IN DEFENSE OF
Pretty Little Liars

ACCUSATION: Teen Chick Drama

DEFENSE: Twin Peaks Redux

I’ve said this before, but I’m saying it again. ABC Family’s hit teen drama Pretty Little Liars is one of the most enjoyable guilty pleasures on the tube right now.

No, wait.

I don’t feel the least bit guilty about this one. In fact, if I weren’t 612 miles away from my old high school, I’d shout it from its rooftop. This show is the most fun primetime mystery since Laura Palmer was found wrapped in plastic.
 
I mention Twin Peaks because Pretty Little Liars is in every way the bastard step-child of David Lynch’s classic dramatic soap. PLL knows how to pull a good homage even though the core audience probably hasn’t seen the series its referencing.

It starts with a whodunit premise: Alison DiLaurentis – blond high school Queen Bee teen found dead; everyone’s a suspect. So far this season we’ve met Alison in flashbacks, as a ghost and, in true Twin Peaks fashion, in somewhat sultry home movies shot by a possible killer. Enter the FBI agent assigned to the case in the season cliffhanger, named Agent Cooper.

Other connections to TP are less obvious. The Audrey of the series is an eccentric blind girl “Jenna,” who’s another primary suspect given her constant disdain for the four surviving main clique girls: Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily. The Bobby Briggs of the series is the creepy step-brother of Jenna named Toby, who’s a dead ringer for a mid-80s Crispin Glover.

But my love for the show isn’t completely tied to my delusion of a linage to Lynch. Pretty Little Liars can’t offer the same dark commentary on small town high school politics that the great Twin Peaks did. Plus, the series lacks a consistent essence, and it shifts often from the over-dramatic to the sometimes satirical. But it is all a part of the fun, and dare I also mention that its also a little like the original Melrose Place in that aspect.

Oh, no he didn’t…

But can you blame me for wanting another Melrose or Peaks on the tube? Right now, I want a show that leaves me with a giddy smile on my face each week. A show that’s fairly predictable, only at the risk of being dependable. That challenges perceptions of teenagers sexuality (i.e. PLL tastefully executed Lesbian plot line) without resorting to extremes (that means you Skins). That pushes the envelope for what ABC Family brings to the household. That can sustain at least three outrageous plot twists in a single episode, or at least hang on a cliff before each commercial break. That’s completely, undoubtably aimed at a demographic I’m nowhere near.

To all these and more, I thank thee PRETTY LITTLE LIARS.

To help illustrate what I love about the series, I’ve created this montage from the midseason cliff hanger episode titled KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE.