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breaking july

This is another "where have I been?" post. The good news is, I've been in my revision cave and almost have a fully revised manuscript ready to send out into the world! And that's always a good thing, right? Oh, and I've also been busy with lots of work-related reading. They don't call it conference season for nothing. Pitches are fun and exciting and they result in piles of submissions to keep you cozy on an already hot summer night.

The bad news is, there's been no Pretty Little Recap because I've been unable to access new episodes! I knew cancelling our cable service would remove our ability to watch our favourite shows "on demand" as opposed to "with a little effort", but it turns out that sometimes (like when you're really busy with other things), that little bit of effort makes all the difference. That and I've been marathoning Breaking Bad to catch up before its final season premieres in less than two weeks. You know you can't blame me for that :) Anyway, all of that is to say that I plan to catch up on PLL imminently and when I do, there will be a catch-up PLR and I will make every effort (since I'm a few episodes away from being caught up on BB) to actually be on a normal PLR schedule again. Plus, yes, the neglected Friday5 will make its glorious return sometime soon. I have to confess, for a while there, the news was pretty heavy, with the passing of fellow Canadian Cory Monteith, plus Comicon, plus lots of Catching Fire and Divergent news, and I actually felt too intimated by it all to try and capture it in such a limited format. But there are book recs to catch up on and fun stuff to discuss so it shall return!

That's the latest with me. How've you been?

pretty little recap: pledging 4 life


4.05 Gamma Zeta Die

In any teen series, I always love the obligatory check out college and hit up a frat party episode! Classic stuff. And of course, nobody does it like PLL with the character drama, the lesbian-straight fake-out, and of course, the creepy torture den, amiright? There's much to discuss so let's dive in!

Going Greek with booze and, of course, murder. Photo credit: ABC Family



Pretty Little Highlights

1. We finally return to the Tippy the bird storyline! Huzzuh! I like a good bird-phone number mystery. Yes, some of the answers were convenient, but hey, at least they returned to it! Some shows never follow up on the plot threads they introduce (I'm looking at you, Glee).

2. College party! As I said above, the college party episode always makes for great TV, even if your friends are acting weird or trying to bury evidence. Gotta love all those drunk extras.

3. Best line of the night (and this was not easy, considering Spence's entire chat with the college nerd) goes to Hanna, regarding Hot Caleb spending the weekend camping: "The closest thing he has to a phone is a can of beans."

4. But also, yeah, let's talk about Spence's geektastic convo with nerdboy.Crazy eyes. Hufflepuff. A Lannister always pays his debts. Move over Creeper Toby, I think Spencer has found a new soulmate.

5. I'm actually going to give Aria some points for her tie skirt, which was pretty cool, but she loses them all because of the horrific yellow top she wore with it. You just can't figure it out, can you Aria? Also, you lose even more points for "Four Wheel Hive". That's just bad.

Pretty Little Mistakes (a.k.a What Aria Did)

1. Was Aria's brother always this useless? Yeah, I guess he was. He makes Aria look slightly less useless. But only slightly.

2. Speaking of useless people in Aria's family, why did her mom just sit in the car swatting at bees when she could have just opened the door and bailed? Yes, I know. Drama. But I would have been out that door at sight of bee #2. Maybe even bee #1.

3. Oh Hanna. I love you. But bringing a gun to a frat party with a plan to go bury it in the woods is just stupid. It's almost as stupid as trying to sink a cop car. I still love you, but you need to learn to listen to your friends.

4. Emily needs to STOP wandering off on her own. I swear she does that in every episode and when has it ever worked out for her? Okay, to be fair, I'm not putting a lot of thought into whether or not it's ever worked out for her, but I'm fairly certain that more often than not, it's just creepy/scary/awful and she usually hits her head/shoulder/whatever.

5. No Hot Caleb. Yes, the line about his can of  beans was pure gold, but still. Where's Hot Caleb???

Pretty Little ZOMG WTF?!

1. It ain’t Tippy the bird. I should have known the mystery phone number would lead to a crazy abandoned murder room with claw marks on the inside of the door! Of course. Nice pink phone though.

2. Clearly Housemother Crazy has been up to no good. But what's the connection to Aly? Is Housemother Crazy part of the A team?

3. And finally, the big ZOMGWTF moment of the night--Hanna being cuffed and hauled off by the police for TRYING TO BURY THE GUN THAT PROBABLY MURDERED WILDEN. Not smart, Hanna. Not smart. I know she'll somehow get out of this, but I'm having a hard time imagining what that will entail. Is it next week yet??

~PLR~

pretty little recap: smashing mugs


4.04 Face Time
How are we already on episode four? I feel like the season just started five minutes ago. Oh right. It's because I marathoned the first 3 episodes... Oh well. Another week, another batch of creepy masks!

It's night time! Why wouldn't you hang out at a creepy mask place? Photo credit: ABC Family


Pretty Little Highlights

1. Let's get this out of the way up front. Pretty much any episode featuring Hot Caleb means Hot Caleb is going to be a highlight. And it's not just because he's hot (though, yeah, obvs). It's also because he's brave, tries to do what's right, and looks out for Hanna like a boss. I love these two together. Can they please just stay together forever and ever? Please? PLEASE? I DON'T WANT HOT CALEB TO LEAVE THE SHOW! HE IS THE BF MVP OF THE CENTURY!

2. Aria's new dude is turning out to be pretty awesome too. When he was giving her the advice about figuring out if she's hurt or injured, I was thinking, "Man, this guy is too cool for Aria" and then Aria went and proved it by having no clue what the eff he was talking about. It's a pretty basic metaphor, Aria. How has she made it this far in school? Oh right. She was banging her teacher. Zing!

3. Spencer and Aria spying on Melissa was pretty entertaining since they were basically standing RIGHT THERE and Melissa is so dopey that she still didn't see them. I feel like Melissa is the cheerleader version of an evil mastermind. (No offense to cheerleaders--I just needed to stereotype to quickly/easily explain what I mean. You guys are admirably athletic!) Plus Sparia almost always makes for excellent dialogue. Much like Hanna + anyone.

Pretty Little Mistakes (a.k.a What Aria Did)

1. The Emily after school special continues. Something in that storyline needs to either happen or go away. I'm not diggin it.

2. Melissa, why oh why would you desperately (it has to be desperate because it's night time) take the masks from the shop only to dump them in the water nearby? Sure, she's smashing them (poorly), but a) they're still fairly accessible and b) stop littering off that guy's dock! I'm sure he doesn't appreciate waking up for his morning coffee by the lake to find pieces of smashed masks all over his dock and where he likes to swim.

3. Aria's studded sweater and weird pants combo (as partially portrayed above). Enough said.

4. Creeper Toby's Mom blah blah blah. I'm sorry. Usually making fun of Creeper Toby is enough to entertain me during his scenes, but there's nothing to make fun of in this storyline so I need it to end! It almost pains me to say this, but I need good old shirtless-for-no-reason Creeper Toby back!

Pretty Little ZOMG WTF?!

1. Melissa... killed...Wilden?? Maybe??

2. Or was it Ashley?? I'm so confused right now. Am I the only one who had trouble understanding everything Melissa was talking about?

~PLR~