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Since its conclusion in 2017, fans have been thirsting for a follow-up to The Vampire Diaries. The first spin-off of the series, The Originals, ran concurrently with the series, ending in 2018. The final series in the supernatural franchise, Legacies, never truly lived up to its predecessors, despite its pedigree. Co-creator of The Vampire Diaries, Julie Plec, tried her hand at another vampire adaptation, Vampire Academy, but it was unsustainable on Peacock.
Finally, however, it looks like fans may have a series that can fill the void. Premiering in 2025, Amazon Prime released a new addictive teen drama to follow up one of The CW’s flagship series. Like The Vampire Diaries, We Were Liars was a young adult novel that captured the hearts and minds of YA fans everywhere. Taking place on the ethereal island of Beechwood, the story followed four teens and their coming of age in a deceptively fantastical world. While things were not completely clear until the final episode of Season 1, We Were Liars was a perfect antidote to The Vampire Diaries withdrawal.
The Vampire Diaries Creator Returned to the World of Teen Romance
When Julie Plec co-created the young adult classic, The Vampire Diaries, she struck gold. Even at a time when it seemed that vampire fiction was on its way out, it became quite clear that the subject matter was timeless. The Vampire Diaries lasted for eight seasons and even lasted a casting shake-up when Nina Dobrev left the series after Season 6. Recapturing this magic wouldn’t exactly be easy, but We Were Liars had the Rotten Tomatoes score to prove it. Be it the young and promising actors or the social commentary in a world of privilege, We Were Liars spoke to audiences.
Plec co-created the series with Carina Adly MacKenzie, who stuck quite close to the 2014 book written by E. Lockhart. The story was told from the perspective of privileged teen Cadence “Cady” Sinclair Eastman, the eldest grandchild of the Sinclair clan. All blonde and beautiful, the Sinclairs hold court over their island getaway, which has three separate beach houses and the whole world of wealth at their disposal.
Beechwood is a mythical place where it’s always summer, and Cadence spent her formative years with her two cousins, Johnny Sinclair Dennis and Mirren Sinclair Sheffield, along with their friend Gat Patil. Summer 16, however, was when this idyllic paradise came crashing down. At the end of the summer, Cady somehow got amnesia from a brain injury and spent her 17th summer at Beechwood trying to piece together what happened to her.
The longer Cady revisited the familiar sights, the more she remembered and perhaps wished that she hadn’t. We Were Liars involved all the hallmarks of The Vampire Diaries, including heightened drama and romance. At the center of the story was Cady’s feelings for Gat, who had spent his summers with them since Summer 8. Though not part of the Sinclair dynasty, Gat was also included because he was the nephew of Johnny’s mother’s partner, Ed. Together, they formed the quad of liars, though Gat always had feelings for Cady. Summer 16 was when Cady finally admitted her feelings for him, while she also endured the worst summer of her life.
The Vampire Diaries was notable for its seamless combination of horror and romance, and We Were Liars had a similar approach to storytelling. The series was told with a flashback structure, and against the backdrop of the beautiful beach, lies and secrets were revealed. At the end of it all, Cady uncovered what exactly caused her amnesia in some of the most harrowing experiences a teen could ever have.
Like The Vampire Diaries, frothy fun drama could also be mixed with real grief and trauma. At the beginning of the horror series, Elena Gilbert was coming out of months of grief following the premature deaths of her parents. Cadence wasn’t too far off either when audiences encountered her at the beginning of the series.
While Cady experienced the hardships of first love, she also had to contend with becoming a young adult. With parents amid an ugly divorce and a family obsessed with affluence, Cady had to decide on the person she wanted to be in the world. This came with growing pains and an ending so brutal it would have to be seen to be believed. The Vampire Diaries fans wouldn’t just get similar emotions from the series, however. We Were Liars was also stacked with an impressive cast and some faces that may be familiar.
Candice King Appears as Caroline Forbes 2.0
In Candice King’s breakout role, she became one of the most beloved characters in The Vampire Diaries. The actor portrayed Caroline Forbes for eight seasons and was one of the few characters to cross into both spin-offs, The Originals, and Legacies. Caroline became the emotional center of The Vampire Diaries, partly due to her impressive character arc.
Starting as the neurotic and shallow mean girl archetype, Caroline grew into herself, especially after she became a vampire. Unlike the main protagonist, Elena, who remained static throughout most of the series, Caroline was an instrument for change in sometimes painful ways. She became a fan favorite, and viewers wanted to see what she would do next.
As luck would have it, King joined Julie Plec’s new series as a character that viewers would find quite familiar. The actor played Bess Sinclair, the youngest sister of the older generation and mother to Merrin, Bonnie, and Liberty. In this role, Bess may as well have been Caroline a few years down the road if something had gone terribly wrong. Bess had all the hallmarks of Caroline when it came to personality traits. She was a type A person who was obsessed with perfection, but this was to her detriment. While Caroline became a loving mother in her time on The Vampire Diaries, Bess could have been the person Caroline became if she had never turned into a vampire.
The crux of We Were Liars revolved around how privilege ultimately wounded and destroyed this family. Bess and her sisters were obsessed with vying for their father’s approval, and he would never give it. He dangled things like inheritances and even love in front of them to make them perform for him like he was a twisted version of King Lear. Bess was one of the worst mothers when it came to this sad reality. Cady’s mother, Penny, was obsessed with the Sinclair mantra of never showing emotion but would do anything for her daughter. Carrie was a struggling addict, but never took her troubles out on her children. She even protected them from the worst circumstances, sometimes to a fault.
It was Bess who came out the worst because of how she treated her children. Her daughter, Merrin, suffered the worst of all because Bess never treated her like her own child. She treated her like a project that never quite came out like she wanted it to. Because Bess sacrificed her happiness for the appearance of perfection, she suffered internally and mainly took it out on her eldest daughter. This was something she would come to regret later in the harrowing final out of the first season.
Also part of the cast was another The Vampire Diaries universe alum. Legacies was a supernatural series inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including the structure of mystical happenings in high school. The witch guidance counselor, Emma, popped in and out of the series for a couple of seasons before appearing in We Were Liars as Gat’s mother, Maya. Though Karen David only appeared in one episode as the character, it was another familiar face that tied We Were Liars to its spiritual ancestor.
We Were Liars Shares The Vampire Diaries’ Talent For Plot Twists
In addition to heightened drama and horrific visuals, The Vampire Diaries was also known for its plot twists. The Season 1 finale of the series has since become iconic for the doppelgänger switcheroo when Elena’s vampire ancestor, Katherine, impersonated her and infiltrated her house. Fans missing these sorts of shenanigans should stick with We Were Liars until its final moments.
For the first seven episodes of the Amazon Prime series, We Were Liars was standard fare. Cady returned to Beechwood in hopes of triggering her memories that were blank due to the trauma of some mysterious accident. Any time anyone tried to tell her what happened, she would black out and mentally reject the information.
Cady’s only option was to go to the scene of the crime, as it were, where her memories could be triggered naturally. The events of Summer 16 unfolded as Cady in Summer 17 reexperienced her trauma in a safe place. Each episode seemed to uncover some new vital piece of information as she learned how she fell in love with Gat and grew closer to the other liars than ever before.
In typical The Vampire Diaries fashion, however, the biggest twist was saved for the last episode. Without this surprising moment, We Were Liars could feel like another run-of-the-mill teen drama. Instead, the eight-episode first season delved into emotionally dark and heartwrenching material that was more mature than it may have seemed at the outset.
Author E. Lockhart was inspired by famous twists like those in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.
Cady’s final revelation about what happened to her is a tear-jerking realization that The Vampire Diaries fans should be familiar with. Like We Were Liars, The Vampire Diaries had always been a Trojan horse for deeper emotional territory. Both shows dealt with content such as grief that elevated them from typical YA stories to shows that have immense rewatch value.
