Having just read Karen McManus’ book last year, this series adaptation of One of Us is Lying came as a bit of a surprise! Really, I only knew about it roughly a month beforehand and that was only because my issue of Entertainment Weekly told me about it! But anyways, I was really interested to see how this story adapted to the screen, and luckily, it didn’t disappoint.
It all starts with a Breakfast Club type group of students in detention. After a little bit of a distraction, gossip king (and sort of life-destroyer) Simon drinks some water and dies of anaphylactic shock. What’s a little crazy to me is how the school automatically jumps to the conclusion that the other four students are the ones who killed Simon. But not too long after we learn that all of them definitely had motive. Even though Simon is dead, his drafted posts are still being released to the masses, so we learn that Addy cheated on her long-term boyfriend, Jake. We also learn that Nate sold drugs to a girl who overdosed, and that bookworm Bronwyn cheated on an AP chemistry test. Finally, we learn that Cooper dopes (but really, he doesn’t).
While at first the four team up and form a “murder club” to clear their name, it’s obvious that they are really struggling to trust each other. And I get it! They all think their secrets are bad enough that they had to be the killer. I mean, they make a pretty good case against Cooper when they find out that his real secret is that he’s gay. Who changed the post? What I liked most about this show is that just when they start to doubt each other something happens where they realize that they are all good people at their core.
Once Bronwyn’s sister starts getting involved in the sleuthing the list of potential suspects seems to grow exponentially. Seems like everyone’s got a secret to hide. If you pay attention early in the season, there’s an observation made that could lead to you figuring out who the real culprit behind Simon’s death was. Or you know, if you read the book, too. But ultimately it was really fun to see the amount of character growth over the course of the eight episode season, with Addy being a personal standout to me. I really enjoyed Nate, and unfortunately thought Bronwyn’s actress was a bit stiff, but they still definitely had chemistry.
I’ll be really interested to see if this gets picked up for another season and how closely it will follow the second book. The way this season ended I still think they’ll be focusing on our main quad of characters, but there’s definitely an opportunity to zero in on some secondary characters. Right now it seems like people are sleeping on this series, but I hope it gets a fair shake here soon.