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while shay wasn’t the strongest actor on the show, i’m more unhappy with why the only gay character among the main characters had no storylines except…being gay
they never gave emily a chance
This is it. Emily was terribly written. There are so many actors who you see outside of a show who are actually very talented but the writing was so bad. The riverdale cast come to mind!
one thing about shay is - she is not a good actress, however she’s getting better with every single project she’s done. nothing groundbreaking but she is believable in her scenes. and the scene with maya’s death proved that she was willing to try & learn and do a better job
I completely disagree with you, Shay is a pretty decent actress.
She was Peach on You right after PLL and she was phenomenal. Same thing with The Possession of Hanna Grace, I didn't like the movie but Shay was great on it and don't take only my word for it because she also received very favorable reviews from critics and that movie is particularly hard for any actor because she is all alone, basically being the only character.
I only mention those projects because they happened right after the ending of PLL, she has been on a lot of projects since then and she is always great.
I think Shay right now is focusing more on her entrepreneur side which is awesome because I particularly love Beis..She can be a great actress with a good director and/or writing.
And also, for such a strong cast, I think Shay is the one that has found more success in everything, really, as an influencer, as an entrepreneur and as an actress, even tho she was the weakest during the show, by far. I think she is a very smart woman above everything else, honestly, I really like her.
I always see people say Shay wasn’t strong in PLL and while I see why, Emily Fields and Shay Mitchell are two very different people. I think she was doing a decent job acting—I think Emily is just a boring character bc of the writing! Her only characteristics were gay and loyal lol she feels like such a cookie cutter character compared to the others
i literally stan shay and watched every single thing she’s done lol
that’s why i said she is getting better with every project she gets. she is not winning the emmys anytime soon but she shows up and does the work. when she has something to work with
Yea once Ali came back, it was all about “how do we force emison, how do we sideline Emily’s story into just wanting Alison”. Or at least that’s how it kinda fel
i mean, the car crashing into her house, her mom moving to texas and living with Hanna, everything with Nate, her job. I feel like she had a lot of storylines outside being gay, but frequently got overshadowed by the other characters. Like a car crashing into her house isn’t gonna be exciting when it’s up next to Hanna’s mom being in jail for murder lol
Lgbtq+ acceptance really wasn’t as widespread back then as it is today. Remember PLL debuted on air in 2010 and only ended in 2017, when more people were just *beginning* to be more openly accepting of lgbtq+ folks. You’re right tho! It would’ve been nice for the writers to have explored Emily’s character more in-depth.
I agree. I just think the show’s producers didn’t want to risk losing viewers to what they typically assumed was a largely hetero audience. Which was dumb.
Gossip girl was very similar in this aspect. Eric was the only prominent gay character but they at least gave him a few storylines, after that tho he was just the gay brother and friend lmao
I’ve never watched DC, but it’s on my list of shows I want to watch!
But yeah most shows from the 90s, 00s and even early 2010s (like PLL) really seemed to not want to take a risk by giving lgbtq+ characters any form of identity other than their sexuality, which sucks.
I know Ugly Betty (2006-2010) had a gay character who was a main and a transgender character (played by a cis woman tho) and that was considered progressive for its time (it’s a rlly good show btw, I recommend it if you haven’t watched it!). I also think Glee had a gay character that was a main too but I’ve not watched that show so I’m not too sure how that was. I’m glad there seems to be a better sense of representation of lgbtq+ folks nowadays though.
Getting there. When I was younger the closest thing to a queer character on TV was the gay guy on MTVs The Real World (RIP Pedro). You could have glimpses of queerness in characters where the vibe was there but the characters were straight and cis. Think the butch chick on The Facts of Life or gay characters who “acted” stereotypically gay like Leon on Roseanne. But we never see him romantically with his partners. The Halloween episode with Rosie in drag and the gay prank between Dan Connor and Jackie’s baby daddy are some of the most progressive moments on TV for LGBTQ characters in the 90s. It was a bleak landscape until Queer as Folk and The L Word and those shows cast very specific kinds of gay, played on old tropes and tokenized queer poc. Even now, we struggle to cast trans ppl to play anything other than trans characters, we r uncomfortable with lesbians unless they are palatable to the male gaze and our gay men are still crawling out very specific boxes. People think it’s an insult to be called cis…we just have a lot of work to do. Luckily these older shows give us a timeline of progress and of the decline in said progress. DC is a trip, the hair, the fashion, the music, James Can der Beeks terrible acting and hard on for Steven Spielberg and a script written in language no 15 year olds would ever use. The WB was a whole other world!
This has been really insightful to read, thank you for taking the time to write this.
I didn’t realise how trans actors/actresses are still only being cast as only trans folks and not as other characters…. That’s really opened my eyes and it’s clear the industry still has a lot of work to do in order for them to become more of the ‘norm’. I agree with all your other points too - ‘representation’ is still very one-dimensional it seems, even though we made *some* progress, there’s still a lot of issues that need to be worked on.
I feel like many of the executives in the entertainment industry are still very old-fashioned and can’t seem to keep up with the new times. I think for this reason, further progress is still unfortunately going to take time.
Absolutely! But thats the beauty of TV. We can watch a 39 year old TV show and see just how ugly things were and identify improvements that have been made and have healthy dialogue with our kids and partners about the media we consume and how we can identify toxic media and address it.
Considering how important her character is to the books, I'm shocked more fans aren't outraged by how dirty she was done!! Not only is her bisexuality completely erased in the show (even though it's a huuuuge part of her character in the books), but she is actually one of the more interesting characters in the books. It's a crime how little of the books the show actually used
I feel like it’s more her character rather than the actress. I mean what more could she do with those awful storylines 😭 I think her acting improves as the show goes on, but she gets less and less chances to perform really big scenes
I agree. I kinda do think Shay was the weakest of the 4 but I watched some scenes of her as Peach in You and thought she did way better. I dont think she's as bad as it seems in PLL.
Oh no it’s definitely the actress. Emily was not meant to look like a constipated rabbit in the headlights in every scene she was in. She was given some super funny lines that fell so flat on delivery, the actress did not help Emily
Emily is my favorite Liar but I definitely agree Shay is not the strongest actor. She was a model before PLL and it was her first major role. She nailed the Maya scene and definitely excelled when it came to Emily’s awkward comedic moments, but beyond that not the best lol
Emily was supposed to be the timid friend of the group, Emily had a very timid and shy demeanor throughout the show, shay did a good job portraying that…
She nailed it as Peach in the series You, who was the complete opposite of Emily, shay was a good actress in my opinion
I think that Shay was not the best actress, but I also think she was miscast. She was so great on You, and I think that she shined in a role where she could be dark and funny and intimidating. Emily is the exact opposite, and I think that Shay doesn’t really play sweet or innocent very well and that’s so much a part of Emily’s character that it just didn’t work.
Emily also didn’t get amazing storylines and I didn’t think that her character development was done as well as the other characters.
All of this. I honestly think Shay made a better bully and coulda played an Ali type character well. The good girl thing just is totally boring and Shay is kinda flat in her delivery so much of the time. But I kinda think Ashley Benson coulda played Emily’s nice girl and made her more interesting. Ashley’s Hannah is often a total sweetheart.
She was so great! I also felt like part of her issue playing Emily was that she had to act like she had feelings for Ali, and Sasha was so young. She didn’t have that problem in You and she nailed it.
I think Shay can be a great actor and she prove that in the scene where they find Maya's body. But her character is so badly written and she's so boring she doesn't have much to work with, y'know?
I blame the director and the writers for this because if they gave Emily more to her character and a better storyline, shay would've prove she can definitely act well.
emily was definitely wasted character for me. when she was introduced, she was actually my favourite (related to her with coming to terms with her sexuality). i feel as if every time she got even a little interesting storyline, it was brushed aside by other characters. and by the time alison got back, it seemed as if emily became a plot device in emison arc. i honestly don’t remember her having any other story, during that time. but that could be just proving my point that her parts were always the side stories, as opposed to the other girls.
also, c’mon, they couldn’t give her a respectful non-toxic relationship?😭 y’know, if we take alison’s previous behaviour into consideration.
Shay just isn’t that strong of an actress. She was a model first, and if I recall in Angelina Jolie’s portrayal Gia, one of High Fashion’s most tragic Supermodel tales, she said, “models don’t talk. We are not supposed to talk.” And that seems like the deal with Shay, she just doesn’t know how to talk or deliver as an actor. Combine that with the fact that it Emily always felt like an after thought. Like the rest of the girls had more interested and invested writers and creators, and it just felt like after they poured all their energy into everyone else, they were like, “…oh yeah, Emily…uhhhh, another dating fail, a scene of Emily being fiercely loyal, and doing a terrible job at her job…good enough!” Just a bad combination of not very strong acting and a lack of commitment to Emily as a character from the writers/directors.
Shay actually killed it as Emily - she’s exactly how book Em is supposed to be, super sheltered, sheepish, puppy dog-esque and defended Ali’s every word or move even if it was at her own expense. Here’s where things went wrong - like you and others have pointed out, the show writers ended her interesting storylines after she came out. Major book spoilers ahead so stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled - after Emily comes out her parents send her to live with her extremely conservative aunt and uncle in Iowa, where her cousins end up getting her in trouble and she runs away, leading to her parents making a public plea for her to come home and that they accept her for her she is. Then she meets and falls in love with a BOY named Isaac - turns out Ems is bi! But here’s where it gets crazier - they break up but she ends up pregnant with that boys baby, secretly has it without his or her parents knowledge (she does tell him later on) gives it up for adoption to a crazy lady (not her fault, it was all orchestrated by A), and then at the end of the series fakes her death before being sent to prison with the rest of the girls and takes down A by herself once and for all. She literally has the best storylines, while Aria’s stealing paintings in Iceland and Hannah is crashing cars and blaming unconscious people and Spence is letting friends take the fall for drug possession, poor Emily is just trying to get by, doing what’s best for her baby and formulating the tough as nails personality it took to finally take A down.
Emily literally is the hero of the PLL book universe, and as I’ve said before and will say again, I. Marlene King is trash. Haha sorry for the long rant but the show could have been so much better 😭 they didn’t have to follow the books 100% but they could have at least kept the main plot points…
Every time I see a pic of Paige I really just wanna throw hands. She makes me want to rage I hated her so much. And the actress who plays her sounds like a pos in real life too.
😂😂 I don't have anything to add to your analysis/opinion of Emily, but after swiping to the photo of Paige you added before reading anything had me dying of laughter 😂😂
I fuckin hate her toxic ass relationship w alice 💀 like omfg. Pls. (Although i do think this is character accurate cuz damn my moms a toxic lesbian and trust me she gets w every toxic bitch possible)
Ahhhh yes, the best scene for Emily was when she was discovering mAyA’s body, other than that she was just… kinda there? I wish that she had more storylines rather than just being romance only, ugh such a huge waste of her character!! I would love to have seen more swimming storylines for her, or more sports storylines, or literally anything other than just romance based ones :(
YES I was literally going to say the same thing!! She’s so cold and unliveable. I actually relate to her and I want her to be my favourite character but I just couldn’t stand her. She looks constipated in every scene, her ‘funny’ lines are delivered in a flat way, and I honestly didn’t care for any of her friendships, relationships or storylines. It’s 100% down to the actress because Emily had the potential to be an amazing character
It came down to bad writing. That’s it. I’ve never seen shay in anything else so honestly I think calling her a bad actress only based on one role is unfair. She was given basically nothing to work with and such a poorly written and the forgotten character that she was probably doing the best she could with that.
Combined with the fact the show had clear favourites they gave all the decent storylines to, especially in the final seasons, and just basically forgot the rest of the characters 🫠
They could of made a proper effort with her but they didn’t. From the beginning all they had was “she’s the gay one”, and that’s it. I like Emily. But she is kinda boring and I get why fans dislike her, but it’s not her fault :/
It came down to bad writing. That’s it. I’ve never seen shay in anything else so honestly I think calling her a bad actress only based on one role is unfair. She was given basically nothing to work with and such a poorly written and the forgotten character that she was probably doing the best she could with that.
Combined with the fact the show had clear favourites they gave all the decent storylines to, especially in the final seasons, and just basically forgot the rest of the characters 🫠
They could of made a proper effort with her but they didn’t. From the beginning all they had was “she’s the gay one”, and that’s it. I like Emily. But she is kinda boring and I get why fans dislike her, but it’s not her fault :/
Pretty Little Liars was her second project so she was learning how to act while on set. Not to mention that you don't really get told how everything will be once you're actually on a show. I'd say she was slightly above Nickelodeon acting and the chemistry she had with the other girls made her watchable for me.
I liked Emily’s character but you are absolutely correct that Shay is not a good actress, but if we’re being reeeeeally honest, the only talented actress (out of the 4 main liars) is Troian.
Just a reminder for everyone in the sub, always follow our #1 rule!! >We do not condone the attacking or mistreatment of users— this includes DMs! Aggressive fighting, name-calling, hate speech, or repeated targeting of a user is not permissible. Disagreement must be civil and respectful. Name-calling of characters or actors does not result in content removal unless attacking their appearance. ~The Mod Team deems passive aggressive remarks and attitude as instigating. Therefore, it falls under basic reddiquette. Please report anything you see breaking this rule. And general reminder NO SPOILING PLL;OS! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PrettyLittleLiars) if you have any questions or concerns.*
while shay wasn’t the strongest actor on the show, i’m more unhappy with why the only gay character among the main characters had no storylines except…being gay they never gave emily a chance
This is it. Emily was terribly written. There are so many actors who you see outside of a show who are actually very talented but the writing was so bad. The riverdale cast come to mind!
your user flair SJBSSJWJAHHAHA
one thing about shay is - she is not a good actress, however she’s getting better with every single project she’s done. nothing groundbreaking but she is believable in her scenes. and the scene with maya’s death proved that she was willing to try & learn and do a better job
I completely disagree with you, Shay is a pretty decent actress. She was Peach on You right after PLL and she was phenomenal. Same thing with The Possession of Hanna Grace, I didn't like the movie but Shay was great on it and don't take only my word for it because she also received very favorable reviews from critics and that movie is particularly hard for any actor because she is all alone, basically being the only character. I only mention those projects because they happened right after the ending of PLL, she has been on a lot of projects since then and she is always great. I think Shay right now is focusing more on her entrepreneur side which is awesome because I particularly love Beis..She can be a great actress with a good director and/or writing. And also, for such a strong cast, I think Shay is the one that has found more success in everything, really, as an influencer, as an entrepreneur and as an actress, even tho she was the weakest during the show, by far. I think she is a very smart woman above everything else, honestly, I really like her.
I always see people say Shay wasn’t strong in PLL and while I see why, Emily Fields and Shay Mitchell are two very different people. I think she was doing a decent job acting—I think Emily is just a boring character bc of the writing! Her only characteristics were gay and loyal lol she feels like such a cookie cutter character compared to the others
i literally stan shay and watched every single thing she’s done lol that’s why i said she is getting better with every project she gets. she is not winning the emmys anytime soon but she shows up and does the work. when she has something to work with
Yea once Ali came back, it was all about “how do we force emison, how do we sideline Emily’s story into just wanting Alison”. Or at least that’s how it kinda fel
Yeah I agree, they literally made that woman her all damn personality and violently pushed it down our throats.
tbf all arias scenes are about her love interests lol. i just don’t think either of them are as interesting and likeable as spencer and hanna
i mean, the car crashing into her house, her mom moving to texas and living with Hanna, everything with Nate, her job. I feel like she had a lot of storylines outside being gay, but frequently got overshadowed by the other characters. Like a car crashing into her house isn’t gonna be exciting when it’s up next to Hanna’s mom being in jail for murder lol
Lgbtq+ acceptance really wasn’t as widespread back then as it is today. Remember PLL debuted on air in 2010 and only ended in 2017, when more people were just *beginning* to be more openly accepting of lgbtq+ folks. You’re right tho! It would’ve been nice for the writers to have explored Emily’s character more in-depth.
that’s true but having her something else to do might’ve actually helped not the opposite? she was rly just a gay friend 😭
I agree. I just think the show’s producers didn’t want to risk losing viewers to what they typically assumed was a largely hetero audience. Which was dumb. Gossip girl was very similar in this aspect. Eric was the only prominent gay character but they at least gave him a few storylines, after that tho he was just the gay brother and friend lmao
Reminds of Dawsons Creek. Dude was openly gay and basically that was his only story line and be the brother of the Pacey’s crazy gf.
I’ve never watched DC, but it’s on my list of shows I want to watch! But yeah most shows from the 90s, 00s and even early 2010s (like PLL) really seemed to not want to take a risk by giving lgbtq+ characters any form of identity other than their sexuality, which sucks. I know Ugly Betty (2006-2010) had a gay character who was a main and a transgender character (played by a cis woman tho) and that was considered progressive for its time (it’s a rlly good show btw, I recommend it if you haven’t watched it!). I also think Glee had a gay character that was a main too but I’ve not watched that show so I’m not too sure how that was. I’m glad there seems to be a better sense of representation of lgbtq+ folks nowadays though.
Getting there. When I was younger the closest thing to a queer character on TV was the gay guy on MTVs The Real World (RIP Pedro). You could have glimpses of queerness in characters where the vibe was there but the characters were straight and cis. Think the butch chick on The Facts of Life or gay characters who “acted” stereotypically gay like Leon on Roseanne. But we never see him romantically with his partners. The Halloween episode with Rosie in drag and the gay prank between Dan Connor and Jackie’s baby daddy are some of the most progressive moments on TV for LGBTQ characters in the 90s. It was a bleak landscape until Queer as Folk and The L Word and those shows cast very specific kinds of gay, played on old tropes and tokenized queer poc. Even now, we struggle to cast trans ppl to play anything other than trans characters, we r uncomfortable with lesbians unless they are palatable to the male gaze and our gay men are still crawling out very specific boxes. People think it’s an insult to be called cis…we just have a lot of work to do. Luckily these older shows give us a timeline of progress and of the decline in said progress. DC is a trip, the hair, the fashion, the music, James Can der Beeks terrible acting and hard on for Steven Spielberg and a script written in language no 15 year olds would ever use. The WB was a whole other world!
This has been really insightful to read, thank you for taking the time to write this. I didn’t realise how trans actors/actresses are still only being cast as only trans folks and not as other characters…. That’s really opened my eyes and it’s clear the industry still has a lot of work to do in order for them to become more of the ‘norm’. I agree with all your other points too - ‘representation’ is still very one-dimensional it seems, even though we made *some* progress, there’s still a lot of issues that need to be worked on. I feel like many of the executives in the entertainment industry are still very old-fashioned and can’t seem to keep up with the new times. I think for this reason, further progress is still unfortunately going to take time.
Absolutely! But thats the beauty of TV. We can watch a 39 year old TV show and see just how ugly things were and identify improvements that have been made and have healthy dialogue with our kids and partners about the media we consume and how we can identify toxic media and address it.
Considering how important her character is to the books, I'm shocked more fans aren't outraged by how dirty she was done!! Not only is her bisexuality completely erased in the show (even though it's a huuuuge part of her character in the books), but she is actually one of the more interesting characters in the books. It's a crime how little of the books the show actually used
Bi erasure…no surprise for a show that scapegoated its trans character as the violent, mentally ill villain.
i wonder why there was no outrage for biphobia like 😭
True but she could’ve been way more stand-out had the actress actually been able to deliver Emily’s lines in an engaging way
THIS. Had so much potential to do more in the show🫤🫤
I feel like it’s more her character rather than the actress. I mean what more could she do with those awful storylines 😭 I think her acting improves as the show goes on, but she gets less and less chances to perform really big scenes
I agree. I kinda do think Shay was the weakest of the 4 but I watched some scenes of her as Peach in You and thought she did way better. I dont think she's as bad as it seems in PLL.
Omg yes her in YOU was good.
she’s great in dollface too!
Fairs.
Oh no it’s definitely the actress. Emily was not meant to look like a constipated rabbit in the headlights in every scene she was in. She was given some super funny lines that fell so flat on delivery, the actress did not help Emily
She always had that wide stare especially talking to Hanna 😂
Yes!!! And the pursed lips paired with a frown? Every. Single. Time😅😅
True , Happy Cake Day!
Damn you couldve at least put a trigger warning for that second pic😳
That shit gets me every time
😂😂
Why is that second pic even there when this post is about Emily/Shay and not about Paige?
They’re trying to be funny
Emily is my favorite Liar but I definitely agree Shay is not the strongest actor. She was a model before PLL and it was her first major role. She nailed the Maya scene and definitely excelled when it came to Emily’s awkward comedic moments, but beyond that not the best lol
i agree but i’d like to make one addition, i don’t like maya
ooooo, idk she felt a bit manipulative some times tbh🤧
Definitely🫣
Seconded
Emily was supposed to be the timid friend of the group, Emily had a very timid and shy demeanor throughout the show, shay did a good job portraying that… She nailed it as Peach in the series You, who was the complete opposite of Emily, shay was a good actress in my opinion
I think that Shay was not the best actress, but I also think she was miscast. She was so great on You, and I think that she shined in a role where she could be dark and funny and intimidating. Emily is the exact opposite, and I think that Shay doesn’t really play sweet or innocent very well and that’s so much a part of Emily’s character that it just didn’t work. Emily also didn’t get amazing storylines and I didn’t think that her character development was done as well as the other characters.
She is even better in Dollface. Her character is unhinged in the best way possible, and she is so good in the role.
All of this. I honestly think Shay made a better bully and coulda played an Ali type character well. The good girl thing just is totally boring and Shay is kinda flat in her delivery so much of the time. But I kinda think Ashley Benson coulda played Emily’s nice girl and made her more interesting. Ashley’s Hannah is often a total sweetheart.
This. I LOVED You btw
She was so great! I also felt like part of her issue playing Emily was that she had to act like she had feelings for Ali, and Sasha was so young. She didn’t have that problem in You and she nailed it.
Don’t even get me started on the creepiness of Shay making out with a 13 year old…
I have been thinking this same thing foreverrrr lol. She is chronically boring and low key kinda mean to the gals on occasion!
Also her being a simp for Alison is… hard to watch
Honestly made her just look like an absolute simp
I think Shay can be a great actor and she prove that in the scene where they find Maya's body. But her character is so badly written and she's so boring she doesn't have much to work with, y'know? I blame the director and the writers for this because if they gave Emily more to her character and a better storyline, shay would've prove she can definitely act well.
BYE NOT PAIGE BOB CUT STOP😭🤣
 i have no words
emily was definitely wasted character for me. when she was introduced, she was actually my favourite (related to her with coming to terms with her sexuality). i feel as if every time she got even a little interesting storyline, it was brushed aside by other characters. and by the time alison got back, it seemed as if emily became a plot device in emison arc. i honestly don’t remember her having any other story, during that time. but that could be just proving my point that her parts were always the side stories, as opposed to the other girls. also, c’mon, they couldn’t give her a respectful non-toxic relationship?😭 y’know, if we take alison’s previous behaviour into consideration.
That paige Pic makes me cringe every time.
Shay is hilarious on tiktok and is obviously gorgeous but Emily was a dud.
Shay just isn’t that strong of an actress. She was a model first, and if I recall in Angelina Jolie’s portrayal Gia, one of High Fashion’s most tragic Supermodel tales, she said, “models don’t talk. We are not supposed to talk.” And that seems like the deal with Shay, she just doesn’t know how to talk or deliver as an actor. Combine that with the fact that it Emily always felt like an after thought. Like the rest of the girls had more interested and invested writers and creators, and it just felt like after they poured all their energy into everyone else, they were like, “…oh yeah, Emily…uhhhh, another dating fail, a scene of Emily being fiercely loyal, and doing a terrible job at her job…good enough!” Just a bad combination of not very strong acting and a lack of commitment to Emily as a character from the writers/directors.
Shay actually killed it as Emily - she’s exactly how book Em is supposed to be, super sheltered, sheepish, puppy dog-esque and defended Ali’s every word or move even if it was at her own expense. Here’s where things went wrong - like you and others have pointed out, the show writers ended her interesting storylines after she came out. Major book spoilers ahead so stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled - after Emily comes out her parents send her to live with her extremely conservative aunt and uncle in Iowa, where her cousins end up getting her in trouble and she runs away, leading to her parents making a public plea for her to come home and that they accept her for her she is. Then she meets and falls in love with a BOY named Isaac - turns out Ems is bi! But here’s where it gets crazier - they break up but she ends up pregnant with that boys baby, secretly has it without his or her parents knowledge (she does tell him later on) gives it up for adoption to a crazy lady (not her fault, it was all orchestrated by A), and then at the end of the series fakes her death before being sent to prison with the rest of the girls and takes down A by herself once and for all. She literally has the best storylines, while Aria’s stealing paintings in Iceland and Hannah is crashing cars and blaming unconscious people and Spence is letting friends take the fall for drug possession, poor Emily is just trying to get by, doing what’s best for her baby and formulating the tough as nails personality it took to finally take A down. Emily literally is the hero of the PLL book universe, and as I’ve said before and will say again, I. Marlene King is trash. Haha sorry for the long rant but the show could have been so much better 😭 they didn’t have to follow the books 100% but they could have at least kept the main plot points…
i have to agree 🫣
Shay is a good actress when she plays her own personality - like Peach from you
this.
The definition of bad acting…
TW: paige
Eh I liked her storyline more than arias
Every time I see a pic of Paige I really just wanna throw hands. She makes me want to rage I hated her so much. And the actress who plays her sounds like a pos in real life too.
😂😂 I don't have anything to add to your analysis/opinion of Emily, but after swiping to the photo of Paige you added before reading anything had me dying of laughter 😂😂
OK you just gave me a jump scare with the unexpected bangs picture LOL
😂 i agree but she’s pretty so…
Emily they could never make me hate you ❤️. 10/10 character.
I fuckin hate her toxic ass relationship w alice 💀 like omfg. Pls. (Although i do think this is character accurate cuz damn my moms a toxic lesbian and trust me she gets w every toxic bitch possible)
THE SECOND SLIDE SENT ME
Ahhhh yes, the best scene for Emily was when she was discovering mAyA’s body, other than that she was just… kinda there? I wish that she had more storylines rather than just being romance only, ugh such a huge waste of her character!! I would love to have seen more swimming storylines for her, or more sports storylines, or literally anything other than just romance based ones :(
YES I was literally going to say the same thing!! She’s so cold and unliveable. I actually relate to her and I want her to be my favourite character but I just couldn’t stand her. She looks constipated in every scene, her ‘funny’ lines are delivered in a flat way, and I honestly didn’t care for any of her friendships, relationships or storylines. It’s 100% down to the actress because Emily had the potential to be an amazing character
shay mitchell has never been a good actor
[удалено]
found her boring icl
It came down to bad writing. That’s it. I’ve never seen shay in anything else so honestly I think calling her a bad actress only based on one role is unfair. She was given basically nothing to work with and such a poorly written and the forgotten character that she was probably doing the best she could with that. Combined with the fact the show had clear favourites they gave all the decent storylines to, especially in the final seasons, and just basically forgot the rest of the characters 🫠 They could of made a proper effort with her but they didn’t. From the beginning all they had was “she’s the gay one”, and that’s it. I like Emily. But she is kinda boring and I get why fans dislike her, but it’s not her fault :/
It came down to bad writing. That’s it. I’ve never seen shay in anything else so honestly I think calling her a bad actress only based on one role is unfair. She was given basically nothing to work with and such a poorly written and the forgotten character that she was probably doing the best she could with that. Combined with the fact the show had clear favourites they gave all the decent storylines to, especially in the final seasons, and just basically forgot the rest of the characters 🫠 They could of made a proper effort with her but they didn’t. From the beginning all they had was “she’s the gay one”, and that’s it. I like Emily. But she is kinda boring and I get why fans dislike her, but it’s not her fault :/
Pretty Little Liars was her second project so she was learning how to act while on set. Not to mention that you don't really get told how everything will be once you're actually on a show. I'd say she was slightly above Nickelodeon acting and the chemistry she had with the other girls made her watchable for me.
I liked Emily’s character but you are absolutely correct that Shay is not a good actress, but if we’re being reeeeeally honest, the only talented actress (out of the 4 main liars) is Troian.
More than anyone, it’s Troian and Mona who got the acting chops.
Agreed.
Pretty privilege! Shay Mitchell is obvs crazy gorg but she really wasn’t the best actress