TV reviews

In the US: Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC Family

Sometimes, it’s really possible for TV to make you feel old. I remember watching an episode of Quantum Leap back in the early 90s while I was at university and thinking to myself, “Ah, isn’t that sweet? Donald Bellisario and Deborah Pratt have put their little four-year-old daughter Troian into an episode.”

Troian Bellisario is now 25 and one of the stars of Pretty Little Liars. In fact, of all the stars she’s the oldest.

God damn it. I’m officially old.

Pretty Little Liars is an attempt to somehow meld Gossip Girl with Vampire Diaries, with just a hint of Desperate Housewives. Based on the book series of the same name – which ironically was only developed in the first place when an attempt to create a TV show from the initial idea floundered – it features four pretty high school girls who were once the best of friends. That all ended a year ago, when the fifth member and leader of their group, Ali, disappeared one summer. A year later, one of the friends returns from a stay in Europe to find the group has fallen apart.

Yet something’s going to bring them together. Could it be Ali? If it is, why won’t she reveal herself and why does she keep sending them anonymous text messages? Worse still, is she going to give away all their secrets?

Continue reading “Review: Pretty Little Liars 1×1-1×3”

In the US: Wednesdays, 10pm/9c, TV Land

The creators of Hot In Cleveland probably had a few alternative titles in mind for the show before they came up the current title:

1. Women of a Certain Age – too close to TNT’s Men of a Certain Age?

2. Cougar Town – oops, already done that.

3. LA Sucks – might lose a few viewers with that one.
4. We Wish They All Could Be Cleveland Men – Well, men weren’t going to watch anyway, were they?
5. Go On, Women, Watch It, Just Watch It – There Are So Few Shows With Female Leads In It That You’ll Watch Nearly Anything, Won’t You? – That would be the network’s attitude at least.

But essentially, the cryptically-titled Hot In Cleveland refers not to the temperature there, but to the fact that a group of rich women of a certain age (Jane Leeves from Frasier, Wendie Malick from Just Shoot Me and Valerie Bertinelli of One Day at a Time/the Jenny Craig weight loss scheme) accidentally wind up in Cleveland. Used to being overlooked by men their own age in LA in favour of younger women, they’re surprised to find the men of Cleveland find them – a washed up actress, a book author and celebrity stylist – attractive.

Shock, and indeed, horror.

So desperate to be wanted and desired after their businesses collapse, husbands leave them, etc, they decide to move to Cleveland, where they end up watched over by their property’s caretaker, ex-Golden Girl Betty White (she’s so hot right now), while trying to find Mr Right/Old School.

Cue much hilarity.

Continue reading “Review: Hot in Cleveland 1×1”