Title: One of us is lying season 1
Actors: Annalisa Cochrane, Chibuikem Uche and more
Director: John Scott, Sophia Takal and more
Writers: Karen M. McManus, Erica Saleh and more
Genre: Drama, crime
My Rating: 5.5/10
Warning: This review contains spoilers
One of us is lying
Five people (Simon, Cooper, Nate, Addy and Bronwyn) are in detention, but only four of them make it out alive. Not much later, the police are investigating this case because they are starting to think that one of the others killed Simon. While the police are doing their investigating, the four are also trying to find out who killed Simon and who is trying to frame them for murder. Is someone trying to frame them or is one of them the murderer of Simon? There are a lot of suspects because everyone had a reason to hate Simon. Simon wrote about his fellow students on his app ‘About That’ and shared their secrets.
Review
The other day when I realized this series would come out, I decided to reread the book ‘one of us is lying’. Because it had been a while since I read it and I forgot what the book was about. I only knew who killed Simon. So when I decided to watch the first episode, I was pretty excited at first. But after watching the first episode, I was so confused because they changed a lot of things this time. Sometimes the creators do a great job when they are trying to make a book to movie adaption, but honestly, this was not it.
To be honest, I think it would have been better if I had never had read the book. Because now I thought what was going to happen but then it never happened. And they did not only change a couple of little things, but they also changed the whole storyline and eventually even who the killer of Simon. That was so disappointing! That plot twist was so good in the book, but now they all changed it. Why would you change the storyline when it was already so good. That is just asking for problems. Never change a winning team, is something they say right? The whole ending was one big disappointment.
And that was just one thing I did not like. It started with the little details like Bronwyn without glasses, while in the book she could not even see a thing without her glasses. I also pictured the main characters a little bit different, at least younger. I expected Bronwyn nerdier and not give a shit about what she is wearing. Jake was also different. In the book he was controlling and especially at the beginning I did not get the feeling he was a controlling boyfriend. And Addy who constantly tried to get back with Jake, that was stupid. In the book, she became a bad-ass bitch.
Also, the whole storyline of Cooper and hiding that he was secret was so much better in the book. He was not fake dating Keely and in the book, his dad did not approve he was gay at all. In the series, he was okay with it but he had to hide it for the baseball world. It was just not the same.
And there is Maeve, Bronwyn little sister, her storyline is so much bigger in the books. In the books, she hated Simon for what he wrote about her and in the series she suddenly has/had a crush on Simon? Like what? And there is the whole laptop thing, I liked Maeve hacking into his system from a library computer so much better (book version).
I wonder if Karen was okay with these changes? Because I just can’t imagine that you wrote a great book and Netflix is like ‘we are going to change a lot of things and storylines’. I also blame Netflix for this! This was a terrible decision. Maybe they changed a lot of things because they want to make more seasons. From that perspective, it makes sense but then you still could follow the original storyline because there are books in this series.
Maybe I would have liked this series if I had not read the books. But this time I can not forgive Netflix for taking this book and then turning it into something else. I am still angry about it, especially the ending. that did not make any sense to me. Now I am not sure if I still want to watch the other seasons. I still want to read the rest of the books because I liked that storyline a lot. But if there will be a season 2 on Netflix, I have to think about it. They already changed so many things in the first season, I can’t imagine they would ever follow the second book. Especially not with that ending. But who knows? I can always try the first episode to find out if they actually will follow the normal storyline.
If you read the book, you will be disappointed by the series. I read so many people talking about they liked the book better. I know that happens most of the time. Rarely, the movie/series is better than the book but this was the next level. Sometimes they just change a few little details, but this time they changed everything. If you watched the series but never read the book, read the book now! It is so much better. The tension in the book is amazing and the ending is incredible in my opinion. You will not be disappointed.
I just realized that Netflix is also going to make a series about ‘heartstopper’ comic books soon. THey better follow the storyline because it is the point of making a book to screen adaption if you don’t follow the storyline.
Netflix, if you read this, never change too many things if you make a book to screen adaption.