Pretty Little Liars Recap: Pilot

(TVDoneWright.com proudly welcomes our newest writer on the team, Melanie Rob. She’s from the U.K. and will add to the site’s distinctive points of views.)

By: Melanie Rob

ABC Family has built quite the staple of teen shows in the past couple of years including breakout hit, The Secret Life of the American Teenager — as well as my personal favourite, Make It or Break It — but perhaps their most buzz-worthy series yet made its debut last night. Pretty Little Liarscomes from the production company behind The CW’s  Vampire Diaries andGossip Girl and taps into the same audience of text-and-tweet adept tweens that made its predecessors so popular.

If I had to describe it, I’d say ‘Liars’ is Gossip Girl meets Desperate Housewives. The plot quickly begins to form, centering around the mysterious disappearance of Alison, the leader of the teen clique. One year later, her BFFs — Aria (Privileged‘s Lucy Hale), Emily, Hanna, Spencer — have all become estranged by the loss of their fearless leader. It’s evident that each girl harbors her own secret, including but not limited to potential statutory rape and confusion over sexual orientation. Yes, the secrets are about as subtle and tactful as having an anvil dropped on your head, but damnit, they’re juicy!

The BFFs soon begin receiving mysterious texts, notes and emails from someone called ‘A’ who seems to know quite a lot about aforementioned secrets. Could it be Alison, the missing BFF long assumed dead? They believe so. There’s one snag though: Alison’s dead body is found near the end of the episode. The plot thickens… Following a funeral for dearly-departed-but-is-she-really-dead Allison, all four of the girls receive a text message, not unlike that scene in the pilot of Desperate Housewives. “I’m still here, bitches and I know everything,” writes the vengeful texter. Thus concludes a pretty gripping pilot or perhaps I’m just easily pleased.

So, as we count down the days [seven more to go *twitch*] to next week’s episode, let’s take a look at the pilot:

• Who is Jenna and WTF did they/Alison do to her? Mentioned in passing a few times throughout the episode, it seems that part of the mystery of Alison’s disappearance has something to do with poor, blind Jenna who makes her first appearance at Alison’s funeral. The clique makes it abundantly clear that Alison and Jenna were not friends as they express their shock at her being there. Did typical high school rivalry boil over into something… well, atypical? Was Alison the reason that Jenna is blind? Is that why she disappeared — the guilt of blinding Jenna?
• Saucy secrets: Aria may or may not be banging her English teacher, Emily is a closeted lesbian, Hanna is a shoplifter and Spencer wants her sister’s boyfriend. ‘Liars’ seems to be packing a whole season’s worth ofGossip Girl-esque storylines into linear time. As mentioned, the secrets aren’t exactly subtly played out but I guess that’s what drives the plot forward: these girls are desperate to hide their crazy shenanigans. Was one, or all of them, so desperate to hide their secret that they rid Rosewood of Alison? Which segues nicely into my next point…
• Shady Spencer: In the opening scene, three of the girls were asleep when Alison disappeared. Spencer, however, was also temporarily missing, explaining upon her return that she was ‘looking for Alison’. Hmm, I’m no Nancy Drew but I smell a rat! It seems the girls didn’t even question that Spencer may have been with or done something to Alison while they were asleep. Keep an eye on this one, she’s a snake…
• All grown up: Interesting to see Charmed alumni, Holly Marie Combs as Aria’s mother Ella while Melrose Place graduate, Laura Leighton plays Hanna’s mom Ashley. Like Piper, Combs’ character seems very homely and dowdy while like Sydney, Leighton seems very secretive and perhaps a little selfish. I know this is a teen show, but more of the adults please — particularly Piper… er, I mean Ella. [I miss you, Charmed].
• Pretty little actresses: No awkward Shenae Grimes or Blake Lively here. All four of the protagonists fill their roles well and aren’t just pretty faces. Particular standout in this episode was Troian Bellisario as the tightly wound Spencer, her nifty eyes and facial expressions are nicely done.

To wrap this up, ‘Liars’ definitely gave the viewer bang for their buck in its first outing. The plot and sub-plots were well presented, despite being a little contrived but aren’t all teen dramas contrived in some fashion? If, like me, you love a good guilty pleasure, you’ll be hooked on this show by the end of the 44 minutes. While ‘Gossip’ and 90210 are fairly lavish, like Life Unexpected, there’s a quaint charm about ‘Liars’ that makes it less surreal and outrageous.

Bring on next Tuesday for more!

You’ll like it if you love… Other ABC Family shows, Gossip Girl, 90210, Life Unexpected.
Grade: A

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Posted by Adam Wright on June 9, 2010. Filed under Features, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry