Pretty Little Liars - Pilot, S01E01

This show is obviously aimed at an audience who is younger than I am, and, unlike Vampire Diaries, there aren't any characters that are really in my age bracket, but there is a certain appeal looking at these young, supposedly 16 year old, girls and the nonsense that they are getting themselves into. There is a certain amount of intrigue, and, since it is summer and there's not much on, despite a few moments that made me question the quality of the acting and filming I believe I will watch the first season of Pretty Little Liars. After all, it's only 8 episodes and I gave Melrose Place about that long.

So it's a story about 5 teenagers who share a bunch of secrets which are darker than perhaps they should be for 15 year olds. Then, one night during a sleepover, one of them disappears. A year later, the remaining 4 have stopped hanging out, but when Aly's body is finally discovered, they are reunited by the mysterious messages they keep receiving from someone named "A." And no one could know what "A" knows, except Alison (Sasha Pieterse).

Most of what happened in the premiere was the establishing of the personalities of our 4 remaining girls, as well as each of their individual secrets and a hint of their communal one: the Jenna thing.

Aria (Lucy Hale)'s secret isn't really her own. She caught her father cheating on her mother with one of his students. Even though it happened over a year ago, it's still a prevalent issue between her and her dad. I can't tell if that's because it's happened again more recently, or if it's just a cheap way of introducing the problem without giving it the right amount of fading it should have had.

Since Aria did just come back from Europe, I did find it believable that she allowed the older guy in the bar to hit on her and have the situation escalate quickly from there, but how ignorant is she? He told her he was an English teacher, and I can't imagine that here is more than one high school in a small town like Rosewood. And while I think they do have great chemistry, Ezra (Ian Harding) has got to know that if they get serious, it's considered statutory...

Spencer (Troian Bellisario) has the bitchiest older sister ever. No wonder she's made out with at least one of her boyfriends. Of course, you have to know that they were really the one's taking advantage of her, but she's too young to realize that. And now the sister has a wonderful fiancé...well, he's actually a nice guy, so you want him to be with a hard working and capable girl rather than one who is horrid. Still, he ought to be more careful if he's actually a good guy.

Then you have Emily (Shay Mitchell). She likes to kiss girls, although she apparently has a boyfriend. Closeted lesbian? At 16, in a small town like that, it would be hard, but it's really not a shameful secret. Still, if she doesn't want anyone to know, she's just as much under As power as the other girls.

Finally Hanna (Ashley Benson) is a spoiled brat whose father left her mother. That was in the last year, and as a result she's started shoplifting. I don't actually know what her secret is, but she's the least appealing character of the four in my mind, so I don't care at this point.

I'm staying because it reminds me of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and I enjoyed that back in the day. Plus, with Glee over, there's only summer TV left, and there's not a whole lot of it. That's the beauty of airing in the summer - far less competition. If you are about 20 or younger, it may work for you, and if you are older than that...well, like I said, I'm watching it because I probably really would have liked it when I was 16.