REVIEW: Pretty Little Liars' Second Ep - 'The Jenna Thing'...

REVIEW: Pretty Little Liars' Second Ep - 'The Jenna Thing'...

After a good series premiere - though admittedly not in the same class as those of shows like Gossip Girl or Grey's Anatomy - Pretty Little Liars was off to a great start. With all the best themes that make summer series such addictive tv - secrets, lies, backstabbing and a good-looking cast - we'd already put it down on our MUST WATCH list.


Now, as you know, there are some shows that start off well only to disappoint - Melrose Place - while some start off slow only to go and become one of the best series on tv - The Vampire Diaries - so we were hoping that PLL wouldn't turn out to be another non-starter. And we weren't disappointed.


This episode really had some good moments in it; such as the lunch room scene where the four girls (Hanna, Spencer, Emily and Aria) invite Jenna, of the much-discussed and now infamous 'Jenna Thing', to sit with them. We're not even going to lie; Jenna, with her dry humour and keen insight into the workings of the group - both past and present - is turning out to be our favourite character. Indeed, almost all the best lines of this ep (with the exception of Hanna's response to an old man's protest at her flask at the beginning of the ep - ''it's medicinal... cramps") were hers - "'You can say blind. It's not a dirty word', being one of the numerous examples.


But to be fair, Jenna wasn't the only great thing about this episode. We learnt a bit more about Aria's father's old affair with a now ex-student of his, Meredith (who we discover now works as a teaching assistant - but not his, her father was keen to stress. 0_0), and also see the Aria and her father start with a clean slate. But only after Aria makes out with Mr Fitz in his car, and her father talks about his affair - citing 'giving into his emotions' as the reason for the affair - something Aria can obviously now relate to.


Another key storyline? The four being called in to see the detective, who made it more than clear that he didn't believe a word of their 'we-fell-asleep-and-woke-up-to-find-Ali-gone-and-we-have-no-idea-of-anyone-that-would-have-wanted-to-kill-her' story. Though, Spencer's less than believable poker face may have been a contributing factor. Indeed, he tells Hanna this straight up a few scenes later, while the two hang out (inexplicably - for him) in the dodgy-looking mall parking lot.


However, for all the great points of this episode, there are a more than a few problems we have with it, as well.
One storyline that we didn't really get at first, was the whole 'Hanna's mum and the detective' thing; why would she still be sleeping with him? Thankfully, the writers remembered to explain it all, with her mother explaining to Hanna that, until the shoplifting charges were dropped, things must go on as they are.

And, are we the only ones that didn't buy either the whole 'Emily-having-inexplicable-feelings-for-new-girl-that-moved-into-Ali's-house' thing or the 'Spencer-and-her-sister's-boyfriend-kissing-just-a-few-days-after-first-meeting' thing? First, why in GOD's name would Emily, after having been with her boyfriend for an implied considerable amount of time, just start having feelings for a girl she's known for all of a week? If you thought the BFF-relationship was rushed in the pilot, it's nothing compared to what the writers concoted for this ep.

Emily's mother invites Maya (new BFF) over to stay with them for a few days after the latter complains of mourners flocking to the house to pay Dead Girl their last respects. Then, Emily and Maya share a bed, leading to the former's aforementioned bf to exchange innuendoes with new BFF. Then Emily gets all defensive, as if in reality she would have actually figured out she isn't really attracted to her bf, anymore. THEN, when Maya leaves the car, and he understandably asks why she's getting so touchy about it, she snogs the living daylights out of him. Like, what? Even writing that summary of what happened makes us feel ridiculous; how could the writers have sat there and actually thought this would be in any way believable?

SMH.

And Spencer and her sister's bf practically playing footsie under the table in the restauraunt while both her father and her sister were there? Flirting like it was nobody business? And neither Spencer's dad nor her sister even noticed something was just the slightest bit odd? Never mind the fact that such a rushed flirtation is unrealistic to say the least, seeing as the BF clearly musn't have been into the sister enough (even though HE MOVED IN WITH HER RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO HER PARENTS) - something that the viewer never really got a sense of, as he seemed pretty damn happy with her. Never mind that Spencer didn't appear to have any qualms about what she was doing until the two kissed later as he was 'helping her with her homework' (the laziest writing ploy in the book).

SMH x 2.

Obviously, there are still some things the writers need to work on, because those storylines just didn't work for us. Still, overall, a pretty decent ep, and it introduced some storylines for upcoming ones - such as the whole Spencer coming across Janna vocally sending a text message over her mobile phone, right at the end.

CLIFFHANGER.

So, we still have hope for the season and series as a whole. And we will be reviewing tonight's ep in time for next week's. We want these to serve almost as recaps for you.

You're welcome.

VERDICT: 7.8/10




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