Two years later, this underrated Hulu drama remains the most stressful show on TV.

The television landscape has become so vast that finding the true gems is like finding a needle in a haystack. Each studio has its own platform, and not all platforms can fire on all cylinders. But fans would be remiss if they didn’t turn to Hulu to watch this wild drama when it premieres in 2022. Filled with rich writing and complex characters, Tell Me Lies may have been easy to miss when it first aired. At first glance, college drama may seem like a typical romance that won’t interest everyone. Actually it’s more than that.

Based on Carola Lovering’s 2018 novel of the same name, the series follows college freshman Lucy Albright’s life-ruining first experience with love. Before going to school, Lucy took part in romances casually, but after meeting the manipulative Stephen, everything changed for her. Tell Me Lies shows a very real side of unfortunately toxic relationships and is one of the most addictive and engrossing shows on television.

Stephen is the worst-case scenario for an intense relationship

Tell Me Lies had the best marketing tagline: “You’ll never forget the worst.” Stephen DeMarco is the worst thing to happen to not only Lucy, but everyone he meets. When Lucy first arrived on campus, he laid eyes on her. The first episode beautifully depicts this dichotomy as Stephen draws Lucy into his nest. At first, he seems like an ordinary person, or even a real human being, but it’s only in the final moments of the episode that it becomes clear that he was lying all along.

The first season switches back and forth between the two perspectives. Lucy thinks she’s starting a relationship with someone who cares about her. At the same time, Stephen reveals that he is trying to win back his ex-girlfriend Diana while seducing Lucy. Stephen’s motives for how he treats people are always up for debate, but his actions are not. Each episode details his manipulation and gaslighting as he convinces most of the people around him that he is normal. He is a person who does not have much emotion on the inside and only does what is good for himself.

Lucy is not completely innocent of the crimes that occurred on the Baird campus. She is fully capable of being evil in her own way. As the episodes progress, she also begins to get hints about what Steven is capable of, but it’s not fully revealed to her and the viewers until the season 1 finale. After telling many lies, Stephen assumes responsibility for the actual crime and weaves a web of harmful manipulation to exonerate him. He only thinks about number one, but even if he gets it, all bets are off. At the end of Season 1, Lucy’s fragile mansion on the sand falls to the ground, but that doesn’t mean Stephen is satisfied. In fact, in season 2 he becomes an even more tragic monster, which increases the anxiety.

Steven becomes a ticking time bomb in season 2

Lucy knows all the horrible things she’s done in the past, so Stephen needs to make sure she’s under control. He makes everyone on campus think she’s crazy. This is typical behavior of toxic men toward their ex-girlfriends. For Lucy, she just wants to get away from him. He makes this impossible by coming for her at every turn. He humiliates her in front of potential future lovers and even signs her up as a TA in her class. When Diana hears about it, Stephen claims to have learned that Lucy is a TA and signed up for that. Diana believes this because of the complicated lies Stephen has told about Lucy. The stakes are higher in season two. That means Stephen’s behavior becomes even worse and more unpredictable.

Each episode is like a wire of tension, with viewers waiting to see how Stephen’s terrible plan will come to fruition. Some of his actions are more confrontational. He talks bad about people, clearly in an attempt to get advancement from those around him. Other plots are longer and more thought out, such as successfully turning Lucy’s childhood best friend into an enemy. At the end of Season 1, eight years into the future, it is revealed that Lydia and Stephen are engaged. In the next season, the worries grow even more as fans wonder how someone would choose to marry a friend’s ex-boyfriend, which turns out to be deplorable.

Season 2 slowly and horrifyingly reveals why things go so wrong for Lucy. Tell Me Rise trains its audience to expect the worst from Stephen. Knowing that he can do absolutely anything, fans are watching with bated breath to see his reaction and what he will do to get back at those who wronged him. Surprisingly, Stephen and Lucy spend less time together than they did in season 1, leaving the door open for more reprehensible men to walk through.

Bree’s romantic plot this season is a recipe for disaster

In each episode of Season 2, viewers find themselves saying, “Poor Bree.” There has never been a person who deserves the least misfortune and a person who deserves the most misfortune. Bree, a child in the foster care system, is calm and wants nothing more than to find a stable situation. She thinks she found this out on Evan before he admitted to cheating on her – at Stephen’s urging, of course. His actions over the summer make Bree feel that something is wrong, which causes her to come into contact with the worst person. The only consolation this season is the fact that at least it’s not Steven. Bree reaches out to Professor Oliver Knight, played by Tom Ellis, showrunner Meghan Oppenheimer’s real-life husband. Fans who know Ellis for his entertaining performance as the demonic Lucifer will be in for a cruel awakening in Tell Me Rise.

Bree happens to meet Oliver when he sees her fake crying to attend a class she was late to register for. They meet again after she attends a party hosted by the professor. He happened to be Marianne’s husband, her literature professor. From there, it’s almost a collision course. Oliver, betrayed by Evan, seems to be the only one who can understand her. But the dynamics are complicated, and as we all know, these events never end well. From the beginning, Oliver isolates Bree from those who care about her. He sows Bree’s doubts about Evan and tells her that her friends don’t seem to care about her. The closer Bree gets to Oliver, the easier it is for the relationship to develop.

But whatever Oliver needs for Bree comes at a price. He forbids her to tell anyone about their arrangement because it would destroy his life. This warning adds even more danger to the already unpleasant scenario of Bree dating an older professor. Forbidden to speak to anyone, Bree becomes even more isolated, which causes her to continue making bad decisions. The entire season has been preparing us for the inevitable truth that this case must one day be revealed. Every time Bree goes out with Oliver or tells someone about him, her imagination runs wild with how this relationship could fall apart. Tell Me Lies does an exemplary job of subverting expectations, even when the worst happens. When Oliver learned that Bree had told Lucy about their relationship, he was not furious with her. However, this makes the character even more dangerous. His calm demeanor makes it even more clear that something terrible will happen by the end of the season. Like many of the men in the series, Oliver eventually becomes a narcissist and decides not to pursue a future with Bree. The same cannot be said about the cyclical nature of Lucy and Stephen’s toxic relationship.

Flashback structure adds to the anxiety

Each season of the great hot series is a puzzle waiting to be solved by the end of the season. Viewers are faced with the 2015 wedding, when Lucy and Stephen are reunited after four years apart. Every season some turbulent revelations occur and fans are sent back to investigate how it happened. This structure leaves many partnerships in doubt. Bree and Evan are the ones getting married, so it’s clear that at some point her affair with the professor will come under fire. Lydia’s engagement to Stephen raises many questions about how their relationship will work out. Similarly, Lucy’s school romances are always doomed to fail, but it’s a tense experience to see how that happens.

Season 2 will feature a new romance between Leo and Lucy, played by Thomas Doherty from the controversial teen drama. In the future, fans know that Lucy will be with Max instead of with Leo, so it will be a different journey to see how this romantic musical chairs game develops. To put even more pressure on Lucy trying to get over Stephen, Leo is burdened with having serious anger issues. After a fight with a strange man in a coffee shop, Leo admits to a blackout of anger. Certainly, there are major red flags in Tell Me Lies, as the relationship is portrayed with the knowledge that it has to break up for something.

There’s always the danger that Leo could hurt Lucy, but this series subverts expectations once again. Fans may be surprised to see how Leo’s anger boils to the surface and devastates Lucy when she makes the wrong choice. Tell Me Lies is a mystery disguised as a romance, and that’s its genius. This incredibly well-written series finds a way to go beyond its source material and create an even scarier season than the last. This cleverly plotted series is perfect for fans of romance as well as perfect television.