Television is one of the most prominent aspects of the modern entertainment industry, and is currently valued at 330 billion dollars in the US alone. Television has allowed the creation of culture defining TV shows , from the Sopranos to Friends to Grey’s Anatomy and more. Specifically for myself, the television industry has created a niche and sub genre of television shows geared almost exactly for teen girls. Television channels and companies such as the CW, HBO, Freeform, and ABC Family have histories of television shows that catered to the interests and entertainment of one of the largest and most involved audiences: young, teenage girls. Being one myself, I have binged many TV shows and become a part of their cult followings. 
The first TV show I’ll be blogging about is the series Pretty Little Liars, which ran on Freeform from June 2010 through June 2017. This show was personally one of the first shows I ever binge watched in middle school and would commonly gossip and talk about it with my friends at our lunch table, considering it was seen as a dramatic and “mature” show at the time. Pretty Little Liars ran for 7 seasons and 160 individual episodes, even resulting in 2 spin-offs after its conclusion. When the series debuted on ABC Family in 2010, it became ranked number one in the rankings for Women ages 12 to 34, and amassed 2.47 million viewers. As Pretty Little Liars continued throughout its first season, it routinely brought in upwards of 2 million viewers per episode and became the number one ranked TV show for female teens. Additionally, this show remains as ABC Family’s most watched series of all time, with season finales garnering even 3 and 4 million viewers.
The premise of Pretty Little Liars followed a group of 5 high school girls in Rosewood, PA after the mysterious disappearance of one of their best friends and their tumultuous relationship with an unknown stalker, called “A,” who threatens to release their deepest and darkest secrets. This show was known for its never ending and twisted dramas, with sex, drugs, and murder intertwining with regular teenage girlhood. Weekly episodes featured death threats, forbidden romances, and betrayals, which perfectly kept the audience coming back for more and more.
This marriage of relatable teen drama and a high stakes stalker and murder mystery created a perfect storm for marketability to teenage viewers, resulting in many Teen Choice Award nominations and a large media presence. Pretty Little Liars additionally featured lesbian representation in one of its main characters, Emily, from the very beginning. This representation specifically allowed young LGBTQ youths to find a niche within the show and showed its catering towards the interests and struggles of its young viewers.
Pretty Little Liars remains one of the most successful teen shows to be created, from its viewership count to its social media following through its stars, and earned its cult following through the early 2010’s. My memories of watching Pretty Little Liars are associated with my middle school friends and I feeling so mature for watching such a dramatic and “intense” show, and show its status within its audience as a show that just had to be watched. Through its curation of drama for a specific audience, Pretty Little Liars found immense success in the television industry and set the pace for many other shows.
Hi Jessica! You knocked it out of the park with the RCL post, if you continue with that outline, you should be in great shape. I like the topic of the passion blog, but it felt overly analytical. You mentioned yourself once in the middle of it, and the intro was somewhat about you, but I want to read less Pretty Little Liars and more Jessica. Let me know if that doesn’t make sense.
Hey Jessica! I’ve personally never seen Pretty Little Liars before, but I definitely remember how popular it was back in middle school. It’s so cool how you connect with the show, and how it reminds you of your friends from when you were younger. You used a lot of great verbs in your post; my only suggestion is changing “my memories of watching Pretty Little Liars are associated with” to “my memories of watching Pretty Little Liars directly connect to.”
I’ve never seen Pretty Little Liars, but I definitely remember its popularity. I enjoyed your personal connection with the show, and it surprised me how inclusive the audience is. The rhetoric chosen is overall very good, but a verb I would suggest using to strengthen one particular sentence is “allows” instead of “has allowed” in, “Television has allowed the creation of culture-defining TV shows…”