Shadow Play, Pretty Little Liars, Season 4, Episode 19

I wasn't doing TV reactions on this Blog yet when that episode aired.  It's one I feel like commenting on now.

This won't be an in-depth analysis like you'd get from BrosWatchPLLToo or Heather Hogan or Jacob Clifton.  Just some things I want to say about it.

Lots of TV shows do Noir episodes.  But they're usually more Neo-Noir style flanderizations of the genre.  And I don't dislike those, I loved Smallville's Noir episode (which was titled Noir) from season 6 and the K-Pop music video Poison.

Shadow Play is different however, it really does feel like a recreation of a classic Film Noir.  Spencer has a major Lauren Bacall vibe.

One specific classic Film Noir it draws on is Laura.  Which it does pretty well.

But what also makes it fun is being an inversion gender wise, for this Noir story most of the cast is female with only two males.  Some of our ladies dress like classic Femme Fatales, but the Femme Fatale role is really Ezra.

Obviously PLL fans have seen it.  But I think even people who wouldn't normally like PLL should check out this episode if they're fans of the classic Film Noirs, it really does them justice.