TV Review: ABC Family’s ‘The Lying Game’ Features Future Star Alexandra Chando

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CHICAGOABC Family’s “The Lying Game” is a so-so soap but it’s elevated beyond that by a young lady with the kind of screen presence that virtually announces that she will be a star. There’s nothing you can do or say about it. It’s just going to happen. The actress in question is the talented Alexandra Chando, a former daytime soap opera star given the chance to reach a wider audience with the premiere of tonight’s young adult mystery/melodrama.

HollywoodChicago.com TV Rating: 3.5/5.0
TV Rating: 3.5/5.0

In an unusual case of TV timing, “The Lying Game” plays not unlike a younger sibling of the highly-promoted CW fall series “Ringer” with Sarah Michelle Gellar (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). The pilot we’ve seen for “Ringer” may be fine-tuned and improved upon before our final review but, for now, “The Lying Game” is actually the superior show. It’s smarter, more cleverly paced, and features a stronger central performance. While both shows may be about identical twins, they’re not the same in quality.

The Lying Game
The Lying Game
Photo credit: ABC Family

Working from a novel by Sara Shepard produced the young adult-driven melodrama that is currently putting ABC Family on the map (“Pretty Little Liars”), so why not return to the same well? Shepard also wrote the source material for “The Lying Game,” another piece that weaves typical teen girl social issues around a more mysterious plotline involving deception by the people every teen knows to fear — their parents.

The Lying Game
The Lying Game
Photo credit: ABC Family

Chando (a daytime Emmy nominee for “As the World Turns”) stars as both Sutton and Emma. At the open of the show, the twins have just discovered each other but suspect something very mysterious about why they didn’t know they had a doppelganger before. Sutton ended up with the rich family and became a sometimes-bratty social climber, living with the beautiful people while navigating a very-complex romantic life. On other end of the spectrum, Emma became a problem of the foster care system, bouncing around to the point where she has to run from the cops after being framed by her foster brother in the premiere. Both girls want to know more about their past and suspect that their being put up for adoption was more than just what’s on the surface.

With nowhere else to go, Emma ends up on Sutton’s doorstep and the socialite hatches a plan. Emma can take her place for a few days while she follows some leads about their birth parents in Los Angeles. All Emma has to do is pretend to be Sutton. The poor girl gets to live in the rich girl’s shoes and, by the end of the weekend, all of their questions will be answered. Naturally, it’s not that simple and things get particularly complicated when Sutton doesn’t return as scheduled. How long can Emma pretend to be Sutton?

Chando is charming and fun in both roles, wonderfully distinguishing the bratty Sutton from the sweet Emma to the point where she conveys to the audience the differences in a dramatically successful way. If a lesser actress hadn’t distinguished the parts as completely, the drama of seeing Emma pretend to be Sutton, a crucial part of the plot, wouldn’t work. Chando is the kind of young lady that one could easily see transitioning from here to a more high-profile show and eventually to film. Keep an eye on her.

Naturally, with one actress playing two roles of such significance in the premiere, the supporting cast takes a back seat for now. It’s hard to tell for sure, but they seem a bit generic. Hopefully, one or two will stand out as the show progresses.

It would also help if the writers of “The Lying Game” fine-tuned their ear for a dialogue a bit. Like a lot of young adult fiction, everything in “The Lying Game” is on-the-nose as each character perfectly expresses what they’re thinking and what they need at any given moment. Of course, subtlety should not be an expected strong suit of a show like “The Lying Game,” but this show is so much better than it should be that if the writers could put a bit more effort into it then they could have something really special beyond their very-special lead.

“The Lying Game” stars Alexandra Chando, Andy Buckley, Helen Slater, Blair Redford, Sharon Pierre-Louis, Kirsten Prout, Alice Greczyn, Allie Gonino, and Adrian Pasdar. It premieres on ABC Family on Monday, August 15th at 8pm CST.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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