fran-tasy

If I started watching this show today, as an adult, I would most likely consider it total trash. The acting is incredibly hard to bear at times (there are a few exceptions of course, but most of the actors could have used some serious acting classes); costumes, hair and make-up are insane (for lack of a better word); the music borders on annoying and the plot holes are big enough to swallow a fully grown person. Thankfully, there aren't any of those left in the world of The Tribe.

Eight-year-old me however could not have cared any less about all this. The show is a part of my childhood that still gives me this weirdly fuzzy, nostalgic feeling to this day. I remember re-enacting the show on the schoolyard with my friends and always being excited to come home after school to watch the latest episode. So, try as I might, I cannot bring myself to rate this any lower than 8/10. Doing so would be a betrayal of all these great memories I associate with The Tribe. This is eight-year-old me taking a stand.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why I keep watching this show. It's certainly not because it's actually good, since, let's face it, it's not. Definitely not.

Pretty Little Liars is basically a constant repetition of one and the same story line over and over again (and again, and again…). An unknown foe called 'A' terrorizes the 4 protagonists by threatening to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets. But who could blame 'A', really? These girls make insanely stupid choices left and right and apparently took Rosewood High's most popular P.E. class: jumping to conclusions (that guy looked at me funny, he MUST be 'A').

But no matter how ridiculous this show has gotten over the seasons, they must be doing something right (although – for the life of me – I can't put my finger on it), because I have to admit I'm still watching it, even though my eyes are aching from rolling them so hard after every episode. The show just has this weirdly addictive quality that makes it difficult to mercilessly cut it out of your watchlist.

I have yet to watch the UK version of this show but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it shouldn't be too hard to beat the surprisingly low standard of the US version. I'm not a fan of randomly bashing US remakes; however, this show has more than earned its right to be bashed.

The saddest thing is that there was actually a lot of potential for the writers to work with – but I guess they chose "to go another way". The characters could have been incredibly interesting and intriguing. First of all there are Savi – a driven lawyer dealing with some serious marital problems – and her sister Joss – a party girl trying to find her way in life. Then we have Karen – a successful therapist who had an affair with one of her married patients – and April – a widow raising her 10-year-old daughter on her own. Any of these story lines has so much potential for realistic drama that it almost makes me cry to see it go to waste. The three most prominent issues responsible for this squandering are the predictability of the story lines (you can see the "twists" coming miles away), the lack of likability of the characters (just when you're starting to warm up to a character they go ahead and do something unbelievably stupid and sometimes downright absurd) and last but definitely not least the disappointing performances of some of the actors (I mean – seriously – what happened to Yunjin Kim? She used to be a pretty decent actress. Flat and uninspired are the kindest words I can find here).

Personally, I think a good show is supposed to draw you in and make you forget that its stories and characters aren't real. Sadly, Mistresses US fails miserably in this respect.