You're not prepared for the wacky twist in We Were Liars

The Advertiser

4 days ago

Continuing the trend of rich families who spend their summers on islands while harbouring secrets (looking at you The Perfect Couple and Sirens), We Were Liars arrives with a twist that will leave you reeling.
Not to say it's an especially well-made or deep series, but the desire to get to the end and unravel the mystery is strong and will keep you engaged for the full eight episodes.
Based on the buzzy 2014 novel of the same name by E. Lockhart, We Were Liars takes place on the wealthy Sinclair family island - Beechwood - over two summers.
The first summer, labelled Summer 16 by our lead character Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind, Gossip Girl), is filled with drama and questions. Cadence remembers the first few weeks, and then it's all a blur until she wakes up alone half-naked and bleeding on the beach with no memory of how she got there. So the next year, Summer 17, she wants to piece together what happened to her and why no one in her family will talk about it. And the other big question - why hasn't she heard from her cousins (her best friends in the world) all year? What are they keeping from her?
Watching We Were Liars is a completely different experience for those who know about the twist, and those who don't, and there's certain enjoyment to be gained from either experience.
Young Aussie actor Joseph Zada (Invisible Boys) plays Cadence's cousin Johnny, and will soon be seen in the Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping, while Ewan McGregor's daughter Esther McGregor (Babygirl) is a standout as another cousin, Mirren. The cast also includes David Morse (The Green Mile), Mamie Gummer (True Detective), Candice King (The Vampire Diaries), Rahul Kohli (The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex).
We Were Liars was co-created by Julie Plec, responsible for TV shows of varying success including The Vampire Diaries and its spin-offs, Vampire Academy and The Girls on the Bus.
This documentary feature from National Geographic takes a look at the life of the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.
For a time, Ride was one of the most famous names on (and off) the planet, but even though her face was ubiquitous, her private life was strictly off limits.
In an industry that was such a boys' club, in a time when women in anything but domestic roles was still something of a novelty, Ride wanted the focus to be purely on her capability and intellect.
So you have to wonder how the astronaut would feel about this documentary, which shares her life outside of her work with the world.
Ride was a lesbian, and had a loving but largely secret relationship with her partner Tam O'Shaughnessy for 27 years. Her sexuality wasn't something that she discussed with anyone, even her family, as her sister Bear says in the film. Her family and closest friends knew about their relationship, but Ride never wanted to spend time talking about it. Perhaps she thought her sexual identity was not one of the more interesting parts of her life, or perhaps she was worried about being outed in a time when that would mean her career would suffer. US tennis great Billie Jean King shares her own experience with being publicly outed and having to basically put her reputation back together from square one in this film, highlighting just how difficult it would have been for Ride to share her life with the world in that era.
So much of Ride's story is marked by incredible achievement, perseverance and triumph, and Sally does detail the big milestones - being selected for the NASA program, becoming the first woman in space, sitting on a committee examining the Challenger disaster, starting her own science academy - but these are overshadowed by the amount of time spent dissecting her relationships.
Anna and Elsa get the stage treatment in this filmed version of a London production of the Frozen Broadway musical.
The musical takes all the beats you know and love from the 2013 Disney animation and brings them to life in on stage with spirited performances from the London cast.
The staging is rich and detailed and the performances are largely overplayed (as one would expect). Olaf is an unexpected delight, losing none of his charm in the move from screen to stage.
Noted West End performer Samantha Barks (who gave a devastating performance in the Les Miserables film) steps into Elsa's icy shoes and is predictably dazzling.
If you're looking for late 1800s period drama, then AppleTV+ and Paramount+ have you covered, with The Buccaneers (season 2) and The Gilded Age (season 3) both making their returns. Over on Netflix you can dive into new North Carolina fishing drama The Waterfront, starring Holt McCallany, Maria Bello and Melissa Benoist from Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson. The streamer also has a new animated kids film for fans of K-Pop: KPop Demon Hunters. If docos are more your style, Netflix has the truly devastating Grenfell Uncovered, which looks into the list of failures and oversights that led to the inferno which claimed 72 lives in London in 2017. The doco action continues with Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie on Max, a four-part series with episodes dropping weekly. And on Stan you can catch the Aussie documentary film Joh: The Last King of Queensland, about politician Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Continuing the trend of rich families who spend their summers on islands while harbouring secrets (looking at you The Perfect Couple and Sirens), We Were Liars arrives with a twist that will leave you reeling.
Not to say it's an especially well-made or deep series, but the desire to get to the end and unravel the mystery is strong and will keep you engaged for the full eight episodes.
Based on the buzzy 2014 novel of the same name by E. Lockhart, We Were Liars takes place on the wealthy Sinclair family island - Beechwood - over two summers.
The first summer, labelled Summer 16 by our lead character Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind, Gossip Girl), is filled with drama and questions. Cadence remembers the first few weeks, and then it's all a blur until she wakes up alone half-naked and bleeding on the beach with no memory of how she got there. So the next year, Summer 17, she wants to piece together what happened to her and why no one in her family will talk about it. And the other big question - why hasn't she heard from her cousins (her best friends in the world) all year? What are they keeping from her?
Watching We Were Liars is a completely different experience for those who know about the twist, and those who don't, and there's certain enjoyment to be gained from either experience.
Young Aussie actor Joseph Zada (Invisible Boys) plays Cadence's cousin Johnny, and will soon be seen in the Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping, while Ewan McGregor's daughter Esther McGregor (Babygirl) is a standout as another cousin, Mirren. The cast also includes David Morse (The Green Mile), Mamie Gummer (True Detective), Candice King (The Vampire Diaries), Rahul Kohli (The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex).
We Were Liars was co-created by Julie Plec, responsible for TV shows of varying success including The Vampire Diaries and its spin-offs, Vampire Academy and The Girls on the Bus.
This documentary feature from National Geographic takes a look at the life of the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.
For a time, Ride was one of the most famous names on (and off) the planet, but even though her face was ubiquitous, her private life was strictly off limits.
In an industry that was such a boys' club, in a time when women in anything but domestic roles was still something of a novelty, Ride wanted the focus to be purely on her capability and intellect.
So you have to wonder how the astronaut would feel about this documentary, which shares her life outside of her work with the world.
Ride was a lesbian, and had a loving but largely secret relationship with her partner Tam O'Shaughnessy for 27 years. Her sexuality wasn't something that she discussed with anyone, even her family, as her sister Bear says in the film. Her family and closest friends knew about their relationship, but Ride never wanted to spend time talking about it. Perhaps she thought her sexual identity was not one of the more interesting parts of her life, or perhaps she was worried about being outed in a time when that would mean her career would suffer. US tennis great Billie Jean King shares her own experience with being publicly outed and having to basically put her reputation back together from square one in this film, highlighting just how difficult it would have been for Ride to share her life with the world in that era.
So much of Ride's story is marked by incredible achievement, perseverance and triumph, and Sally does detail the big milestones - being selected for the NASA program, becoming the first woman in space, sitting on a committee examining the Challenger disaster, starting her own science academy - but these are overshadowed by the amount of time spent dissecting her relationships.
Anna and Elsa get the stage treatment in this filmed version of a London production of the Frozen Broadway musical.
The musical takes all the beats you know and love from the 2013 Disney animation and brings them to life in on stage with spirited performances from the London cast.
The staging is rich and detailed and the performances are largely overplayed (as one would expect). Olaf is an unexpected delight, losing none of his charm in the move from screen to stage.
Noted West End performer Samantha Barks (who gave a devastating performance in the Les Miserables film) steps into Elsa's icy shoes and is predictably dazzling.
If you're looking for late 1800s period drama, then AppleTV+ and Paramount+ have you covered, with The Buccaneers (season 2) and The Gilded Age (season 3) both making their returns. Over on Netflix you can dive into new North Carolina fishing drama The Waterfront, starring Holt McCallany, Maria Bello and Melissa Benoist from Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson. The streamer also has a new animated kids film for fans of K-Pop: KPop Demon Hunters. If docos are more your style, Netflix has the truly devastating Grenfell Uncovered, which looks into the list of failures and oversights that led to the inferno which claimed 72 lives in London in 2017. The doco action continues with Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie on Max, a four-part series with episodes dropping weekly. And on Stan you can catch the Aussie documentary film Joh: The Last King of Queensland, about politician Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Continuing the trend of rich families who spend their summers on islands while harbouring secrets (looking at you The Perfect Couple and Sirens), We Were Liars arrives with a twist that will leave you reeling.
Not to say it's an especially well-made or deep series, but the desire to get to the end and unravel the mystery is strong and will keep you engaged for the full eight episodes.
Based on the buzzy 2014 novel of the same name by E. Lockhart, We Were Liars takes place on the wealthy Sinclair family island - Beechwood - over two summers.
The first summer, labelled Summer 16 by our lead character Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind, Gossip Girl), is filled with drama and questions. Cadence remembers the first few weeks, and then it's all a blur until she wakes up alone half-naked and bleeding on the beach with no memory of how she got there. So the next year, Summer 17, she wants to piece together what happened to her and why no one in her family will talk about it. And the other big question - why hasn't she heard from her cousins (her best friends in the world) all year? What are they keeping from her?
Watching We Were Liars is a completely different experience for those who know about the twist, and those who don't, and there's certain enjoyment to be gained from either experience.
Young Aussie actor Joseph Zada (Invisible Boys) plays Cadence's cousin Johnny, and will soon be seen in the Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping, while Ewan McGregor's daughter Esther McGregor (Babygirl) is a standout as another cousin, Mirren. The cast also includes David Morse (The Green Mile), Mamie Gummer (True Detective), Candice King (The Vampire Diaries), Rahul Kohli (The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex).
We Were Liars was co-created by Julie Plec, responsible for TV shows of varying success including The Vampire Diaries and its spin-offs, Vampire Academy and The Girls on the Bus.
This documentary feature from National Geographic takes a look at the life of the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.
For a time, Ride was one of the most famous names on (and off) the planet, but even though her face was ubiquitous, her private life was strictly off limits.
In an industry that was such a boys' club, in a time when women in anything but domestic roles was still something of a novelty, Ride wanted the focus to be purely on her capability and intellect.
So you have to wonder how the astronaut would feel about this documentary, which shares her life outside of her work with the world.
Ride was a lesbian, and had a loving but largely secret relationship with her partner Tam O'Shaughnessy for 27 years. Her sexuality wasn't something that she discussed with anyone, even her family, as her sister Bear says in the film. Her family and closest friends knew about their relationship, but Ride never wanted to spend time talking about it. Perhaps she thought her sexual identity was not one of the more interesting parts of her life, or perhaps she was worried about being outed in a time when that would mean her career would suffer. US tennis great Billie Jean King shares her own experience with being publicly outed and having to basically put her reputation back together from square one in this film, highlighting just how difficult it would have been for Ride to share her life with the world in that era.
So much of Ride's story is marked by incredible achievement, perseverance and triumph, and Sally does detail the big milestones - being selected for the NASA program, becoming the first woman in space, sitting on a committee examining the Challenger disaster, starting her own science academy - but these are overshadowed by the amount of time spent dissecting her relationships.
Anna and Elsa get the stage treatment in this filmed version of a London production of the Frozen Broadway musical.
The musical takes all the beats you know and love from the 2013 Disney animation and brings them to life in on stage with spirited performances from the London cast.
The staging is rich and detailed and the performances are largely overplayed (as one would expect). Olaf is an unexpected delight, losing none of his charm in the move from screen to stage.
Noted West End performer Samantha Barks (who gave a devastating performance in the Les Miserables film) steps into Elsa's icy shoes and is predictably dazzling.
If you're looking for late 1800s period drama, then AppleTV+ and Paramount+ have you covered, with The Buccaneers (season 2) and The Gilded Age (season 3) both making their returns. Over on Netflix you can dive into new North Carolina fishing drama The Waterfront, starring Holt McCallany, Maria Bello and Melissa Benoist from Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson. The streamer also has a new animated kids film for fans of K-Pop: KPop Demon Hunters. If docos are more your style, Netflix has the truly devastating Grenfell Uncovered, which looks into the list of failures and oversights that led to the inferno which claimed 72 lives in London in 2017. The doco action continues with Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie on Max, a four-part series with episodes dropping weekly. And on Stan you can catch the Aussie documentary film Joh: The Last King of Queensland, about politician Joh Bjelke-Petersen.