Pretty Little Liars Season One review

            Even though there are slight differences to the characters or setting, “Pretty Little Liars” has been done before. It is “Desperate Housewives” for the “Gossip Girl” age group. The mystery and the melodrama surround a group of young looking but sexually promiscuous teenage girls. They are accurately portrayed to be rather idiotic, but what makes no sense is how stupid all of the adults are in the show. It feels like a series written for teens by teens, reeking of naivety and unoriginal storylines from decades past.

            Based on the bestselling book series by Sara Shepard, I am mostly just concerned with the crap that pre-teen girls read and watch these days. The Twilight craze has had quite an effect, but I wouldn’t argue it to be a positive one. In this series there are four teen friends. One is having an affair with her teacher (“Dawson’s Creek” in reverse), another is desperately trying to convince her religious boyfriend to take her virginity, a third flirts with her new lesbian friend while eyeing the brother of an enemy girl, and the last trashy little teen can’t seem to stop stealing her sister’s boyfriends.

            Lying and cheating are the norm for these girls, but the show weakly tries to justify their awful behavior. At one time they had a fifth friend, who was the cruelest of them all. This friend disappeared in a mystery none of the girls will talk about, though they begin receiving messages from their old friend once her body is found. This storyline does not move nearly fast enough, because there is too much relationship junk to wade through.

            Season one includes twenty-two episodes on five discs, with unaired scenes for select episodes. There are also behind-the-scenes footage, a making-of featurette and a stupid little featurette with the actresses telling lies about themselves.