Brief Story Line
The series focused on the large really wealthy family of Sinclairs that consisted of the parents Harris (David Morse - Double Vision, Disturbia etc) and his wife Tipper (Wendy Crewson - The Kid Detective, On the Basis of Sex etc) with their three daughters, the eldest Carrie (Mamie Gummer - Emily Owens, M.D. TV series etc, Out of Blue etc), the middle Penny (Caitlin FitzGerald - Masters of Sex TV series, Lost on a Mountain in Maine etc) and the youngest Bess (Candice King - The Vampire Diaries TV series, After We Collided etc). Every summer, they would all gather in Beechwood island where the Sinclair sisters brought along their children to spend holidays there. While Penny was divorced and Bess' husband was always busy, only Carrie who always came with her partner Ed Patil (Rahul Kohli - Death and Other Details TV series, The Life of Chuck etc).
Penny's daughter Cady (Emily Alyn Lind - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Gossip Girl TV series etc) was the first grand child and referred to as the first Heir. She was almost same age as her cousins Johnny (Joseph Zada - Invisible Boys TV series etc), Carrie's son and Mirren (Esther McGregor - High School TV series etc), Bess' daughter. Together with Ed's nephew Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) they were very close and called the Liars, while the younger children were called the Littles. During the Summer 16 (when Cady was 16 years old), something occurred that resulted to her having no memory of what happened. In the following year, Cady returned to Beechwood trying to recollect her memory, though she was having trouble as everyone seemed adamant not to tell her.
So what actually happened? And how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I read briefly on the headlines of the series & the premise, I thought I was in for a really intriguing mysterious series that would keep me hooked and unable to stop watching. However, once I began the first episode, I immediately could see that it had a strong teen drama vibe and also some feeling of seeing a soap opera. Especially when looking at the mostly blonde good looking people who were obviously written that way according to the book. Yes this series was indeed based on the critically acclaimed & best selling Young Adult novel of the same title, written by E. Lockhart in 2014.
Anyway from the beginning where the story was narrated by Cadence aka Cady and the characters were introduced (which took a bit of time for me to familiarize), I thought it was just so so. Even when that episode finished, I still thought it was OK but not up to the level of awesome. And as I continued watching, even though there were few flashes of intriguing scenes, I felt the drama took too much screen time and not enough things that totally raise my curiosity, except of course the why and the how Cady lost her memory. Not until I reached to episode 7 that things suddenly escalated as we were given the shocking truth. But I think there was an even better revelation shown during the season finale, although the ending was a bit unexpected. I thought the series was better ended without that final scene which likely was done to tease about second season.
Now according to the info I read, there was another novel written in 2022 titled Family of Liars which as I understand was a prequel and told the story of the Sinclair Sisters. So I guess the developer wanted to make another season based on that book and probably want to maintain majority of the main cast. I also found out that the ending deviated a bit of the novel though most of the things remain in tact. The series itself was developed by Julie Plec, the person behind hit series of The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off The Originals, together with Carina Adly Mackenzie creator of Roswell, New Mesico. This probably explained that strong teen drama feel.
The cast of the series were actually quite excellent. I thought their acting was pretty good and convincing including newcomer Shubham Maheshwari. In addition to the ones I mentioned, there were few recurring characters such as Bess' husband Brody (Dylan Bruce - Midnight, Texas TV series etc), water taxi driver Ebon (Dempsey Bryk - Willow TV series etc), Johnny's younger brother Will (Brady Droulis) and several others. As I said above, critics seem to be impressed by the series as proven by its pretty high Rotten Tomato scores, while audience looked to be enjoying it as well (been in the top 10 of Prime Video in various countries, including Indonesia).
Overall I think this series was OK. It did not exactly have a great opening as my curiosity was not really piqued and I felt like watching soap opera rather than psychological thriller. It did have a quite shocking twist which I did not really foresee, but because I was not really that intrigued, it was not totally satisfying. And the final scene before the end was not exactly proper conclusion either. If it was supposed to be a teaser, I was not really happy by it. So if you are interested in watching a teen drama dubbed as psychological thriller with good looking cast, then you probably would enjoy this a lot. But if you are seeking a thrilling mystery psychological drama series, there is possibility you will be less satisfied like I was. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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