Summary
Although Tell Me Lies doesn’t have the most interesting of starts, I recommend staying with the show. Once you get into the second episode, the show has started to find its stride, and it’d be a shame not to learn where it will take the characters throughout its ten episodes.
Exploring the darker side of love, Tell Me Lies is said to be a tale that follows college students Lucy and Stephen. With Lucy coming from a dysfunctional family, she’s happy to finally be able to spread her wings and get away from her overbearing mother. As for Stephen? He is confident and aware of the effect he has on women. And together, Lucy and Stephen seem destined to affect each other profoundly.
Sound good? In actual fact, the show is based on the 2018 novel of the same name that was written by Carola Lovering. And since a lot of people loved the book, it’s only natural that it would be made into a TV show before long. But does it do the book any justice?
Not straight away. In fact, had I not been reviewing the show and therefore required to watch the full series and recap each episode, I would have binned it off before the final credits even started to roll on the pilot episode. The first episode is slow, dry, and doesn’t have much to draw the interest of the audience. However, that soon changes, and after a juicy ending to the first episode, Tell Me Lies starts to prove that it can become just as twisty, toxic, and thrilling as the book was.
One standout of the show is the characters. Whether that’s Lucy, Stephen, or one of their many friends, they have many layers to them. As a result, some characters may be quick to hate and/or quick to love. But the show soon proves there is more to them than first meets the eye.
The switch between the timelines also does the show wonders, whilst focusing on the college timeline is great and likely more interesting. It is also fascinating to see the characters (albeit briefly) a few years later. Whilst the maturity in their personalities may be subtle, it’s interesting to see how the characters have changed in the eight-year time jump.
Not everything in the show is easy to watch. Unfortunately, it highlights the emotional damage that relationships can cause people. But the show is also quite sexy and thrilling. Many sex scenes highlight the toxic relationship between Lucy and Stephen. For that reason alone, I wouldn’t recommend watching this show with younger eyes.
Overall, Tell Me Lies may not start as the most thrilling show. But it soon grows into itself and becomes a thought-provoking watch.
