A kind of a Desperate Housewives for teens, Pretty Little Liars follows four high-school girls as they struggle to deal with the unthinkable tragedy of the disappearance and probable murder of their best friend Alison. There's also the usual angst that comes with stress over school exams and getting into a good college, teen romance and sexuality, navigating the high-school rumor mill and popularity chain, small-town nosiness, and rocky parent and adult relationships. Rosewood is a little town in Pennsylvania with a troublemaker on the loose and a bunch of buried secrets. A year after Alison's death, BFFs Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily have grown apart, but are forced back together by the discovery of Alison's body, her funeral, and threatening texts and notes that start appearing from a mysterious person who signs the notes "A" and seems to know things that only Alison could possibly know. Each of the girls is desperately hiding something from the others, their parents, and the police, and A seems to know exactly how to manipulate them and stir up trouble. The road to unraveling just what happened to Alison is full of twists, turns, and plenty of suspense. The girls' journey reveals a lot about just what kind of person each of them really is, and about their own sense of self-worth--and how one powerful person can control the lives of many. Based on the bestselling book series by Sara Shepard, the TV show initially views kind of like a horror film mashed together with a chick-clique flick. But as the mystery unfolds and the characters are fleshed out, teen viewers will find themselves hooked not only by the suspense and the mystery, but also by the sense that in some essential way, these girls are just like them or someone they know. Like most teenagers, the characters in Pretty Little Liars are often vain, immature, and maddeningly illogical, but they're also vulnerable, complex, and deceptively captivating. (Ages 13 and older) --Tami Horiuchi