Pretty Little Liars: Never Trust a Pretty Girl with an Ugly Secret- Portrait Magazine, June 2010 Issue
Never Trust a Pretty Girl with an Ugly Secret Pretty Little Liars By Hoba
I have this love/hate relationship with ABC Family. ABC Family is like the boyfriend who looks great but can be this complete self-righteous jerk – and when I’m contemplating putting an end to the relationship it woos me back by sweet words or gestures. This is the network that gave me Greek, the charming show about Rusty and Casey, fraternities, college and really, about life. This is the network that surprised me with the incredibly likable 10 Things I Hate About You and the network that introduced me to a new world, also known as Make It or Break It. But on the other hand, this is also the network that airs the travesty that is called The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and had that annoying show called Ruby and the Rockets. So you see, I never know what to expect from it.
Pretty Little Liars is based on a series of novels written by Sara Shepard, it follows the novel-turned-TV-show-trend that we have been seeing a lot lately on our TVs (True Blood, Gossip Girl, the Vampire Diaries.) It’s set in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, the kind of place where everything looks perfect on the surface. White picket fences, perfect green lawns and traditional two-story houses. But what you don’t immediately see are the secrets everyone is hiding. Pretty Little Liars might just be Desperate Housewives meets Gossip Girl meets Heathers meets Twin Peaks. It’s about four estranged besties who’re being haunted by an “A” who knows all their dirty little secrets. “A” might be their dead BFF and former Queen Bee, Alison DiLaurentis, who went missing under mysterious circumstances three years prior to the this show’s start.
You might recognize Lucy Hale from Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place, ABC Family’s Ruby and the Rockets or the cute short-lived CW series Privileged. In Pretty Little Liars, she plays Aria Montgomery. Aria just moved back to Rosewood after being in Finland for two years. Aria has a good relationship with her mother and a very strained one with her father. The reason for the latter is because Aria once caught her father, the “cool” college professor, in the act with one of his students. When Aria returns back to Rosewood she’s unsure how to act around her former friends, and Rosewood in general. She finds a kindred spirit in Ezra, a guy she meets in a college bar.
Ezra turns out to be her new, fresh-out-of-college, English teacher. Aria wants to keep seeing him but he refuses, claims she’s too young and it’s not right. Aria receives a text message from an unknown number saying “Aria: Maybe he fools around with students all of the time. A lot of teachers do. Just ask your dad. – A” The strange thing is, she never told anyone about Ezra or about her father’s affair. Who is this A? And how does he/she know?
Hanna Marin is played by Ashley Benson, best known for her part in Eastwick. Hanna used to be the overweight girl, so desperate to be popular that she bended towards Alison’s will. Three years after Ali’s disappearance, Hanna turned out thin, beautiful, and has the most gorgeous boyfriend ever. But appearance can be deceiving; Sean, her boyfriend, is staying pure until marriage, something that completely frustrates Hanna. Hanna’s father left her and her mother, and took all their money with him. So Hanna shoplifts to keep her fashionable reputation and purges to stay stick-thin. But when she’s caught shoplifting on security tapes,
Hanna’s mother takes desperate measures to make sure nobody finds out – getting a little friendly with officer Wilden. But Hanna’s secrets might not be as well-hidden as she thinks, when she gets a mysterious text message: “Be careful, Hanna. I hear prison food makes you fat. – A”
Shay Mitchell plays Emily Fields, a competitive swimmer from an ultra-conservative family. Shay is a relative newcomer to the acting scene and this is her first “big” gig. Her boyfriend Ben is also a competitive swimmer, but whenever Emily out-swims him, he gets moody. Emily’s environment is very traditional and old-fashioned; her mother is always well put-together and their relationship is very strained, there is no actual relationship to speak of, they are detached. There are new neighbours moving in Ali’s old house, and Emily’s mother sends Emily to give them a give basket and “welcome them to the neighbourhood”. Emily does this reluctantly, and then meets the girl-next-door, Maya – who is everything Emily isn’t.
Laid back family, a liking towards pot and swings for the other team. Emily finds out she has a thing for Maya, but wants nobody else finding this out. Somehow “A” does know, and knows even more about Emily’s past with kissing girls.
Troian Bellisario, another relative newcomer, plays the role of Spencer Hastings, the intelligent perfectionist always trying to outdo her over-achiever sister. Her sister is the family favourite, can do no wrong in their parents’ eyes and the bane of Spencer’s life. Spencer wants to get away from her family so badly, that she has been redoing a loft the entire summer so she can move into it. But when Melissa and her new fiancé come into Rosewood, Spencer’s parents insist they move into Spencer’s loft while their townhouse is being decorated. This is done to the great annoyance of Spencer.
Melissa’s fiancé, the British Med student Wren, turns out not to be as awful as she suspected – and Spencer actually likes him, a lot more than she should. But in the past, Spencer has had other rendezvous with a then-boyfriend of her sister – and “A” is wondering if history is repeating itself.
I was afraid this show would be too much wannabe 90210/Gossip Girl/O.C. but so far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It focuses on these four girls, their relationship with each other, those around them, the late Ali, and “A” – who may or may not be the same person. This show has romance, mystery and a little thriller – well done, ABC Family, we’re not breaking up any time soon.
