2010 was definitely a different time, and many things that were considered perfectly acceptable back then would definitely raise some eyebrows now. If you need proof, look no further than one of the biggest romances on the hit teen drama Pretty Little Liars.
Actor Lucy Hale plays Aria Montgomery, who dates her high school English teacher, Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding), for the entirety of the show. Aria and Ezra — aka "Ezria" — meet in the pilot episode when their characters are 16 and 24, respectively. At the time, Aria had no idea that the guy she met at a bar and kissed in the bathroom was her teacher.
Then, she walks into his class on Monday morning, and the teacher-student dynamic only fuels the star-crossed nature of their relationship that continues to develop throughout all 7 seasons of the show. And Ezria amassed a veryyyy dedicated fanbase who rooted for them until the very end. (SPOILER ALERT: They get married in the series finale.)
But now, 16 years after the show premiered, Lucy is looking back on that storyline through a very different lens. During a recent appearance on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast, Lucy was asked what she'd want to talk about if the Pretty Little Liars cast ever did a revival of the show, and her character's relationship immediately came to mind.
"So, my character dated her teacher, and that's been a little controversial, especially lately," Lucy told Shetty. "But like, this came out in 2010, so of course she would date her teacher. That's what happened in the book, so it should happen in the show."
"So I'm sure if we had a reunion, people would want to address that," she continued. "People loved that relationship because it was, like, forbidden romance, but it's just interesting how much we've evolved as humans that I feel like that would be the first thing we'd have to address on the show."
It's true that Pretty Little Liars is based on Sara Shepard's novel series of the same name, which includes Ezria's teacher-student love story plot. But in the books, their relationship is much shorter-lived, and Aria ultimately moves on to someone else. In fact, Shepard has previously said she was surprised by how far the TV adaptation took their romance. "I didn't think it was right for readers to be reading about a student-teacher relationship and encourage that," she told the Daily Beast back in 2011, adding that she "really wanted Aria to move on to another relationship."
Shetty's podcast isn't the first time PLL cast members have looked back on Ezra and Aria's relationship with fresh eyes. Last year, for the show's 15th anniversary, Lucy and several of her former costars spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about the show's legacy, and naturally, Ezria's controversial love story came up.
"It was a different time," Lucy said then. "Would that storyline exist if it were being made now? I'm not sure, probably not." I. Marlene King, the PLL showrunner and executive producer, agreed that the storyline likely wouldn't fly today. "What we know now about grooming, that was not something we talked about 15 years ago," she said. "I’ve always thought that if we revisit the world, we would have to deal with that."
Ian Harding, the actor who plays Ezra, hasn't shied away from commenting on the problematic nature of the relationship, either. He jokingly referred to Ezra as "America's most beloved pedophile" in his 2017 memoir, Odd Birds, and later told the Hollywood Reporter that he recognized the characters' very questionable age gap and power dynamic, which he called "wildly inappropriate." Still, he felt "there was a meaningful connection" between them, which he hoped "was enough to justify the deeply problematic relationship."
Still, neither Lucy nor Ian expressed regret in portraying Ezria's love story. "I stand behind their love story forever," Lucy said, while Ian added, "They both found happiness, and there was little collateral damage or pain inflicted by the relationship."
Lucy's recent conversation on Jay Shetty's podcast has brought the debate back into the spotlight, and not everyone is quite as forgiving — happy ending or not.
"I’m pretty sure it was bad to date your minor students in 2010, too," one redditor wrote in a comment that received almost 3K likes, with another adding, "Calling it a 'love story' is insane. Their relationship was disgusting and the characters in the show should’ve overreacted more."
Pushing back on the idea that it was simply a "sign of the times," someone wrote: "Nothing on Lucy Hale, as she addressed it in the most professional way possible without throwing people under the bus. But it’s insane to imply that the Ezria relationship was more acceptable back then. The books it was based on came out years earlier and didn’t condone it or have them be in a long-term relationship. It’s been a while since I read them, but I’m pretty sure he gets arrested for it, and Aria moves on to an age-appropriate love interest. It wasn’t a product of 2010; it was a product of weird writers who seemingly had an obsession with putting their teenage characters in romantic situations with adult men."
And apparently, that "obsession" extended well beyond the PLL writers. "It was suuuuper common to see this plot line on teen dramas in that era," one person wrote. "I remember it the most on Gossip Girl, but a quick search shows that The O.C., Degrassi, Glee, Vampire Diaries, and even Riverdale in the late 2010s featured some level of forbidden teacher/student romance."
Still, just because it was a common trope doesn't mean every show handled it the same way. "Gossip Girl didn’t romanticize it, though," wrote one person. "Both teachers involved immediately lost their jobs, everyone said it was gross, and the mom of one of the characters got the teacher thrown in jail before anything sexual even happened because she knew boundaries were crossed."
So yeah, it's safe to say that even after all these years, the Ezria discourse is still alive and well. I have to know: Were you rooting for them when you first watched PLL? And has your opinion changed since? Let me know in the comments below.
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