Tell Me Lies Hulu Series: When Toxic Drama Becomes Exhausting

I stuck with it for the book, but this show wore me down

I need to be upfront about something: I hate the premise of Tell Me Lies. Like, genuinely cannot stand the foundation this show is built on. The only reason I kept watching was that I’d read Carola Lovering’s book, and it was decent enough to make me curious how they’d adapt it.

Turns out, they took everything frustrating about the source material and cranked it up to eleven.

TMJ Rating: 🍿🍿/5

The Setup That Lost Me in Tell Me Lies Hulu Series

Lucy starts college, immediately dumps her long-term boyfriend for no real reason, and falls into this toxic relationship with Steven that destroys everyone around them.

The show jumps between her college years and four years later at a wedding where all the mess resurfaces.

The structure works fine. The dual timeline lets you see how these characters ended up so damaged. But the problem is spending time with people this awful for multiple seasons.

Too Much Drama, Not Enough Substance

Here’s my biggest issue with Tell Me Lies Hulu Series: there is too much drama. Every single episode is nonstop manipulation, hookups, betrayals, and emotional destruction. Nobody gets a moment to breathe or be a normal person.

I get that college can be messy and relationships are complicated. But this show takes it to such extremes that it stops feeling real and starts feeling like trauma porn designed to make you yell at your screen.

Steven is a complete piece of trash from start to finish. Lucy swings between victim and villain so much you get whiplash. Everyone else orbits around their toxicity, getting caught in the blast radius.

The supporting characters try to have their own storylines, but everything eventually circles back to Lucy and Steven’s destructive relationship. It gets exhausting watching the same patterns repeat with slightly different circumstances.

Check out Maintenance Required: A Rom-Com That Needs More Than an Oil Change

The Performances Carry Dead Weight

I’ll give credit where it’s due: Grace Van Patten and Jackson White have undeniable chemistry. You can feel the tension radiating off them in every scene. White especially nails playing someone who’s charming on the surface but completely hollow underneath.

The supporting cast does solid work too. Everyone commits fully to these messy, self-absorbed characters. The acting isn’t the problem.

The problem is what they’re being asked to act out week after week.

Rich Kids Making Bad Choices

Every character in this show is a privileged East Coast college kid whose biggest concerns are who’s sleeping with whom and what drama happened at the last party.

There’s no moral center, no one to root for, no redeeming qualities anywhere.

If you’ve ever encountered these types of people in real life, the show captures that energy perfectly. The vapid self-absorption, the casual cruelty disguised as honesty, the complete inability to think about consequences.

But nailing the vibe of horrible people doesn’t make them enjoyable to watch for hours.

When Drama Becomes White Noise

By the time you hit the big twists and reveals, you’re so numb from constant chaos that nothing really lands.

Steven does something awful? Of course he does. Lucy makes a destructive choice? Shocking.

The season finales try to deliver these massive emotional gut punches, but when every episode is already operating at a ten, there’s nowhere left to escalate to that feels meaningful.

The show refuses to let anyone grow or change in substantial ways. Characters just keep cycling through the same toxic patterns with different people, which makes the whole thing feel pointless.

Should You Subject Yourself to This?

If you love trainwreck relationship dramas where everyone is terrible and nothing gets better, Tell Me Lies will scratch that itch. The chemistry between the leads is real, the production quality is solid, and the show commits fully to its messy premise.

But if you need characters to root for, storylines that build to something meaningful, or any sense that growth is possible, this will frustrate you endlessly.

I made it through multiple seasons because I’d invested time in the book. Would I recommend that anyone else do the same? Probably not; unless you have a high tolerance for nonstop drama and morally bankrupt characters.

Tell Me Lies is well-made misery. Sometimes that’s enough for people. For me, it was just exhausting.

Have you watched this show? Did the constant drama work for you or wear you down? Let me know if I’m being too harsh!