Pretty Little Liars canceled: 4 reasons the show deserved better (and 3 reasons cancellation was the right move)

Max's Pretty Little Liars reboot will not return for a third season.

The horror-themed version of the show started in 2022 with Original Sin and then returned earlier this year for its second season, Summer School, which wrapped in June. Pretty Little Liars was created by Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring and starred Bailee Madison, Chandler Kinney, Zaria, Malia Pyles, Maia Reficco, and Mallory Bechtel.

Max released an official statement via The Hollywood Reporter that reads, “While Max will not be moving forward with a third season of Pretty Little Liars, we are so grateful to our co-creators, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring, as well as the team at Warner Bros. Television, for reintroducing fans to this new iteration of liars who band together to fight the latest creepy villain terrifying Millwood. Their unique and modern creative vision — combined with the immense talent of our cast and crew — gave the series a fun, horror-filled point of view that paid tribute to its original Rosewood roots.”

It's possible that another streaming service or network could still save the series, but it does seem unlikely. The cast has posted on social media, expressing their gratitude to the fans and adding that they will expand on their thoughts over the weekend.

At the very least, the girls are in a pretty good spot at the end of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, though the last we see of Dr. Sullivan, she's been murdered by a returning Archie Waters, spelling plenty of trouble for the future. There's also a brief, almost The Purge-like teaser showing a group of girls wearing masks resembling the leading quintet, suggesting they might have gotten scary stalkers in a third season. But perhaps we'll learn more about what could have been in the coming days.

1. GREAT: Friendship between the girls

Most fans would agree that the heart and soul of Max's Pretty Little Liars reboot is the beautifully sincere friendship that forms between Imogen, Tabby, Mouse, Faran, and Noa. People loved the friendships in the original show, and the reboot did a fantastic job of emulating it and even surpassing it in some ways.

The bonds between the girls always felt genuine, and you could tell that all of the actresses got along well in real life, too. I wish we could have gotten more one-on-one friendship scenes and moments between the girls (like Noa/Faran, Imogen/Mouse, Tabby/Faran, etc.), but the core five really are why this show worked as well as it did.

2. BAD: Messy love interests

Like its predecessor, Original Sin and Summer School suffered from trying to juggle too many love interests too quickly. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but none of the relationships on the show really worked for me—except Ash and Mouse because they're perfect. Either there was a lack of chemistry, or things progressed too quickly to feel believable.

I was also disappointed with Noa's season 2 arc and that the show took the cheating route with its main bisexual character. Johnny/Imogen and Christian/Tabby had great potential, and it's unfortunate we won't get to see what will become of them.

Part of the issue is that it felt like the show constantly needed each girl to have a love interest, which also happened in the original series, as if their being single for a bit was bad. At least we didn't get anything as awful as Ezria, though.

3. GREAT: All the horror references and homages

One of the main things I loved about Original Sin and Summer School was how many fun references and callbacks to classic horror movies there were. From Halloween to Carrie to Evil Dead to Friday the 13th to Scream to more obscure titles, Pretty Little Liars ran the gamut of horror, and you could tell that the writers and showrunners have a genuine passion for the genre. That came through in every single episode and made the show a blast to watch to try and pick out all the references.

4. BAD: Unrealized villain potential

I didn't mind the Archie Waters reveal in season 1. That storyline felt like it fit into the story, and the season 1 finale was excellent. But I admit that season 2 did fall short of my expectations.

The writers set up Bloody Rose Waters to be such a fierce and terrifying female slasher villain, so I was disappointed when she ended up being pretty useless, going out with a whimper, not a bang. I wrote another article about my feelings about her underutilization.

5. GREAT: Epic final girl moments

Each of the five girls got to have some epic moments throughout the show, but Tabby and Imogen really owned the season 1 and season 2 finales with extensive fight sequences and "final girl" moments.

Aguirre-Sacasa previously said that he wanted each girl to have their own final girl moment in the spotlight, and the plan likely would have been to do one a season. It's a real shame we won't get to see what would have happened moving forward.

6. BAD: Liars needed to get their hands a little dirtier

Part of what made the original series so good and suspenseful is that the main girls actually did do some pretty shady stuff. Often, that was because they were under pressure from A to do so, but it meant they had a lot of secrets to keep. In Original Sin and Summer School, our leads weren't really "liars" at all. In fact, the season 1 villain and arc wasn't even about them as much as it was about their mothers.

And in season 2, again, the villains aren't really after the girls because of stuff they did. I wanted to see an I Know What You Did Last Summer angle, like the group dealing with accidentally killing someone or getting into more messes that would have led to more complications and secrets. There's a reason fans reacted positively to the scene with the girls bickering toward the end of season 2. It felt real, and there needed to be more meaningful conflict outside of just being chased by killers.

Things were sometimes too clean with the protagonists, almost as if the writers were scared to make the audience turn on any of them. The moments when Imogen was battling with her darkness or the scene where she threatened Kelly were great. Same with the scene where they put on masks and trash Redemption House. I wanted more of that!

7: GREAT: Much darker and more mature than the original

Sometimes, people forget how dark the original Pretty Little Liars could get. It wasn't entirely a horror show, but A could get gruesome. Remember the beheading of Noel Kahn? Or everything about the Dollhouse? The kidnappings? People getting buried alive? Yeah, the list goes on.

But as this show was airing on Max, they were able to crank the rating up to TV-MA and do a lot more in terms of the gore and actual horror content. Plus, it was nice to hear the girls curse a bit. I mean, I would, too, in their situation!

Even though I'm a little heartbroken over the show's cancellation, the first two seasons are still available to stream on Max, and you can also support Chandler Kinney in the current season of Dancing with the Stars.

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