Yet another popular teen book series comes to life on the silver screen. "Pretty Little Liars" premiered on ABC Family this week with almost 2.5 million viewers. Based on a novel series written by Sara Shepard, the producers of "The Vampire Diaries" brings the series to screen with a strong opening.
It follows the lives of four girls, Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily, one year after the queen of their group, Alison, goes missing. Swearing that they would never tell what really happened that night, the four girls drifted apart with too many secrets and grudges between them. On the anniversary of Alison disappearance, they each begin receiving messages from someone who calls themselves "A", threatening to reveal secrets that they though only Alison knew. Thinking that Alison has returned, they were even more shocked when her body is finally found, and they continue to receive the messages after the funeral.
I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed the episode. I was not planning at all to watch it, but paying attention to what my friends on Twitter were saying about it, and the fact that it is created by the same studio as "The Vampire Diaries", I decided to give it a shot.
After the first commerical break you know this small town of Rosewood has some problems, and it's not just these four friends who have drifted apart that have secrets. Aria finds herself tangled into a relationship with who she finds out is her new English teacher. Hanna gets arrested for shoplifting and the tension between her and her mother grows to serious proportions. Spencer tends to have a thing for her older sister's boyfriends. Emily seems to be curious about her sexuality, intent on exploring it with her new neighbor whose family has moved into Alison's family previous home. There seems to be a huge wall between Aria and her father, which we find out later is because she caught him having an affair with what looked like Alison or Hanna, however, I could be wrong. And, what actually drove me insane there is apparently a huge secret the four girls are keeping between themselves that they call "the Jenna thing". Considering that is the name of next week's episode, I'm guessing we will get a little more background on the incident.
What I really liked about this show other than the nice twists and turns going on throughout the social aspects of the town, we not only hear the stories of Alison, but we get to see plenty of flashbacks of when Alison is still in her "queen bee" role. Honestly, I'm not sure how any of these girls were friends with her. She was sly, cunning, and deceitful, which I hope, will make for an interesting Season 1.
Although it has a fairly formulaic structure that leans towards the typical teen drama that may be no different than "One Tree Hill", it does has an interesting twist. The fact that we assume Alison died with all their deepest and darkest secrets, how does this "A" claim to know them? And what exactly did these girls get themselves into? The writing is quality enough, and intriguing enough that I will definitely be watching this series throughout the summer. After all, I need something to get me through this painful "Vampire Diaries" hiatus.
Oh, and it is nice to see the familiar face of Holly Marie Combs playing Aria's mother. I always loved her on "Charmed".
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