Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Some writers unwittingly makes their main character (MC) so much more unlikable than other supporting characters, even when terrible tragedies befall upon them, instead of feeling sorry for the MC, you feel sorry for yourself, for enduring the story. “We Were Liars” falls under that category, which gave me a headache, and was largely unbearable. Although, to be fair, some of the actors were really great in their parts, and I will expand upon it later. But that still doesn’t made this show from being mostly unbearable for me.
Based on a book by E. Lockhart, the Prime Original series “We Were Liars” stars Emily Alyn Lind as primary protagonist Cadence Sinclair, only 16-years-old, but the eldest heir of the Sinclair family, who washes up on the beach after a terrible accident, with no memories of what happened to her in the last few days. She turns to her closest friends Johnny (Joseph Zada), Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) for answers, but they seem to be under strict instructions to not exacerbate her mental health, so they refuse to divulge much, hoping she will find all her answers herself. Johnny and Mirren are also her first cousins, while Gat’s her ‘first love’.
The first episode of “We Were Liars” immediately reminded me of The Summer I Turned Pretty, another beachside tale about privileged teens spending their summers in luxurious coastal homes. But unlike that show, “We Were Liars” is far more convoluted, pretentious, and painfully difficult to sit through. The writers make the show way more serious in tone than it needed to be, trying too hard to be a dark drama about privilege, secrets, love, heartbreak and class differences.
Set on the exclusive Beechwood Island, the story “We Were Liars” revolves around Cadence Sinclair and her dysfunctional, ultra-wealthy family. The island belongs to her grandfather Harris Sinclair (David Morse), a manipulative old-money patriarch with no sons. His three daughters: Penny (Caitlin FitzGerald), Carrie (Mamie Gummer), and Bess (Candice King), are more concerned with inheritance than kinship, constantly bickering over money like rival corporate heirs. The sisters’ petty feuds could’ve delivered sharp, dark humor, but their mean-spirited exchanges often cross the line into bad taste.
Their toxic competitiveness trickles down to the next generation. The teens, Cadence, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat, are dubbed “the liars” for always getting into mischief. Cadence is an only child, Johnny has a younger brother, and Mirren has twin sisters. Gat, the outsider, is the nephew of the boyfriend of Johnny’s mom. Cadence and Gat play the brooding thinkers, Johnny is the flamboyant, fun one, and Mirren is the quiet artist.
Emily Alyn Lind instantly reminded me of Elle Fanning as Cadence, but the character quickly devolves into a frustrating mess: obsessed with Gat and unwilling to drop her infatuation even after discovering that he isn’t the “knight in shining armour” she thought him to be. Shubham Maheshwari’s Gat starts off as charismatic, but soon morphs into a clichéd “brown boy” trope, suddenly awakened to colonial injustice after one trip to India, reducing centuries of history into a single bland comment about “so much culture there.” Like seriously, no regular 16-year-old would come back from their first trip to India with nothing but a newfound hatred for colonialism, unless they were enrolled into a history class on their trip.
Rahul Kohli as Ed Patil, Gat’s uncle and Carrie’s boyfriend, is a far more grounded character than the younger cast of “We Were Liars”. Still, it’s hard to care about any of these “private island rich” people, whose biggest crisis is that no one except the patriarch can manage money. The Sinclair sisters are all spoiled, and so are their kids, though Mirren, played sweetly by Esther McGregor (last seen as Nicole Kidman’s rebel daughter in Baby Girl), is a mild exception.
Told through indulgent flashbacks and a present-day mystery about Cadence’s memory loss, “We Were Liars” feels like a trick on the audience, an overly drawn-out drama about people with too much money and too little purpose. Cadence’s biggest “struggle” (apart from the memory thing) is whether her grandfather will accept Gat, who isn’t white, never mind that she doesn’t even know if they’re dating.
By episode 5, I was tempted to quit. I skimmed through episodes 6 and 7, but watched episode 8 out of stubbornness, and regretted it. Yes, the show looks beautiful, offering sunlit beaches, aesthetic summer wear, and a moody soundtrack, but none of it saves the shallow, repetitive storytelling.
The finale leans on a manipulative emotional twist, possibly lifted from the novel, but instead of feeling moved, I was just irritated I had stuck with the series. The episode also ends with a very Titanic-like twist, you know, a character throwing something extremely expensive into the ocean, but more because they are a privileged brat and not a 100-year-old unable to get over a boy they dated for two days when she was 17.
If you enjoy watching rich white people cry over their imagined woes, then “We Were Liars” might be for you. Otherwise, skip it.
Now streaming on Prime Video.
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Also Read: Sirens Netflix Series Review (Short Audio Version below)