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US cable networks have brought us some of the best television programming of recent years – from classics The Wire and The Sopranos to the delightful Dexter and luxurious Mad Men. But then they’ve also brought us Pretty Little Liars.
Pretty Little Liars tells the story of five best friends, one of whom goes missing during a sleepover. Fast forward one year later, the friends have fallen out of touch – but one thing holding them together is their friend Alison’s disappearance, and the fact that she had access to all their deepest secrets. World traveller Aria caught her father having an affair; swimmer Emily is hiding her sexuality; preppy Spencer lusts after her sister’s boyfriends and blonde bombshell Hanna has food issues she’s suppressing. The real kicker? The girls start receiving messages – via email, phone and locker – from a mysterious ‘A’ hinting at knowledge of not only these secrets, but new ones too. ‘A’ is frighteningly omniscient – particularly for someone whose dead body is found midway through the first episode.
Though comparisons to Gossip Girl are a little too obvious – the series was also based on a set of novels – tonally Pretty Little Liars is more accurately described as a teenage Desperate Housewives: constantly creepy and full of intrigue. But despite the irresistible premise, the series lets itself down with some laughable dialogue (“did you guys download the latest Beyoncé?”) and pathetically poor acting. I also can’t help but feel the screenplay writers were so desperate to get to the action and drama that they threw all hope of character development out the window after twenty minutes. The result is a set of one-dimensional cloned all-American high school girls either suffering through problems utterly unrealistic (would a high school teacher really fall head-over-heels for a 16 year old student after one make-out in a bar toilet?) or executed in such an artificial way that it’s impossible to relate. The truth is, if a group of 13 year old girls were given a budget to produce a television show, this would probably be the outcome.
Yes, we are all definitely too old to watch Pretty Little Liars and find it remotely believable or locate a spark of originality. Yet there is something strangely alluring about it forcing me to tune in next week. I guess with the right amount of mystery, anything can win viewers over. I just really want to know what “the Jenna thing” actually is…
Pretty Little Liars airs on Thursdays at 8pm on VIVA
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