The Lying Game (ABC Family) - Series Premiere: Synopsis and Review
ABC Family’s ‘The Lying Game’ premiered last night in the Mondays at 9/8c timeslot. The series is based on the novels of Sara Shepard, author of 'Pretty Little Liars'. The story of Emma and Sutton (both Alexandra Chundo, ‘As The World Turns’) is the following: Emma and Sutton are twins who were separated at birth (not to confuse with Daphne and Bay from ‘Switched At Birth’, also ABC Family). They’ve been raised by two different foster families; Sutton leads a very luxury life and has many friends, while Emma lives with her foster mom and foster brother who are quite poor. Only recently, they found out that they have twin sisters, and have started emailing and video chatting with each other. Emma’s foster brother is constantly hitting on her, and when she rejects him for the hundredth time, he sets her up, making their foster mother believe Emma stole money from her.
Emma runs away from home, and for she has nowhere else to go, turns to Sutton. Sutton has been trying to find out who their biological parents are, and has a lead in Los Angeles (where Emma lives). Therefore, Sutton convinces Emma to trade lives. This obviously leads to situations where Emma has no idea what Sutton’s life is like. Surprisingly, everything goes reasonably smooth while she is living Sutton’s life. However, just before Sutton and Emma are supposed to switch back, Sutton’s secret boyfriend finds out that it is Emma and not Sutton. Then, Sutton doesn’t show up at the arranged meeting place. And on top of that, someone broke into Sutton’s room.
The plot of the series isn’t all that bad, although variations of this ‘The Parent Trap’ story have been used many times. However, by the means it is written you just know it is intended for 16-year-old girls. Apart from that, Chando’s acting isn’t that overwhelming. It can’t be easy, though, to play a double role, especially if the one pretends to be the other, but she just isn’t convincing enough. Since she originates from ‘As The World Turns’, it might not be reasonable to expect better than that anyway.
‘The Lying Game’ is not a show I would recommend watching to anyone, unless to teenage girls who are intrigued by the idea of discovering you’re twins and were separated when you were born.
What do you think of 'The Lying Game'?
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