Series / One of Us is Lying

One Of Us Is Lying is a 2021 YA mystery Peacock series, based on Karen M. McManus New York Times best-selling novel of the same name.

In the story, mystery surrounds Bayview High when five students walk into detention and only four walk out alive, leaving one dead just as he was about to reveal life-changing secrets about the others in a gossip app. Each of the students, Bronwyn (Marianly Tejada), Addy (Annalisa Cochrane), Nate (Cooper van Grootel), and Cooper (Chibuikem Uche), had the opportunity and individual motives to murder their classmate, but all claim to be innocent as the case revolves around which one of them is lying.

The series was cancelled after the second season.

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One of Us Is Lying contains examples of the following tropes:

• '80s Hair: Janae has hers in a very '80s style during Season 2, curly and blowdried, though it's set in 2022. Given she's a very nonconformist person it makes sense that she'd put on this throwback hairstyle.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Simon's mom treats his funeral as a way to further her political career.
  • Addy's mother obsesses over her daughter's looks and sees Jake as her only way to a happy future. She tells her that being framed for murder could lead to her being an influencer.
  • Nate's mother not only thinks that he did it, but when he is framed and arrested, she thoughtlessly speaks to the press about his case, exposing his criminal past and family history in the process.
• Accidental Pervert: Vanessa sneaks aboard Nate's yacht to investigate the Murder Club. As she's there, he comes back with Bronwyn, so she has to hide in a closet. Vanessa is mortified to see them make out and prepare for sex while she's hiding, trying to not look. However, they soon catch her when her phone vibrates before they've done anything further.
• Adapted Out: Cooper's friend Luis, Addy's sister Ashton, and their former friend Olivia.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The solution to the murder hews very close to the book's, except for one thing: Simon never intended to actually die. He planned to frame the four for attempted murder, with Jake making sure he got an EpiPen at the last minute, but Jake betrayed him.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • As a result of Cooper's sexuality no longer being a big reveal, his relationship with Kris is changed to Cooper lying to Kris about his age, claiming to be in college.
  • Inverted with his relationship with Keely — in the book he's not out to her and cheating on her with Kris, but in the series she's the first person he told and is willingly The Beard, although it is unclear if she knows about Kris. And Kris does not know about her.
  • Nate's secret goes from him still selling drugs (a violation of his parole) to having sold drugs to someone who overdosed and nearly died. The someone turns out to have been Janae, and Nate was also the one who saved her life.
  • Part of Simon's reason for creating About That is because he lost Jake as a friend.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Addy still cuts her hair, as she did in the book, however, she no longer dyes her hair purple and is a blond for the duration of the series.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: Janae is a cisgender girl in the book. Here, in Season 2 it's revealed Janae is genderfluid, coming out to their Love Interest Maeve (who's accepting).
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Zig-Zagged. Maeve in the books was always on Bronwyn's side and would have never given the hard drive to the police, knowing it would out Cooper. However, she still loves her sister and goes to many lengths to defend Bronwyn.
  • Jake in this version is the true killer by double-crossing Simon and allowing him to die, unlike the book where Simon meant to kill himself and he was just an accomplice.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Heartbreakingly subverted with Cooper's dad. He knows that Cooper is gay, and he's proud of him — for keeping it secret.
  • Vanessa, though still the Alpha Bitch, is friendly with Addy before her secret comes out. She also has a much better reason to hate Addy, seeing as she was dating TJ. Additionally, the added abortion plot line and her devotion to Mrs. Avery gives her a depth her book counterpart lacked.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Janae, who's in love with Simon in the book, is gay in the series, and later, Maeve, who's only shown interest in boys in the books, is interested in both Simon and Janae.
• Almost Kiss: Nate and Bronwyn have several of these, especially at the Homecoming Dance.

• An Aesop:
  • Lying to give people an image of who you are instead of being yourself isn't good. Be honest and the people who matter will stand by you.
  • However, no one really has the right to reveal your secrets for you, especially if a) they are doing it for the wrong reasons, and b) you don't want or need them to be revealed. Weaponizing the truth to hurt people and make yourself feel better is a form of bullying.
  • The truth can be used as a weapon against someone, even though it shouldn't be.
  • Actions do have consequences. You may not know how big or small they will be, but you should know that they are there AND will affect you in the end.
  • Wanting revenge is one thing. Doing everything you can to get it is something else entirely, especially if it ends up hurting other people in the process.
  • Lastly, if you have people in your life who force you to be something you are not just so that you can keep them in your life, then maybe you shouldn't have them in your life. Addy's story is the biggest example of this.
• Batter Up!: Addy smashes Giselle's car up with a bat when Simon Says commands her to. However, as she was already mad at Giselle, Addy leapt at the opportunity.
• The Beard: Keely willingly pretends she's Cooper's girlfriend to cover up that he's gay, as they're best friends.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Discussed and Played With. Though actually both Cooper and Nate share the Brawn role (fitting two different stereotypes for this role) as Cooper is the jock while Nate's the resident bad boy.
  Cooper: Same. The Baywiew four theory.
  Keely: Right, where Bronwyn's the Brains? Cooper's the Brawn, Nate's the Badass, and Addy's the Blonde?
  Addy: Most actually say Beauty.
• Became Their Own Antithesis:
  • Vanessa goes from hating Simon for how he post about people to hurt them to posting about Addy, Bronwyn, Cooper and Nate all the time, right up to the finale.
  • Bronwyn went from a perfect A-student to a struggling student, especially after Nate is arrested.
  • Addy: once the most popular girl in school known for her looks. Now, she is an outcast who is less afraid of what people think.
• Berserk Button: Fiona absolutely hates being called "crazy" or "psycho", however much it really fits her based on her unhinged, very violent behavior.
• Best Friend:
  • Keely is Cooper's best friend, making her willing to pretend she's his girlfriend and thus cover up that he's gay.
  • Janae was Simon's best friend, and is left devastated after he dies.
• Big Bad: Jake is the killer/stalker, unlike the book where he and Simon were more of a Big Bad Duumvirate.
• The Big Damn Kiss:
  • Nate and Bronwyn has this... about seconds before Nate is arrested for Simon's murder.
  • They have another one in the finale.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Bronwyn has large, prominent dark eyebrows.
• Big Sister Instinct: Bronwyn is very protective about her little sister Maeve, not only due to being older (and the more responsible, dutiful sibling) but as a result of Maeve's having cancer before. Maeve is annoyed by this, but does admit reluctantly that it's justified at times, such as Bronwyn learning of her sending Simon naked photos and then threatening legal consequences for it (she was underage).
• Bittersweet Ending: In the season 1 finale, Jake is exposed as Simon's killer and the charges against Nate are dropped, but Jake ends up being shot while struggling over a gun with Cooper, Addy, and Janae, leading to a cover-up. Nate decides to stay away from Bronwyn, and everyone is avoiding each other while still being bullied and harassed by Vanessa via Instagram. Then, they all get a threatening text from Simon Says, stating that they should do what he wants or he'll reveal their secret.
• Brainy Brunette: Bronwyn is a brunette honor student who's top of her class and aimed at attending Yale. Her grades start to slip under stress before and after the Simon Says drama. Bronwyn admits she cheated on an exam, which Simon Says used against her. Even so, she's definitely very smart.
• The Breakfast Plot: Descontructed; the main plot start in a retention class with five different stereotyped students (the delinquent/bad boy, the overachiever, the jock, the popular girl and the loner). But when Simon dies, the plot turns more around murder investigation than actual bonding between students through their different backgrounds.
• Butch Lesbian: Janae usually has baggy, fairly masculine clothing with her hair up in a grungy style, and bluntly tells Addy she's a lesbian when the latter mistakenly thought that she romantically loved Simon (they were actually just best friends). At the school dance, she wears her hair down with a dress shirt and pants while she's wearing black lipstick.
• Central Theme: Lies, how they are used to project the perfect image and who has the right to reveal them.
• Cliffhanger:
  • The first season ends with Addy, Cooper, Bronwyn, Nate and Janae all being targeted by a new stalker.
  • So does the second season, with Fiona apparently poisoned in jail and some new person (perhaps Bronwyn) being murdered at the group's high school graduation. This will never get resolved due to the show's cancellation.
• Closet Gay: Cooper stays in the closet about being gay because he thinks being out will ruin his chance at a professional football career, having a fake girlfriend to pretend that he's straight.
• Coming-Out Story:
  • Cooper comes out to his newfound friends Addy, Bronwyn and Nate as gay in "One of Us Is Famous", an Internal Reveal with the audience already knowing this. He had been firmly closeted before. After this he comes out to his dad as well. Some of this was also spurred by being forcibly outed though.
  • Janae tells Addy she's genderfluid in Season 2.
• Composite Character: Vanessa is still the Alpha Bitch she was in the books, but she also appears to take on a lot of Olivia's stuff. She and Addy are superficially friends before her secret is revealed, and Vanessa is effectively the "second option" for a boy who likes one of her friends more. She still dates Jake after the breakup.
• Confessional: "Simon Says You Better Pray" opens with Vanessa going to confession, but not actually confessing anything, as her parents made her. It's apparently a one-year thing she does at their insistence. Vanessa mostly complains to the priest about all she's dealt with recently.
• Dark Secret:
  • Nate pretends that his mother is dead, when in fact she is alive. She also has a host of mental illnesses and addictions that resulted in her abandoning him with his dad.
  • Cooper had his first boyfriend at fifteen, but when the boyfriend's brother found out, he attacked him. Cooper hit him really hard in self-defense, but was then arrested. He didn't tell the truth for fear of being outed and having his baseball career being ruined.
• A Day in the Limelight: "Simon Says You Better Pray" shifts the focus to Vanessa as she investigates the Murder Club during the episode and shows her perspective on things.
• Deadpan Snarker: Janae is always ready with dry, very sarcastic remarks, with her default attitude being cynical and weary of others.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Vanessa does this to Amateur Sleuth, as she investigates the Murder Club's connection to Jake's disappearance as a means to a) make herself more famous and b) hurt Addy and her friends. She does figures some things out, but for the most part, she just comes to the wrong conclusions almost all the time and just makes things worse. She also isn't taken seriously by the police, the media, and practically everyone else. However, the bad guys do end up using her as a pawn for their plans for Murder Club.
• Defiant to the End: After Vanessa sends the entire school a picture of everyone together, the core four decide to enjoy the rest of the Homecoming Dance, regardless of what everyone thinks and before one of them ends up arrested.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Simon created his blog in order to take down people at school because he used to be friends with Jake, who ditched him once he got abs.
  • Jake killed Simon and sets up the core four all because Addy cheated on him with TJ.
• Driving Question: Who killed Simon?
• Fire-Forged Friends: The core four. Deconstructed in that they spend most of the first season not trusting each other.
• Forced Out of the Closet:
  • Cooper is forcibly outed as gay when his relationship with his boyfriend gets revealed.
  • Later it happens again when his boyfriend does this inadvertently by tagging Cooper in a photo of them.
• Foreshadowing: It is stated repeatedly throughout the season that Jake and Simon used to be friends, and he knew his way around Simon's room. Also, the stalker keeps on targeting Addy the most throughout the first season before framing Nate. In the season finale, Jake is revealed to be the killer.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four main protagonists:
  • Bronwyn is the optimist (determined, pursues truth over rules).
  • Nate is the apathetic (observer, enigmatic).
  • Cooper is the cynic (skeptical, prioritizes his future over truth).
  • Addy is the conflicted (influenceable, dependent of her boyfriend at least for a while).
• Frame-Up: TJ is framed by Simon Says for murdering Giselle using evidence planted in his car.
• Framing the Guilty Party: The Murder Club decide the only way for them to save themselves is by framing Simon Says for Jake's murder. It works, though they're still nearly all murdered first.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Simon was friends with Jake up until Jake physically developed and started hanging out with the guys who used to bully them. When Simon called him out on it, Jake abandoned him for them. This eventually led to the creation of Simon's About That blog.
  • Maeve sent Simon scandalous pictures of herself because of her cancer leaving her feeling gross about her body. Simon made her feel better and more attractive.
  • Jake is upset about Addy cheating on him with TJ because his dad did the same thing to his mom.
  • Finally, Nate lies about his mom being dead because she abandoned him and his alcoholic and disabled father due to her own mental illnesses and addictions. This bad situation is what led to him selling drugs.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: It's revealed Vanessa's secret is she had an abortion with help from Ms. Avery, who connected her to a doctor and paid for it, as her parents apparently are quite anti-abortion. Addy, her former best friend, reacts in surprise but doesn't judge her. When it's revealed how Ms. Avery helped her though, she gets fired (probably not for aiding in the abortion itself, though, more going around her parents).
• Hair-Contrast Duo: Played With but subverted with Bronwyn and Addy. In-Universe, people think about the Bayview 4 theory (concerning Simon's murder) that Bronwyn is the calculating Brainy Brunette while Addy is the innocent Dumb Blonde but the story shows they have Hidden Depths (Bronwyn is not The Ace as everyone thinks and Addy demonstrates she has some wits).
• Heteronormative Crusader: Cooper relates that he was attacked when his ex-boyfriend Kyle's older brother learned about the two, with him defending himself. Kyle's brother had blamed Cooper for making him gay. Cooper couldn't tell the cops what happened without outing himself, which he feared would ruin his career in baseball, and so took the blame when the brother claimed he'd broken his nose then unprovoked. He says you can come back from hitting other guys in baseball, though not kissing them, given how pervasive the homophobia is there.
• Incompatible Orientation: Keely tells Cooper she loves him after he wants to end their arrangement where she's The Beard.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Bronwyn and Nate are close to having sex on the boat when Vanessa (who's hidden nearby) stops them by appearing.
• Irony: Vanessa, as revealed in a flashback, hated Simon for what he did with About That, yet she ends up becoming Simon at the end by posting about the others and calling them murderers on her Instagram.
• Last-Name Basis: Nate calls Bronwyn by her last name Rojas.
• Lingerie Scene: Bronwyn in shown in her underwear when she passionately makes out with Nate.
• Love Confession: Nate tells Bronwyn he loves her in Season 2. She says this back and they soon have Their First Time.
• Manly Gay: Cooper is a muscular baseball star who's secretly gay (at first).
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple:
  • Cooper is more Manly Gay and a jock. His boyfriend Kris is a bit camp; he's flamboyant and wears earrings.
  • Janae is a Butch Lesbian who starts dating Maeve, a much more feminine bisexual girl.
• Mood Whiplash: Nate and Bronwyn's kiss in the finale is very romantic... until an angry Janae interrupts to tell them that Jake doesn't have the XBOX in his room and to stop kissing.
• Never My Fault:
  • Simon hates Nate because Nate sold Janae the drugs they used to overdose. Simon completely ignores that finding him and Maeve together was what caused Janae to buy drugs in the first place, that she may have deliberately overdosed, and that Nate is the one whose first aid probably saved her life.
  • After chasing Addy into the woods, Jake blames her sleeping with TJ for everything, especially Simon's death. Never mind that he chose to kill Simon for recording their conversations about their scheme against Addy.
• Never Split the Party: When Bronwyn wants to split up while they look for Maeve in "One Of Us Is Dancing" Janae asks her incredulously if she's never watched horror movies. It's subverted though as nothing happens to them.
• One Head Taller: Maeve comes up to about Janae's chin. This is especially noticeable when the two become a couple and kiss or are standing close to each other.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After learning of Janae's overdose, Simon goes over and apologizes to her for going after Maeve.
  • Vanessa tries to protect Ms. Avery from losing her job after the latter helped her get a secret abortion.
• Pool Scene: Several young people, including Addy, Vanessa, Cooper and Keely are shown in their swimwear while at the pool or beach.
• Queer Establishing Moment:
  • Cooper is revealed as really being gay when he visits his secret boyfriend, and it's shown that Keely is just The Beard to him, not actually his girlfriend.
  • Janae tells Addy she's gay when the latter mistakenly believes she had loved Simon romantically.
  • Janae later tells Maeve she's attracted to her. It turns out Maeve's attracted to Janae as well, and they kiss. Maeve had previously shown attraction to Simon-this confirms she's bisexual.
  • Janae tells Addy and then Maeve that she's genderfluid as well later.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • TJ gives one to Addy at the Homecoming Dance after she reveals that she thinks he killed Simon.
  • In flashbacks, both Cooper and Bronwyn give one each to Simon for his actions (threatening to out Cooper and having sexually explicit pictures of Maeve.)
• The Reveal:
  • Janae was the one who was revealing their secrets at first on Simon's About That blog. She did it because she genuinely thought one of them killed Simon. She eventually had her access taken away from her.
  • Simon was in a relationship with Maeve.
  • Jake killed Simon because Simon recorded evidence that could reveal Jake as the mastermind behind the whole idea of Simon's poisoning.
  • Fiona it turns out is Simon Says in the second season.
• Ship Tease:
  • Nate and Bronwyn have a lot of sexual tension over time which builds until they finally have sex, becoming a couple too.
  • Subverted with Addy and TJ. He liked her at first, but between her obsession with Jake and her later suspecting him of murder, she eventually drives him away.
• Skinny Dipping: The Murder Club do this while running into the ocean in Season 2.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The cops look at Nate the most because of his criminal record.
  • The core four aren't friends at the beginning of the series. So, they have a hard time trusting each other when they need to and tend to turn on each other ( like when Addy reveals to the cops that Bronwyn had Simon's laptop).
  • The police get fed up with Bronwyn's meddling when she comes to them about Simon possibly killing himself and threaten to charge her, Cooper and Addy with obstruction of justice.
  • The second season has Vanessa investigating Jake's disappearance via Instagram. When Giselle, who claims to be Jake's mistress, dies, she puts an end to her antics for a while, only to learn that NO ONE is taking what she is doing seriously, especially the police and the media.
• Their First Time: Nate and Bronwyn have sex finally in Season 2 after confessing their love for each other.
• These Gloves Are Made for Killin':
  • Subverted by Maeve when the ending of "One of Us Is Famous" shows her putting Simon's hard drive into an envelope while wearing dark wool gloves to cover her prints presenting her as a particularly suspicious suspect. The subversion is that it's later revealed she's not the culprit and had nothing to do with Simon's death.
  • She subverts this again in the finale of Season 2 when she holds Addy at gunpoint without wearing gloves in a ploy to trick Fiona into thinking she's on her side. This ends up being a double subversion when Addy points out that Maeve's prints are on the gun only for Maeve to reveal that her prints are actually covered by a layer of thick wax applied to her finger tips.
• Token Minority Couple:
  • Cooper is the black main character on the show. He's a closeted gay boy with a boyfriend, Kris, who's also black.
  • Bronwyn, who's a Latina and the series' main girl of color, has a black boyfriend named Evan, who's also English in an otherwise American cast.
• Toplessness from the Back: Bronwyn is shown this way before and after having sex with Nate in Season 2.
• Transparent Closet: It turns out Cooper's dad already had an inkling he was gay before Cooper tells him.
• Visual Pun: Cooper hides in a closet when Nate appears to sell Kris shrooms. Kris lampshades this.
• Unexpected Virgin: Maeve is a little surprised when Janae reveals she's a virgin after they're moving toward having sex in Season 2, which Janae's not ready to do, given her very worldly attitude.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Nate acts this way after Bronwyn bails him out of jail.
• The Unreveal: The series was cancelled, thus leaving several plot threads unresolved at the end of the second season. Among them were who poisoned Fiona, what Jake did to get sent into therapy camp, and who the new murder victim was.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Janae gave Simon the idea for the About That blog when she teased him about his past friendship with Jake. After hearing him rant on and on about how fake everyone at their school is, she jokingly tells him to make an app or blog exposing them for who they are.
  • Really, everything happened because Addy was caught cheating on Jake with TJ by Keely. Keely told Simon about it in a desperate attempt to protect Cooper. Simon then confronted Addy, but was seen by Jake and was forced to tell him the truth. Jake was so enraged that he roped Simon into his plan.
• Uptown Girl: After they get together in Season 2, Nate worries that he and Bronwyn are too different because of their very different economic backgrounds. He is working class, while her family has lots of money. Addy assures Nate they can work out regardless. Unusually for this trope, he's white and she's a Latina.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The main four, who are thrust together after the events of the pilot in detention, spend most of the season arguing and not trusting each other. Cooper especially wants nothing to do with the others once Nate and Bronwyn reveal that that they had Simon's laptop before destroying it.
• We Used to Be Friends: Jake and Simon were friends, until Jake got a makeover and started to hang out with the people that used to bully him and Simon. Simon's negative reaction to Jake's new look and behavior resulted in the two having a falling out.
• Wham Shot:
  • Maeve with Simon's computer.
  • Later, Maeve with a hard-drive in an envelope addressed to the police after Nate and Bronwyn have destroyed Simon's laptop to stop Cooper from being outed.
• Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: The Murder Club go off to party at a queer warehouse event in Season 2 (though straight people also are welcomed). Janae is almost immediately greeted by a fellow non-binary person, while partygoers wear lots of glitter with many revealing outfits.
• Who Murdered the Asshole: The whole season is about solving who killed Simon before any one of them is arrested. The murderer turns out to be Jake.