Tell Me Lies: Season 2 – Review

Plot Summary

In 2008, summer has passed, and it is fall again, but things haven’t changed much. Stephen remains a sociopath using Diana for her privilege while orbiting Lucy, who tries to move on with a man named Leo, who has his own issues. As that happens, Pippa continues to deal with the aftermath of what happened in the last season and finds herself struggling with her friend group being what it is. Bree? Oh, she has a good girl gone bad type of season as she and Evan have the type of rough patch that makes you wonder how, in 2015, they ended up engaged.

Altogether, you may feel like we got more of the same in season 2, just with a better idea of who is who and what they are capable of.

Review

Our Rating: Mixed (Stick Around)

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Highlights

The Lows Stephen Will Go

What Stephen has and will always bring to “Tell Me Lies” is a reminder of why so many women say men ain’t **** and make generalizations. For what is Evan, Wrigley, or any other man in Stephen’s life doing to stop him, shame him, or hold him accountable? Nothing.

So he can torture Lucy, dangling his feelings, some sense of approval, and more over her. Then, with Diana, he will play the same game, despite her being older, smarter, and having more to offer. It’s the audacity, the ego, the risks, and how calculated things are so that, like a rubber band, Stephen can push any woman he is interested in so far, and yet they bounce right back to him.

Seeing how low he will go to win makes him the type of villain you almost don’t want to lose, for you want to see what he’ll do next.

Wrigley, In Episode 7

With Wrigley’s brother gone, him struggling without a sports career, and the writing seeming as aimless as the character, for most of the season, you may wonder why is Wrigley here? But, after reconciling with Pippa and hitting a low point, Spencer House, Wrigley’s actor, pulls out a performance that reminds you how vulnerable Wrigley is and that, while he has been a whore in the past, he craves love and attention and has now lost his source of that.

So to see him get cut to pieces by Stephen, then Pippa, and we bear witness to this giant blubbering mess, it could have easily come off comical, like watching Jason Segel cry. But instead, it is perhaps one of the hardest-hitting moments of the season, if not the series. It reminds you, a lot of the time, it isn’t the actor who is the problem, but writers who don’t know what to do with a character, which leads to the actor having to bear the weight of criticism.

Two Can Play That Game – Diana’s Storyline

Diana ends the season on a high note, and probably in the best position of the entire cast. Whether in 2008 or 2015, she seems to be in a good place and learned how to play the game, and while that 7-year time gap leaves a lot of questions, the season finale leaves you mainly thinking about what Diana did, specifically to Stephen, over anything else which happened in the finale.

Leo

Leo is that one-season character you wish got an extended stay. As Lucy’s boyfriend, he had his work cut out for him as she recovered from her relationship with Stephen and the bad habits she picked up or found that she liked. From episode to episode, you saw him set boundaries, hold her accountable, and push her to be better and while she struggled to keep up with her end of the deal at times, she usually tried to make it work.

Mind you, Leo wasn’t perfect. He had anger issues, but you can see he did the work, was doing the work, and while he may have had his moments, it seemed strictly geared towards men. What was notable is that, even with Stephen and what Stephen did to him originally, he was able to spend time around Stephen without decking him, headbutting him, etc.

Now, by the end of the season, Leo let loose and gave us all a cathartic release, but until then, Leo was perhaps one of the few who you’ve seen didn’t try to make their pain, their issues, but actually work on them, which was a nice change of pace for the show. I’d even say it showed all that was possible.

On The Fence

Bree’s Storyline

I get that college is a time to let loose, explore, and maybe challenge who others and even you thought you were. However, with Bree, the issue of watching her become someone’s mistress was that it felt so out of character and forced. It felt like a storyline to drum up interest in one of the least dramatic characters on “Tell Me Lies,” and all it ultimately did was show how this program aims for something I wouldn’t even call controversial for “Tell Me Lies” is rather tame when it comes to that.

I will say, though, that it did feel almost desperate, even with Tom Ellis cast as her love interest. While it showed you what Bree was capable of, I’d also submit that it destroyed much of what made her likable and didn’t replace it with something to make her seem evolved or new. They just stuck her with a storyline you could imagine for any of the characters, like they had a contract to fulfill and didn’t want to waste money benching her.

Past Doesn’t Fully Explain Present

Seven years is a long time, and while in season 1 you could understand how the events of the past led to the present, season 2 severs your ability to understand what is going on in 2015. Take Pippa and Diana’s situation. While part of Pippa’s storyline deals with her questioning her sexuality, we are not given any real clue how she ended up with Diana. The season doesn’t even end with their friendship, which was developing, ending in a good place.

The same goes for Evan and Bree and Stephen’s situation with Lydia. It all makes you feel like the 2015 versions of everyone are more of a bane on the show than a tease, especially considering how some characters seemingly had minimal growth over that time span.

The Way Stephen Is Performed

Recognizing Stephen is supposed to be a sociopath, cold-hearted, and a bit off; this doesn’t discount me wishing Jackson White gave more. You can be this cutthroat ass but still have some kind of recognizable charm or emote and give something beyond delivering your lines and showing up on your marker.

To me, what White needed is the same thing House was given in episode 7 – proof that it is more so the writers and people not on screen that are the limiting factors, not the actor who is front and center. But, despite the opportunities to show Stephen as something complex and interesting, we got someone who feels bland and, at best, a means to give other characters something to react to.

Overall

The second season of “Tell Me Lies” pushes you to wonder how much time should be given for a show to find its rhythm? This show could do better, as shown through Leo and Wrigley in one episode and occasionally with Pippa and Diana. But, it somehow ends up in what feels like a slow decline throughout season 2 as Stephen doesn’t become much more than a catalyst, Lucy becomes more frustrating by the episode, and they decimate Bree’s character to make her messy with no value coming out of her journey.

Check Out Our Coverage Of This Season