One of Us Is Lying
2021
Original language: English
- drama
- mystery
The story
The story of what happens when five high schoolers walk into detention and only four make it out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.
What it’s like
Bright, cluttered high school interiors give way to dim, moody corners: lockers, a detention room under flat fluorescent light, and rain-streaked evenings that turn the campus cold and blue. The camera stays close and handheld in group scenes, cutting quickly between faces as suspicion ripples through the cast, while quieter two-shots linger on confessions and glances. The score leans on pulsing synth and tense, sparse strings, with pop-inflected needle drops in the school-hallway scenes. The vibe is glossy teen soap with a murder-mystery undertow, pitched between breezy and uneasy. It suits a binge night with friends or a rainy weekend when you want a twisty whodunit that never gets too dark. Pacing is brisk, with a cliffhanger almost every episode. The emotional register is dramatic and heated, centred on teenagers keeping secrets, including a sapphic romance threaded through the group, and their slow, sometimes painful honesty with each other. Violence is present but mostly offscreen or implied, with a death that drives the mystery and some tense confrontations; no gore, light sexual content. For viewers who like teen drama with LGBTQ+ storylines and a puzzle they can chase.
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