Entertainment

Not just another ‘Pretty’ face

If you are already addicted to Sara Shepherd’s “Pretty Little Liars” young adult novels, have I got a show you’ll love.

If you are a parent of someone addicted to Sara Shepherd’s “Pretty Little Liars” young adult novels, have I got a show you will probably hate.

For the same reason your daughter will likely fall for this pretty little silly show, you will want to keep her away from it. I mean, it’s hard to believe that just last year, all she wanted was an American Girl doll — and now this!?!

Pretty Little Liars” revolves around four 16-year-old friends who have become estranged since the fifth in their group went missing exactly a year ago to the day of the series opener. On that anniversary, each of the girls — some of whom look old enough to be their own mothers — gets a text on her phone and/or a letter in her locker from someone named “A.”

Is “A” — aka Alison (Sasha Pieterse) — dead and writing from beyond the wireless grave? Or did she just run away on the night all the girls were having a sleepover — and stay disappeared for a full year — just to mess with their heads? Right.

So why will you hate it? For all the same reasons you probably love “Desperate Housewives.”

Within the first 15 minutes, the following takes place:

* Underage Aria (Lucy Hale) fools around with her new English teacher.

* 16-year-old Hanna (Ashley Benson) steals designer glasses from the mall.

* Spencer (Troian Bellisario) gets a bikini massage from her older sister’s fiancé.

* And Emily (Shay Mitchell) smokes weed and toys with having her first lesbian experience with the new girl in the group, Maya (Bianca Lawson).

So no, “Pretty Little Liars” isn’t exactly “Little House on the Prairie.” It’s more a melding of “Housewives,” “Gossip Girl” and “Twilight” — even though it’s on ABC dysfunctional Family.

OK, so we’ve established that there is no socially redeeming value in this series and that your kids shouldn’t watch it if they are too young and impressionable. But if you can distract them enough to miss the first 15 minutes, the show isn’t half-bad. Actually, it is half-good, if that makes sense.

The ridiculously expensive wardrobes, the fabulous hair and makeup, plus a high school with not a single fatty is well, yes, the stuff of teen fantasy.

And that is exactly what “Pretty Little Liars” is: a glamorous, spooky, adolescent fantasy.