Pretty Little Liars eps 1-10

I feel odd posting this when almost everyone is out having a social life or something (I hide from the world when there are likely to be drunk partiers?) but new episodes start in just a few days.

Pretty Little Liars is a show in the Twin Peaks and Veronica Mars in that the metaplot revolves around the disappearance/death of a pretty/popular girl, and features her friends looking into the mystery of what happens to her. All three also eventually reveal a secret sexual life that the girl led, that appears to be tied to her fate. Except PLL ditched all the men, focuses almost entirely on her relationships with other women, and is way less male gazey in general.

It’s also very like a Christopher Pike mystery book in that it’s cracky and twisty and has the hint of the supernatural, and focuses on a group of friends trying to solve the mystery. Except that it’s way, way less racist (Not that that’s hard, really-I’ve been rereading Pike lately, trust me on this-but I actually can’t think of any big failures that front?) has far fewer Nice Guys (and sometimes actually realizes that they are Nice Guys, and the girls involved should trade up) and all the detectives are girls.

So, basically, I’m wondering why more of the “multiple women doing things” fans on my list aren’t squeeing over it?

The basics are this: Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily used to be BFFs with Allison, the most popular girl in school, but then Allison disappeared while they were on a camping trip, and they grew apart, and have barely spoken since. But they re-bond when Allison’s body is found, and at her funeral, they all receive taunting texts from A, an unknown person who knows secrets that only Allison knew.

Then there’s the awesomely creepy blind girl who has just cause to hate their guts, the fact that their family lives are framed through their relationships with their mothers, and what is probably the only biracial lesbian pairing on television with no white people involved. (Also, they are adorable. So is some of the het, but especially them.)

There are romantic subplots at first that made me cringe a lot, but they mostly improve. I’m uncomfortable with some of it, but I think most of what makes me cringe is meant to. But basically, it’s a marvelously fun show about a bunch of snarky, bitchy girls having positive (and sometimes antagonistic, but mostly positive) relationships with each other and other women, solving mysteries and running through houses and woods in potential peril. Uhm…there are some boys, too? And I like some? But it’s mostly girls.

A couple random things before I get to some spoilers.

1. So, in a show about snarky, catty “mean” girls, my favorite is Hanna, the nicest and most considerate of the lot? I also just realized that every single other major character (except the token Nice Guy, who I ignore) has dark hair, and Hanna is the only blonde in the whole thing. Though, my next two favorites are Spencer (the ambitious control freak who reads a lot) and Jenna (the creepy snarky blind girl).

2. Speaking of hair, this show frequently suffers from Flat Hair Curse. You know, when all the women start with their own, individual hairstyles, but it slowly gets converted so that they all have the identical flat, straight hair? This first showed up with Jenna, which made me sad, but then Aria and Hanna were attacked by the curse, too. And the forced straightness really stands out next to more normally straight hair like Emily’s. I think the only thing saving Maya from the curse is that they don’t want us to notice that Bianca Lawson is still playing teenagers.

3. Yes, Kendra from Buffy is still playing a teenager. WTF? Also, Piper from Charmed plays Aria’s mother, and while Chad Lowe plays her father, wikipedia informs me that he was originally supposed to be played by Alexis Denisof. Piper and Wesley were going to have teenaged kids! But Kendra was (and is) still going to be a teenager! WHAT? My geekery is reeling.

Now for some spoilers.
( spoileryness )

Soooo...has anyoneread the books?