Even
though there are slight differences to the characters and 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. When we joined these characters in season one, one
of the teens 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. It took two seasons to discover who was
sending mysterious messages, pretending to be the deceased friend, and in
season three we are still getting bits of flashback of Alison’s final days
alive. At least “Desperate Housewives” knew to leave the dead behind after a
season or two.
There are other
new storylines, but it all begins to sound like the same old dribble. The 24
episodes from season three are all included in this set, along with more than a
few special features. There is a gag reel and deleted scenes, not to mention a
bonus webisodes and an alternate ending to an episode. There are also a few
featurettes best suited for die-hard fans.
Entertainment Value:
2/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 2/10
Historical
Significance: 2/10
Disc Features: 7/10
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