Tell Me Lies, And Keep Telling Me!
Hulu’s 2022 original series Tell Me Lies is far from Fear The Walking Dead. Meaghan Oppenheimer returns to her roots as the lead creator, writer, producer, and envisioner of Hulu’s new Thirsty drama which was renewed for season two. With underlying hints of Gossip Girl, Cruel Summer, and One Of Us Is Lying, Tell Me Lies packs every unfortunate and shockingly captivating situation into this toxic friendship. The word toxic isn’t enough to insinuate the show's grasp on me these past few days. If you haven’t watched season 2, please be aware of the boiling tea being spilled.
We as an audience are constantly hanging on to this show’s twists and turns, which appear to be annoying yet somehow still grasp our attention. If you are interested in conflicting plots while handling the annoyance of each character's actions that lead to a shattering and equally annoying plot, this show is for you.
Tell Me Lies takes place at Baird College in upstate New York. The show follows a friend group that quickly gets influenced by jealousy, sexual tensions, secrets, and lies that not even the truth could save them. Lucy is an incoming freshman with trust issues due to her mother’s infidelity against her deceased father. One night, Lucy’s roommate, Macy, invites Lucy to a party not knowing that would be the last time they would see each other. Lucy finds out from the rest of their friend group that Macy died in a car accident on the way back from the party. You know that saying from Pretty Little Liars, “Friends share secrets, thats what keeps us close” (Allison Dillurentes)? Sometimes secrets bring out people’s truest forms.
Tell Me Lies, despite its graphicness, encapsulates the raw emotion of love turning into toxicity at its finest. This isn’t a real college experience, but it does show the emotions of teenagers, social class disparities, confusing love for lust, and the never-ending reminder of how messed up humans can be—specifically, Lucy and Stephen, the messed-up of them all. Or as I like to call the trigger and the psycho.
Lucy comes into the show as a semi-put-together freshman who chose to have a civil relationship with her mom’s affair while her father battled chemo. Trying to start fresh and as an academic weapon, Lucy is trapped in the movie of a lifetime. Unaware of Macy’s ongoing summer fling with Stephen, Lucy is introduced to the one person who understands her suffering. However, he comes with a catch: he is psychotic and manipulative. They instantly become inseparable and paranoid to others and each other. Trust becomes a weapon to get even or the base of their temporary forgiveness. Trust is the only rope tethering them to the sanity of their relationship.
Lucy is a disliked character for her possessiveness and obsession with Stephen which drives her to do insane things. Yet Lucy remains the victim, at least to me. She measures her self-worth by Stephen’s affection and validation of her. Given Stephen’s manipulation, Lucy hollowed out and left to fight the urge to fall back in with Stephen. Her ulterior motive is to get revenge for dropping her when he needed financial and career stability. They have both landed on opposing sides and Lucy attempts to save any girl who falls for his two-faced character; the kind that leaves you defenseless and completely dependent on his approval.
Stephen’s psychotic behavior is seen through his dreams and anxiety while he relives killing Macy in a car crash as well as his family's past. Season two brings Stephen back to Macy’s crash although this time with Lucy replacing him making him realize how utterly devoted she was enough to love him despite his wrongdoings. Lucy, who seems to have separated herself from her other Stephen persona, gives him a chance to observe his mind, and what psycho means. He is oblivious to his manipulation and transgresses when confronted with it. No matter how frustrated and manipulated I feel as a viewer, How do I still like this man enough to keep watching?
Did Stephen plan his sudden sympathy to parallel Lucy’s courageous growth after he could no longer latch onto his old girlfriend, Diana, who can not provide for him financially? Stephen seems to jump ship barely before everyone has time to get saved too. It’s concerning how Stephen believes his deceiving words and destruction will follow swiftly. What is it about Stephen and Lucy’s toxic attraction to each other that draws viewers into accepting their toxicity or at least tolerating it to watch the show? Do we as humans have a level of understanding against ideals that are damaging to us? Maybe we are all a little psychotic.