Sorority Forever’s Secrets Intrigue

It’s hard to review a mystery in progress — can you really judge the set-up without knowing the payoff? But with Sorority Forever, the new series from Prom Queen creators Big Fantastic (and produced by Warner Bros. and McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision), there are enough hints to guess at greater mysteries to come.

The first episode sets up the strong primary conflict: As a new pledge for the elite Phi Pi Kappa, Julie (LonelyGirl15’s Jessica Rose, whose new blond locks really wash her out) is allegedly one of the luckiest girls on campus. Except that Julie doesn’t even want to pledge; her mother has made it a condition of her college education. Thus right from the beginning, Julie doesn’t fit in — but she isn’t the only thing that’s strange about Phi Pi Kappa. The episode ends with a lingering close-up of a deep red basement door — which will, of course, remain unopened for quite some time, as the mystery slowly unfolds.

At first the series — the first 10 episodes of which were made available for review — lacks momentum, focusing on the tropes of the new-girls-pledging-a-sorority narrative perfected by 80s horror flicks (although there is a notable lack of pillow fights). But Julie’s attempts to rebel against the sisterhood promise greater consequences down the line, and once boys start getting involved, the drama becomes even more complicated.

Rose keeps the character of Julie likable despite an intensely negative outlook, and the sorority-focused material is as catty as one could hope for (a house meeting in Episode 5 is concluded with a classic statement of sisterhood: “Now hit the gym — no one likes a fat girl.”) However, Julie’s fellow pledges fail to show much personality, and Bridget, the Phi Pi Kappa president, has yet to reveal a softer side.

There are moments when the series plays like an engaging teen soap, and moments that feel like the first act of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode — especially as later episodes reveal that Jessica Rose’s character might have gotten tangled up with yet another creepy cult. By the end of episode 10, there are some interesting character revelations, especially in regards to Julie’s would-be paramour Joaquin (Joaquin Pastor), but so far, it’s hard to know where things are going to go. I guess this is the pace at which you can work when you have 50 episodes. The real mystery is, will the MySpace audience stay interested?