A Review of ABC Family’s “Ravenswood” by Tiffany A. White
Today I’m jumping in with one of my most anticipated shows of the season—Ravenswood.
I love Pretty Little Liars… and now, I *kinda* have a second hour of PLL to watch every week. How’s that? Because Ravenswood is a Pretty Little Liars spinoff!
For those of us who watch PLL, we saw a sneak peek into the town of Ravenswood last season. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but I couldn’t wait to see why the entire town gathered at the statue when the bells rang. Creepy!
Which is why I find it odd, how after four episodes, the series has yet to explore this one single time. Are we supposed to forget how odd it was when Spencer and Toby visited Ravenswood for the first time when the entire town gathered in the cemetery like zombies when the bells tolled? I guess so.
Anyway…
With the spinoff comes the sad realization that Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) is leaving Rosewood for Ravenswood. Does this mean he and Hanna are breaking up? So far, no.
Joining Caleb in Ravenswood are four strangers (to him, not to each other necessarily): Miranda, played by Nicole Anderson from Beauty and the Beast, a transient like Caleb who is searching for her biological uncle and any sense of family that she can find; Remy, played by Britne Oldford from American Horror Story: Asylum, the daughter of the local paper owner who isn’t as quick to dismiss the curse when she discovers a history of it; Luke, played by Brett Dier from The L.A. Complex, a local boy grieving his father’s recent passing and the most reluctant to believe what is going on around him; and Olivia, played by Merritt Patterson from Kyle XY, Luke’s sister (and homecoming queen) who is searching for answers to her father’s death and is the first, besides Caleb, to see actual ghosts.
Together these teens must dig into the town’s past to uncover its secrets. And hopefully break the Ravenswood curse.
The curse… every time a soldier returns from war, usually when he or she survived some miracle that his or her fellow soldiers did not, five teens must die.
And guess what?! Remy’s mother (played by Sophina Brown from Shark and Numb3rs) just returned from war, having been found underneath rubble, the lone survivor of an attack.
The series also stars: Steven Cabral as Miranda’s uncle, Raymond, and the owner of the Ravenswood funeral home—I don’t know who this Australian actor is, but he is CUTE!!; Henry Simmons (NYPD Blue and Shark) as Remy’s dad, Terry—LOVE him and the fact that he and his real life wife play husband and wife on Ravenswood!; Meg Foster as Carla Grunwald, the creepy funeral home “keeper” who also served as a sorority mother on Pretty Little Liars; and Laura Allen (The 4400) as Luke and Olivia’s mother, Rochelle, who also happens to be the prime suspect in her husband’s murder.
If someone can’t tell, I have a crush on the adult men in Ravenswood… even if Uncle Ray looks like a grown up version of Eddie Munster.
But back to my assessment…
Is Ravenswood as good as Pretty Little Liars? No. Not yet anyway.
Actually, the two really aren’t anything alike (other than the character of Caleb moving over to Ravenswood and the PLL girls having visited the town of Ravenswood on occasion). Our favorite Rosewood girls deal with real life problems, like the murder of their best friend, stalkers, and crazy “live” people… the Ravenswood five are fighting the supernatural and a curse.
But I will applaud Ravenswood on one thing. The curse is no joke. And by that, I mean they’ve actually already killed one of the stars of the show. Even if he/she (I don’t want to give anything away) is still technically on the show because he/she appears as a ghost (remember, supernatural TV…). Regardless, that doesn’t happen all that often on TV—the stars of a television series are usually safe.
I’m going to stick with Ravenswood, mainly because I’m a Pretty Little Liars fan and I want to see where it goes. But like I said earlier, it is nowhere near as good as PLL. We already know the curse, so there’s not a lot of mystery (except for who killed Luke and Olivia’s dad… and why?). However, there is suspense (like is anyone else going to die and how?). The new teen drama is like that classic junk food item we can’t avoid; it isn’t great for us, but we’ll go back for seconds.
*****
Tiffany A. White is the author of the YA mystery “Football Sweetheart” series. She blogs at The Ooo Factor and is available for contact via Twitter at , Facebook at , or by email at .
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