June 21, 2025

Tell Me Lies (2022) is a gripping, slow-burn psychological drama that dives deep into the intoxicating highs and destructive lows of young love, wrapped in a haunting exploration of manipulation, identity, and emotional addiction. Loosely based on the bestselling novel by Carola Lovering, the series elevates the classic college romance into something far darker—and far more captivating.

Set at a small liberal arts college in the early 2000s, the show follows Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten), an impressionable freshman with a guarded past, who falls under the spell of Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White), a charismatic upperclassman with a dangerously elusive charm. What begins as a passionate hookup spirals into a years-long entanglement marked by gaslighting, obsession, betrayal, and self-destruction.

Van Patten is mesmerizing in her portrayal of Lucy—vulnerable yet quietly self-aware—while White delivers a performance that’s as magnetic as it is menacing. Together, they create a chemistry that’s volatile and hypnotic, pulling viewers into a relationship that is equal parts seductive and toxic.

The series is drenched in atmosphere, with moody cinematography and a nostalgic early-2000s soundtrack that heightens the emotional stakes. Director Meaghan Oppenheimer crafts each episode like a psychological puzzle, slowly revealing the characters’ traumas and choices that bind them together—and tear them apart.

What sets Tell Me Lies apart is its refusal to glamorize the toxicity it portrays. It doesn’t offer easy answers or neat resolutions. Instead, it examines how young people can lose themselves in the illusion of love, and the lasting scars it can leave behind.

By the season finale, viewers are left questioning not just the characters’ motives—but their own memories of first love, heartbreak, and who they were before it all began.

Raw, unsettling, and emotionally charged, Tell Me Lies is not just a story—it’s an experience. One that lingers long after the last episode fades to black.