If you’re looking for your next teen murder mystery drama look no further than One of Us Is Lying on Peacock. In the One of Us Is Lying premiere, smart goody two shoes Bronwyn (Marianly Tejada), criminal bad boy Nate (Cooper van Grootel), popular girl Addy (Annalisa Cochrane), and jock Cooper (Chibuikem Uche) land in detention with their classmate Simon (Mark McKenna) who runs a blog called About That that exposes secrets. During detention something mysteriously happens to Simon and Bronwyn, Nate, Addy, and Cooper- who all have secrets they don’t want exposed- become the prime suspects.
While the series will be solving the same mystery as the original novel by Karen M. McNaus there will still be surprises in store for fans. Fans of the book series can expect enough similarities but also some major differences in this adaptation. “The book is what the book is and we are making our show”, McKenna states. “I think there’s enough difference and enough change for everybody, even people who’ve read the book to be surprised.”
Teen murder mystery dramas such as Pretty Little Liars, Elite, and Riverdale have been popular among young audiences but the cast of One of Us Is Lying explains how this show stands out against its predecessors. Jessica McLeod who plays Simon’s best friend Janae states the show is not as dark as most teen murder mystery dramas. She says, “I think it’s ultimately more wholesome and a little bit more feel good than some of the other teen shows out there. It’s ultimately about friendship.” Tejada also hints at how the characters, in particular Bronwyn and Nate, move past their archetypes and move into deeper compelling characters. She says, “Friendship is really big on this show…they represent these archetypes that we’ve seen in many stories before but there’s so much more to them than just being those archetypes…at the end we’re more alike than we think.”
As the series continues, it will touch on serious topics like sexuality which is prevalent in today’s world. It was a challenge Uche welcomed for his character Cooper. “I wanted it to be powerful because I wanted to help, heal, and touch…I wanted to do it justice.” Cooper and Addy carry some of the biggest secrets on the show threatening to be exposed and Cochrane hopes that through Addy’s terrible judgements she’s able to learn and grow and be offered redemption. “I do hope she gets [redemption] but only time will tell.”
Check out the interviews with the cast of One of Us Is Lying.
The first three episodes are streaming on Peacock now.
