'Things are not what they seem' in first look at Kiefer Sutherland's thriller Rabbit Hole

Care to go down a Rabbit Hole with Kiefer Sutherland?

Before you descend, though, John Requa and Glenn Ficarra — the creators of Paramount+'s trust-no-one-even-yourself thriller starring the 24 alum — do have a few words of warning:

"Things are not what they seem."

"The show reframes the story in every episode."

"We're lying to the audience, but we're hoping that it's a delicious lie."

While you scrutinize those sentences, let's review what we do know: Rabbit Hole features Sutherland as gifted corporate spy John Weir, "a man of deception forced into action," as Ficarra describes him. Things go all sorts of sideways when John finds himself wanted for the murder of Treasury Department official Edward Homm (Rob Yang). That possibly-not-random hook-up he had last night with an engaging lawyer named Hailey (Meta Golding) will turn out to be much more than that as the pair appears to be thrown into a conspiracy that involves nebulous, nefarious forces with designs on controlling populations.

Rabbit Hole is "about a man whose life is built on a lie, who lies for a living, who gets thrust into this battle of wits when he's framed for a murder of a government official — or it might be something else entirely," quips Ficarra. (He's no stranger to a twist, as he and Requa directed I Love You, Phillip Morris and Crazy, Stupid, Love as well as the pilot of This Is Us.)

"It's about manipulation," he continues. "It's about disinformation. It's about questioning your everyday reality. What is real?"

"And trust," adds Requa, pointing to '70s conspiracy thrillers such as Three Days of the Condor as influences on the show. "It's about people trying who can't trust, people trying to find trust, trying to figure out what trust is. Isn't that the center of all relationships?"

Can viewers trust the man at the center of it all? Just how unreliable is our paranoid protagonist? "It's one of the reasons why Kiefer is part of the show," Ficarra says of the actor, who also serves as an executive producer. "He is not out to fool the audience, but the way the storytelling works, he's a guy who could fool the audience, and you're still with him because he's got this built-in reputation as a good guy and a hero — you know he is doing the right thing, and you enjoy the way he does it. Everything's on a need-to-know basis. And he tells as much as he needs to."

Sutherland, who starred last year in Showtime's The First Lady, didn't need much persuading to sign on. "To have the opportunity to play a character whose entire essence is founded in being in control, only to have that stripped away, and then thrust into a world where up is down, left is right, etc., was very exciting to me," says the actor via email. "Also, to have the opportunity to work with John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who I have so much respect for as directors and writers, made this one of the easier decisions I've had to make."

He'll have no easy decisions onscreen, as the serpentine plot is complicated by such characters as FBI agent Jo Madi (Enid Graham), who has been tracking him; Dr. Ben Wilson (Charles Dance), "a spy who's been out in the cold too long," says Ficarra; Valence (Jason Butler Harner), a business associate who gives him a fateful assignment; and the intern at John's clandestine operation (Walt Klink), who "takes the gig economy to a new level," cracks Requa.

Here, EW slips you a first look at the rug-pulling action to come, complete with teases from the creators.

Marni Grossman/Paramount+ Kiefer Sutherland as John Weir on 'Rabbit Hole'

"He's a man who leads with his brain," says Requa of Sutherland's Weir, while Ficarra adds: "John Weir can see all the angles, but sometimes he can't tell which one is real."

Marni Grossman/Paramount+ Kiefer Sutherland and Meta Golding as Hailey Winton on 'Rabbit Hole'

"Meta is amazing and that chemistry is very real," testifies Ficarra. "They're really fun together. They both have haunted pasts and they both have reasons not to trust anybody."

Marni Grossman/Paramount+ Rob Yang as Edward Homm on 'Rabbit Hole'

"Who killed Edward Homm and why is Weir framed for it?" asks Ficarra. Says Requa: "This is the guy who knows where all the bodies are buried, but unfortunately he's dead."

Marni Grossman/Paramount+ Charles Dance as Dr. Ben Wilson on 'Rabbit Hole'

"What if you were forced to trust this man?" posits Requa of Dr. Ben Wilson.

Marni Grossman/Paramount+ Meta Golding and Enid Graham as Jo Madi on 'Rabbit Hole'

"Jo Madi and Edward Homm are the only trustworthy characters in the entire show," hints Requa. "Everybody else has split motives." Offers Ficarra: "This is Weir's biggest adversary [Agent Madi] — I don't know if adversary is the right word — meeting his closest confidant, which is intriguing."

Paramount+ Kiefer Sutherland as John Weir on 'Rabbit Hole'

"Weir has a lot of things hidden inside himself — and inside the wall," teases Ficarra.

Not to mention, all over the show. "We're spending a lot of time paying off a lot of Easter eggs," hints Requa. "So, look for Easter eggs."

Rabbit Hole's eight-episode first season will premiere in March on Paramount+. The guessing game begins now.

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