Someone cue up Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again because here I go again, hopping back on the Pretty Little Liars train to be once again tormented by a new, much more disturbing version of A.
The spinoff series Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is a spirited and unhinged version of the originAl. Rosewood has nothing on Millwood, a town haunted by a dark secret that dates back all the way to a Y2K New Year’s Eve party in 1999.
While the shows may share a name, there’s not much connecting the reboot to the original. The new version almost feels like a continuation of the Scream TV series if it had a baby with I Know What You Did Last Summer (and it’s already better than that spinoff), while the villain has zero A-like qualities and presents more like a cheaper Michael Myers, though, equally as terrifying. And since Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa serves as showrunner, a bit of Riverdale’s style has bled in like Greg’s Archie hair or Karen’s dad’s dated patrol car in 2022. The mesh of past and present always makes for an eerie atmosphere.
But don’t worry, A still has eyes everywhere (and it almost feels like there are multiple A’s at one point, which I know original fans understand all too well) and he/she/they are still using text messages for stalking purposes. Some things never change.
The PLL moms ended up having their own fan base in the 2010 version, so this series is leaning fully into that. The PLL moms on this show are the original sin.
When the pilot kicks off, we see a distraught young woman begging for help. She’s turned away by nearly everyone at the party, including her own best friends, so she climbs up to the top and asks the crowd if they can see her now before plunging to her death.
Naturally, there’s a lot of trauma there for the now-adult women who just so happen to be the mothers of the high school seniors being targeted by the masked stalker. The girls may all be classmates, but none of them have any actual connection to each other aside from Imogen and Tabby. And based on the fact that they had no idea their moms were close in high school, after Angela’s death, none of the now-moms kept in touch in hopes of forgetting about what happened.
Except A doesn’t want them to forget. And his first kill, Imogen’s mother, is proof of that.
While PLL had its anxiety-inducing moments, it paled in comparison to the grisly scenes that Original Sin serves up right off the bat.
Imogen, who is 6-months pregnant, bares witness to her mother’s bloody suicide along with Karen, who is teed up as the show’s more humanized yet sometimes much more dangerous villain—a blonde mean girl.
Karen’s behavior is pretty one-dimensional at first, but as we peel back the pieces of her life, it’s revealed that perfect is just another word for dysfunctional. Imogen owns up to the fact that she’s a walking teenage tragedy (losing your mother is definitely a tragedy, but not in the way they imply, and being pregnant in a school full of hormonal teens who are having sex isn’t exactly tragic), but Karen puts on a front instead. In reality, she lives in a preachy house and is insecure because her father (who is also caught having an inappropriate relationship with a classmate) is a perfectionist who pushes her to be “the best,” and she pity’s her mother who just puts up with all of it and doesn’t say a word. It’s a lot to digest, but my point is, that we have plenty of reasons to feel sorry for Karen, even if she doesn’t make it easy. It’s unclear how Karen is connected to the daughters who are being targeted by A, but it does seem like A wanted them to turn against her because when they all land smack dab in detention for “crimes” they did not commit, the common denominator is Karen.
As they bond over their mutual hatred — in a really clever politically-charged dialogue bashing our society’s definition of a “Karen” — they vow to get revenge on the rampaging bitch. Their words, not mine.
Imogen declares the need to “kill Karen,” which seems to be intensified for dramatic effect, though, my guess is she just meant “ruin her.” At least, I hope. The town truly doesn’t need any more psychopaths running around.
I also hope it’s the case because, as of now, Imogen seems to be the heart of the show that’s desperate to live up to the energy of every past, present, and modern-day slasher. That poor janitor never saw it coming, but he should have! Imogen’s pregnancy is a clever plot device to hone in on the emotional toll of these deaths that sometimes feel so empty in slasher-horror films because we don’t actually have any emotional connection to the people being murdered.
We can all relate to the grief and heartache of losing a mother, but it hits a lot harder when the loss happens to a young woman on the cusp of a life-changing event who is now forced to navigate motherhood all on her own. Imogen has been thrown into an unthinkable situation, but despite a few panic attacks, she steps up to the plate. She doesn’t just show up, she puts Karen in her place publicly as she vows to become prom queen.
It’s only a matter of time before they piece together that they are being targeted as punishment for their mother’s sins, and their moms will likely figure it out too when they start getting threatening, cryptic text messages. Even if they were mean girls in high school, no one should have to pay the price for immature decisions years later, especially not innocent children who are already navigating a mean and cruel world, to begin with. What’s up with the ballet teacher? I know the world of dance is cutthroat, but girl, chill.
But it all begs the question that’s old as time — who is A?
It has to be someone with access to the school. For now, after a first impression, my money is on Karen’s dad Sheriff Beasley. He did say he was the best, and that’s something a psycho killer would say.
Other Moments Worth Mentioning
- Wes and Tabby are the equivalent of Aria and Ezra but like so much weirder. There were definitely issues with Aria and Ezra, but there’s no romanticizing Wes and Tabby. He’s trying to groom her and get in her pants by flexing his NYU connections and its grade-A douche. I really thought he was going to get killed on that deserted road, and he should be thanking Tabby from up above that she told him to drive faster than he’s ever driven before.
- Karen and Greg’s relationship is so toxic.
- Can everyone talk about how they’ve seen a masked peeping tom creeping on them? I feel like we need to get that out in the open.
- I know Ash just wants to help Mouse come out, but I don’t trust him!
- I thought Tabby was cool, but why does she have a secret camera from the boy’s locker room? Now, that’s some stalker behavior!
PLL was creepy, but PLL Original Sin takes it up ten notches, and it doesn’t seem like it’s stopping there.
The pilot episode was promising, even if I’m missing my OG liars, and I’m hoping that the series will find a way not to burn out fans with a guessing game about the killer’s identity that drags for several seasons until it no longer makes any sense.
What did you think of the series premiere? Should it even be compared to PLL since it’s like the show’s much darker older sister? Will you continue to watch? Was it as chilling as you thought it would be?
We’re giving the premiere a B-!