In 2010, the US teen mystery drama, Pretty Little Liars made its debut. The show – based on a series of novels of the same name by Sara Shepard – followed the story of five best friends who become the target of a mysterious character known as anonymous ‘A’.
Upon making its debut Pretty Little Liars proved popular with audiences and not only did it become a long-running series, but it was also accompanied by a collection of spin-offs. These shows helped to expand the Pretty Little Liars universe, with new characters and new settings.
But if you’re new to Pretty Little Liars, where do you start and what is the best order to watch the Pretty Little Liars shows? For all the details and more, keep reading.
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Understanding Pretty Little Liars
As noted above, Pretty Little Liars made its debut in 2010. The first episode – simply titled ‘Pilot‘ – hit screens on June 8th, kick-starting a 22-episode run which lasted until March 2011.
Due to the popularity of the first season, which averaged around 2.87 million viewers in the US, a second season quickly went into production. This season ran for 25 episode, and ended in early 2012.
Once again, season two proved popular with audiences and this led to a third season. Season three began airing during summer 2012, lasting 24 episodes in length.
While the third season was on air, the Pretty Little Liars universe was given a slight expansion via the arrival of a web series. This limited-run series – which was made available exclusively online – comprised 8 short chapters, and told a story which was set during season three, between the events of episode 12 (‘The Lady Killer‘) and episode 13 (‘This is a Dark Ride‘).
This web series was not essential viewing – instead it was created as additional content for fans. Its story was wrapped up within the eight instalments, and existed as an added extra to the third season of the show, which concluded its run in early 2013.
Following the conclusion of season three, a fourth season of Pretty Little Liars went into production. As with the previous seasons it proved to be a ratings winner and ran from summer 2013 to early 2014.
During the course of this fourth season, the show aired the episode ‘Grave New World‘ (episode 13 of season four). This episode was designed as a backdoor pilot, to set up a spin-off series called Ravenswood.
Immediately after this backdoor pilot aired, Ravenswood made its debut. The series – set in the fictional town of Ravenswood – followed the story of five strangers, with episodes airing concurrently with season four of Pretty Little Liars.
Unfortunately, while the backdoor pilot was popular enough, Ravenswood itself was not a huge success and when its ten-episode run came to an end in early 2014, the show was cancelled. However, this didn’t impact Pretty Little Liars, and the show returned for a fifth season in summer 2014, followed by a sixth season in 2015, and a seventh in 2016.
In June 2017, after 160 episodes, Pretty Little Liars finally came to an end. The final episode – ‘Till Death Do Us Part‘ – aired on June 27th, bringing an end to the series.
However, while ‘Till Death Do Us Part‘ might have been the end of Pretty Little Liars, this wasn’t quite the end of the road for the Pretty Little Liars universe. Due to continued interest in the franchise, a spin-off series/sequel called Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists was put into production, with the first episode airing in March 2019.
The Perfectionists was loosely based on Sara Shepard’s novel of the same name and was set in the town of Beacon Heights. Unfortunately, it didn’t prove as popular as its predecessor, and was cancelled after one season.
Did this bring an end to the Pretty Little Liars universe?! Nope – another spin-off series soon followed.
In July 2022, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin made its debut. This series proved more popular than The Perfectionists, and after the first season aired, a second (retitled Pretty Little Liars: Summer School) was commissioned.
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Series breakdown
The shows/seasons/episodes breakdown as follows:
- Pretty Little Liars – Seven seasons/160 episodes
- Pretty Dirty Secrets – One season/eight web episodes
- Ravenswood – One season/ten episodes
- Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists – One season/ten episodes
- Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin – One season/ten episodes
- Pretty Little Liars: Summer School – TBA
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Watching Pretty Little Liars in order
If you have never watched any of the Pretty Little Liars shows before, and you are only now just finding your way into this little universe, hopefully the following show/season list will ease you in nicely. As you will see, it is fairly simple to follow, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to navigate your way through.
The viewing order
- Pretty Little Liars: Season One (2010 – 2011) – TV series
- Pretty Little Liars: Season Two (2011 – 2012) – TV series
- Pretty Little Liars: Season Three – Ep 1 to Ep 12 (2012) – TV series
- Pretty Dirty Secrets (2012) – Web series
- Pretty Little Liars: Season Three – Ep 13 to Ep 24 (2012 – 2013) – TV series
- Pretty Little Liars: Season Four (2013 – 2014) – TV series
- Ravenswood (2013 – 2014) – TV series
- Pretty Little Liars: Season Five (2014 – 2015)
- Pretty Little Liars: Season Six (2015 – 2016)
- Pretty Little Liars: Season Seven (2016 – 2017)
- Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (2019)
- Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (2022)
- Pretty Little Liars: Summer School (2024)
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Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this post about Pretty Little Liars – I hope it has proved useful. For more posts, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.
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