7 things we want to see from season 3 Max's Pretty Little Liars reboot

With the season finale of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School now streaming and some rumors swirling that a third season of the Max reboot might be in the works, I've started thinking about what I would like to see from the show in season 3—major spoilers ahead for Summer School.

A new villain

Season 2 ended with the return of Archie Waters as he busts into Dr. Sullivan's office and kills her. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't want another Archie-focused season. I mean, both seasons have really been about him in some way or another, and while he wasn't at the forefront of season 2, his presence was heavily felt.

I'm ready to move on! Mona didn't stay A forever. We gotta introduce something new. And I thought that's what season 2 was doing with Bloody Rose, but then our iconic female slasher got totally shoved to the side in the finale for a lackluster male villain.

The writers need to take their time and come up with someone different and creative for season 3, preferably something we haven't seen before (and maybe go all the way with a female villain this time?).

Less focus on love interests and more on friendship

The friendship between the girls is one of the strongest aspects of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, but the show falters when it comes to the friendships between the girls as individuals.

In the original show, each girl had a distinct relationship with the others. Emily/Hanna differed from Aria/Spencer, for instance, and then you had Mona/Hanna, Aria/Hanna, Spencer/Emily, etc. And all of those friendships were different from the overall group dynamic.

Apart from Tabby and Imogen, none of the other girls in Summer School get one-on-one scenes. I can't recall if we've ever had scenes that were just Faran and Noa, or Mouse and Tabby, etc. Part of the problem is that there simply isn't enough time. Pretty Little Liars has 20+ episode seasons, while the reboot gets 10 or fewer.

But I think part of that could be solved by significantly reducing the number of love interests. The girls don't all need a love interest at all times. Not allowing the girls to be single was a problem in the original show, too. But at least in the original, they had a lot more episodes to mix up the relationship dynamics.

More episodes

I'm not getting my hopes up for this one because, unfortunately, in this era of television, we rarely, if ever, get more than 10-episode seasons. But it would be nice if Max added some episodes to the overall count for season 3. Is it shooting for the stars to ask for 13 episodes? Or at least give us back the 10-episode count from season 1! I think the relationships and mystery would get better development and more time to breathe if the show had just a little more time.

Development for Jen and Noa

I love that Summer School introduced a queer storyline for Noa, but I hate that the show perpetuated one of the most harmful stereotypes out there: the cheating bisexual woman. I didn't find Shawn the most interesting TV boyfriend, but Jen hasn't done much to fans win over.

Many of us felt a little blindsided by how the Jen/Noa relationship happened. No one says teenagers must be perfect. Making mistakes is a normal part of growing up. But I really wish they'd thought a little more about making their only openly bisexual character a cheater. It's going to take work to develop the Noa/Jen relationship beyond that.

More originality

Part of what I love so much about Summer School is the inclusion of classic and modern horror movie references. Tabby is like a walking horror encyclopedia, and it's fantastic. But sometimes, the writing is so focused on infusing references and scenes from notable films that it forgets to do its own thing.

It's detrimental to the storytelling when the writing twists itself to fit in a reference that doesn't feel organic to the storyline. Next season, I'd like to see more subtle references that feel earned rather than forced into almost every major story beat.

Raise the stakes and amp up the horror

Even though Summer School has no problem dropping f-bombs, the show is still pretty tame regarding its horror content. I think part of that is trying to still appeal to a teen audience, but season 2 did feel a bit tamer than season 1 in some ways. I'm not saying it needs to become a gorefest or anything like that, but it would be nice to raise the stakes and genuinely feel like some of these characters are in mortal peril.

A cameo or two from the original Pretty Little Liars cast

Sasha Pieterse and Lucy Hale have both been vocally supportive of the reboot. I don't necessarily want them to take over, as I think the reboot's main cast is its biggest strength, and they deserve to shine on their own show without being usurped by the previous cast. Still, it would be nice to see Alison return as a teacher or something. Dr. Sullivan's funeral presents the ideal opportunity to bring someone back as a guest star.

Oh, and more holiday episodes, please. Those are always so welcome.

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