• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

A high school teen awakens after a traumatic accident and feels that his mother is suddenly a stranger.

That’s the TV Blog’s logline for the new eight-part Hulu series “Phony,” which premieres Tuesday. 

The scenario is a reversal of roles. In this case, it is the teen who wakes up one day to find that he doesn’t know his mom.

Under normal circumstances, parents might wake up one day and feel that they no longer recognize their high school-aged child.

When children enter their teenage years, they change physically, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

In Episode One of “Phony,” when the teenage son, Sonny Cooke (played by Sam Nivola, 23), opens his eyes for the first time and peers into his mother’s face, he perceives subtle changes in her appearance that only someone like him -- the person who knows her better than anyone -- would notice. There appears to be no husband or father in the picture.

Sonny immediately senses that something is terribly wrong, but none of his classmates believe him because she looks the same to all of them. 

Understandably, they all think he is suffering hallucinatory effects from his injuries, from which it took him a week to awaken.

His peers all know and like his mother, Ellen Cooke (played by Connie Britton), because she is the personable, “cool” principal of their Oregon high school. She seems no different to them.

To put this premise across, the team behind “Phony” -- led by creator, writer, director and co-showrunner Nick Paley -- have applied just the right touch to help us see what Sam sees.

Through Sam’s eyes, we get to see comparisons between the Ellen Cooke who we first see at the outset of the show and the new Ellen who Sam thinks has taken his mother’s place. 

The effect is done with makeup techniques and VFX that are so subtle that it is no wonder no one else can see the truth except Sam.

“Phony” is being billed by Hulu as a coming-of-age mystery complete with a private investigator to whom Sam tells his story, after which she agrees to help.

Episode One ends with a surprising piece of music -- the Clash song “Lose This Skin” from the 1980 triple album “Sandinista!”

It turns out someone besides me is still listening that album. 

“Phony” starts streaming on Tuesday (October 20) on Hulu with two episodes. The remaining six will premiere separately for six weeks.