Peacock's One of Us Is Lying is bingeable but not great in its attempt to remix past teen shows and movies

The Hollywood Reporter

"One of Us Is Lying is a little bit Breakfast Club, a little bit Gossip Girl, a little bit Pretty Little Liars, and a whole lot aware that it’s building on the tropes and stereotypes that came long before it — characters regularly name-check other shows, movies and genres, including horror and true crime," says Angie Han of the Peacock series based on Karen McManus' YA murder mystery novel. "But acknowledging the clichés it’s trafficking in isn’t the same thing as transcending them, and the result of all this mixing and matching is a teen murder mystery series that’s consistently watchable but never quite great." Han adds: "What eludes One of Us Is Lying is some special spark to set it apart from all the other murder mysteries and teen dramas out there — some subversion or deepening of the formulas it’s trafficking in, some jagged edges to break up all its slick competence." ALSO: One of Us Is Lying mixes John Hughes tropes for a generation unfamiliar with John Hughes.