For 10 years, I have been obsessed with the show "Pretty Little Liars." I watched every single episode of the original television show, read every single book, and even met the author of the book multiple times. When I heard there was a reboot coming out, I made the mistake of jumping for joy. What I had forgotten was how fickle the television industry has become.

With the WGA Writer's Strike and SAG-AFTRA Strike in 2023, it's clear that there's a problem within the film industry. On September 17, a collective effort made #NetflixCancels trend on the Internet. Although "Pretty Little Liars: Summer School" is not a Netflix show, it's important to remember that it was on HBOMax, a streaming service.

Recently, it has been confirmed that the hit television show was cancelled. This was devastating to many fans, seeing as the show was very successful (according to ParrotAnalytics, the audience demand for this show is 11.0 times the demand of the average TV series in the United States) and brought much comfort to many.

Now, let's talk about why this silly teen drama was so important to so many. I've talked a lot about this, but: representation matters. The original "Pretty Little Liars" was amazing, but had many problems. For example, the lack of diversity. While "Pretty Little Liars" did feature a main lesbian couple, they ultimately decided to use the bury-your-gays trope. However, "PLL: Summer School" had a wide variety of queer characters, from Ash, a canon trans man, to his girlfriend Mouse, who's canonically queer. "PLL: Summer School" also dealt with important topics such as sexual assault, racism, and more. The target demographic for "PLL" is clearly teenage girls, teenage girls who are so rarely taken seriously. Do you even know how powerful social media is in shaping teenagers' beliefs? "PLL" sought to include everyone and correct its past mistakes.

In this day and age, so many good shows are being canceled, so why should we care about this one? Well, to be quite frank, if you don't care, there may not be a television industry to come back to. Whether you want to work in the industry or are just a casual viewer, you can't deny that this industry is in danger. So...that's why you should save "Pretty Little Liars: Summer School."

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