Thank god for silly teen TV. In this entertainment landscape overpopulated with shows that interrogate, illuminate, take down, and otherwise dialogue with important topics, a straightforward drama-fest where high school sucks and everyone is terrible is just what the doctor ordered. One Of Us Is Lying is one of those fests.
Based on the bestselling YA novel of the same name by Karen M. McManus, it’s a show that is fully aware of every trope in the high school yearbook and shrugs, “These are fine.” There’s no hand-wringing about pigeonholing the pretty blonde girl as a popular, bitchy cheerleader. Nor does anyone feel the need to dive too deeply into the smart, uptight, Yale-bound brunette with a ponytail. The school’s bad boy has a difficult home life but secretly harbors a heart of gold. Then there’s also the cliche of the gay jock who is in the closet. The only off-kilter character is the weird kid, who is basically Gossip Girl with his own rumor-spewing app. But his place in the high school hierarchy is made grimly irrelevant from a truly cold cold-open
One Of Us Is Lying takes these five stock characters (a princess, a brain, a criminal, a jock, and a basket case, for those paying attention to the not-at-all veiled homage to legendary trope-wielder John Hughes) and sticks them all in afterschool detention. But only four of them make it out alive. The stiff is Weird Kid/Gossip Boy Simon Kelleher (Mark McKenna), who drinks from a peanut oil–laced cup, activating a deadly allergy. The four other students become the prime suspects in his murder. Though they have nothing in common, they must band together-ish to either clear their names or get away with homicide.
First, a moment to talk about Simon Kelleher. He’s a sterling example of one of this genre’s rarer conventions, in that he is a Grade-A rat bastard. Even though Simon doesn’t last past the opening titles, his appearance in memories outs him as a damage-dealing agent of chaos who has no discernable reason to be that awful — and yet persists. His gossip app, around which most of One Of Us Is Lying‘s twists revolve, is clearly a mean-spirited drama battery disguised as vigilante journalism, and Simon could not care less about those whom he socially maims. The student body may be totally indifferent to his death (that callous indifference is, perhaps unintentionally, the funniest part of this show). Yet viewers who love a villain will find that the other characters’ trauma flashbacks to Simon being heinous are a highlight of each episode.
Viewers who love a villain will find that the other characters’ trauma flashbacks to Simon being heinous are a highlight of each episode.
In the three episodes provided for review, One Of Us Is Lying tosses the hot potato of suspicion between the four surviving students with admirable dexterity. Cheerleader Abby Prentiss (Annalisa Cochrane) has a motive to kill Simon. Nerd Bronwyn Rojas (Marianly Tejada) was his academic rival. Drug dealer Nate Macauley (Cooper Van Grootel) just seems like the type, and athlete Cooper Clay (Chibuikem Uche) is…actually fine, he’s probably the least shifty of them all. Who is presumed guilty or innocent changes from moment to moment, but the backdrop for the show’s many twists in a middling soap opera.
The wide gap between the genuinely surprising murder plotline and the prescriptive high school drama separates each episode into a fun half and an okay half. In the fun half are the core four sniping at each other as the murder investigation proceeds, the aforementioned flashbacks to Simon’s foul little life, and the thrill of shifting suspicion. The okay half has Abby’s boyfriend problems, Bronwyn’s boyfriend problems, Cooper’s boyfriend problems, and Nate tragically falling through the cracks of California’s social services infrastructure.
It’s not a dealbreaker that the less murdery parts are boring, as there’s plenty of time for the two halves of the show to intertwine and get interesting. Plus, Peacock’s unusual release schedule, which drops three episodes at a time for three consecutive weeks, should encourage viewers to mini-binge their way to the fun part of each installment. For now, those who haven’t read the book are free to speculate: Who killed Simon Kelleher and what color medal do they deserve?
One Of Us Is Lying premieres on Peacock Oct 7.
