10 TV Mistakes You Can’t Unsee
1. Aria’s Phone - Pretty Little Liars
If there were one rule for TV mistakes it really ought to be that whatever about subsequent instalments, shows should be able to avoid obvious errors for the duration of their pilot episode at least. However, another cardinal rule is don’t include 3oh!3’s hit Don’t Trust Me unless you want to immediately date your show, so Pretty Little Liars was already adept at breaking these rules in its first episode.
Yes, the pilot of this mega-popular teen mystery introduced us to future Fantasy Island star Lucy Hale as Aria, one of four protagonists stalked by the unseen A as penance for some unknown misdemeanour in their murky recent past. And A plagues the kids across all manner of tech, from instant messages on laptops, to anonymous handwritten notes, to their phones—which Aria answers upside down in the first episode, a jarring error which is impossible to un-see once someone points out the flagrantly obvious screw up.
It’s in a close up for God’s sake! And it’s not even a brief shot!