Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead.

Pretty Little Liars is the latest American teenage drama to captivate me and give me something to look forward to on a Tuesday morning. 

Based on Sara Shepard's unflinching teen novels of the same title, it revolves around four girls: Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), former 'fatty'-turned-it-girl; Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell), a competitive swimmer who’s harbouring her feelings for her friend Maya due to her strict conservative parents; Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario), a high-achiever who feels the need to compete with her catty older sister for everything; and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale), who returns from a year abroad in Iceland only to fall for the dishy Ezra Fitz, who is soon revealed to be her English teacher. 

From the intro alone, there’s more than enough drama and suspense to eclipse a whole season of The O.C. To complicate matters, the thing that binds the girls together is their shared past with the school’s ultimate Queen Bee, Alison DiLaurentis, a charismatic, beautiful, but very cruel girl who enjoys putting others down, playing games and treating people like puppets. 

Alison went missing a year ago, and her body has only just now been found. However, Alison’s legacy lives on when each of the four girls start receiving texts and e-mails taunting them with their darkest secrets.

Essentially, Pretty Little Liars can be described as a sort of Heathers-meets-gossip girl-meets-Desperate Housewives. And, considering how I like all three of those things, it’s no surprise that Pretty Little Liars proved to be a highly engaging and entertaining watch. 

The performances are accomplished. Bellisario is the only one who truly stands out for me but all the girls do their jobs capably, the plotline has enough twists to constantly keep you guessing, and the opening credits, wow! 

It took me a good give minutes to fully realise how creepy the opening credits truly were, but they’re creepy in a genius way. In between trying to track down Alison’s killer and who the identity of the mystery “A” is, the girls have plenty of love problems, family woes and other troubles, so there’s tonnes to keep you entertaining. 

Oh, and the outfits are to die for, unsurprisingly. 

Despite each of the four leads looking gorgeous throughout, I still found myself rooting for and caring about their characters, mistakes and all - a hallmark of engaging character writing.

What I love about Pretty Little Liars is that as each episode progresses, more layers are peeled back We quickly discover that Alison is far from the pretty sweet little girl she would have everyone believe she is, and how the secret about her is darker and more disturbing than anyone realised. So I highly recommend Pretty Little Liars, get on it!

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