We Were Liars

This 8-part miniseries hit Prime streaming yesterday. My wife and I settled in and watched the first two episodes.

The biggest issue is nothing much happens in the first two episodes. The main character has an incident she doesn't remember at the end of episode one. Then most of episode two is flashing back and forward to understand why her family and friends reacted the way they did. And juveniles trying to sort out boy-girl issues. Sort of a teenage soap opera.

One reviewer wrote "flat, nonengaging", another wrote "lazy writing, lazy cast saying lazy lines." That pretty well captures this limited series. A story that might have been told well in a 90-minute movie is stretched to roughly 8 hours and the filmmakers expect us to devote all that time with just the HOPE that it will turn out entertaining and worthwhile.

Well, not for us. After giving it almost 24 hours to set in my wife and I both decided we had no interest in sticking with it.

However a week later I did watch the last episode just to see how they tried to tie things up. In fact I found it to be very interesting and I was surprised at what all had happened. I will go so far as to state, if a viewer doesn't want to spend 8 hours on the whole series then watching episodes 1, 2, and 8 can be pretty entertaining.

But one can tell, from the episode synopses provided by Prime for each episode, most of the filler time involves teenage soap-opera types of topics. That wasn't of much interest to us grandparents.

I want to say that I think the majority of people who are disappointed in this didn't read the book or don't know that its based off of a book. For those complaining about the writing, it was a young adult novel that was a pretty average book to begin with. I read it as a teacher because my middle school girls were obsessed with it for a period of time. It's creative and not perfect. I think this is a solid adaptation of a pretty good book. I just hate to see some people giving the show so much hate. For those of you who read and came here first to check out reviews, see if you can get a hold of the book and read it before watching the show!

When I started watching this show, I had literally no expectations since the little I had heard about the book wasn't that good. But it was an excellent surprise! The mystery of what happened to the protagonist, her pain and confusion trying to remember the year before and her sweet romance was incredibly hooking. It took me basically one sitting to watch it all. Emily Alyn Lynd does an excellent job as a trauma survivor and is able to made me sympathize with her pain despite of my reality being as far as possible from a white rich girl. I liked most of the other actors, too, and my only reason to not giving 10 stars is the unnecessary length of the show giving the fact that there were not so much plot beside of what happened to the protagonist. But, in sum, I was completely hooked from the start and entirely devastated at the ending of it.

Watching We Were Liars felt like being lured into a dream only to realize, far too late, that it was a nightmare. It's sun-drenched and pretty on the outside-Cape Cod vibes, golden-hour dinners, old money elegance-but beneath all that gloss is guilt, trauma, and a twist that genuinely left me stunned even knowing what was coming.

If you're going in blind: good. This story wants to break your heart.

✅ What Worked for Me

1. That dreamy aesthetic masks real tragedy The island is a character all on its own-gorgeous, isolated, haunting. The cinematography is stunning and almost too perfect... which, of course, is the point.

2. Sadie Sink as Cadence = inspired casting She carries this film. You feel her confusion, her hunger for truth, and that quiet ache underneath every interaction. The way she plays memory loss and emotional unraveling is subtle and devastating.

"We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken."

3. The twist still lands Even if you've read the book, the way the film builds to it-slowly, with these eerie flashes of memory and tension-made it work all over again.

4. The score is haunting The music walks that tightrope between nostalgic and unnerving. Piano melodies over painful flashbacks? Brutal.

❌ What Didn't Land as Well

1. Some characters feel too thin Gat, Johnny, and Mirren (the other "Liars") don't get enough screen time to feel fully fleshed out. You get glimpses, sure-but if you haven't read the book, you might not connect as deeply.

2. The pacing drags a little mid-film The second act meanders as Cady tries to piece things together. Some repetition could've been trimmed for tighter momentum.

3. Voiceover-heavy moments feel too bookish A few lines work better on the page than out loud. At times, it feels like the script is trying too hard to stay "poetic."

🌟 Final Thoughts

7 out of 10 We Were Liars doesn't just tell you a story-it makes you question everything you just saw, and everything you believed. It's a sun-soaked tragedy wrapped in a mystery, and when the pieces finally fall into place, it leaves you gutted in the best way. It's not a "twist movie"-it's a memory movie. And it lingers.

I knew the ending. It still broke me.

🎥 If You Liked This, You Might Also Enjoy: 1. The Summer I Turned Pretty - Romance, nostalgia, and messy emotions

2. Dead Poets Society - Youth, tragedy, and secrets kept too long

3. Before I Fall (2017) - Guilt, time loops, and emotional unraveling

4. Atonement (2007) - Another sunlit story that cuts you deep

5. Sharp Objects (HBO) - Secrets, trauma, and a woman on the edge.

Prior to watching this I'd never heard of the book or had heard any advertising for the show so I didn't know what to expect.

Throughout the show viewers are left wondering was there foul play with Candace accident, was it a family member out for revenge, was it truly an accident? Although the show is quite slow, I enjoyed it most of the time. The acting was decent, the script was good, and love the messy family drama. Overall the show would be maybe a 5/10 until the ending.

The ending was something I would've never guessed, and I'm here for it. Not only do we get closure on Candace's accident, we're left with an introduction into a storyline that if it gets approved will answer many of the other questions brought up throughout the show.

Overall if you're looking for a good show to watch in your downtime that you don't have to pay super close attention too, this is the one!