To start off the new year right, ABC Family has continued season two of Pretty Little Liars after leaving viewers hanging in late October 2011 with their “Halloween Episode.”
PLL is an addictive series based on the thriller novels by Sara Shepard. Their first season premiered on June 8, 2010, and has been successfully running ever since. (Their second season premiered on June 14, 2011 and their third season has already been ordered to premier summer of 2012).
In the series, five young girls are best friends until one summer, clique leader Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) disappears with little information left behind. The remaining four – Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale), Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell), Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario), and Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson) – fall out as a group, and lose contact. The show picks up when the four girls return to Rosewood High School as juniors.
Though they have all changed, the sudden discovery of the body of their missing friend reunites the girls in mourning. But is she really gone? A mysterious blackmailer named ‘A’, begins sending the girls ominous texts and notes that threaten to unveil their darkest secrets. What the girls at first believed were practical jokes begins to immerse them in murders and plots in their small town of Rosewood.
The second half of season two premiered on January 2, 2012. The show picks up when the girls are punished with community service after they were taken into custody by the police. A fight between Spencer and Emily breaks out and conflict between the girls break them apart. Family drama at home also awaits all Aria and Hanna – the private relationship between Aria and Ezra (her ex-high school teacher) is revealed to Aria’s parents, and Hanna’s dad returns to Rosewood – with her stepmom and evil stepsister. The four friends then reveal that the tension between Emily and the rest was actually a trap to reveal A’s identity. The secret rendezvous between Emily and A goes…not exactly as planned, and A unfortunately gets away, however he/she leaves a very important artifact – their phone. Judging from the first episode back from their hiatus, the Pretty Little Liars continuing season seems to be very promising.
On January 9, the second episode was released. The girls need to crack the security of the phone, and who better then Hanna’s tech-boyfriend, Caleb? Hanna refuses to drag him into their twisted game with A, but the other girls involve Caleb finding that they had no other alternative. Meanwhile, Spencer gets back with her boyfriend, Toby, after attempting to freeze him out to spare him from danger. As Hanna plans a surprise birthday party for Caleb at Spencer’s beach house, Spencer learns that A has been to her house…at the same time, Emily who is doing community service at a crisis hotline, receives multiple calls from a person who is in a situation like A (lost phone, scared, etc.), and that person happens to be Lucas, Hanna’s best guy friend. At the birthday party, Lucas takes Hanna on a trip and both fall into the icy waters near the house, and only Hanna emerges..
Despite the fact that this show’s plot may seem like a pointless prank on four teenagers, it has the intensity and intrigue that won it the Favorite Cable TV Drama award at the People’s Choice Awards. Catch up with Pretty Little Liars, Monday nights on ABC Family at 8:00 PM and it is one show that you won’t regret watching…but if you do, who’s forcing you to keep watching besides your captivated, inner self, who just has to find out who -A is?
