Hair says a lot about a man’s age.  Hair color, density, style, or lack of hair all together play a part in how old you look to other people.  Let’s refer back to Rob Lowe as an example.  Rob is not the only famous actor in his family, he has a younger brother named Chad Lowe.  In a flashback to the 80′s, the two brothers are pictured below enjoying their youthful good looks.

Now flash forward back to 2011, as time went on Rob was able to maintain his hair density and appearance for a younger look, while Chad was not. Even though Chad is 4 years younger than Rob, his receding and thinning hairline make him look like the older brother.

We all love Chad and we don’t mean to pick on him, but how can Chad go back to looking like the younger brother? Is there any hope he can regain a more youthful appearance? The good news is absolutely with new hair restoration technology and surgical procedures.

Irvine, California hair restoration surgeon, Dr. Ken Williams of OC Hair Restoration Center, recommends “that Chad thinks about surgically restoring his frontal hairline, temporal points, and anterior forelock.”  He adds, “Chad is a young active male. He would have a better experience  and outcome with the “no scar hair loss surgery” called FUE using the NeoGraft device. Outside of surgical restoration he also needs to have a daily medical hair restoration program using Rogaine, Finasteride, and  Laser Cap therapy.”

Hair loss speaks for itself. Don’t allow yourself to lose that youthful look or appear older than your older brother.

The lies worsen as we get older.  We look for excuses behind why we brought home a bad grade, or why we were accused of cheating.  Perhaps some of us were really devious and were looking for the perfect fib when our parents caught us sneaking out the window late at night.  Oh, don’t worry; I never did this, Mom and Dad.   

Regardless, everyone lies – which brings me to today’s Why It’s Worth a Watch Wednesday show – ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars, where lies haunt from beyond the grave.

The series begins when Alison DiLaurentis’ (Sasha Pieterse) remains are found a year after her mysterious disappearance in the fictional town of Rosewood.  This event brings together her four former best friends, who had drifted apart following that fateful night.  Alison was the glue that held the girls together, the leader of the high school clique.  As the episodes progress, viewers see Alison’s viciousness and many of the secrets that she holds over everyone’s heads – not a nice girl.

After attending Alison’s funeral, the four friends reunite outside the chapel when each of their cell phones sound – they’ve received their first threatening text message from “A” – and the mystery begins: Who killed Alison? And, who is “A”?

BFF #1 – Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) returns home from a year abroad with her family, and forgetting she’s a teenager and back in America, goes to a local bar where she meets Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding).  The two immediately hit it off and share a kiss after connecting over their love for literature.  The next day at school, Aria walks into English class where she discovers Ezra is also her teacher. 

Meanwhile, emotions erupt at home when her mother (Ella Montgomery, played by Holly Marie Combs) leaves her father after discovering the true reason behind the family’s extended absence from Rosewood – Aria’s father, a professor, had an affair with a teaching assistant at the local college.  Aria and Alison knew this secret, having spotted Mr. Montgomery (Chad Lowe) making out with his TA in his car.  Whoopsie! 

Isn’t it ironic that Aria now begins a torrid love affair and dates her teacher after torturing her father for a similar inappropriate relationship?  “A” won’t let Aria forget it…..

BFF #2 – Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson) replaced Alison as the most popular girl in school following her friend’s disappearance.  “Hefty Hanna”, as Alison liked to call her, dropped her baby fat, partnered with her new BFF Mona and took to a life of brattiness and shoplifting. 

Hanna lacks the self-confidence a young woman needs, having watched her father walk out on her and her mother.  She spirals out of control, throwing herself at her boyfriend, only to be rejected.  Not helping matters, Hanna watches as her single mother (Ashley Marin, played by Laura Leighton) bails her out of trouble by bedding the detective on Hanna’s shoplifting case. 

Hanna really has the worst of luck – she wrecks her boyfriend’s car, and she is run-over when she gets dangerously close to discovering “A’s” identity.  When Mona throws her a surprise “glad you’re alive party,” someone steals all of the money (assumedly “A”) that Hanna’s mother stole from a client at the bank.  And, while following “A’s” sordid trail back to the money, Hanna falls for the wrong boy who happens to be feeding information to the girls’ nemesis, Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok).

BFF #3 – Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) is the poor-little-rich-girl of the bunch.  Her successful parents push Spencer to be the absolute best, much like they did with her older sister Melissa.  Spencer is brilliant, but plays second fiddle to her sister, always aware that her parents favor her.  To retaliate, Spencer kisses her sister’s boyfriend (Ian Thomas) and then later kisses her new fiancé.  Matters get worse for Spencer when Melissa surprises the Hastings family by abruptly marrying Ian right after calling off her previous engagement. 

Spencer begins to investigate her new brother-in-law, and slowly uncovers an affair between Ian and Alison before Alison’s disappearance.  As she continues to investigate, Spencer believes that Ian not only stalked her best friend, but also killed her, causing the rift between Spencer and her sister to intensify. 

Now a suspect herself in Alison’s murder, Spencer befriends Toby Cavanaugh who also happened to serve time in jail briefly as the main suspect in Alison’s death.  Did I mention that Toby is also the half-brother of Jenna?  Toby knows just how deceiving and manipulative his sister can be….is Jenna “A”?    

BFF #4 – Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) is the daughter of a military father always away on assignment who is confused with her own sexuality.  She starts the series with a boyfriend, but then falls for the new girl, Maya sending her mother (Nia Peeples) into a tailspin.  Making even more of a splash, Emily takes Toby to the homecoming dance as her date trying to hide the fact that she’s gay.  The fact that Emily doesn’t totally believe in Toby’s innocence, like the rest of the town, leads to a dangerous encounter. 

After accepting that she was a homosexual, Emily is devastated when Maya is sent away to military school after marijuana is found inside Maya’s back pack.  Emily turns back to her swimming career and begins having feelings for her competition and swim-mate. 

Emily’s world continues to turn upside down when her mother announces that they’re leaving Rosewood to live with her father, who is stationed in Texas.  Meanwhile, Emily holds the key to the photo evidence Spencer uncovered of Ian and Alison on her home computer, which conveniently gets erased when the realtor shows the Fields’ house. 

And the text messaging begins...."A"

Obviously, each of the teens have oodles of conflict surrounding them, even without “A” threatening their every move.  Throw in the suspicions the police and their parents have regarding their involvement in Alison’s murder, and the lies they continuously try to hide despite “A’s” best efforts, Pretty Little Liars doesn’t bore their viewers – they have twists and turns week in and week out.    

I give the girls & the mystery behind Pretty Little Liars another MacTV rating – despite the fact that I’m in my thirties, I tune in every single week to watch these little teenagers scurry around playing detective trying their best to solve their BFF’s murder and discover the true identity of the creepy texter known only as “A” who anticipates their every move. 

Do you watch Pretty Little Liars or is the show too young for you?  What do you think of the mystery – have you figured out the identity of “A” or who killed Alison?  Which of the girls do you relate to the most – Aria, Spencer, Hanna, Emily, Alison, or the outcast Jenna?  I’d love to hear from you!  

Now it’s time to click over and read Amber’s post discussing the new ABC Family series The Nine Lives of Chloe King based on the young adult series written by Celia Thompson (also known as Liz Braswell). 

Remember to stop by the Twitter hashtag (#watchwed) and visit with us about today’s posts and any of today’s television shows that you’d like to see discussed on our series in the future.  Next week we swap channels and move over to TNT where we’ll discuss Franklin & Bash and Men of a Certain Age.

Did you know that Chad Lowe was a up-and-coming director? Well, he is! For those who forgot, he plays Aria’s dad, Byron Montgomery, on PLL! They recently spilled some deets and I remember seeing Lucy Hale say something about him directing episode 10…… yay! He is said to be an awesome director! We shall see!!!

What do you think of Chad Lowe directing? COMMENT!

–A(dmin)

The first thing I did this morning around 8am when I woke up was to open my computer and Google the 1999 movie called Floating, starring Norman Reedus and Chad Lowe.  (You may remember Chad Lowe as Rob Lowe’s younger brother and as the guy that was married to Hilary Swank for a time.)  I was able to watch the movie in full on Youtube, and the quality was not terrible.

We all know Norman Reedus as Murphy MacManus from The Boondock Saints.  Here, he plays Van, a young man whose father lost his legs in a car accident, causing his mother to leave their family and take all of their money.  Van and his father are broke, and are forced to move from a beautiful, large lake house to smaller shack-like house across the lake.  Their old lake house has been on the market for quite some time.

Van can no longer afford to attend college, so he spends all of his time at home, taking care of his father.  Summer has just begun and people are starting to vacation around the lake, and his friends are returning from college.  However, they seemed to have moved on without him.

One day Van notices that his former home, the large lake house, has sold.  Soon after, he meets a boy named Doug (Chad Lowe), who is home from college for the summer.  Van finds out that it was Doug’s family that bought the house.

Doug and Van have one thing in common:  they are both competitive swimmers (although Van no longer competes).  Doug is on the swim team at college, and his father is the coach.  We learn later that his father is extremely hard on Doug, and he is never satisfied with anything that Doug does.

Van and Doug forge a bond, perhaps realizing that both of their respective fathers control their lives in different ways.  Van finds out that Doug is gay, but is fine with it.  They both decide that they are fed up with their fathers and their lives, and decide to run away and start over.  The problem is that they have no money.  Van offers up some of his father’s collectibles, but they must make it look like a robbery; these collectibles are valued at over $15,000.  After a confrontation with his father before the planned robbery, Van begins to feel guilty and decides that they will steal from a different house.

On the night of the robbery, everything goes wrong.  The alarm goes off in the house, and the police arrive promptly.  Van grabs Doug and they run to the lake.  They swim to a floating dock.  Now, I’m not sure if it was because he had been drinking, but Doug struggles.  They duck under the dock to hide from the police, but Doug ends up sinking, and Van can’t hold onto him.  That night, Doug drowns.

The next day, after Van is escorted home by the police, he is standing on the porch of his modest home with his father.  His father wheels himself out onto the porch with his son.  For the first time, Van’s father is there to emotionally support him (rather than vice versa) and hugs his son.

It was a pretty terrible movie.  I’m going to be honest:  I watched it because I knew there was a whole lot of Norman Reedus in it.  And how.  I would not recommend this to anyone unless they were a die-hard Norman Reedus or Chad Lowe fan.  Otherwise, the acting and the story are pretty weak.

They're floating.

Edit:  I just found that Norman Reedus starred in Lady Gaga’s latest video for “Judas”.  Yeah, I watched it.  NBD.  I’m not going to watch it obsessively or anything like that.  Whatever.  Pshaw.

The Secret’s Out for Teen Choice Summer TV Award Winner with

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS:
THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

Contains All 22 Episodes of the First Season,
Plus Never-Before-Seen Bonus Features!

The DVD Debuts June 7, 2011, In Time for the Season Two
Premiere This Summer on ABC Family

BURBANK, CA (February 17, 2011) – One of basic cable’s top-rated shows of all time with Tweens and Teens makes its DVD debut on June 7 with Pretty Little Liars: The Complete First Season, from Warner Home Video. Pretty Little Liars (Mondays 8/7c on ABC Family) stars Troian Bellisario (JAG), Ashley Benson (Eastwick), Holly Marie Combs (Charmed), Lucy Hale (Privileged), Ian Harding (NCIS: Los Angeles), Bianca Lawson (The Vampire Diaries), Laura Leighton (Melrose Place), Chad Lowe (24, ER), Shay Mitchell (Rookie Blue) and Sasha Pieterse (Without a Trace). The five-disc set contains all 22 episodes of the first season, plus never-before-seen bonus features, including three never-before-seen featurettes and deleted scenes. Pretty Little Liars: The Complete First Season is priced to own at $59.98 SRP.

When their best friend Alison mysteriously vanishes, four girls believe their secrets are safe forever. But when they begin to receive threatening messages from someone named “A,” the truth may be only one text away. Filled with mystery, scandal, intrigue and nail-biting suspense, Pretty Little Liars is based on the bestselling book series for young adults by Sara Shepard from Alloy Entertainment. Set one year after the disappearance of Alison, the manipulative and vindictive queen bee, it revolves around her four girlfriends – Aria, Emily, Spencer and Hanna – who have lost touch with one another until each begins to receive mysterious messages suggesting that Alison is watching them and knows every secret they are desperate to keep. Even after Alison’s body is discovered, the messages don’t stop…

The Season One series premiere ranked as ABC Family’s best all-time series debut in seven demos. The Season One, Part Two premiere on 1/3/11 drew 4.2 million viewers, posting series highs in total viewers as well as all key demographics. It was ABC Family’s No. 2 telecast ever in Women 18-34 and Females 12-34.

Based on the series of books by Sara Shepard, Pretty Little Liars is from Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television. The executive producers are I. Marlene King (Now and Then), Oliver Goldstick (Ugly Betty), Leslie Morgenstein (Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries) and Bob Levy (Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries).

DVD BONUS FEATURES:

• Pretty Little Liars: Two Truths and a Lie – Discover some fun facts and fictional fallacies about the cast of Pretty Little Liars
• It All Started with a Little Lie: Making Pretty Little Liars – Discover how the pages and characters of Sara Shepard’s novel became this can’t miss TV series
• Little Secrets from the Set – Catch up with the cast and crew of summer’s hottest show as they bring us several juicy behind-the-scenes secrets from the Pretty Little Liars set
• Deleted Scenes

22 ONE-HOUR EPISODES:

1. Pilot
2. The Jenna Thing
3. To Kill a Mocking Girl
4. Can You Hear Me Now?
5. Reality Bites Me
6. There’s No Place Like Homecoming
7. The Homecoming Hangover
8. Please, Do Talk About Me When I’m Gone
9. The Perfect Storm
10. Keep Your Friends Close
11. Moments Later
12. Salt Meets Wound
13. Know Your Frenemies
14. Careful What U Wish 4
15. If At First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again
16. Je Suis Une Amie
17. The New Normal
18. The Badass Seed
19. A Person of Interest
20. Someone to Watch Over Me
21. Monsters in the End
22. For Whom The Bell Tolls

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
Street Date: June 7, 2011
Running Time: Feature: Approx 968 minutes, EC runtime approx 45 minutes
Price: $59.98 SRP
5 DVDs
Audio – English (5.1)
Subtitles – English SDH, French
Presented in 16×9 Aspect Ratio

About Warner Home Video
With operations in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, a division of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.

It’s not exactly Biebermania, but the sidewalk over the next few hours will fill with people like that first young woman: fans of the television show Pretty Little Liars, the stars of which are in Toronto for an appearance on the music station. The series, which is in its second season, has been a decent hit for the ABC Family channel in the United States, but a flat-out smash in Canada. It is the top-rated show on MuchMusic, and scores as well with teen and young adult viewers as any series on cable. So, what’s the deal with it? Herewith, a guide, so you can impress your teenage niece. Or the babysitter. Or the colleague willing to admit to a guilty pleasure, and who just wants someone they can talk to about it. Quietly, when others aren’t looking.

Liars, huh? What’s the concept?

The series, unique for a teen drama, revolves around a central mystery: the disappearance of Alison, who was the chief bitch in a clique of five friends in a richie-rich enclave. Alison is gone, but the remaining four girls receive messages from someone identified only as “A,” who could be Alison, or could be the person who killed her. Or who could just be a neutral third party hell-bent on making life difficult for our four heroes. Whoever it is, they possess a remarkable ability to blend in unnoticed. Can we rule out a shape-shifter? I say no. The show is based on books by author Sara Shepard.

Don’t the books give away the plot?

Possibly. “The characters are exactly the same,” explains Troian Bellisario, who plays Spencer. “The writers stick to the personalities of the girls in the books, but at the same time they will change some details here and there so that the superfans — the people who have read all the books already — will have a bit of a surprise.” So maybe “A” will turn out to be different in the series than in the book. Or maybe it’s the same, in which case the fans who go on the MuchMusic website and post comments that give away the ending will really have earned the multi-exclamation-point wrath that they tend to provoke.

So, it’s a teen drama, but is it a “controversial” teen drama? That seems to be all the rage.

Not really. While a show like Skins is in-your-face with its realism, Pretty Little Liars is fairly obviously not. The stars are all in their twenties, for one; if the setting wasn’t a high school you’d never imagine them to be students. The plotting also requires a considerable suspension of disbelief — this “A” person is both omniscient and omnipresent — and yet there are moments that veer toward important social issues, such as when Emily, played by Canadian Shay Mitchell, becomes involved with another girl and is a victim of bullying. It’s the kind of plotline that no doubt gets the Parents Television Council in a lather, as would the relationship between Aria (Lucy Hale) and one of her teachers. The couple are treated like star-crossed lovers, but in most states such a thing is known as statutory rape.

Why so popular?

To start, the title isn’t wrong: this is one highly attractive cast. That certainly helps the ratings. But the show also teases out the mystery bit by bit. Through 15 episodes, various ancillary characters are presented as the possible puppet-master before the plot changes tack and heads somewhere else. Thus, the eerie slasher-film-style musical score is employed liberally and most episodes end with a cliffhanger of some sort: the actresses must spend a lot of time practising their shocked face. Bellisario thinks teens like the show because it treats them as young adults. “They like the same things as us, so that’s why when 30-year-old women or 40-year-old men come up to me and they say” — she lowers her voice here — “ ‘I like your show,’ it’s because we still like the same things we liked when we were 13 years old. Everybody loves a mystery and camp and funny things.” Adds Hale: “And naughty girls.”

Sorry, did you say 40-year-old men?

Quite. “When we meet our fans, it’s such a different range of people,” says Ashley Benson, who plays Hanna. “I was in Atlanta, and these men who were probably 60 years old came up to me to ask about show.” Hale again provides the kicker: “Creepy, but cool,” she laughs. Benson also notes that the actors who play their parents “are people that our parents watched on TV.” Ashley’s mom, for example, is played by Laura Leighton, who was crazy Sydney on Melrose Place. Aria’s mom is played by Holly Marie Combs, who was on Picket Fences. Aria’s father is played by Chad Lowe, who once was totally snubbed by his wife at the Oscars. Oh, and who was also on Melrose Place.

• Pretty Little Liars airs at 8 p.m. on MuchMusic. Repeats run throughout the week. And on the laptops of young viewers at all hours. And probably on their smartphones. Our advice: check the bills.