Lie to Me

I got burned on the last police procedural that involved an unorthodox genius who is virtually able to read minds based on his knowledge of psychology, body language, and purposeful deception. That last show was The Mentalist, and while it started out decently, it got very silly, very fast.

So I wasn't sure whether I'd want to give the new Tim Roth drama, Lie to Me, a chance. It's about a guy named Dr. Cal Lightman, who has studied the body language and its correspondence to truthfulness and deception in depth. The character is apparently based on real psychologist Paul Ekman.


So I checked out the first episode, and though it was guilty of the gratuitous use of slow motion at the end, overall it was interesting and watchable enough to make me want to see more. It also stars Kelli Williams, who was on The Practice, which was a guilty pleasure of mine, and she's good.

At one point in the show, when Williams' character tells Lightman he should try to be happier, he says something like "Truth or happiness...you can't have both." He may have been saying it ironically...I don't know. Because he spends the whole trying to expose the truth of a given situation, and does, and it certainly makes certain characters a lot more happy, and others not so much. But the general theme of truth and deception as it relates to morality and happiness is an interesting one which could develop into a thought-provoking show.

On the other hand, the show could easily degenerate into silly parlor tricks. We'll see. But if you haven't seen the first episode, I'd tentatively recommend it.