Pretty Little Liars has long drawn comparisons to film noir: the mystery! The intrigue! The moody, thematically appropriate rain! And that’s all without mentioning the parade of morally ambiguous femme fatales.
Yes, there’s always been hints of it here and there, but in last week’s episode, they went full noir. Spencer, played by the lovely Troian Bellisario, has a few (few dozen, more like) too many Adderal while she’s watching an old movie – and poof! She’s got Veronica Lake hair, red lips, a Philip Marlowe-adjacent Toby … and one of the most beautiful dresses the series has ever seen.
Sure, Hannah’s puff-sleeved polka dotted blouse is cute, Emily’s heavily-beaded shift is lovely, and Aria’s aggressively striped dress is … very Aria. But it’s Spencer’s costuming that steals the show (though Mona + gold lamé dress + fantastically huge fur coat = close second). It’s fitting that ever-preppy Spencer would be the pretty little liar to don a skirt-suit set (fabulous in a Bridget Von Hammersmark way), and her dressing gown is second only to the one worn by Grace Kelly in Rear Window. But most of all, I love the ornately-gathered number we first see her in: the bejeweled embellishment on the waist is beautiful, and the fabric somehow looks so luxuriously heavy – if only Ms. Spencer Hastings could be stuck in ’40s fashion forever. No disrespect intended to the awesome fox sweater she donned earlier in the episode, or any of the various animal-printed prep she usually favors – I love that too; this is just in a league of its own.
Sadly, “Shadow Play” was probably a one-off – much like Joss Whedon’s musical episode of Buffy, “Once More With Feeling.” Alas.
