5 franchise reboots or spinoffs of popular shows (and why they didn't work)

Pretty Little Liars Had 3 Failed Spinoff And Reboot Attempts

Pretty Little Liars was a massive hit for ABC Family when it premiered in 2010. To this day, it remains Freeform's longest-running original series with seven seasons. So, it made sense that the network wanted to capitalize on the show's success during the midst of its popularity, creating Ravenswood and turning the supporting character Caleb Rivers into the protagonist.

While Ravenswood offered its own unique mystery, it was not enough to keep the show afloat. It did not help that Ravenswood's brief arc in Pretty Little Liars was not a fan-favorite. Without the essence that made Pretty Little Liars a success, Ravenswood quickly fell apart and was canceled after one season, with the decision to move Caleb back to Rosewood with a brief reference to the events of his time away and then never mentioning it again. In some ways, it was like Ravenswood never happened, and it was likely better off for that choice.

A few years later, Freeform tried again with Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. This time, the series took Alison and Mona from Rosewood and isolated them on a college campus in Oregon, allowing two of the most manipulative and mischievous characters to take the lead. Given the massive connections between their characters, it should have been an easy success.

Unfortunately, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, while succeeding in giving Mona and Alison plenty of fun interactions that gave weight to their history, failed in every other aspect. The newly introduced leads were not nearly as exciting as Spencer, Emily, Aria, and Hanna, and the mystery itself, while trying to be a different portrayal in comparison to the elusive "A," just could not hold up in intrigue.

Finally, MAX tried again with its own reboot, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, with season two titled Pretty Little Liars: Summer School. This was the most successful spinoff iteration, introducing a new group of Liars: Imogen, Tabby, Faran, Mouse, and Noa.

This new group developed friendships on-screen for the first time as they tried to unravel the truth behind their "A" nemesis, a slasher serial killer villain who has a connection to the sins created by their mothers during their time as teenagers.

Their collective group offered occasional spatting comical moments that were considered to be series highlights, portraying the more chaotic friendship they were capable of depicting on-screen. They had all the potential in the world to be the next big hit. Unfortunately, while leaning into the horror genre was a good way to subvert storylines and prevent being too much like the original Pretty Little Liars series, it also became a fairly stale concept that inevitably hurt the series.

While the original Pretty Little Liars thrived on mystery and the dangers of stalking and the uncertainty of what "A" was capable of, and how they knew everything, MAX's iteration failed to create the same type of tension.

The original "A" was terrifying because of the character's capability to not only know everything, but also pull off bizarre tactics, such as filling an alphabet cereal box with only the letter "A" and seemingly knowing exactly which box Emily would pick, or doing dental work on Hanna to leave a message in her mouth.

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and Pretty Little Liars: Summer School's reliance on slasher villains made the Liars face off against a masked villain holding a knife in nearly every episode. After a while, that gets repetitive, especially when it never feels that the series leads are never in any serious real danger of dying.

For as many horrifying situations that "A" or Bloody Rose put the Liars in, the stakes never felt raised, and the consistent use of the same type of villain in back-to-back seasons did not hype up the horror like the series wanted, and instead only held it back.