The TV Chick

After the mid-season premiere of Pretty Little Liars, we know that Emily has come out to her parents, Aria has admitted to the girls who she’s dating, Hanna had a falling out with Lucas and a visit from A, and Spencer’s sister got married unexpectedly. So it’s no surprise that a lot happens in the second episode as well. “Salt Meets Wound” deals a lot with the aftermath of Emily coming out. Both of her parents struggle to accept this, each in very different ways. Surprisingly, her tough military dad seems more okay with it than her mom. There’s also some extremely awkward moments between Maya and Emily’s family when Maya is invited over to dinner. Emily is hoping this will put her parents more at ease, but you’ll just have to watch to find out what happens.

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I continue to be completely in love with Pretty Little Liars. Some shows lose their momentum after starting off so strong, but I’m so happy Pretty Little Liars has not. So what is going on with our little liars? Can You Hear Me Now (very cleverly named) centers around the girls trying to get rid of A once and for all. Hanna doesn’t want Alison’s bracelet anymore so she hands it off to Spencer. They all decide to block any unknown numbers from texting or calling them on their cell phones. This didn’t happen in the books but I thought it was a good new twist. But of course A. can’t be gotten rid of that easily! Right after they do this (on a bench about to be dedicated to Ali no less) a note flies in saying “Ding dong the bitch is dead!” Oh boy!

When last we left Hanna, she had crashed Sean’s car and walked away from it. Of course, Ashley, ever concerned with her family’s image, is royally pissed. She ends up calling Hanna’s dad (who she hadn’t heard from in quite some time). Hanna is thrilled until she finds out the reason he came. She goes to dinner with him (although Ashley thought she was invited as well and got super dolled up) and much to her surprise, her dad’s new fiancee is there with her daughter. In the books, Kate (the daughter) is super skinny and perfect and blonde. They got the blonde part right, but while the actress who plays Kate seems to be just fine, she doesn’t match the image in the book at all. I know that you can’t always have actors match your vision exactly but I thought this was a bit far off. Perhaps as Kate develops, I will like her more but I’ll just have to wait and see. Also, Hanna never liked Kate in the books so perhaps that is what we are supposed to feel as well?

Aria is still dealing with her father’s cheating ways. She is invited over to Ezra’s apartment, and while he’s making her dinner, they get in a fight about how to handle the situation. Aria feels like Ezra doesn’t look at her as an adult. Later in class, they banter and her classmates can definitely tell something is up. Aria confronts Ezra and they seem to be okay — whatever okay is in this student/teacher relationship. She finally goes to tell her mom about her dad’s adultery but A has beat her to the punch — in letter form. Whew, A, you really know how to mess up people’s lives, don’t you?!

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I was out of town for the 2nd episode of Pretty Little Liars so I was unable to review it, but I thought it was fantastic. The momentum really picked up when we were introduced to Jenna, a girl who Alison and her friends inadvertently blinded with a stink bomb. Emily and the girl next door Maya get closer and we learn more about the lengths that Hanna’s mom Ashley will go to save face. And of course Aria made out with her hot teacher again.

Last night’s episode titled “To Kill A Mocking Girl” is very cleverly named given the book they are all reading in school. The girls going hiking to remember Alison but of course get a new text from A making reference to hunting season. Hanna is still dealing with the aftermath of her stealing the sunglasses. Her mom Ashley is sleeping with Darren Wilden (the police chief) so that the store will drop the charges but in the end is very protective of her daughter and kicks him out. Hanna tries to have sex with Sean at Noel Kahn’s big party and he rejects her. This leads Hanna to steal Sean’s car keys, crash his car and run off. Oh Hanna, when will you learn?

Aria thinks all is going well with her family until Meredith (the girl she saw her dad making out with in the flashbacks with Ali) shows up and weasels her way into her family’s life. She confronts her but it does no good. Meredith clearly still has feelings for her father and is not going to back down to Aria’s demands. If only her mother Ella weren’t so naive.

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In the small town of Rosewood (just outside of Philadelphia), secrets abound. Four girls (Aria Montgomery played by Lucy Hale, Hanna Marin played by Ashley Benson, Spencer Hastings played by Troian Bellisario and Emily Fields played by Shay Mitchell) were the best of friends, brought out of their unpopular status by it girl Alison DiLaurentis to become queen bees. During a sleepover in middle school, Alison goes missing, and nothing is ever the same. The girls drift apart, but Ali is always in the back of their minds. The series premiere of Pretty Little Liars (based on the amazing book series by Sara Shepard) takes places years after Ali has disappeared. Aria returns from Iceland to find her friends have changed. Hanna is now the most popular girl in school, with Mona Vanderwaal by her side (Mona used to be a huge nerd). Spencer and Hanna are friendly with each other, but not friends. And Emily seems the most unchanged, but she still thinks about Ali all the time. Maya St. Germain (played by Bianca Lawson who is kind of too old for this part), moves into Ali’s old house and she and Emily become fast friends.

But nothing is ever as it seems in Rosewood, and throughout the episode, each girl gets mysterious forms of communication from “A.” Is it Alison? Who knows! (Well, I do since I read the books but I won’t be sharing that info) Each note or text contains a secret that only Alison knew, and she threatens to tell all. The girls are admittedly freaked out, but don’t come together until the end of the episode where they all get a text from “A” at the same time. What lengths will the girls go to in order to keep their secrets? Is Alison alive? Was there more to their old friend’s disappearance than they could have imagined? And then there’s the Jenna thing…a secret they have all sworn not to tell anyone.

Pretty Little Liars is full of drama, mystery and intrigue with a dash of high school thrown in there. But it isn’t just the girls with secrets, their parents hold some secrets of their own. Byron and Ella Montgomery (played by Chad Lowe and Holly Marie Combs), and Ashley Marin (played by resident TV bad-ass Laura Leighton) are hiding some things of their own. I have been dreaming of a TV series since I picked up the books years ago, and the series premiere of Pretty Little Liars did not disappoint. It followed the first book pretty closely which sets my hopes and expectations high for the rest of the season. The only flaw I saw was the age of Bianca Lawson, who plays Maya St. Germain. But since the show mainly focuses on the girls, and she’s just a guest star, I don’t see it being a huge issue. Of course with any book series, you have visions in your mind of what the characters look like (especially since Shepard is such a descriptive writer), and I’d say that Hanna and Aria fit their roles perfectly. Emily and Spencer are great as well but I think Ashley Benson and Lucy Hale are Hanna and Aria personified. Sasha Pieterse plays Ali (mostly in flashbacks of course) and I enjoyed her too.

I applaud ABC Family for picking up Pretty Little Liars, because it’s not a show you would typically find on their network. It certainly has the same demographic as their shows but in general, it’s a bit more risque than their usual choices. If I had to compare it to another show, I would say it has shades of Veronica Mars in it (which is a huge compliment). The girls aren’t solving new crimes on a daily basis but they are trying to get to the bottom of a big secret that has been haunting them for years.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 8 pm to ABC Family for the series premiere of Pretty Little Liars. And remember, never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.

Pretty Little Liars premieres tomorrow night at 8 pm on ABC Family. The show centers around four girls: Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily who grew apart when their best friend Alison went missing. There is drama, intrigue, mystery and everything that makes for a hit show. And of course, big secrets and big lies. I recently had the chance to chat with Laura Leighton, who plays Hanna’s mom, Ashley Marin. She talked about playing strong, female characters, how she relates to her character, and what it’s like playing a single mom.

How did you find out about this role?
Pretty Little Liars is a pilot script that was going around during pilot casting season, and everyone I knew had read it, and everyone was loving it and hoping to audition for it.  I was going through the process.  I read the script, loved it, and auditioned for the role of Ashley.  I waited to find out who they were going to cast as Hanna, and I was lucky enough to match up with Ashley Benson.

What do you find challenging about the role?
It’s a juicy part, which I love.  It’s challenging, always, to have a character that’s acting sort of outside your own moral compass; making choices that you wouldn’t necessarily make.  Ashley is certainly finding herself in the position of making some parenting choices and choices in general for herself and her family that are a little bit shocking.  You have to find a way to justify that within the character and go, “Okay, what kind of person would do this, and where is she coming from?”  And it’s a challenge.  It’s fun.  It’s always fun to figure that out, and certainly more fun than playing someone who is very boring and milk toast and predictable.

But is it a show your own children will be allowed to watch?
I do have a couple of older children—teenagers, that I think are within the demographic and it could be appropriate and definitely appealing for them.  My younger children definitely not, but they’re use to that.  Just sort of like that’s where we go to work, and as far as their concerned they’d rather we’d just stay home and play.

Could you tell us a little bit about your character and what we can expect to see from her in the show.  Just her personality or things you like about her; just a little more info.
Well, Ashley Marin is the single mother on the show, parenting one of the girls—one of the pretty little liars, and Hanna is her daughter.  And Ashley is working to keep it all together, as any single mom has to.  She’s a business woman; she’s got a bit of an edge.  She’s very matter-of-fact, and she places very high value on appearances.  She wants to maintain her image and pulling herself together every day is high on her list. So when her daughter makes the mistakes and she needs to cover those up, she acts in desperation and thinks of the best thing she can think of at the time.  Like how she should try to cover up and what’s the best way to do it.  She’s really just trying to maintain appearances and her life and her lifestyle.  She’s struggling to balance it all.

I just wanted to know how playing this character compares to some of your previous roles.  Sydney, for example, comes to mind.
Well, yes, going from Sydney to this character, I definitely think they’re completely different characters, different roles within the show, and the shows themselves are different.  But it is funny.  I find myself playing a character who makes some controversial choices.  I don’t know if it’s because once you play one role that goes in that direction it’s easy to see you doing it again, and some people are able to envision you in that role and you’re more likely to get cast.  I don’t know.  I’m happy to have the opportunity.  Like I said, I think it’s always much more interesting to play somebody who’s got some gray areas, and maybe a dark side and some questionable attributes.  There’s some humanity in them.  It’s just interesting.  It’s interesting to try to figure it out, and I think it’s more fun than playing somebody predictable.

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