Stream It Or Skip It?
Tell Me Lies on Hulu seems like a soapy teen drama, but that description doesn’t properly do justice to how diabolical, stressful and addictively fun it is. The show’s central narrative is about the toxic relationship between college sophomore Lucy Albright and senior Stephen DeMarco. Their relationship is a cycle of passionate, hot sex that turns into manipulation, lies, and masochism. These two just can’t stay away from each other! This season picks up immediately after the events of season 2: spring semester of school has just begun and Lucy and Stephen are back together and in a good place, but you know it won’t last long, not with how these two operate.
TELL ME LIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: It’s 2015, and once again we’re at Bree (Cat Missal) and Evan’s (Branden Cook) wedding. For a little context, in the final moments of season two, Bree had just learned that her best friend Lucy (Grace van Patten) slept with Evan back in college. Lucy’s ex-boyfriend Stephen (Jackson White), who is perhaps the greatest agent of chaos in television history, left Bree a voicemail with this information moments before she was set to marry Evan. As season three begins, Lucy is frantically wondering where Stephen is.
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The Gist: Tell Me Lies takes place between two different timelines. One set in 2015, as our characters navigate young adulthood – this timeline moves slowly, taking place entirely over Bree and Evan’s wedding weekend. The other is in 2009, when our characters are still attending the fictional Baird College. Bree and Evan’s wedding is a convenient way for all of the main characters to reunite after several years apart and for new drama to unfold, as we then dip back into scenes from the past, when they were in school.
The show features an ensemble cast of college friends, but the main relationship is the toxic, codependent on-and-off romance between Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco. Last season, they spent most of the time hating each other and/or hate-f—ing each other; every time they’d have sex and become on-again, one of them would immediately manipulate the other, doing something so cruel and vindictive that they would immediately be off-again. At the moment (in 2015), Stephen is currently engaged to Lucy’s former best friend Lydia, but that didn’t stop Lucy and Stephen from having sex the night before Bree’s wedding during the season finale last year. Which is one reason why, in the episode’s first few moments, Lucy is searching for Stephen. She knows he’s done something to mess with her head.
The genius of the show is its time-jumping formula. Someone is always messing with someone else, but because of the time jumps and the way characters are allowed to develop, it’s often a surprise to see who is lying, cheating, or stabbing someone in the back. In this first episode, the expectation is that Bree will lash out at Lucy after learning for having slept with Evan, what actually happens is that Bree admits that she’s a horrible person. Why? What did she do? It’s not revealed yet, but obviously this is going to set up even more conflict and chaos this season.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Cruel Intentions walked so that Tell Me Lies could run. And the time-jumping element recalls the COVID-era Freeform hit Cruel Summer.
Our Take: Because Tell Me Lies Season 3 picks up right where we left off, certain storylines that you thought might have ended for good are still lingering in the background and causing their own kind of tension. Last season, Bree was having an extramarital affair with her married 45-year-old professor Oliver, (who, it turned out, was in an open marriage and his wife knew about it all), and this year, Oliver (played by Tom Ellis) still looms large in Bree’s life. We’re also slowly seeing the development of the relationship between Pippa (Sonia Mena) and Diana, who were initially adversaries in the first season, but in the 2015 timeline, are a couple. We’ve got a long road to walk to figure out how they got there, but season three has already started dropping hints about those romantic feelings.
To be honest, there’s a lot I genuinely dislike about this show; the manipulative behavior by everyone involved should be it’s own entry in the DSM V, and Jackson White in particular is so good at being cruel that I can’t think of a fictional character who stresses me out more than Stephen. The way the show weaponizes sex is also not always fun to watch, as nearly everyone uses everyone else as a pawn in some twisted relationship chess game with no end. And yet, the show is also undeniably addictive; the characters and their behaviors might be unlikeable, but with new lies and mysteries unfolding in every episode, there’s just enough there to get you to binge the whole thing. It’s almost like being in Lucy and Stephen’s relationship. I know it’s not good for me and it doesn’t feel great, but the heart wants what the heart wants.
Performance Worth Watching: Jackson White is the man you love to hate. His performance as Stephen is so diabolical and off-putting (I mean, I truly can’t understand what Lucy sees in him) that he sets the audience on edge any time he’s on the screen.
Sex And Skin: These college kids are having SO much sex.
Parting Shot: At the end of the season premiere, Bree (in 2015), having gotten over her moment of panic, walks down the aisle. When the minister asks her if she takes Evan to be her husband, Stephen shifts uneasily in his chair, and Lucy and Pippa seem to glow with happiness awaiting her response.
Sleeper Star: My favorite character to emerge on this show is Diana, played by Alicia Crowder. Last season, she proved that she’s actually a stealth manipulator, able to even outwit Stephen, and this season she brings a voice of reason to the group, unafraid to call out everyone’s toxic behavior, while secretly honing her own toxic traits.
Most Pilot-y Line: “I just really feel like things are going to be different this time,” Lucy (from 2009) says when she explains to her friend Bree that she and Stephen are getting back together. In the history of the world, no one has ever said anything more delusional or misguided.
Our Call: Watching Tell Me Lies feels almost like being in Lucy and Stephen’s relationship. I know it’s not what I need in my life and it doesn’t feel great, but the heart wants what the heart wants. STREAM IT!
How To Watch Tell Me Lies
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Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
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