Why won't there be a Tell Me Lies season 4?

*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Tell Me Lies season 3.*

After a particularly stress-inducing third season, Tell Me Lies has now come to an end with its final episode, which brought more twists than we could have imagined and saw Lucy (Grace Van Patten) face some serious consequences.

Initially just a drama centred on one toxic relationship, Tell Me Lies has continued to grow in popularity and now, in its third season, the series has been quite the hit for Hulu. So, it may come as a surprise to fans that it's been confirmed there's to be no more of the show.

Ahead of the series finale, creator Meaghan Oppenheimer announced that it would be the final ever episode of Tell Me Lies. In her statement via Instagram, she said that "ultimately we felt it had reached its natural conclusion".

The news has surprised fans, not least because the show continues to be the talk of the internet. Some have begged for a spin-off, some decried the amount of episodes this season and others have underlined the fact that some questions are still left unanswered.

But just why won't there be a fourth season of Tell Me Lies? Read on to find out.

Why won't there be a Tell Me Lies season 4?

It'll probably go down in modern TV history – ahead of the anticipated finale of Tell Me Lies, its showrunner dropped a surprise announcement that the drama wouldn't actually be returning for any more.

Shows not returning aren't anything new in the entertainment landscape but when Tell Me Lies has continued to grow its audience, spawn plenty of social conversation and generate a return that saw viewership figures up 150 per cent from season 1, it seems like quite the shocker to end it so abruptly.

But hey, that's life, and ahead of the season 3 finale, creator Meaghan Oppenheimer had said that a three season-long arc was what she had initially envisioned for the show. She's stuck firm to the vision she had for the series adaptation, which is based on the book by Carola Lovering, but it will nonetheless come as a bittersweet moment for fans.

Taking to Instagram ahead of the final episode, Oppenheimer posted a picture of her and the cast on the red carpet of the Tell Me Lies season 3 premiere.

Alongside the picture, she wrote in a lengthy caption: "After three amazing seasons of Tell Me Lies, tonight’s episode will be the series finale. This was always the ending my writing team and I had in mind, and we are insanely proud of it.

"Your incredible response to this season inspired us to explore whether there was another organic way to continue the story, but ultimately we felt it had reached its natural conclusion. My main goal has always been to protect the quality of the show and give you the best experience I can give you.

"And so, while it is bittersweet to leave something that has been such a happy experience, I am very grateful that we are able to tell a complete story with an intentional ending - a privilege very few shows get. Thank you for loving our show. We are excited to bring you more stories in the near future."

In an interview with Deadline in line with the announcement of the show coming to an end, Oppenheimer said that she was always thinking of this as the last, admitting: "I think three seasons is the perfect amount."

On her decision to end the show, she said: "Obviously we love making the show, and I love our audience, but I had had so many conversations with our writers, and when you actually look at what could happen next, Lucy’s not in school anymore. Most of the cast are graduating college in the future. They’re all living in different places. They’re not in the same industry.

"There’s not a lot connecting them, so, while I think it’s such a privilege to know when a show is ending and be able to write an ending and quit while you’re ahead, it’s hard. For me, it was just about do I think there’s another season in here that’s going to be as good, that’s not going to feel like a completely different show? And I felt like it would have to be completely re-imagined. The framing device is over.

"So yeah, while it’s difficult, I think the worst case scenario would be turning in something I didn’t believe in. And also just knowing how much the cast loved this ending, and they were the people who’d been embodying these characters for so long. That gave me a lot of peace about it."

As Oppenheimer states, Tell Me Lies left in a pretty good spot – we saw how Stephen (Jackson White) ruined yet another occasion by revealing Bree (Catherine Missal) and Wrigley's (Spencer House) affair, the fact that Bree knew Evan (Branden Cook) and Lucy (Grace Van Patten) had slept together, and that he wasn't the one to leak the incriminating confession tape of Lucy but that it was actually her best friend Bree.

We saw that Lucy was expelled from Baird but in terms of the years between college and the wedding in 2015, there were obviously some gaps in our timeline.

What did Lucy do after being kicked out of college? How did Bree manage to keep in contact with Lucy as a best friend but didn't think it odd that Pippa (Sonia Mena) kept her distance? How did Stephen even cross paths with Lucy's former best friend Lydia (Natalee Linez) again to woo her and propose? How come Alex (Costa D'Angelo) wasn't at Bree's wedding, seeing as the pair reunited and seemed closer than ever in the finale? And did Oliver (Tom Ellis) actually get away with pulling the wool over everybody's eyes in relation to his predatory ways?

There are plenty of questions left unanswered but at the end of the episode, with Lucy laughing out in semi-disbelief at having been duped by Stephen once again, it could be interpreted that she actually ended up having the last laugh by allowing him to think he'd won and finally being free of him. At least, that's how we'll finish the series thinking of things!

Tell Me Lies season 3 is available to stream on Disney+ in the UK, along with seasons 1 and 2. In the US, it airs on Hulu.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.