Emma Roberts’ book club strikes again. Fresh off the unfortunate cancellation of the V.E. Schwab adaptation First Kill on Netflix, the Belletrist founder is taking a sexy new adaptation to the screen with Tell Me Lies. And it couldn’t come at a better time, because with the conclusion of the After films coming up, the market is wide open for a new “beautiful young people in a toxic relationship” show.
Based on the novel by Carola Lovering, “Tell Me Lies follows a tumultuous but intoxicating relationship as it unfolds over the course of 8 years,” reads the Hulu series’ synopsis. “When Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White) meet at college, they are at that formative age when seemingly mundane choices lead the way to irrevocable consequences. Although their relationship begins like any typical campus romance, they quickly fall into an addictive entanglement that will permanently alter not only their lives, but the lives of everyone around them.”
The juicy tidbits dropped in the trailer are surely only the tip of the iceberg. First, there’s the mysterious tragedy that befalls one of her friends at a party when Lucy’s not there (the clips do a good job of making college parties feel unsafe and rife with tension). Then, there’s the fact that dreamy Stephen has a girlfriend while seducing Lucy. “It’s complicated,” he says, because of course it is.
Showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer promises that this toxic relationship show won’t be glorifying the relationship in question. Instead, she’s interested in “that feeling of isolation” that can occur when someone’s in a “mentally or emotionally abusive” situation. ”Tell Me Lies is an exploration of toxic relationships and the ways we undermine ourselves when we fall for the wrong people,” she tells Cosmopolitan. “When Lucy meets Stephen she sees all the red flags, but she ignores them—and it sets her down a path that completely derails her.”
The series also stars Branden Cook, Sonia Mena, Catherine Missal, Benjamin Wadsworth, and Alicia Crowder. Tell Me Lies premieres on Hulu September 7, 2022.