Guilty Pleasure

I once said this: "I don't get Pretty Little Liars. Or maybe I'm just too old for that show."

Two weeks later:  "I'm eating my words.  Now I'm addicted to Pretty Little Liars."

What caused the change of heart?  Maybe it was the Glee hiatus. Or the catch-up specials on ETC last weekend.   All I know is that I've seen all the PLL episodes over the course of two days, and at this moment, I'm downloading the latest episode. 

Eeek.

For the uninformed, Pretty Little Liars is a teen drama about the four principal characters in this picture:

Emily (leftmost, played by Shay Mitchell who's apparently half-Filipina) is an athlete struggling with her sexuality and her ultra-conservative parents.  Spencer (second from left, played by Troian Bellisario) is an overachieving student who has always been overshadowed by her perfect older sister.  Aria (second from right, played by Lucy Hale who looks like Selena Gomez's sister)  is dealing with her parents' impending (?) divorce and her illicit affair with an English teacher.  Hanna (rightmost, played by Ashley Benson)  is struggling with the recent divorce of her parents and her mother's financial difficulties.  The four girls used to be BFFs with each other and another girl named Allison, who mysteriously disappeared during a sleepover.  When Allison's body was finally discovered a year after the disappearance, the girls start receiving cryptic messages from "A", who reveals information only Allison could have known. The story basically revolves around the girls' search for Allison's killer and the person behind "A".  It's like a mash-up between I Know What You Did Last Summer (group of friends haunted by what happened the past summer) and Desperate Housewives (four friends united by their quest to find their deceased friend's murderer).

Random observation:  None of the actresses who portray the four leads are of high school age (the girl who plays Spencer is actually 25!).  It normally doesn't bother me (most of the Glee actors are overaged), but it becomes obvious to me in a lot of instances (especially in Spencer's scenes).  Curiously, they got an underaged actress to play the deceased Allison in flashbacks: 

Sasha Pieterse, 14-year old playing a 16-year old

Sasha reminds me of Denise Richards a lot. Not obvious from a still picture, but if you watch her on the show, she has that "Denise Richards in Wild Things" vibe.

There are male characters on this show, but none of them have individual storylines apart from the main four.  My favorite male characters are these two, for obvious reasons:



Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz, the English Teacher



Julian Morris as Wren, the ex-fiance

The clothes and accessories worn by the girls are interesting.  I especially love the bags (I'm on the hunt for Hanna's light blue leather one) and this leopard print cardigan worn by Aria in the latest episode.  I should have bought a similar sweater in Zara when I had the chance!

Anyway, despite my addiction to this show, I'm not exactly recommending it.  I'm struggling to understand myself why I keep on watching.  There's not a single character that I can genuinely root for... all the lead girls are annoying in one way or another, and the plot is so full of holes and inexplicable circumstances for me to take this seriously.  I'm hoping this show is just a placeholder until Glee comes back in late January.  If not, well, I think I need an intervention.

Pretty Little Liars airs every Friday at 8:00 p.m. on ETC.