If you are a male between the ages of 18 and 25 and watch “Pretty Little Liars,” there is a secret shame you bear every Tuesday in your room hoping your roommate doesn’t walk in and catch you; however, you are not alone. I have heard countless guys tell me about their hidden guilty pleasure that most tween girls who haven’t quite hit puberty yet are obsessed with.
The last time I watched ABC Family was when “T.G.I.F.” was still a thing. Don’t pretend like you don’t still know the song that would play every Friday night in the mid-1990s before “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” would come on. Sing it with me now, “T-G-I-F.” Well, now Tuesday’s on ABC Family are making it T.G.I.T. with fans shortening “Pretty Little Liars” to just P.L.L.
Based on the series of novels by Sara Shephard, the show follows the death of Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) who was murdered. Her four friends, Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario), Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale), Hannah Marin (Ashley Benson) and Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) must figure out how Alison was killed as they are harassed and threatened by the mysterious character of “A” in the fictional town of Rosewood, Penn.
While the dialogue in this show isn’t anything to be thought of as spectacular, what the show does not lack is suspense. What draws viewers in every week isn’t whether or not Aria will end up with her English teacher Mr. Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding), but whether or not this group of friends will find out who the real killer is and if they will ever feel safe again.
The four girls on the show are far from homely, and if you ask most guys what their reason is for tuning in each week they will all ask the same question: “Have you seen the girls on that show? They are so freaking hot.”
Each season, more and more viewers are watching to see what fraction of a hint they will receive each episode that will bring them closer to figuring out who “A” is. The first season premiered on June 8, 2010 with a mere 2.47 million viewers, while the finale of season four brought in 3.3 million viewers, all of whom couldn’t wait to find out if they would finally reveal “A’s” identity. Shocker … they did not. Hey, they have to keep the series going somehow, folks.
Although the series wrapped up its regular season in August 2013, this past Tuesday the annual P.L.L. Halloween episode aired and promised to be spookier and more treacherous for the gang than ever. Season five will not return until June 2014, and fans will just have to wait in anticipation to find out whether Ezra Fitz is the real “A” who has been tormenting these girls for the past three seasons. In the meantime, “Ravenswood,” a spinoff series, will air in October 2013.
Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn), featured as Hannah’s love interest in P.L.L., will be starring in “Ravenswood,” which follows five strangers in the town of Ravenswood, Penn., which is not far from the town of Rosewood. It explores how their stories connect, not to mention that town has been cursed for hundreds of years.
As I have only mentioned the girls of P.L.L., I must give a shout out to the men of the show that keep the girls coming back each episode. The most often question I get asked while watching the show from my girlfriends is “When is Ezra/Toby/Caleb going to take his shirt off?” Yes, the eye candy on the show goes for girls as well. Needless to say, I rest my case.
