Pretty Little Liars, loosely based on a series of novels of the same name authored by Sara Shepard aired on ABC Family in 2010 and is now opening its greatly acclaimed third season. The series falls under a teen-mystery-thriller genre that hasn’t been exploited to these extents in recent times. The show received the highest ever scores from the New York Daily News and has won numerous awards including Teen’s choice and People’s choice in multiple categories.

The series deals with a rather wide array of contemporary issues such as Psychological disorders, eating disorders, homosexuality, infidelity and corruption. As implied by the name, the series revolves around a fast paced secretive plot that delves deeper and further into complex intricacies that obstruct the truth from being revealed. The characters are numerous and well woven in order to enrich the series as one that can be related to its viewers.

The protagonists of the series are four young girls who are bound by their communal tie to a fifth teenager around whose murder the series unravels. Aria Montgomery, Hanna Martin, Emily Fields and Spencer Hastings are the four main characters who initially find themselves to be the unpopular new entries to Rosewood high. Mismatched and out of place, the girls find themselves in a promising acquaintance with Alison DiLaurentis a popular girl who quickly takes her newly formed posse up the rungs of the social hierarchy before her mysterious disappearance.

Years after the disappearance the four remaining liars as they are called throughout the series find themselves victimized by a mysterious texter who conveys and threatens to reveal sensitive secrets under the alias of “A”. The girls initially assume that “A” is Alison but is soon convinced otherwise following Alison’s corpse being recovered buried in her backyard. Soon the suspense escalates with the girls desperate to unmask “A” and Alson’s killer while also protecting their collective secrets from being outed.

Aria secretly carries on with her English teacher Ezra Fritz and is constantly under pressure from “A” due to this while the others too carry their own secrets such as Emily’s homosexuality. A range of supporting characters comes under scrutiny throughout the series as prime suspect of being “A”. These characters range from Toby and his sister Jenna, Ian Spencer’s sister Mellissa’s fiancé, and Garrett a former student of Rosewood high who is now in the Police Dept.

The characters are developed by integrating many modern issues facing young adults worldwide including drugs and such. Spencer for example suffers from a psychological dysfunction that renders her unable to control her temper at times while Hanna is said to have an eating disorder due to her insecurity about her appearance.

The setting is a fictional town of Rosewood off Pennsylvania a quiet suburban town with green hedges and a lot of secrets. The writers have taken great pains to maintain the authenticity of its writing by involving hugely successful catchphrases such as “two can keep a secret if one of them is dead” the characters maintain witty humor all throughout the series that is both entertaining and hilarious even though inappropriate at times. The casting has done great justice to the characters by portraying the perfect appearance and feel for each character and his/her traits. The music and soundtracks are phenomenal and is very appropriate to setting the tone.

On the downside the series draws rather strong parallels to other such shows as One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl even though the trivial natures of the characters’ indulgences are severely lessened. The show has done great good by shifting the focus from young adult sexual escapades to more pressing issues such as the pressures faced by youth in gaining college education and performing well at sports.

All in all the show is a great watch and the recurring theme of how simple lies can complicate otherwise simple matters is a great moral to draw from it.      

 

 

 

 

 

Reviewed by Dilshan Seneratne