WISE Score
Avg. Tomatometer
A high school gossip app creator dies in detention, leaving four classmates to find the killer before their own darkest secrets hit the internet.
6.991%
If your teen is looking for a mystery that feels like The Breakfast Club met a murder podcast, this is it. It’s slick, well-acted, and avoids some of the more gratuitous 'edginess' found in other modern teen dramas.
It’s not exactly deep art, but it’s a very competent thriller that handles its ensemble cast well. The mystery is tight enough that you'll probably find yourself leaning over their shoulder to see who actually did it.
This is firmly for the 14+ crowd. It deals with murder, drug use, and sexual identity in a way that middle schoolers might find too intense or just socially over their heads. If they've read the Karen M. McManus book, they're ready for the show.
It's a murder mystery built on secrets, lies, and high school betrayal. While it eventually explores deeper bonds between the 'Bayview Four,' the starting point is a toxic culture of gossip and academic pressure.
The 'Breakfast Club with a body count' premise is a clever hook. It doesn't reinvent the wheel of the teen thriller, but it subverts standard archetypes just enough to keep the mystery engaging.
Contains teen drinking, drug use, sexual situations, and the central plot point of a student's death. It's safe for its intended teen audience but definitely not a 'family night' pick for younger siblings.
It does a solid job of deconstructing the 'jock, brain, beauty, criminal' labels. It asks real questions about how far kids will go to meet parental expectations and the damage of digital gossip.
One of Us Is Lying arrived in 2021 as an adaptation of the massive YA bestseller, and it largely succeeds by sticking to what made the book work: the characters. We’ve seen the 'misfits in detention' story a thousand times, but adding a corpse and a ticking clock of leaked secrets turns a cliché into a compelling puzzle.
What makes this worth a watch—and why it holds up better than many Peacock originals—is that it treats its teen protagonists like actual people with conflicting loyalties rather than just plot devices. You have the 'Brain' (Bronwyn) who is willing to cheat for a grade, the 'Jock' (Cooper) hiding his true self, the 'Princess' (Addy) trapped in a toxic relationship, and the 'Criminal' (Nate) who is actually the most honest of the bunch.
For parents, the 'About That' app in the show is a great entry point for talking about the reality of gossip in the age of social media. It’s not just about 'being mean'; it’s about the permanent, life-altering nature of digital leaks. The show doesn't moralize this too heavily, but the consequences are laid bare in every episode. If your kid is into Pretty Little Liars or Outer Banks, this is a more grounded, slightly smarter alternative that respects the viewer's intelligence.
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