Ravenswood

I'll give it to ravenswood, the darker, dramatic themes and gripping lead (Tyler Blackburn) combined with the haunting setting of the dark and gloomy supernatural atmosphere, make this show not only entertaining but interesting as well. While this definitely is not the best show in the world, if you're a fan of pretty little liars and are down for something a bit darker, you should definitely check it out.

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!

Honestly, some of the people who write reviews for this show are just plain mean. They say "OMG I watched the pilot and it was so freaking horrible, I couldn't go on I had to stop!" blah blah blah blah! So freaking what? A lot of shows don't turn out so perfect at first. I didn't even like Pretty Little Liars when I first watched it but I gave it a shot anyway and now I'm probably one of the biggest fans of the show. Yeah, maybe it's not as good as it could have turned out, but it does get better. The acting might not be as good as Pretty Little Liars, but even they weren't as good as they are now! If you watched the Pilot of the show it was terrible, they had no chemistry and everything! But look at them now, they're just amazing. You have to give them some time to get used to each other. I love Ravenswood after watching the third episode because it really does get interesting. If you really don't like it, then maybe you're not into these type of shows. That's all I can say.

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.

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?