‘Tell Me Lies’ creator on dark series: ‘Not an aspirational love story’

nypost.com:

Meaghan Oppenheimer to “Tell Me Lies,” her new 10-episode Hulu series starring Grace Van Patten and Jackson White that premiered Sept.

7.“I think there a couple of things we haven’t seen much on TV. This is somewhat grounded in a college relationship experience but it’s also what a real emotionally and mentally abusive toxic relationship looks like,” said Oppenheimer who, as writer/executive producer/ showrunner adapted Carola Lovering’s 2018 novel of the same name. (Emma Roberts is also an executive producer).“We went into this knowing it was going to be a very polarizing story,” she said. “It’s definitely not an aspirational love story and we’re not trying to glamorize this sort of relationship.“We’re just trying to show it as authentically as possible.”The relationship in question revolves around Lucy Albright (Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (White), who meet-cute on Lucy’s first day at college. (Exteriors were filmed at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta.) Lucy is newly single — having broken it off with her high school boyfriend — and is settling in with her roommate Macy and her new across-the-hall friends, Pippa (Sonia Mena) and Bree (Catherine Missal).

Lucy is a bit aloof and has a rocky relationship with her mother; Stephen says he’s “polarizing” and is obviously attracted to Lucy — but still intermittently involved with his ex, Diana (Alicia Crowder), and dealing with his own issues at home. “The series takes place in flashbacks and we see Lucy as an adult who has sort of ‘gotten clean’ from the addictive relationship and is now about to see her ex for the first time in years,” Oppenheimer said.