Pretty Little Liars did not escape a series of problematic storylines throughout its seven-season run. One of the continued red flags of the series found several adult men being romantically or sexually interested in the show's central teenage girls. However, Pretty Little Liars did not actively do the work to suggest that was a problematic direction. Instead, one of its significant couples, Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitz, is at the heart of the problem. At first, Pretty Little Liars offers a sense of unfortunate circumstances after Aria and Ezra realize they are entering teacher/student territory after bonding at a bar the day before school starts. But, season 4 undoes that element, revealing that Ezra had always known who Aria was and how old she was in his strive to write a true-crime book about Alison's disappearance.
The teacher/student romance had always been a challenging part of the series to swallow. However, adding in the element that Ezra had been a manipulative stalker in addition to being a predator adds another layer of danger to the mix. Although there had been a few episodes of Aria dealing with the aftermath of realizing her entire relationship had been based on a series of lies, Pretty Little Liars still tried to portray Ezra as a romantic hero. Not only is Ezra not a romantic hero, the show never takes the time to represent how his character should never have gained the happy ending Pretty Little Liars provides him after everything he had done.
The Teacher/Student Romance
Pretty Little Liars is not the first teen drama to portray a teacher/student romance. Popular shows Dawson's Creek and Riverdale, along with several others, have also taken similar routes. However, one of the most significant issues with the storyline is how rarely the fact that this is a problem has been addressed. Pretty Little Liars portrays Aria and Ezra as star-crossed lovers who, unfortunately, are in a teacher/student dynamic. Hardly anyone reacts to this negatively, calling out Ezra for being a grown adult teacher and having a romantic relationship with a student. Anyone who does see this as a problem is framed as a villain for not accepting the couple.
Pretty Little Liars barely, if ever, addresses the severe number of problems with this dynamic. While Aria and Ezra vaguely address potentially getting in trouble for their relationship, the stakes of what that means never receives any weight. Instead, while initially uncomfortable, Aria's friends get over it fairly quickly and treat the relationship as usual. The show wants the audience to root for the couple to get together rather than portraying how creepy, illegal, and wrong a teacher/student romance is.
Ezra Should Have Gone To Prison
Ezra and Aria forming a romantic relationship while one is an adult and the other is a minor, in addition to the teacher/student romance, is not the end of the severe problems that surround Aria and Ezra's relationship. If his romance with an underage girl was not enough to send Ezra to prison, his actions while writing his book should have been. Ezra stalked and spied on Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily while they were teenagers to learn the truth about Alison's disappearance. In doing so, he took photos of them, watched them on video, and created lairs designed to follow their every move. He paid people to help him spy on the girls and was forgiven way too easily.
Romanticism Of Dangerous Storylines
Whether it be the teacher/student romance, the legal adult man is in a sexual relationship with the underage girl, the stalking element of his character, or several other elements attributed to the problems of Ezra Fitz, one of the most prominent issues of Pretty Little Liars is that it romanticizes the relationship between Aria and Ezra. No matter what awful, creepy, or unforgivable action Ezra may have taken, he is always forgiven by Aria to the extent that their conclusion finds them getting married. What type of message does that send to viewers? They can be taken advantage of and abused, and the person responsible for that still gets a happy ending?
Ezra and Aria's relationship is more of a horror story than a legitimate romance. There are far too many things to list in the negative column to justify their happy ending. Freeform's Cruel Summer portrays a similar presentation of an underage girl with an adult male. However, Cruel Summer never romanticizes or sexualizes the situation. It does not make the mistake Pretty Little Liars does of trying to make the relationship look like something to be encouraged. Rather than showing that Aria and Ezra's relationship was unhealthy in numerous ways in addition to being illegal, the show attempts to bend itself backward in trying to explain why that is not the case. Pretty Little Liars does not pull it off.