Pretty Little Liars

So my test show of the week was…. Pretty Little Liars. Encouraged my many of my friends, I decided to take the plunge. I have to say that it was not quite what I was expecting. I, for whatever reason, always thought that it involved older characters. I didn’t even realize that it was an ABC family show until I looked it up. Once I learned that, I couldn’t help but draw connections to our readings that discuss ABC Family’s “new family.”

In the pilot, there is an unsolved murder, underage drinking, use of pot, shoplifting, single parent households, affairs, and teacher-student relationships, among many other things. In my opinion, all of theses things are certainly controversial. In addition, they display that ABC Family recognizes that everything is not as perfect in real life and they try to bring up real issues. This “new family” motto provides an interesting storyline and definitely gives a much realer portrayal of real family issues than shows like the Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens used to.

The topics of the show definitely are much more mature than I am used to for a teen show. To me, it was surprising to hear that this show was on ABC Family because it doesn’t seem appropriate for some viewers who may watch other shows on ABC Family. I pictured it more as a CW show, which seems more explicitly geared towards teens.

All in all, I really enjoyed the show. I thought that the pilot was great as far as pilots go. It left me with more questions than answers, which is a good thing, in my opinion because it left me wondering and wanting to watch more to figure out how “A” was sending all these messages when she was supposedly dead. A definite thumbs up. I have already downloaded the second episode.