One Of Us Is Lying Season 2 Review: Leads the Viewer to Become Even More Attached to The Characters
Stars: Annalisa Cochrane, Chibuikem Uche, Marianly Tejada
Director: Michael Weaver, Shannon Kohli, Roxanne Benjamin
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
One of Us Is Lying Season 2, which has its roots in the best-selling novel of the same name by Karen M. McManus. The TV series debuted and ended in October 2021. About three months later, Peacock announced its return. The first season is about what happens when five high school students go through detention time together and only four of them make it out alive. Each of them is a suspect and has something to hide. The mystery is solved throughout the episodes and the season finale sets the stage for One of Us Is Lying Season 2, with Addy, Cooper, Bronwyn, Nate, and Janae receiving a message from a user who introduces himself as Simon Says (Simon says), who knows what happened to Jake:
One Of Us Is Lying Season 2 Review: The Story Plot
Janae, Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper, and Addy, where did we leave them? Let’s recap: in the last scenes of the season 1 finale, the so-called Bayview Murder Club was in the woods, at the Halloween party, in front of the dead body of Jake Riordan. The first season of the teen drama One of us is lying closes with a truth: we discover who killed Simon Kelleher. Simon was killed by childhood friend Jake, cheerleader Addy’s ex-boyfriend (if you want to refresh your ideas even better, here is the review of the first season). But Addy shoots Jake that night: in self-defense, sure, just that the drama for the Bayview kids has just begun.
Determined to help Addy get rid of her corpse, they prevent her from turning herself in thinking they can get away with it and have already been through too much to go to prison for a “monster” like Jake. But someone knows their secret: already from the first episode of the second season, the boys begin to receive mysterious text messages, simultaneously, from someone posing as Simon. The “Simon says” game begins and aims to torture the group: whoever is hiding behind these text messages wants justice for Jake and wants to find out which of the boys pulled the trigger. Getting to the bottom of it won’t be without cost. Intimidating text messages arriving simultaneously, blackmail, suspense: there are quite a few ingredients that make this cocktail a Rosewood-style mix!
If you have watched – and even loved – the Pretty Little Liars TV series, remember this won’t be difficult from the first viewing of the opening of this second season of One of us is lying. His name is not A, but the one who hides behind the nickname “Simon says” has all the connotations, perhaps even too many. The entire season revolves around the torment of the group of protagonists caused by a psychopathic stalker who wants revenge for Jake’s murder… But who? Who is “Simon Says” in Season 2 of One of Us Is Lying? We won’t reveal the name, because it would spoil the pleasure of watching a season that is all about this, built on a tense climax that leads to the final twist – and we’re not just talking about the identity of “Simon says”. But being so like another TV series, is it an advantage or a disadvantage?
One Of Us Is Lying Season 2 Review and Analysis
Let me be clear, One of Us Is Lying 2 certainly has its reason, at least in terms of characters: a young and attractive cast, where each performer is perfect for their role. Among these emerges Addy (Annalisa Cochrane), perhaps the character we see matures more within the story, but not only: all the characters face their demons, fight with them and come out winners, some more and some less. While Addy realizes she’s worth so much more than Jake led her to believe, Janae becomes aware of her gender identity, Nate and Bronwyn clarify their mutual feelings and Cooper lives his homosexuality without hiding anymore.
Still, too many details – if not the entire plot – take us back to the torments of Alison and the little liars of Rosewood: at times it’s almost embarrassing how much this second season seems copied from Pretty Little Liars. But deep down, anyone who loved the thrilling crime drama Pretty Little Liars would be lying if they didn’t admit they thought “wow, I want to watch a TV series again that keeps me so in suspense and makes me feel like a detective with every episode!”.
One of us is lying 2 grants the wish: he is inspired too much by the character of A (modus operandi, passion for information technology, mental disorders), but the result that emerges does not disappoint. In any case, an audience aware of what is happening on the screen is pleasantly captured by it, also due to the freshness of some details (the characters speak the language of Generation Z and reflect their mice). To answer the previous question, this strong similarity between his TV series can be a good advantage for One of Us Is Lying Season 2.
Whether there will be a third season of One of Us Is Lying becomes clear from the season finale — assuming and granted that the TV series doesn’t meet the same fate as many others canceled by Netflix. The premises are all there and the public is waiting for at least a couple of answers: we know that Jake was hiding a secret that his brother Cole seems to want to protect at all costs… But what is Jake’s secret? The same one that drove Jake to kill Simon, who knew about it. Also, who poisons “Simon says” while in prison and, more importantly, who owns the blood at the crime scene inside the Bayview High that we see in the very last scenes? We have a small clue, but One of Us Is Lying teaches us that appearances should never be trusted.
We have already mentioned one of these: the characters and the cast. The Crime Club is adorable, it’s true, but so are other supporting characters: Maeve and Vanessa, for example, this last big reveal of the season. Vanessa has all the attributes of the case: rich, blatantly sexy, bitch, but very determined and intelligent. Who would have thought? The work of the set designers and the MUA: speaking of Vanessa, did you realize how apt the reconstruction of her bedroom is? LED frame of the mega mirror and “no prob” writing Perfect.
And do we want to talk about makeup and wigs? This is one of the most pleasant aspects of this season: a bit like in Pretty Little Liars, even the protagonists of our Club Delitto Parade on the set. Everyone with his style denotes an emerging and contemporary personality. Addy’s and Kris’ make-up, with luminescent pigments, is what we all wish we could replicate at home. And what about the makeup of Addy and Janae at the gay party in the fifth episode? Spectacular. Representation of the LGBTQIA+ scene: like any self-respecting Netflix production, there is a lot of inclusiveness in this season of One of Us Is Lying, an important aspect of a TV series that speaks to the new generations.
The brief incipit of this second season is enough to frame the events, situations and progress that have already made the fortunes of a famous slasher saga: after having surprised us with a writer capable of overturning the preconceptions linked to the high school setting (we also analyzed why One of Us is Lying is not the usual teen drama ) the series suddenly chooses to transform itself into I know what you did, a franchise that – following the original novel dated 1973 – has already received numerous transpositions. Between sequels, reboots and reinterpretations in a less horrific key than the original, the latest adaptation of the saga have already explored the serial sphere exactly as the Netflix show is preparing to do, and that is through an adolescent perspective that contrasts the characters based on fears and suspicions.
The sensational flop that led to the cancellation of So what did you do after just one season did not intimidate the team led by Erica Saleh, who adapted the excellent premises left by the previous episodes by placing them in a very predictable plot, in which the protagonists – after having fought strenuously to free themselves from false murder charges – now find themselves sharing a terrible secret, locking themselves in order not to let any clues leak while suspicions mount against them. Only unity can save them from prison, and the characters return to doubt their accomplices more inclined to surrender but seem to do so without real conviction, being now bound by a feeling of trust that transcends the classic school friendship.
Between the investigations to divert and the search for the mysterious witness who saw them hide Jake’s body, the detective story proceeds through serious forgetfulness and superficiality that repeatedly challenge the suspension of disbelief, with irrefutable suspicions and evidence set aside for then being exhumed in search of a sudden and bite less plot twist. The development is not convincing because the initial premises are weak, with a very serious concealment of a corpse which without appeal cancels the acceptable self-defense, while the boys often seem to forget that they risk prison when they indulge in frivolity and entertainment in defiance of their puppeteer. To accompany the narration of these very obvious events we find a sentimentality that unfortunately falls into the most classic styles of teen drama, full of trivial emotions and superficial sexuality that seems built only to please the most mischievous spectator.
What made the show’s first season a fresh and intriguing vision – somehow brave in its challenge to the leitmotifs of youth drama- is overturned in this sequel going to essentially re-propose what has already been gutted in the ocean of similar productions, without any hint of originality capable of making eight memorable episodes that are content only to ride the wave of a faithful audience. The now inevitable yearning for a very broad inclusiveness, with the politically correct that on several occasions dominates the credibility of the plot, definitively bury a story that forever ruins the future of a series with good potential, embittering those who were fond of that small group of friends capable of going beyond the usual appearances.
One Of Us Is Lying Season 2 Review: The Last Words
Probably the most engaging episode of the season is the fifth, the one in which the boys think they are about to go to prison and decide to spend one last evening together, to move forward without remorse. There are no technical stunts, camera, or editing subtleties, but the team building in this episode is remarkable and leads the viewer to become even more attached to the characters.
