expectations. After viewing the seminal surrealist film Un Chien Andalou , filmmaker and critic Ado Kyrou said, "For the first time in the history of the cinema, a director tries not to please but rather to alienate nearly all potential spectators."

Early surrealist films questioned the logic of cause and effect. They toyed with the viewer's expectations of a narrative, offering instead unconnected, inexplicable scenes unfolding in random order. In Un Chien Andalou , a man pulls pianos weighted with dead donkeys towards a woman. Ants crawl on a hand. A book is transformed into a gun. The film is punctuated with random declarations of time, like "Sixteen years ago" and "Around three in the morning."

Time was just as strange and unpredictable on PLL. The show starts with the characters in 11th grade, with the first two seasons each spanning a couple of months. At the beginning of Season 3, they enter their senior year. Then, there are 49 episodes, spread out over three seasons, which all seem to take place in November of their senior year, even though the show treats events as if they are occurring over weeks and months. For example, one character joins a police academy and then graduates. None of this is ever explicitly acknowledged; all of it is pieced together by fans desperate to make rational sense of a show that has increasingly abandoned the boundaries of rationality.

PLL focuses on a four girls, nicknamed the "Liars," who were friends with Allison, a queen bee mean girl who went missing. A year later, after her body is found, the girls begin receiving anonymous text messages threatening to reveal secrets that only Allison would know. The texts are signed "A." What follows is a twisting path of blackmail, surveillance, and misdirection.

As the PLL writers built this mystery, they created a rich tapestry of symbols. I. Marlene King , who has over 800,000 Twitter followers , many of them PLL fans, tweeted clues from the set that would point to A's identity: vintage movie posters, certain songs, a black swan costume. An entire community of devoted fans made a library of videos, mining every episode for visual clues, and editing them together to illustrate their theories. No detail was too small: the title of a book on a character's nightstand, the way the character is framed in a mirror, handwriting analysis, wardrobe motifs.

But in the most recent seasons, it became clear that most of the symbols were completely meaningless, and that some of Kings's tweets to fans were outright lies. Fans were furious . There was so much public backlash that I. Marlene King made a video promising answers , and tweeted the following:

For me, all of this brought to mind the purposeful irrationality of surrealist film and the writings of Luis Buñuel about his collaborations with Salvador Dalí : "Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything. The only method of investigation of the symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis."

As is fitting for psychoanalysis, my most profound interaction with PLL came in a dream. At the end of the second season, a girl at the Liars' high school is unmasked as A. But since it was renewed, another A picked up where the first left off, continuing to torment the Liars and raising the stakes. In Season 6, yet another A is unmasked. Then she is killed, and a new A immediately takes her place. It makes no sense. Why would these girls constantly be faced with shadowy, almost omniscient tormentors, one after another? One night, after bingeing episodes, I dreamt that the Liars were all living in a computer simulation, and A wasn't a person at all -- A was a virus.

I'm not saying that this is the interpretation intended by the writers. But when I woke up, I couldn't stop thinking about how much PLL resembled the real world. Much of the violence in our world is structural. Police brutality doesn't occur because "bad apple" police officers all happen to coincidentally kill unarmed black people. Police brutality against people of color is a symptom, and the virus is racism. Violence in PLL is not dependent on one independent actor. When one A dies, another takes her place. A is the virus. The individual A's are just the symptom. On Pretty Little Liars , as in our world, violence is systemic.

Over the seasons, as the Liars try to discover one A identity after another, the show has become famous for its red herrings. The girls follow logical leads, leading them to suspect various characters, but, while they uncover secrets about their town and learn some A identities, their central mysteries remain. In an era where many shows are defined by the success of the main character, there is something fascinating and subversive about a show where the characters never have the answers.

While many procedurals cater to a post-truth environment where Sherlock Holmes knockoffs are always right , Pretty Little Liars is the exact opposite. We watch as these intelligent girls follow all of the leads only to see the answers evaporate again and again. It begins to feel like a post-modern critique of certainty -- a reminder of how difficult it is to ever see the whole picture. Instead of being in a reality set up to ensure that they are always right, the Liars' reality demands that they question everything. Certainty is off the table, and all possibilities must be considered.

In the show's final season, the writers attempted to supply answers once and for all. But there was no way to adequately resolve all of the loose ends, and that's okay. After seven years, I've come to love the uncertainty. There are plenty of shows that have answers. What I love most about Pretty Little Liars are the questions.

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Cult Hit 'Pretty Little Liars' Leaves Behind an Accidental Avant-Garde Legacy

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This month, P retty Little Liars concluded its seventh (and final) season, making it the longest-running original series on ABC Family (recently renamed Freeform ). It has become a cult classic, a teen obsession, and a fascinating portrait of a show unraveling to the point of surrealism.

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Catch of the Day: Enter Miranda, Stage Left

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Catch of the Day: Enter Miranda, Stage Left There could not have been a better opportunity to introduce Miranda, the main character of ABC Family's new show Ravenswood, than in the Pretty Little Liars...

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http://redherry.tumblr.com/post/64837076798/catch-of-the-day-enter-miranda-stage-left

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Grave New World is the thirteenth episode of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars and the backdoor pilot of Ravenswood (TV series). It aired on October 22, 2013 as the season's Halloween episode.

Dressed in their costumes, Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer make their way into the graveyard party. Emily is hesitant to continue on-she isn't sure she is ready to see Alison, but Aria says that they already have. With that, they all walk through the graveyard's gates. Hanna spots two blonde haired little girls wearing red coats. Ezra calls Aria to ask where she is and to be careful-and we see that he is at the graveyard, too, wearing a gas mask costume.

Meanwhile, Caleb sits on the bus headed for Ravenswood. He is alone except for a mysterious man sitting at the back of the bus and a girl sitting next to him. They make small talk, and she introduces herself as Miranda. She is on her way to Ravenswood as well, and explains that she has been a foster child for most of her life, and she is going to Ravenswood to meet her uncle for the very first time. Caleb mentions that he is a foster child as well.

Back at the party, the four girls are gathered in the tent, wondering why Ali would go to a party like this. They spot a strange person dressed in a gas mask costume, similar to the one they found in A's lair. He is with a girl as well, and they talk to each other in low voices. As Spencer spies on him, Aria and Emily follow the girl as she walks out of the tent, but Emily is stopped by Mrs. Grunwald, who tells her that they should all leave. Meanwhile, Hanna once again sees the strange blonde girls in red coats.

Still on the bus, Caleb calls Hanna, but she won't answer her phone. He tells Miranda Hanna is his girlfriend, and then they discuss Miranda's uncle, who doesn't know Miranda will be coming.

Alone, Aria follows the girl and helps her out of an empty grave, which she had fallen into. Aria questions if she was pushed by the man she was with earlier, but she says that is her cousin and that he wasn't behind this. Her cousin arrives, tells her that the graveyard isn't safe and the leave. Emily and Spencer meet up and briefly look for Hanna and Aria, but they all find each other.

As they walk through the graveyard, they spot Red Coat running into a tomb. They all quickly chase after her, but once they get there, she is gone. They spot an area that has no leaves, so they push away a statue, which reveals a hidden pathway of tunnels down under the graveyard. They walk down into them, and then the secret door shuts, trapping them in the tunnels. Panicked, they make their way through the tunnels, one of which is very windy. They all hold hands and stand against the wall, but Hanna gets separated from the group.

She walks the tunnels alone, searching for the others, when she sees a sign written red on the wall, saying "HELP ME". She drops her hat and runs, finally finding a stairwell that leads to a door. She opens the door and finds herself in a dusty old mansion. She hesitates but continues onward, and we see that she is being followed by someone wearing the gas mask suit.

Caleb and Miranda arrive in Ravenswood and say farewell at the graveyard, and Miranda arrives at her uncle's mansion-the same one that Hanna is in. Hanna walks through the halls of the house and finally finds a phone booth. She steps inside, and someone locks her in. She tries using the phone, but it is just a prank phone, and she realizes that she is locked in. Strange candles/lights approach the phone booth, but they quickly go out and Hanna sees Ali and the gas masked man approaching through the foggy glass. However, as soon as they get close, they disappear, which may mean that Hanna was just imagining it.

Meanwhile, Spencer, Aria and Emily make their way into the house from the tunnels, looking for Hanna. They hear what they think is Alison talking, and Spencer runs off to look for her, and Aria and Emily lose her.

Miranda finds Hanna in the phone booth and lets her out. They introduce themselves and Miranda realizes that Hanna is Caleb's girlfriend. They make their way through the house, looking for an exit, until they find a room full of coffins. Miranda remembers being in this room with her uncle at her parents' funeral, and realizes that her uncle had abandoned her there.

Spencer walks into a greenhouse area of the house, and finds the man in the gas mask. They have a brief fight, and Spencer is knocked out before she can pull of his mask, and he flees. Miranda and Hanna finally find their way out of the house and go to the graveyard where Caleb was. Caleb finds them, and Hanna tells Caleb that she thinks A may have Ali. She leads both of them to the tomb where the entrance to the tunnels was, but it is sealed shut. Miranda, meanwhile, finds a gravestone with her name and face on it, and she is baffled.

Aria and Emily find Spencer in the greenhouse and wake her up, and they quickly run out of the room, following Ali's voice. They follow it into a room, and see that it wasn't Ali's voice at all, but just a recording. Mrs. Grunwald walks in and tells them that they shouldn't be in there. The girls say that they think they followed Alison into the house, and Mrs. Grunwald reveals that the tape was a recording of one of Ali's sessions with her. Six months before, the tapes were stolen, and Mrs. Grunwald gets a bad feeling-that Emily, Aria, or Spencer has touched the one Alison fears the most. They leave the house and return to their car, and they find that their tires have been slashed.

Caleb and Hanna are about to rejoin the girls and leave Miranda. They invite her back to Rosewood and offer her to stay with Hanna, but Miranda refuses because she still has questions for her uncle. Hanna tells Caleb to stay with Miranda to make sure she stays safe. They kiss and bid farewell. As Hanna walks back to the car, she sees the two blonde girls once again-although, it is revealed that one is really a short man dressed as a little girl.

Hanna rejoins the girls just as Ezra arrives and offers them all a ride home. They drive back to Rosewood and get out of the car. Once Ezra has driven away, they spot Red Coat staring at them in the woods. She runs away, and they chase her back to Spencer's barn, where she stops and pulls down her hood.

She turns around, and it is Alison, alive and well. She looks nervous, and she greets them with shaky "Did you miss me?" The girls are all overcome with shock and joy, and Aria says that it really was her that lead them to the lair and around Ravenswood.

Ali looks back into the woods and sees a light, and says that she doesn't have much time and that it isn't safe for her to be in Rosewood. They beg her not to leave again, and Ali says that she wants to come home, but she needs their help. Spencer asks who she is afraid of, but all Ali does is tell Hanna to remember what she told her in the hospital after she was hit by the car. Hanna is shocked as she realizes that their encounter wasn't a dream at all.

They hear someone approaching, and Ali fearfully puts a finger to her lips. The girls turn. Ezra walks into the backyard, supposedly to give Aria back her cell phone. When the girls turn back around, Ali has run off again.

In the final scene, Caleb and Miranda walk through the graveyard and find a tombstone with Caleb's name and picture on it.

Title and Background

If the girls find out that Ali is really alive, their whole world will be changed. This will be the girls' first step into their new lives with the knowledge of Ali being alive.

This title is likely a pun to Aldous Huxley's novel, Brave New World, written in 1932.

NOTE: The following information is spoilers. Read at your own risk!

The intro changed for this episode from the previous Halloween episodes

The girls are at a costume party at a graveyard in Ravenswood. They are trying to get to Alison before A does.

When Caleb is on a bus to Ravenswood, he meets Miranda, who is looking for her uncle.

When they enter the graveyard, Aria gets a call from Ezra asking where she is. She tells him that she is at a graveyard, and then says she has to go. The camera shows the girls walking away from behind, then rolls back to show Ezra watching them

Grunwald tells the girls that they need to leave Ravenswood

When a strong burst of wind comes, the girls all hold onto each other. Aria is holding Hanna's hand. Suddenly, it isn't Hanna's hand anymore; it is the hand of a creepy statue. Hanna has gone missing.

Hanna is looking for the girls when she finds a phone booth. She tries to call but all that comes through the phone is creepy music. When she turns around to exit the phone booth, she finds that she has been locked in.

The other three girls are walking down a hallway when they hear Alison's voice yelling that her friends know she's there. As they are walking, Spencer disappears from their group.

Meanwhile, Hanna is trying to get out of the phone booth when the phone rings again. She answers it, but only the same strange music plays. She turns around and sees 4 lights coming towards her. All of a sudden Ali's face appears in the window. Ali looks frightened. Suddenly, gas mask comes up behind her and she disappears. Miranda comes and lets Hanna out of the phone booth, claiming that she didn't see anyone else out there.

Spencer has a fight with gas mask and thinks that she knocked him unconscious. She leans over him and he grabs her, then knocks her out. Aria and Emily soon find her and they look for Alison some more. They follow her voice only to find an old tape recording of her crying for help. Grunwald appears behind them and says that the tape was stolen from her. Suddenly, Grunwald tells the girls that she can feel something and that "One of you has been touched by the one that Alison fears the most".

When the girls try to leave Ravenswood, they find Spencer's tires to be slashed. Suddenly, two headlights appear behind them and EzrA gets out of his car. He offers to drive them home. When they arrive back at Spencer's house, Aria says goodbye to Ezra and he drives off. The girls see Red Coat and follow her to Spencer's barn. They watch her from behind as she slowly takes off her hood and turns around. It is Alison. She asks them if they missed her, and then tells them that it still isn't safe yet. Then she tells Hanna to remember what she told her in the hospital (episode 1x11). A light comes up behind the liars and she motions for them to be quiet. They turn around to see EzrA. He claims that Aria left her phone is his car and hands it to her, looking behind them. They all turn around. Alison has left.

A's right hand was cut during the tussle with Spencer. When Ezra arrives to "save the day" and take the Liars home, we see that he keeps his right hand in his pocket. Lastly, when he comes back to give Aria her cell phone back, he gives it back with his left hand while his right hand stays hidden in his pocket.

Special Guest Cast

Ravenswood Characters

This was the third Halloween episode, the first being The First Secret and the second being, This Is A Dark Ride.

Filming began on May 29, 2013 and ended on June 10, 2013 since filming "usually takes 7 days".

This episode (4x13) was filmed between The Guilty Girl's Handbook (4x08) and Into the Deep (4x09) for unknown reasons.

The episode was screened at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on October 15, 2013.

Ali says "Did you miss me" in this episode. Tippi said the exact same thing.

Elizabeth Whitson appears in this episode as a character named Leah, who is appearantly Luke's cousin. However, when this episode was shot Whitson was still going to play Olivia, Luke's twin sister, in the actual spin-off show. The role was recast with Merrit Patterson after this episode was shot and before the first episode for Ravenswood was shot. If you look closely you can see the dialogue was changed during post-production and doesn't match up with what her lips are saying. Her lips are saying 'No, that was my brother', but we're hearing 'cousin' instead of 'brother'. When Luke calls her 'Leah', that's also off-screen. He was probably calling her 'Olivia' before.

This is the first time that Noel, Mona and Jenna do not appear in a Halloween Special.

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Grave New World is the thirteenth episode of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars and the backdoor pilot of Ravenswood (TV series). It aired on October 22, 2013 as the season's Halloween episode. Dressed in their costumes, Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer make their way into the graveyard party.

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Pretty Little Liars - Alison DiLaurentis Is Alive SUBTITULADO 4x13 "Grave New World"