How ‘Pretty Little Liars’ got its groove back

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http://nypost.com/2016/01/26/how-pre...s-groove-back/

Fact: If you’re not tuning into FreeForm (a k a the former ABC Family) every Tuesday night, you’re seriously missing out.

Now that “Pretty Little Liars” has returned from its summer hiatus, the series isn’t exactly picking up right where it left off. Following the unveiling of the masked villain “A” last August, the Liars are embarking on their biggest journey yet: adulthood.

Flashing five years forward, viewers are getting reacquainted with the same quartet of beautiful fibbers, except that this time, they’re dealing with an entirely different set of problems.

Between political unrest, wedding planning and a potential battle with cancer — more on that later — skipping half a decade worth of storytelling is proving to be best (and perhaps biggest) gamble that the long-running series has ever taken.

“Our audience has grown up. For six seasons, they were 17 and 18 years old,” creator Marlene King told Variety of the time jump. “Now, this is more what life looks like for the majority of our audience’s age.”

With Spencer (Troian Bellisario) emerging as a DC power player and Hanna (Ashley Benson) in the midst of planning a wedding, Aria (Lucy Hale) is trying to let her past with Ezra (Ian Harding) affect her future relationship with a co-worker turned love interest. Not to mention Emily (Shay Mitchell) who is about to embark on what may be the fight for her life.

Though King has teased that an eventual big bad will pop up — considering this season’s unsolved mystery revolves around how the villain formerly known as A (Vanessa Ray’s Charlotte) wound up dead on the front lawn of a church — viewers are able to connect with the Liars in a whole new way, without the childish distractions of a cyberbully.

“There’s a lot of awkwardness in 6B, especially in the first half as people are returning to Rosewood and reuniting,” King shared to TVLine. “Old habits die hard, so when you put all these characters back together in this small town, there’s going to be conflict. There’s love, but there’s also tension.”

Audiences are curious about the supposed rendezvous between Spencer and Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) during an adventure in Europe, and whether the duo will come clean to Hanna about it. Soap opera-esque drama or not, fans are sick of a high school-esque foe terrorizing a group of now 20-something working girls.

Relationships are the heart of this series. Four girls, who are forever bonded by the tragic actions of a deranged lunatic, have moved on. This time-jump proves that. Why go back to the past with the ninth-grade torture tactics? Focusing on the future and seeing whether Hanna marries her Aussie fiancé is far more enticing.

Breaking up with the juvenile “Pretty Little Liars” last July may have cleared one’s primetime schedule, but welcoming an old (albeit, revamped) favorite back to the DVR lineup may be the best viewing decision to make this winter.