Clare Henney: Pretty Little Liars

12:00 PM | | Posted by Clare Henney

I’ve always had this hesitation to watch movies or TV shows that are based on books. There’s a part of me that is worried that the movie or TV program will not do justice to the book or I could end up liking what I watch and end up hating the book.

When I first heard of Pretty Little Liars, I wanted to read the book first. I discovered that PLL is actually a series of books (some of which have not even been released yet according to Wikipedia). Unfortunately, I was not able to find a copy of the first few books and ETC started showing a Season 1 marathon every Saturday, which helped me get up to speed when they started airing Season 2. Oh well, beggars couldn’t be choosers so TV before the books became the natural choice.

I found myself being hooked to the show. I got curious about this “A” who kept tormenting the girls and how that one person was able to make the four lead character’s lives a living hell. I guess that’s the thing about secrets…they can really make you crazy especially if someone is using them against you.

I love that the series features some familiar faces like Lucy Hale (Bionic Woman, Privileged), Ashley Benson (Bring it On), Laura Leighton (Melrose Place), Chad Lowe (Melrose Place, 24), Janel Parrish (Bratz the Movie), Andrea Parker (The Pretender, Less than Perfect) and Holly Marie Combs (Picket Fences, Charmed). I especially love that many of the actors are active on Twitter and I get to see some behind the scenes photos and videos while they make the show from their accounts like this one from Lucy Hale and Ian Harding:

Let me get to my point: I love the show. It has me glued from start to finish – especially the finish because they always show something creepy/mysterious that A does just when the characters think that things are going OK. The fashion/styling is also really good. They have their own look, which I actually like a lot. I also find the characters, no matter how crazy things get in their lives, relatable. Except for the murders are creepy things happening these girls are going through the same thing most young girls do: dealing with family problems, weight issues, boys, peer pressure, self-discovery…I get that. I went through that too. I guess that’s what makes me root for the girls after everything they go through in the show.

One thing that I didn’t have in my youth though was an Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) – how beautiful is that guy? Seriously, I think he is just so easy on the eyes, I look forward to seeing him on the show when I can. Now that Aria (Lucy Hale) also has Jason Di Laurentis (Drew Van Acker) in the picture it just got even more interesting. Two lovely guys falling for one girl…if she didn’t have that A problem I’d want to be in Aria’s shoes right now.

Speaking of handsome guys, there’s also Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) and Wren (Julian Morris). Caleb is involved with Hanna (Ashley Benzo) while Wren was involved with Spencer (Troian Bellisario). I’m not really that into Toby (Keegan Allen) but a lot of girls do…I guess he’s good looking but just not my type. I’ve had the chance to read the first book of the series and read up on the storyline and I have to say that the book is a bit different from the show. However, I think the changes were made in a good way and do not ruin the story completely. For one thing, the characters on the show don’t physically look like how they’re described in the books and that’s not a big deal. How Ezra and Toby’s characters end up in the books are also different from the TV show (which I think is because of how both guys have developed a fan base which would of course make the producers want them to stay on in the show). I have no problem with it. I think that the TV series actually improves the books to make it good for TV. My best Pretty Little Liars TV moment right now would have to be that kiss between Ezra and Aria. It makes me sigh when I watch it! I am looking forward to more moments that will make me sigh – maybe between Aria and Jason or Spencer and Wren (sorry Toby fans, I’m Team Wren when it comes to Spencer). I would also love more old show references like this: Check out 0:37…I think that is a slight Piper move on Holly Marie Combs’ part. I remember her replying “That could be arranged” to a fan that tweeted that it would be nice to see a little Piper move from her on the show. Was that it? I was very happy to see that!

The 2nd Season of Pretty Little Liars is still on-going…it’s on every Friday night (8PM) on ETC and has a rerun every Monday at 9PM. ETC has match-airing, which means they air the episodes the same week it was on in the US.  I love that about ETC!  More shows with match airing please!