User Reviews

Season one has some beautiful actors and some fun twists. There are a lot of clichés...but I feel that was intentional and a real hat tip to John Hughes, the original and the best at teen angst-y drama films.

The story is about five kids who get detention on the first day of school, by the same teacher and all for unusual reasons. The five kids are a jock, a beauty, a brain, a drug dealer and the school rounder or narc. At the start of detention the narc ends up dying after having an allergic reaction to something in the water he drank. As it turns out all of the other kids have a reason to silence him, thus giving them potential motive to kill.

Lots of twists and turns, it becomes really hard to determine who is bad and who is good as everyone is keeping secrets and looking guilty. Really good mystery at the end of the day...that isn't resolved at the end of season one.

I can't wait to find out who really did it!

Don't get me wrong. The TV show had some good moments that they pulled from the book, and I realize why they changed some things (in order for it to work as a series). But overall, the show was really a subpar version of the book. I feel like the acting was not very believable from most of the cast. I feel like they revealed Cooper being gay WAY too early. That was a big reveal in the book about a third of the way through. I also think they totally got the casting wrong for Bronwyn. Not very believable. I also feel like Nate and Bronwyn's romance was a huge element of the book. And their characters playing them had no chemistry. And then them killing Jake and covering up his murder. Come on! Really? Oh well. Definitely read the book. It's way better.

I, personally, adored the book One Of Us Is Lying. It was suspenseful, kept you on the edge of your seat, and had that 'must read' feel, where you absolutely had to know what was going to happen next. While this book was a mystery, it was quite focused on the characters, with plot points sometimes being out of their control. This allowed the book to focus on what they thought, what they felt, who they were, and how they could get themselves out of the mess they were in. The show, however, is unable to meet any of the standards set by the book.

Like I said earlier, the book was mainly focused on the characters. Reading the book, you get to know everyone, from our main four to the side characters. The show is consistently fails on this front. From minor issues (the wardrobe of characters going completely against the majority of their character and characterisation, mainly noticeable in Nate and Bronwyn) to major personality changes, the characters don't quite seem like 3 dimensional people, and more like the archetypes that the book set out to subvert. I could talk for hours about this, but I'll try to be concise with a few examples.

Bronwyn - In the books, Bronwyn is smart, yes, but that is only a single facet of her personality. She's a bit snarky, knows who she is, and can be determined, even in the face of lots of stress. In the show, her character seems to be boiled down to simply a smart girl who had trouble in class and cheated a bit. She doesn't have much personality, and is far less compelling than the books.

Ashton - She was one of the biggest influencers in Addy's redemption arc. As Addy's older sister, she served as an example of what could go wrong by simply following their mother's plans, and had opinions about Addy and her life while still caring for her unconditionally. She was instrumental in Addy's breakup with Jake, encouraging her to tell him the truth, and then helping her reinvent herself after their ensuing breakup. She put the pressure on Addy to do better, to be herself, to reflect on what Jake was putting her through and whether or not that was healthy in any way. In the show, she does not exist, and I can't get over it.

Now, aside from the characters, the other main appeal of the book was the plot. It was enticing, confusing, and drew you in to the point where you had to know what happened next. The book revealed information in a very drawn out way, tugging on your imagination until finally flipping all your preconceptions on their heads. For example, Simon hasn't posted the week before his death. At all. No spoilers, none of that. Detention happens, he dies, and later, the police find the posts. In addition to that, the seeming confessions that plague our main four are not posted on About That, as that gives away far too much of the plot. No, they're posted on a non-descript tumblr blog, and emailed from a secure network anonymously to students. When the death happens, we don't think that it was necessarily a murder (well, aside from the entire book existing), simply just a mixup, a sordid accident that's no one's fault. When the secrets begin to come out, you're shocked, because it was unexpected - a twist that couldn't have reasonably been predicted. In the show, all of this suspense that builds with the revelations, and how they find their way into the world, is immediately cut off with Simon's earlier posts. It completely misses the point of the books, and prevents you from getting into them. If we can guess everyone's secrets from the offset, why bother watching? After all, we can guess what happens.

In other words, the show is a pale imitation of a brilliant book. Missing the point of the plot, missing the point of the characters, it seems to have been created as a cash grab with little-to-no appropriate knowledge of what happened in the book, or what made it great. While its not a bad series, I would say that reading the book is a far better idea if you're interested in a good story, compelling characters, or actual suspense. Still, I won't fault anyone for watching this - the premise is pretty classic, and echoes other stories that we know and love.

Not very accurate to the books but the casting is great and it has many plot twists which will make you want to watch it more and the ending was such a good plot twist.

I wasn't sure if this was going to keep me hook at first. But each episode just got better and better.

One of my new favorites and I can't wait to see who the killer is!

Hopefully there's a season 2.

If I was watching this without have read the books, then I know I would be giving this a higher rating. But, because I have read them, it's hard to move past the major changes. One of the main ones being the Maeve and Janae (before anyone jumps on me, no I'm not against lesbians) I just feel as though it's tried very hard to fit all the right standards of modern society, without realising that most of the second book is about Maeve and Luis. Amongst this claim, there are others that follow in regard to in diverting away from the original book. I will always choose the book first, but for what it's worth, the show is very enjoyable and I hope to see it somehow come back round to the books more and also for it to be able to get a second season.

One of Us Is Lying is the laziest written show I may have ever seen. I tried to give it a chance but the amount of changes were too drastic to handle. Not to mention they got rid of Louis, Ashton, and Eli.

The cast was awful. I didn't like any of them. Addy's character had no redemption since she just went back to her "controlling" boyfriend. Bronwyn honestly annoyed me and her acting was mediocre. Cooper had so much anger that never made sense. And Nate was just a huge disappointment. Not to mention the relationship between the four was disjointed.

Maeve and Janae were terrible as well.

I actually really liked Jake unlike in the book. He didn't seem controlling at all and have any capabilities of being a psychopath. This is where this show has a problem of telling not showing.

And that ending was awful. Jake getting shot and Simon didn't want to kill himself? I literally laughed out loud when the evidence was on an XBOX. Are you serious?! The book is genius compared to this awful show.

I believe they should remake this with actually using the book this time.

My question is: if there's a book out there with every bit of detail mapped out for you, then why don't you use it?