Some summers never end. Some secrets never die.
The We Were Liars television adaptation of E. Lockhart’s bestselling young adult novel is finally arriving on our screens this summer as a haunting symphony of memory and loss. Weaving together the golden threads of a seemingly perfect summer with the dark undertones of tragedy that lurk beneath the Sinclair family’s pristine facade—the series transforms E. Lockhart’s beloved novel into a visual tapestry where teenage love burns bright against the backdrop of privilege and power. Creating a psychological thriller that promises to unravel like a carefully guarded lie, revealing the beautiful devastation that lies at the heart of every family’s darkest secrets.
Fans of the beloved novel can finally experience this tragic love story and amnesia thriller in a new visual medium that promises to capture all the mystery, family drama, and shocking revelations that made the book a phenomenon in a dream-like, hauntingly beautiful setting.
Everything you need to know about ‘We Were Liars’ TV series:
What is it about?
Emily Alyn Lind, Esther McGregor, Joseph Zada, Shubham Maheshwari
Based on E. Lockhart’s best-selling novel of the same name, We Were Liars is a dream-like YA mystery series centring around a group of four teenagers known as “the Liars”—Cadence, Gat, Johnny, and Mirren—who spend their summers together on the family’s private island, off the coast of Massachusetts. However, one summer, Cady struggles to remember events from her past after suffering a terrible accident.
Emily Alyn Lind steps into the fractured world of Cady Sinclair, a girl whose mind holds fragments of a summer that changed everything, supported by a cast that breathes life into characters caught between the weight of family expectations and the devastating power of buried truth. The story unfolds through its handling of unreliable narration on how she grapples with memory loss, attempting to piece together her fractured past while her cherished liar keeps secrets from her.
The show explores themes of family dysfunction, wealth, privilege, and the corruption of power within the context of protecting dark secrets. We Were Liars stands as both an exemplar and a cautionary tale about the power of narrative to both reveal and conceal truth. What distinguishes both Lockhart’s source material and its televisual incarnation is their use of amnesia not merely as a plot device, but as a literary metaphor for the selective forgetting that allows generational trauma to persist.
The show is an 8-episode limited series, though there’s potential for future seasons since the book is part of a trilogy. The adaptation was created by Carina Adly MacKenzie and Julie Plec, with author E. Lockhart serving as executive producer.
Who is in the cast?
Emily Alyn Lind as Cadence Sinclair Eastman, Shubham Maheshwari as Gat Patil, Esther McGregor as Mirren Sinclair Sheffield, and Joseph Zada as Johnny Sinclair Dennis.
The series also features Caitlin FitzGerald, Mamie Gummer, Candice King, David Morse and Wendy Crewson in supporting roles.
When will it premiere?
Where can you watch it?
On Prime Video here.
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More about the film through the lens of Emily Alyn Lind and Shubham Maheshwari:
For those unfamiliar with the book, how would you describe “We Were Liars” in your own words?
Beautiful, visceral and poetic
The series delves into the topics of privilege, family dynamics, and the lengths people go to protect their secrets. In your opinion, in what ways do these elements enrich the story?
Shubham: I think it’s just done in such a truthful way. And, one thing that I like about the way they’ve done the show is that we’re also seeing the story from Gat’s perspective and also the other characters. I think it’s just shown in such an honest way that we hope it’s relatable to people and something that they can connect to.
Emily: I think it’s kind of brutally honest. These characters and this family are not likeable in any way. Whether you’re watching them, reading the script, watching them on screen or reading the book, you’ll know that they aren’t woke. A lot of them aren’t good people deep down. And I think that the show does a good job of telling that.
Without spoiling it, how did you react when you first read the script and discovered the truth about what happened that summer?
Emily: A lot of emotions. I mean, I had already read the book so the spoiler was there, but gosh, the way that they adapted that into the final episode and Emily Lockhart, the author of the book, also wrote our final episode and it was just so emotional and having lived with these characters for an entire summer and loving them so much and having a face to these names and knowing what happens, it broke my heart. We were just crying in the last week of filming. We were just bawling.
What would be a theme song for each of your characters?
Shubham: Gat would listen to classical music. He reads a lot and things about the world in different ways—I feel like his music doesn’t have to have words in it.
Emily: Cadence goes through a lot of different emotions and personalities, so maybe something by Amy Winehouse.
What were your favourite scenes to film?
Emily: There was a scene in the first episode where Cadence and Gat take the boat out together, and it’s kind of the first time that their relationship turns from friendship to maybe something more. It was the first scene that we ever rehearsed together, and then we ended up filming it way down the line. There was just something about that day—we were out on a boat for eight or nine hours, and no one could be there except the camera crew and the director. We just felt like we were so isolated in this beautiful way. It just felt so real. We just connected so much after that, and I remember we looked at each other and we’re like, this is going to be good.
