Acting Naturally

The late 1990s saw a glut of mostly forgettable teen movies come and go at the multiplex, but 1999’s “10 Things I Hate About You” managed to stand out. Transplanting Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” to a modern-day high school setting, it launched the careers of Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. And while those other teen flicks gather dust, “10 Things” has been granted new life as a TV series, with the chance to grab a new generation of fans.

The plot of the half-hour comedy, premiering at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ABC Family, is essentially unchanged: Sisters Kat and Bianca adjust to life at Padua High while living under the microscope of their loving but intrusive dad, played by Larry Miller, the lone holdover from the film. Lindsey Shaw stars as Kat, a rebel determined to show people she doesn’t care what they think, while Meaghan Martin is Bianca, who never met a popular person whose rump she didn’t kiss. The two would be content to just stay out of each other’s way, but their father has imposed the Shakespearean rule that Bianca cannot start dating until her older sister does.

This seems like a bad turn for Bianca until Kat finds herself drawn to a mysterious loner named Patrick Verona (Ethan Peck), who seems equally taken with her. Shaw (“Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide”) says that as Kat discovers new emotions within herself, she’s forced to re-examine her outlook on life.

“She runs into situations and people — especially with this boy — where she finds herself exposed more than she ever has been, and she realizes that those feelings that she never thought were there (are) surfacing,” Shaw says.

Calling herself a fan of the film, Shaw says she could always relate to Kat’s guardedness and the belief that she needed to put on a brave front. Slowly, she says, she has realized that revealing her vulnerability isn’t such a bad thing. On the flip side, she says co-star Martin (“Camp Rock”) is “an open book,” which makes her perfectly cast as Bianca.

Holding them together is Miller, who plays Walter Stratford much the same way he did in the film, as a single dad trying to come to grips with his daughters becoming young women.

“He’s a guy who just doesn’t understand why his life is changing,” Miller says. “He’s someone who cares deeply about his daughters, and he’s going to hold onto his life as rigidly as he can.”

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