Prime Video's 'We Were Liars' Cast and Characters, Explained

In the mood for a summer mystery? We Were Liars, the new Prime Video series based on the novel by E. Lockhart, takes us to Beachwood–the private island owned by the Sinclair family–and the mystery of what happened at the end of Summer 16. The main characters are four cousins (and one non-relation) who call themselves "the liars" and have spent summers together since they were eight years old, a.k.a. Summer 8, playing and getting into trouble.
The liars grow up together until one summer changes everything for them and their family members. Like any show about a big family, it does take a minute to tell cousins from siblings and learn which child belongs to which parent. Here's what you need to know about the cast and crew of We Were Liars.

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Elle

4 hours ago

• Elle

18 TV Shows You Absolutely Can't Miss This Summer

Sometimes the best getaways are the ones where you don't have to leave your couch—all you have to do is press play. Maybe the destination is a high-pressure kitchen in Chicago, or the upper crust of England in the 1870s, or—for the more gothically inclined—the spooky halls of Nevermore Academy. No matter where you're headed, rest assured there are no lines or bumpy airplane rides involved. There's a lot to watch this summer, both on the big and small screen. If the latter is more up your alley, you just might find your next watch among our recommended titles below. And if you're still catching up on this year's TV offerings, check out our picks for the best TV shows of 2025 so far. And Just Like That...'s third season picked up after the emotional season 2 finale, where Carrie hosted a farewell party for her apartment and Aidan announced he wanted to take a five-year break, for family reasons. Showrunner Michael Patrick King promised in Entertainment Weekly to deliver 'new loves, fresh challenges, and surprising reunions,' plus an exciting twist: the return of Carrie's iconic voiceover as she writes a new book. Follow along as she works on her draft—and her romance with Aidan. New episodes arrive weekly on Thursdays on HBO Max through August 14. Watch Now on HBO Max Based on Edith Wharton's (unfinished) novel of the same name, The Buccaneers follows five young American women in the 1870s who set off across the pond to marry into high society Britain. Kristine Frøseth, Alisha Boe, Aubri Ibrag, Josie Totah, Imogen Waterhouse, Mia Threapleton, and Christina Hendricks star. This season, they are joined by Leighton Meester, in a guest role. Another bonus: Season 2's soundtrack includes Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, and more. New episodes arrive weekly on Wednesdays on Apple TV+ through August 6. Watch Now on Apple TV+ Sometimes, a teen drama summer drama just does the trick. We Were Liars, based on E. Lockhart's 2014 bestseller, follows a group of elite teenagers who call themselves 'the Liars.' They're the kind of kids who vacation on a friend's private island in New England every summer. But when their ringleader, Cadence Sinclair Eastman, experiences a mysterious accident, everyone's secrets come to the surface. Watch Now on Prime Video After the first season made a splash on Netflix, season 2 of America's Sweethearts once again takes us behind the curtain of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders franchise, this time focused on tryouts for the 2024-25 season. Meet new stars as they vie for a spot on the iconic squad, dive into the members' personal lives, and follow along as they negotiate for equitable pay. Watch Now on Netflix HBO's The Gilded Age returns for a third season full of even more drama and social intrigue among the elites in 1880s New York. Deadline reports Manhattan's 'society will change drastically' in this installment, and there will be new cast members, including Phylicia Rashad, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Victoria Clark, Dylan Baker, Kate Baldwin, Michael Cumpsty, John Ellison Conlee, Bobby Steggert, and Hannah Shealy. On HBO June 22. After making her debut as Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dominique Thorne returns in Ironheart as the young tech genius, who engineers a super suit that could rival Iron Man's. The series is set in Chicago following the events of the film, and finds Riri and her inventions clashing with Parker Robbins, a.k.a. The Hood (Anthony Ramos). On Disney+ June 24. Attention, chefs! Season 4 of FX's The Bear is set to return this year. It will likely tie up loose ends from the season 3 finale, including Sydney's major career decision, and the restaurant's struggle to earn a Michelin star while balancing Carmy's exacting standards. 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'I know Jenny is really just strong on staying as true to the books as possible and hitting the main points,' Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah) told People. Kyra Sedgwick, who played Aunt Julia, won't return, but fans can look forward to new twists inspired by Han's novel. On Prime Video on July 16. We've been blessed with another Sterling K. Brown show. The Paradise and This Is Us star leads this new Hulu series as the titular protagonist, an enslaved boy on a sugar plantation in Barbados, who also happens to be a scientific genius. When a traumatic event sends him on the run, his escape turns into a series of travels around the world. This decades-spanning saga is based on the 2018 book of the same name by Esi Edugyan. On Hulu July 23. Fashion gets competitive again this summer as Project Runway kicks off its 21st season with a fresh cast and some familiar faces. Judges Nina Garcia, Law Roach, and Heidi Klum return to the panel, with Christian Siriano back as a mentor. With sharp critiques, high-stakes challenges, and the kind of runway drama that never goes out of style, this season promises to give us plenty to talk about both on and off the catwalk. On Freeform, Hulu, and Disney+ July 31. If you're waiting to see more Seth Rogen on your screen after The Studio, check out his other Apple TV+ comedy, Platonic, co-starring Rose Byrne. The duo play a pair of best friends who 'contend with new mid-life hurdles including work, weddings and partners in crises' in season 2, according to the streamer. Saturday Night Live alums Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Beck Bennett are set to guest-star. On Apple TV+ August 6. Season 2 of Wednesday introduces new characters as Jenna Ortega's titular Addams Family character faces darker challenges at Nevermore. The new cast members include Steve Buscemi, Evie Templeton, Owen Painter, Noah Taylor, and Billie Piper, according to Netflix's Tudum. Showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar told the site they aimed to 'discover some fresh faces as well as invite some acting legends we've always admired to join Jenna and the gang at Nevermore.' And they did exactly that: 'Mission accomplished,' the duo added. Part 1 on Netflix August 6; part 2 on Netflix September 3. Outlander might be nearing its eighth and final season, but Jamie and Claire's universe only continues to grow. This prequel series dives into the equally romantic love stories of their parents, set in the Scottish Highlands in the 18th century and Britain amid World War I. Prepare to see new faces behind familiar names—hello, young Dougal MacKenzie and Murtagh Fraser. On Starz August 8. Noah Hawley, creator of the Fargo series and Legion, is behind this new chapter of the Alien franchise. It's set in the future—the year 2120, to be exact—when a space research vessel crash-lands onto Earth. Wendy, a 'humanoid robot infused with human consciousness,' according to FX, encounters the crash and finds a grave threat to the planet. On FX and Hulu August 12. Grace Van Patten steps into the role of Amanda Knox in this limited series based on Knox's years-long fight to clear her name. Created by This Is Us writer KJ Steinberg and executive produced in part by Monica Lewinsky and Knox herself, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox dramatizes the infamous case that began with a study-abroad semester in Italy and spiraled into a global media storm. The result is a psychological drama about protecting one's identity, the search for justice, and who gets to control the narrative. On Hulu August 20.

Cosmopolitan

9 hours ago

• Cosmopolitan

We Were Liars season 1 ending explained

Those who read E. Lockhart's sensational novel We Were Liars before it was adapted by Julie Plec for Prime Video are probably feeling pretty smug right now. The show, just like its source material, is keeping a major secret that isn't revealed until mid-way through the final episode. If you haven't read the book and are feeling majorly WTF, or want to skip to the proverbial last page and get spoiled, here's what you need to know about the ending of We Were Liars. At the beginning of the season, seventeen year old Cadence Sinclair, played by Emily Alyn Lind, returns to her family's private island after sustaining a head injury and post-traumatic amnesia the previous year. Cadence has been struggling to remember what happened during Summer 16–the label that "the liars" she and her cousin Mirren, her cousin Johnny, and her boyfriend (and Johnny's future stepbrother) Gat give to the summer when they were all sixteen years old. She thinks that returning to the island will jog her memory, but everything feels off. Why did her grandfather rebuild their island mansion into an early modern monstrosity? Why didn't her cousins or Gat call her all year while she was recovering? Her mother tells her that every time anyone tells her what happened, she has a mental episode, blacks out and forgets again. This feels a bit convenient, given that the Sinclair family way is to pretend that bad things never happened. In the We Were Liars finale, Cadence works with her cousins and Gat to remember what happened without triggering herself so bad that she forgets it all over again. Leading into the finale, Cadence remembers one key thing: fire. In the penultimate episode, Cadence at least remembers that the liars burned down Clairmont, the family mansion, as a symbolic "f**k you" to decades of family rivalry and expectations. They decide that the Sinclairs need a clean slate. The four liars thought they had a good plan. They split up spreading boat fuel around the house. Gat prepares a getaway vehicle. They were all supposed to light their matches and run out of the house at the stroke of midnight. But the drunk, wealthy teenagers made some crucial, and deadly miscalculations. The first thing that Cadence remembers is that all four of them forgot that there were two drugged-up dogs sleeping in the basement!! The moment Cadence, who was on the ground floor, ran outside she heard their cries. She heads back inside to get them, and sustained a head injury, but it was too late. She ran back outside, bleeding and burning. Cadence demands that Johnny, Gat, and Mirren tell her the rest. What else didn't go to plan? They didn't think about how fast fire spreads and smoke rises. Creating a safe exit by avoiding the main staircase was not enough. Mirren hesitated to save one of her paintings that her mom kept–proving to her in that moment that her mom really did care about her. Johnny hesitated looking at childhood photos and smashing things with a golf club. They were trapped. When nobody showed up, Gat left the boat and followed them inside the burning house. They also forgot about the gas main line. Once the fire spread far enough to hit it, the house exploded. This is what catapulted Cadence into the ocean where she was found. She was the only survivor. Gat, Johnny, Mirren, and the dogs all died in the fire. Yup! For all of the Summer 17 timeline, a.k.a. the scenes where Cadence has brown hair, she has been talking and hanging out and arguing with their ghosts. You may have noticed throughout that while they might try to talk to the rest of them family, nobody else talks to them or sees them. In the final episode, it becomes more and more apparent that they're not just ghosts they like... represent Cadence's trauma and suppressed memories. They are ghosts, though, and ghosts who were afraid of moving on once Cadence didn't need them anymore. So they do it together. They hold hands, jump off the dock, and vanish... One of the final things that Cadence remembers about Summer 16 is that, before she ran out of the house, she hesitated too. Greed took over and she ran upstairs to steal her grandmother's black pearl necklace. She thinks this is why Gat didn't see her outside when they planned and ran into the fire. She blames herself for his death. Ghost Gat absolves her of that guilt. He could have saved himself. He also went against the plan. (Since Cadence ran back inside the house seconds later for the dogs, I personally don't think running upstairs made a huge difference. Gat would have seen her go back inside. He would have seen that Johnny and Mirren didn't make it out and gone to help regardless. Speaking of the dogs, that's the guilt she should be feeling. The four liars made some stupid mistakes that got them killed–the dogs didn't do anything! Go apologise to their ghosts!!) Harris, who somehow escaped the hospital and found Cadence on the beach, kind of softly blackmails his granddaughter. He knows that she's guilty of arson, animal cruelty, and involuntary manslaughter. He urges her to tell the version of the story he has been telling for a year: the fire was an accident and Cadence got hurt trying to save the others. Keeping her family's horrible secrets is her burden now. At the end of the show, Harris asks Cadence to talk to a reporter doing a profile on their family, played by We Were Liars author E. Lockhart herself. Cadence refuses, telling Harris and the family that she's not interested in fairy tales anymore, and takes off in a boat by herself. She tosses Tipper's necklace into the ocean like it's Titanic. This is a triumphant moment and all; I'm so happy that Cadence came to that realisation, but... surely that doesn't mean she's going to turn herself in to the police, or come clean to her mum, Ed, and her aunts about how the other liars died? It's fair to assume that Harris won't actually do it himself and voluntarily hurt his legacy like that. But Cadence is experiencing a moment of freedom at the end of We Were Liars, not a lifetime of it. She's ultimately trapped too. The We Were Liars finale leaves things open for at least one other season in two different ways. In one of the rare moments we see the Sinclair sisters actually deal with the loss of their children, Bess tells Carrie that she thinks the fire was punishment for what happened on her Summer 16 when they were teenagers. Bess says that there's just one caveat: if the Sinclair sisters are being punished for what they did, why was Penny spared? Mysterious! (There is a prequel novel, titled Family of Liars, that was published in 2022...) Then, in an even more harrowing moment, we see Carrie secretly take pills while packing up to leave the island. She's off the wagon and hiding it from Ed. She can also see Johnny's ghost, who tells her he can't leave just yet. The way she says "I thought you'd left" lowkey implies that she's been seeing his ghost, like Cadence, the whole time during Summer 17 too. That's enough unfinished business for a We Were Liars Season two, don't you think? We Were Liars is available on Prime Video now

UPI

10 hours ago

• UPI

Summer reading: 5 books being adapted for film, TV

1 of 5 | Pierce Brosnan stars in a film adaptation of "The Thursday Murder Club." File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo June 20 (UPI) -- We Were Liars, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Rainmaker and other books are getting film and television adaptations this summer. The new adaptations will arrive on streaming platforms in June, July and August. John Slattery and Pierce Brosnan are among the stars who appear in upcoming film or TV adaptations. Read on for an overview of what to expect: 'We Were Liars' E. Lockhart's young adult suspense novel was published in 2018, followed by a prequel novel, Family of Liars, in 2022. Prime Video's adaptation stars Emily Alyn Lind as Cadence Sinclair Eastman, a wealthy girl trying to uncover secrets after an accident that she doesn't remember. The series also stars Caitlin Fitzgerald, Shubham Mahewshwari, Esther McGregor, Joseph Zada, Mamie Gummer, Candice King, Rahul Kohli and David Morse. Prime Video released a trailer for the series in June that shows Cadence returning to the scene of the incident to try and remember what happened to her. We Were Liars began streaming Wednesday. '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was penned by Jules Verne in 1869 and follows the adventures of Captain Nemo as he helms the Nautilus submarine. AMC is delivering a series inspired by the novel, titled Nautilus. Shazad Latif stars as Nemo, a prince and East India Mercantile Company prisoner who steals the submarine and escapes captivity. His adventure sends him on a quest to find mythic treasure while outrunning his captors. Georgia Flood, Celine Menville, Thierry Fremont, Richard E. Grant, Anna Torv and Noah Taylor also star. Two episodes arrive on AMC and AMC+ on June 29. 'The Institute' The Institute, written by Stephen King, was published in 2019, and will serve as inspiration for an upcoming show of the same name. MGM+ is adapting the book, and King will also serve as an executive producer on the project. Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman) is teenager who is abducted and taken to a facility where other kidnapped children with unique abilities are living. Ben Barnes portrays the police officer Tim Jamieson, who crosses paths with Luke. Mary-Louise Parker, Simone Miller, Fionn Laird, Hannah Galway, Julian Richings, Robert Joy and Martin Roach also star. Two episodes arrive on MGM+ July 13. 'The Rainmaker' John Grisham penned the 1995 novel The Rainmaker, which was previously adapted as a 1997 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon and Claire Danes. The story will also serve as the inspiration for a new series on USA Network. Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) gets fired from Leo Drummond's (John Slattery) law firm on his first day of work. His new gig working for Bruiser (Lana Parrilla) forces Rudy to face his old boss and his girlfriend (Madison Iseman) in the courtroom. P.J. Byrne, Dan Fogler, Wade Briggs and Robyn Cara also star in the series, which premieres Aug. 15. 'Thursday Murder Club' Richard Osman's 2020 novel serves as the inspiration for an upcoming Netflix film starring Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone director Chris Columbus helms the movie, and he described the cast as "the finest" since that film. Mirren portrays Elizabeth and Brosnan portrays Ron, retirees who solve cold cases as a hobby alongside Ben Kingsley's character Ibrahim and Celia Imrie's Joyce. An actual murder," however, gives the group their first "real case." The film also stars Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Tom Ellis, Jonathan Pryce, David Tennant, Paul Freeman, Geoff Bell, Richard E. Grant and Ingrid Oliver and lands on the streamer Aug. 28. Helen Mirren turns 75: a look back Dame Helen Mirren (L) and husband, Taylor Hackford, arrive at the Directors Guild of America Honors in New York City on December 10, 2000. The couple has been married since 1997. Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/UPI | License Photo