In the real world, it’s been two years since Tell Me Lies debuted on Hulu. But within the show, it hasn’t been long at all. For the college years, we’ve gone from May 2008 to September 2008, skipping only the summer break. For the 2015 engagement party, there was an even shorter ellipse, with the party still going at the top of Season 2. The series adaptation of Carola Lovering's best-selling novel condensed the core plot within Lucy’s freshman year, so this season is also charting its own course without the book as a roadmap to follow.
(Disney/Josh Stringer)
The puswas are back! Lucy (Grace Van Patten), Pippa (Sonia Mena), and Bree (Catherine Missal) reunite at Baird College for sophomore year, each returning with some unfinished business. Lucy and Pippa are forced to share space with their exes – Stephen (Jackson White) and Wrigley (Spencer House) – while Bree and Evan (Branden Cook) return somewhat on the rocks. And this year, they’ll all have to deal with Diana (Alicia Crowder), Steven’s on-again girlfriend, as Steven continues to do what he does best, manipulate everyone in his sphere.
Breaking format somewhat, this season jumps forward to 2015 more frequently than last season, which used Lucy and Stephen’s reunion at Bree and Evan’s engagement party as a flashback device, dropping its own twists in the finale. As this eight-episode season progresses, fans can expect more time jumps as Bree and Evan get closer to tying the knot. This somewhat unrestricts whatever future restraints viewers may feel on all the characters, as what felt like a fixed future can now be changed to some extent. In other words, the engagement party is no longer the finish line.
Season 1 of Tell Me Lies felt gripping. A major event from the first episode (the death of Lucy’s roommate, Macy) created a lot of tension for the characters that drove the story toward the finale, especially since some characters were covering things up. Season 2 has a less exciting hook – a few unexpected pairings in 2015 – that doesn’t give it the driving immediacy that kept viewers coming back week after week. What’s left is old relationship drama, plus some new ones that feel more like filler.
(Disney)
The show's title struggles to find new relevance at the top of Season 2, but by the fourth episode, all of the characters have something to lie about again. Several new characters are brought into the mix, starting with a new love interest for Lucy, Leo (Thomas Doherty, Descendants 2), who is not without his faults, but a polar opposite in many ways to Stephen. But the bigger guest cast announcement is Tom Ellis (Lucifer) as a Baird professor, the husband of one of Lucy’s teachers who begins an affair with one of her friends.
With some focus shifting away from Lucy and Stephen, Season 2 of Tell Me Lies is more of an ensemble piece. It deals with some heavy themes, although often in sensitive and thoughtful ways. It’s not quite the tone I was expecting coming off of Season 1, at times feeling like a heterosexual college version of Heartstopper (although a few characters’ sexuality are explored this season). Speaking of sex, intimacy is still a big part of the show, with some very steamy moments, although they often have less impact than the magnetism of Lucy and Stephen in Season 1.
Season 2 of Tell Me Lies takes patience to find its way. It eventually gets to a place that fans should enjoy, but it doesn’t quite feel like the show we all fell in love with in 2022. That being said, it is fun to watch it spread its wings and morph into something less beholden to the book.
I give Season 2 of Tell Me Lies 3 out of 5 Blackberry text alerts.
Tell Me Lies returns with a double-episode premiere on Wednesday, September 4th, only on Hulu, with individual episode releases on subsequent Wednesdays.