Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists Cast Addresses Some of the Freeform Drama’s (Many) Unsolved Mysteries
Viewers were left hanging from multiple cliffs in 2019 when Freeform prematurely ended Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists‘ run after just one season — you can click here for our recap of the de facto series finale — but thanks to a long-overdue cast reunion, we finally have the answers to some of our burning questions.
Nine of the short-lived drama’s cast members — Sasha Pieterse (Alison DiLaurentis), Janel Parrish (Mona Vanderwaal), Sofia Carson (Ava Jalali), Hayley Erin (Taylor Hotchkiss), Sydney Park (Caitlin Park-Lewis), Eli Brown (Dylan Walker), Chris Mason (Nolan Hotchkiss), Evan Bittencourt (Andrew Villareal) and Kelly Rutherford (Claire Hotchkiss) — came together on Saturday in a live Chat4Good panel to reflect on their time shooting the twisted spinoff.
The cast also partnered with Smile Train, an international children’s charity dedicated to treating cleft lips and palates.
Read on for the biggest takeaways from the Perfectionists reunion:
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* The cast’s favorite moments included Eli’s big violin performance, the introduction of the students in the pilot, and the grim discovery of Nolan’s body (which was apparently a lot funnier behind the scenes).
* Rutherford, like most of the viewers, admitted, “I had no idea what was going on the whole time. Am I the killer? Am I not the killer? Because of the way it’s written, you never know who’s who and what’s what — but it was so much fun.”
* When asked why they think the mysterious Professor targeted the Liars, they actors collectively said they have “no clue.” But they have theories! “I think it was for revenge,” Parrish said. Added Pieterse, “Maybe someone had some bad blood with all of us. Or some people want to think it was just Mona again!” When pressed a second time for their theories, most agreed that Nolan is probably the Professor.
* Pieterse described Alison signing her divorce papers as the biggest “turning point” for her character, admitting that the controversial decision remains “a soft spot for all of us.” (For what it’s worth, Erin assured us that “Taylor’s into it!”) Pieterse added, “That was more of a reality check for her, that her life was completely different. It was a bummer that we didn’t get to see how [Emily and Alison’s] storyline progressed, but it was fun to play Alison in a different light.”
* Speaking of “Emison,” Erin admitted that she was “really nervous” about how her character would be received, especially knowing the fans’ passion for Alison’s previous romance. “I was pleasantly surprised that they were really welcoming of me,” Erin said. “I was worried for nothing!”
* Mason originally auditioned for Jeremy, who was ultimately played by Graeme Thomas King. Park and Carson also initially auditioned for each other’s parts; Carson first heard about the part while she was guest-starring on Famous in Love, another Marlene King-EP’d Freeform drama. And throwing it back to the original PLL, Pieterse added that she originally auditioned for Hanna (Ashley Benson).
* As for how the actors would have wanted their characters’ stories to end, Bittencourt wants Dylan and Andrew to move to Seattle, where they’d continue to pursue their individual passions; Park also wants Caitlin to get out of town, potentially following in her mom’s footsteps and making it into the Oval Office; Rutherford hopes that Claire and Taylor were secretly working together all along; Carson wants to find out that Nolan has been alive, as does Mason, who wants his character to come back and prove that he really did love Ava.
* “They escaped from me somehow,” Parrish said when asked what happened to Alex and Mary Drake. “If the show continued, I would have loved for them to both show up at my door.” Added Pieterse, “Maybe Mary was the professor!”
Your thoughts on the Perfectionists‘ reunion? Drop ’em in a comment below.
Freeform made it’s biggest mistake axing this show. I stopped watching anything on that network after what they did to this show, and I’m mighty proud of it. Axing multiple shows on cliffhangers is rotten enough, but this. They straight up disrespected their ONLY ratings successful franchise of the last decade! (and no doubt a spinoff of their most popular show). And from what I’ve heard of their show’s ratings of the past year, it seems fans have finally caught the hint that FF has no desire in respecting any of their shows and are fleeing. (Pretty little liars and Switched at birth are the only shows on the network that I know of that DIDN’T end on cliffhangers.) FF used to be a good network. How the mighty have fallen.
The Fosters didn’t end on a cliffhanger
The Fosters/Good Trouble is the only thing keeping Freeform going. Without all the tax credit/incentives the network would be toast.
Seems weird that they’re not gonna give it another try on HBO MAX since they used quite a lot the PLL original series as one of the top shows available on the platform meaning that they’re pretty aware there’s still an audience for that.
Any rumors about other possible incarnations of PLL?
I really wish HBO Max had picked it up for a second season from Freeform. They left so many questions unanswered. We really need a new PLL tv series in our lives.
This is nice and all but I dont get for the life of me why marlene couldnt just come out and say on twitter or something who the professor is. Even if she didnt know long term, then think of something, there has been plenty of time.
I mean that is like the cherry on top of the mysteries never got solved, people want to talk about how lost never solved all its mysteries, pll was horrible at solving mysteries and imo caved into the fan demands of their favorite couples getting together that became more important than answering questions
and that marlene wanted to do what i heard david lynch wanted to do with twin peaks and never solve the murder on his show and she copied that formula
sorry I meant or that marlene wanted to copy david lynch, i was just speculating
after witnessing how poorly Marlene answered questions about and wrote the ending of PLL, I’d tend to suspect she has no idea who the Professor is.
probably explains why her other mystery show she was working on got cancelled before it even aired a freaking pilot, the abc network is like we cant take anymore of your bs
like imo she is one of the worst tv writers ive seen in my life, yes she answered stuff in pll and ravenswood but none of them were cleverly thought out, if you look back in retrospect, she gave away some of these “big” reveals before they even officially happened
Im not saying marlene is a bad person, im just saying she isnt a good writer, at least when it comes to solving mysteries.
Freeform dropped the ball big time cancelling this, it had better ratings than some shows on the network and great Twitter interaction each week. I enjoyed it.
Was Taylor supposed to be a love interest for Alison? I never got that vibe. I don’t think the show even established that she was into women.
Yes, the creator said they would’ve got together in season 2. The hints were there
Me neither!.. I’m reading like, ‘huh?’ friends maybe. She’s literally Ali’s doppelganger if you think about it… Ali found her, got her to trust her… I think that would have ended up being like she was dating herself.. lol her younger self at that.
Wasn’t sad about this cancellation; it was only slightly less bad than that other PLL spinoff (Ravenswood?). Not even Pieterse and Parrish could save this one.
I loved everything about this show. I spent the first 10 years of my life in the Portland/Vancouver area so my heart skips a beat every time I see moss, evergreens, ferns, etc. And I’m a huge sucker for the cello, so adding both the scenery and cello soundtrack to a PLL show had me HOOKED in the first 30 seconds. This show was it for me—absolute perfection in my eyes. I was, and still am, outraged that they barely gave it a chance. 10 episodes it not enough to expect impressive ratings; especially with advertising that was abysmal at best (I swear I saw an ad for it maybe once or twice and I am well within the target demographic).
It’s very clear that Freeform didn’t give The Perfectionists a chance to succeed from the beginning, so my question is, why? Was/is there some sort of drama going on within the network? We know it wasn’t canceled simply due to the ratings, because the network never put any effort into gaining the ratings anyway, so something must have happened before the show started airing. Just my thoughts. I wish the petition had any hope of making a difference months ago, but it obviously didn’t. So if not for The Bold Type, I’d be boycotting Freeform completely.
I believe they didn’t pick it up for a second season in fear of this spin-off ending up like the other one, Ravenswood. I can understand the fear, but it seems like it had some following. Maybe a small feature film would’ve been received better than starting (and ultimately ending) the spin-off; a two-hour film delving into this would’ve projected less risk and really get a “feel” for how many would actually want to see another spin-off. I feel like they dropped the ball on this one. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t attached to the hip with this s/o like I was the original series, but after binging all ten episodes on Hulu, I actually DID want to know who the professor was at least.
I wanted a new season I was disappointed when I saw no season 2
I loved this show .I really thank it’s really messed up that you all stopped the show .It could of went on to better things .But No U Had To Stop The Show For No Reason.
PLEASE GIVE US A SEASON TWO I LOVE BOTH SERIES 😩PLEASE YLH SHOULDN’T CANCLE WE ARE ALL WAITING ON IT !!!! .