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It has to be said—Pretty Little Liars is not appropriate for its target audience. Not because of the murder plot. Not because of the clear disregard for academics. Not because of the, well, you know, lying. No, Pretty Little Liars sets up unrealistic expectations for teenage girls in a completely different way: The men are way too nice.

High school girls have to deal with some real shit. Journey back for a moment to when you dealt with hormonal teenage boys on the regular. It was an awful, trying time that we’re all lucky to escape without permanent damage. But the Liars deal with absolutely none of that. Their men our strong, loyal, and zit-free. They are unquestioning sources of support in the face of dangerous and unlikely situations. They are absurdly attractive. These girls either have the wisdom of Athena, which they are using to completely filter out horrible relationship choices, or the show’s writers are telling high schoolers to expect modern knights in shining armor to roll into chemistry class. This, like many of the things that the gang deals in, is a complete lie. But the victims this time are the viewers.

Watching Caleb charge hand in hand with Hanna into yet another shit storm sparked this realization. Haleb is an adorable couple, that’s undeniable. Hanna’s general cluelessness plays against Caleb’s rough-and-tumble demeanor in a fun, carefree way. But that’s all it should be, fun and carefree. Instead, Caleb is constantly embroiled in some sort of illegal activity in pursuit of his girlfriend’s tormentor. This time, it’s breaking into a storage unit registered to Hanna and almost tampering with a barrel that certainly has someone‘s body inside. When Hanna halfheartedly tries to distance herself from the ballsy bad boy, he pledges to go to jail before letting her go. After spending a half season in creepy Ravenswood (read: season in an unsuccessful spin-off series), he must be a glutton for punishment.

Then there’s Toby. He has successfully ridden the line between good boyfriend and okay-at-best cop for, as Lieutenant Tanner noted, all of “six seconds.” He’s flitted back and forth between his double life as Liar watchdog and public servant, but not for long. It’s clear Toby’s time either as a police officer or as Spencer’s main squeeze is going to need to come to an end. Tanner is finally realizing that the freshman officer’s involvement on Mona’s murder case is highly inappropriate, and she’s already begun to throw out ultimatums. While Toby was out of the storage unit, Tanner peeked into the mysterious barrel and found a tiny drop of blood. After, she laid into Toby, promising that if the remains were Mona’s his “friends” would be the first ones that she tapped for questioning. But even Tanner’s death glare is no match for Spencer’s screeching, which, of course, Toby got an earful of, demanding, as always, that he put his career at risk to help the Liars out of their ever-thickening web. He at least seems to be wising up and keeping his distance from the group, which any Rosewood resident with half a brain would do.

Also, seriously, how has it taken this long to really address that it is completely inappropriate for Toby to work on this case? Can’t they move him to traffic violations or something? Is Rosewood that short of cops? And where are the media in all of this borderline corruption?

NEXT: More Liars in love dilemmas

After two episodes of buildup, Aria finally tells Ezra the truth about her Talmadge admissions letter. Was he confused? Did he ask for a minute to process it? Did he bat an effin’ eye?! NO. Instead, he comforts her and accepts responsibility for ostensibly taking advantage of a high school girl and ruining her golden years. Which, okay, he did contribute to, but there was also that whole “A” thing happening. Aria gets off basically scot-free, aside from the fact that her letter made a suddenly old-looking Ezra reflect on the fact that he probably shouldn’t be dating a soon-to-be college girl. A wise decision on his part.

Even Ashley Marin, mayor of Cougar Town, is taking advantage of her way-too-trusting nice guy. If you’ll recall, Mrs. M told Ted that she needed to think about his marriage proposal, then took the ring with her anyway. While she’s busy trying it on, probably gazing into the depths of the carats for some sort of emotional clarity, she ends up dishing her doubts about her would-be fiancé to Jason. Then she seems surprised that he steals a kiss from her. Ashley’s got not one, but two, nice dudes fawning over her. At this point, she’s just trying to figure out which one’s heart to break.

The only Liar, or Liar adjacent, who isn’t enveloped in this wonderful nice-guy plague is Emily, for obvious reasons. Well, Alison, too, while she is locked away in the green room in jail. But Emily seems to be escaping most of the Liars’ adventures this season. For example, Spencer and Aria get locked in a dairy freezer and blasted with the icy blizzard that New York just escaped. Where was Emily? Conveniently outside, there to slowly save the day. Yes, the life of Emily is pretty uneventful. There was no mention of Paige in the episode at all, which either means that the show is done with her or she will pop up unannounced in the next few weeks. The only development in her yawn-worthy plot line is Talia’s admission that she is into girls. More specifically, she’s into Emily. But something needs to happen with that, and soon. At this point, I am kind of gunning for Talia to be wound up in “A”‘s inner circle. At least it would make for some good Em face time instead of her perpetual over-it face.

The most problematic thing about all of this is that there is no real development with the couples. When, exactly, do the girls have time to grow and mature in their relationships with their male counterparts? Between tracking a disappeared laptop and plotting to clean out a potentially incriminating storage unit? If they are developing the relationships at all, it certainly isn’t happening on camera. Fans are expected to accept Haleb, Ezria, and Spoby as unquestioned fact. Sure, from time to time the young lovers go through brief spats, but the whole thing seems to be patched over in a commercial break.

Amid all of the larger-than-life situations that they are faced with, there is no time for actual teenage problems or relationships. Not only does this glossing-over set up absurd expectations from the guys for understanding and patience, but it also makes it hard to really care about the couples. Earlier in the show, when they were still introducing the characters, this wasn’t as much of a problem. But when is the last time that your heart skipped a beat when you thought Aria and Ezra’s star-crossed love was coming to an end? At this point, the biggest heartbreak about any of the respective dream teams splitting would be the guys’ quiet exit from the show.

And again, it isn’t helping the already naïve expectations of the demographic for which this show is really aimed. For high school girls, beautiful, stable men that come along in your formative years are almost as realistic as your friendship with the popular girl landing you in the midst of countless investigations and near arrests. In other words, not at all. High school is about figuring out relationships through a series of life-shattering mistrials, not having the one near-stable thing in your life be your sexy boyfriend. Although, if a dream boat like Caleb was around my high school, being framed for murder wouldn’t have sounded that bad.

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