It's all in interpretation...

I have a confession.  They say the first step to overcoming addiction is to admit you have a problem, right?  Well, I have a problem.  Are you ready???  Are you sure??? Ok, I am slightly obsessed with ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars. Whew!  It feels good to have that out in the open!  And I when I say slightly, I mean it's like a teenage girls obsession to Twilight (although, I must admit, I did rather enjoy those movies and books).  This is definitely more of an addiction, fed every week by another episode, more questions left unanswered, and my facebook newsfeed with links to articles only to get my blood pumping again.

I'm so frustrated by something though, and it's bothering me.  Many people in the world today don't realize that when it comes to a TV series, or a movie for that matter, you only see what the producers/writers/directors/etc want you to see and in lieu of that, you believe what they want you to believe.  It's for that reason that they can continue to do their jobs and do it successfully.

Here's my biggest example.  In PLL, you have 4 high school girls trying to cope with the death of their bff while this outside force tortures them, gets them in trouble with the law, frames them, and exposes all of their (and their family and other relationship's) secrets; this force is known as "-A."  You come to find out that "-A" is in fact a friend of one of the girls, but was an enemy of the dead friend.  Then you learn that the boyfriend of one of the girls teams up with "A" and is plotting against the girls.  At one point, the executive producer of PLL, Marlene King, said this boyfriend, Toby, is "the most honest person in Rosewood."  So when he is revealed as a part of the "A-team," adorned in his black hoodie and gloves, every immediately jumped to his defense.  "He's gotta be a double agent, right?  You said yourself that he's the most honest person in Rosewood."  Marlene's response?  Something along the lines of, "not everything is as it seems."  An later episode reveals his "A-team" status to his girlfriend, she finds him dead in the forest, she is sent into a downward spiral (because even though he betrayed her, she still loved him), she is sent to the nuthouse, and she gets out but has joined up with the A-team.  She then realizes that Toby is really alive and it was a setup to make her thing he was dead so that she would fall apart and "A" could put her back together in her/his way.  She breaks the news to her friends and now they have 2 inside men, as Toby confesses he was only in on it to protect her.  Here's where perception comes in.

In this article on Wetpaint.com, they state that Toby is alive, but can he be trusted?  I say yes.  One because
Toby is my favorite boy-toy in the series and two because I may have a baby celebrity crush on him.  But also because its all in the perception.  Remember, Marlene said that he's the most honest person, but then said it's not always as it seems.  She WANTS you to think that he's dishonest, but she doesn't want to lie to the viewers by saying it directly.  She's saying he seems honest, but not everything is how it seems, so in your mind you think ok...so he's dishonest.  None of the producers or writers said that he's not honest, YOU did, you took their words and connected that one yourself.  If you think he's dishonest then the show takes you where the they want it to go.  Ie. "he's dead, so whose the next love interest," "that's so sad, how could he do that to her," "seriously '-A' killed someone just to get the girl to fall into their trap," etc.  With this way of thinking, they can throw all these twists and turns into the show that you weren't expecting, ie bringing random boys into the mix only to have them last 1 episode and use it against the girls, making us think that literally EVERYONE we thought could be trusted can't be and doubt everyone on the show, or he's dead, she's in on the whole thing now, what's next? Because the sky is now caving in and everything I believe in is a lie.  However, if you (like me) never believed for a second that he's really dishonest and never fell into Marlene's trap, you always thought "there's hope for Toby and Spoby," "he's a real man and doing what he has to to protect his girl, even if that means working from the inside out," and/or "omg, he died to protect her and her friends."  I wasn't fooled into thinking that he was really dead, no matter how hard they tried to make me believe it and I wasn't shocked to see him walk through the door and back into Spencer's arms.

Now this isn't to say that I wasn't hurt when Toby was revealed on the "A-team" because at that time, his motives weren't stated and you had to infer what you want.  Although I was positive he was an inside man, the facts were that noone knew it, and at some point someone was going to find out and get hurt.  And they did, boy did they ever.  And that hurt too, again not because I believed the bad stuff, but because you could see and feel the pain that was being portrayed by everyone and that was so real.

So, do I feel like he can be trusted?  Yes, because I don't fall into the traps that everyone sets.  Producers have to keep their numbers up in order to keep their show running.  If they were to come out and say "he's completely honest, he's working to protect them" everyone would know what's happening and would lose interest.  Nothing would be a surprise, everything would be predictable, and the show would lose its ratings.

So people, before you are so naive to fall into a trap like this, think about the words that are being used and ask yourself, does what they said really equal what I think they said?  Chances are, especially if its a producer of a tv series, it doesn't mean the same thing, it's just what you PERCEIVED them to be saying.

P.S.-Don't forget that in interviews, producers and writers don't HAVE to be honest and tell the whole truth.  Yes, its immoral to lie to everyone, but it's not a crime punishable by a jury.  They can fudge the truth, omit parts of the truth, and tell white lies if they so desire.  This is why I HATE interviews, twitter questions, etc with producers and writers; they make generic statements and try to throw you off "the truth" or send you in the direction they want you to go.  You never know what you can believe.  So, don't always take what these people say in an interview to heart, it may not be the way it really is.