Ravenswood

Five strangers are thrown together and are hit by a fatal curse that has plagued a town for generations. What more could you ask for to hook you into the brilliant series Ravenswood. (A PPL Spin off) The mysterious and disturbing history of the town has me wanting more and fuels a need for the teens to find a way to stop the curse and save themselves. Classic actress Meg Foster is eerily perfect in her role as the resident psychic as are the 5 fresh faced kids playing the lead roles. Having come in cold not being a PPL fan (although I have seen the first season) I am intrigued by this show. I can see where Pretty Little Liars fans would not like it so much as it is really nothing like that show, this is more paranormal/supernatural, after all the whole town is haunted. I just hope the Caleb & Hanna fans don't try to sink the spin off in order to have Caleb back in Rosewood. He is so much better off here with his brooding persona. Ultimately Ravenswood is a bone chilling tale with a fascinating blend of chills, thrills, drama and mystery but most importantly don't have to be a Pretty Little Liars fan to enjoy the series (in fact you're probably better off not being one) so enjoy this epic tale of pure escapism into the hauntingly eerie town of Ravenswood.

I just watched the final episode of "Ravenswood", a supernatural teen drama series by ABC Family. It's a spin-off of the popular teen soap "Pretty Little Liars" and follows the character of Caleb Rivers, played by hunky Tyler Blackburn, as he discovers a deadly curse that has plagued the town of Ravenswood for generations.

Let me get one thing straight: I'm a big fan of teen drama series, and "Pretty Little Liars" is one of the best ones in years. I also love a good mystery. But the supernatural theme of "Ravenswood" put me off a bit, probably because it's so far from the "Pretty Little Liars" universe.

Also, the acting isn't that good. I can live with subpar acting as long as I like a series in general, but there is something quite cheesy about "Ravenswood". Not even the cute guys can save it. Sure, it's entertaining at times, but it seems they're trying to hard to compete with "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Originals" instead of doing their own thing.

I don't regret watching "Ravenswood", but to be honest, I won't miss it that much. And I'm definitely not surprised it got cancelled. There are some good news though: The character of Caleb will return to "Pretty Little Liars". I just wonder how they will explain his short experience with the supernatural. Was it just a dream?

Well, I liked "Pretty Little Liars" and I thought why not give this one a shot too. I was really dead wrong about this show.

"Ravenswood" is not just boring- it is plain dumb. The characters are annoying, make stupid decisions and there is just no suspense or scare here. There was a recent teen-horror TV series "Scream" that sustained the tension so well and had me pumping up to the finale. But this one just kept on putting up questions and questions up to a point where you demanded some answers. Obviously the answers are given in a rushed finale, but that leaves you more dumb than shocked! God, this show is really bad!

Now lets talk about some of the good things about the show: the performances are nice and I liked the girls who play Olivia, Remy and Miranda. The boy characters were just so annoying and I hated Caleb so much- with his one liners. This is not PLL where we would want some jokes. This is a horror show-give us some tension or some scares please. Also there were some creepy moments too- but only two or three in a series that runs for nearly 450 minutes!

Take my advice, see something else. Don't waste your time on this!

I've barely even heard of PLL, never saw so much as a fragment of a single episode of PLL, so I've got zero "investment" in this series, either positive *or* negative. I'm a blank slate as far as "Ravenswood" is concerned.

That said, I got hooked pretty quickly on it. I was late to the game, hadn't even heard of the show until episode 4-5 was being aired, was curious about it, and viewed several episodes in one sitting. And I liked it, a lot.

I didn't dissect the show and try to make sure it fit neatly into the PLL-universe, I didn't care who's back in PLL-land or what they were doing... I only concerned myself with what was going on in Ravenswood (the town *and* the show).

Maybe the fact that there's "supposed" to be a PLL tie-in is what's polarising people so strongly to either love it or hate it. I don't know, nor do I particularly care. I like *this* show for what it is.

Complaints about "bad acting"? Umm, what kind of acting were you expecting in a show about ghosts and seances and such? We ain't exactly talking "Brian's Song" or even "Gandhi" here.

Things "not making sense" from a PLL perspective? "He wouldn't do that", "She wouldn't do that"... feh. Cut the cord, forget the tie-in, imagine "Ravenswood" as its own series, and rewatch it.

You've got a wonderfully creepy Meg Foster (and I mean that in a good way!), so soft-spoken and genteel but you can't quite guess if she's truly eeee-vil underneath it all and would slip poison in your chamomile tea just for fun. You've also got Steve Cabral playing a taciturn and oh-so-creepy Eddie-Munster-looking undertaker. And of course, you've got a cast of generic good-looking teenagers from pretty much any/every teen-soap-drama-whatever show, all doing their respective things. So what's not to like? I'm disappointed that the show got cancelled, and I hope it's properly wrapped-up within the 10 episodes it has, but even if not, for me it's been a fun ride, at least so far. I might chime in further after I watch the remaining episodes, but I'm hopeful they'll be at least as good as the first few.

Watching 'Ravenswood' is like stumbling upon a series nearing its end. The characters and focus are so narrow, you get the feeling you missed important stuff that led us to this point.

So how sad that 'Ravenswood' is only halfway into its first season, and it's taking liberties & shortcuts only long-established shows should be allowed to take.

From the start, 'Ravenswood' makes the assumption that you know & love its characters. Good shows ease into heavy plot, allowing viewers to experience the characters as normal people with real lives/relationships/quirks. Not so with 'Ravenswood'...the show quickly gathers its cast & dumps them into a supernatural mystery.

To make things worse, 'Ravenswood' then makes the assumption that its supernatural mystery payoff is so good...viewers will endure one unexplained supernatural event after another. And that's basically what the show amounts to ("BOO!", 5 minutes later "BOO!", 8 minutes later "BOO!"...tune in next week when..."BOO!"). You are given very little to contextualize what is going on & why, so the show leaves you bored and exhausted.

This was not the original promise of 'Ravenswood'. When the series was first teased on 'Pretty Little Liars'...Ravenswood was presented as a peculiar community inhabited by almost-Amish residents. They seemed to have a unique culture & were fearful of outsiders. You got the sense that whatever their secret was...they were all in-on-it in some way or another. As a viewer, you wanted "in" as well.

But then the series began, and Ravenswood was basically presented like any other podunk town - with mostly boring people, and a couple of creepy weirdos.

I wanted this show to succeed. But as it is executed, I believe it should be quietly brought to an end.