5 teen thriller shows like 'We Were Liars' to stream right now

Tom's Guide

8 hours ago

Based on a 2014 novel by E. Lockhart, "We Were Liars" is the latest teen drama to hit Prime Video. It stars Emily Alyn Lind as Cadence, a girl from a wealthy family who is struggling to recover her memory after an accident she experiences during the show's first episode.
Surrounded by her three closest friends — the group dubs themselves 'The Liars,' hence the title — Cadence desperately tries to figure out what happened to her, since she has no memory of the event itself. But the deeper she digs, the more it becomes clear to her that the truth is being hidden by those closest to her.
A perfect summer watch, "We Were Liars" keeps you captivated through all its twists and turns. After you finish bingeing it, here are a few other teen thriller shows like "We Were Liars" that will fill a similar niche.
The main difference between "We Were Liars" and "One Of Us Is Lying" appears to be exactly how many of the characters are being dishonest. OK, so that's not quite true, but lies and secrets are still a huge part of the game.
Like "We Were Liars," "One Of Us is Lying" is also based on a YA mystery novel adapted for the small screen, revolving around four teenagers who have been implicated in the death of their classmate. The plot thickens when we learn that the deceased left behind a poem containing potentially life-altering secrets about each of the four students who are now being considered as suspects in his death.
Did one of them do it? Did all of them do it? Well, you have to watch to find out.
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Like Cadence in "We Were Liars," Maddie (Peyton List) in "School Spirits" is suffering from a bout of amnesia. She spends the better part of the first season attempting to unravel what led to her own disappearance and — without spoiling anything _ things don't exactly get easier to explain once she understands what's going on.
And just like "We Were Liars," there are some supernatural elements at play that defy the expectations of a typical teen drama. "School Spirits" ran for two seasons on Freeform, the second of which wrapped up in March 2025. It may not have had a chance to reach its full potential, but it's still an underrated and criminally underseen show.
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"We Were Liars" revolves around one central mystery; "Riverdale" thinks that having one mystery is for babies and instead features about 10 different convoluted plotlines going on at any given time, each popping up like a demented game of whack-a-mole (we mean this as a compliment.)
Nominally based on the Archie comics that began in the late 1940s, "Riverdale" takes the kernel of those origins and turns them into a teen drama on steroids. With Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), Veronica (Camila Mendes), and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) getting up to increasingly outlandish antics, you never know what's going to happen next in their not-so-sleepy town.
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Secrets are basically part and parcel on "Pretty Little Liars." A safe assumption to make is that no one on the show is telling the truth at any given time, which is how "We Were Liars" often feels.
The immensely popular teen drama ran on Freeform for seven seasons, putting its central cast through the ringer the entire time. After the queen bee of their high school clique suddenly disappears, the mysterious figure known only as A begins to target the group of friends, threatening to reveal all of their secrets.
As the story unfolds, it seems like new mysteries and twists emerge at every turn, ensuring that "Pretty Little Liars" held the interest of audiences over the course of several years, never giving them — or the characters they became fascinated by — a moment's rest.
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At the very beginning of "Cruel Summer," Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia) appears to be a perfectly sweet, if somewhat awkward, girl who experiences a glow-up over the summer, as many teenagers do. But when she's essentially able to step into the shoes of her missing classmate Kate (Olivia Holt), a popular girl at school, you kind of start to wonder if Kate got Single White Femaled.
Especially when Kate turns up after a year of having been gone and accuses Jeanette of knowing about her abduction and purposefully keeping silent about it to preserve her new social standing. A frothy teen soap, "Cruel Summer" was at its peak during its explosive first season, but its second — which features an entirely new cast of characters — is worth a watch as well.
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