Lie to Me is a great idea for an ongoing series. It won’t really matter what the mysteries are each week. The fun will be how they nail each witness along the way. These crime solvers are experts in lying, so they can see through everybody’s act. Even more fun, they can call people on their non-criminal deceptions, but more on that later.

Based on an actual science, the premise is that the Lightman Group are experts in facial expressions, so they can see people’s real emotions no matter what they try to perpetrate. Whatever they see for a split second first tells them what the person is really feeling, so if they say something different, they’re lying. Where were the Lightmans for the past 20 years of Law & Order?

On the case, each witness or suspect exhibits slightly different giveaway behaviors, so the Lightman agents employ all their skills to uncover different lies. Of course, they can’t make people tell the truth. They can only tell what’s true and false, so that’s either a process of elimination, or they intimidate people into fessing up.

Ultimately, it’s still the same whodunit. But then, who watches House for the diagnosis? It’s about the witty dialogue, and here it’s about seeing through the games people play and watching them quiver when they’re figured out.

My favorite bits, and what I look forward to in the series, are the off topic lie detections. Cal Lightman figures out if an A-hole took his parking space on purpose or not. Now who wouldn’t love to do that? And the implication is that if the guy made an honest mistake, Lightman would let him go. But of course he was an A-hole so Lightman messes with him. Seeing how they use their skills in their personal lives would probably make a better show than the mystery solving, but maybe we’ll at least get a few standalones in that realm.

The show helps the audience along by comparing the expressions of the show’s suspects with real celebrities’ expressions. If you weren’t sure what they caught the suspect doing, they’ll show you Bill Clinton, O.J. Simpsons or Saddam Hussein doing the same thing. That explains it.

Cal Lightman is a pretty cool hero too. Everything we liked about hearing him talk in Reservoir Dogs is here every week. He owns the power of observation. I don’t know, I like characters who know everything. House, Jack Bauer, The Closer, I like being able to count on some people to just be right all the time.

His team is made up of enough characters to create the banter too. His partner, Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams) is trying to keep her skills professional and not let them bleed into her personal life. Good luck with that. Ria Torres (Monica Raymund) is a natural, so she can do it without science. She also seems to bring the edgy street smarts. The gimmicky one is Eli Loker, who’s practicing radical honesty. That’s kind of an excuse to milk some easy comedy out of uncensored outbursts, but at least they fit it into the show.

The pilot has the feel of setting everything up, so you get the “rounding up the gang” and “introducing everyone’s quirks” bits that feel a bit rushed. Mostly, it explains the whole science of observation, as if that’s enough to catch you up for every upcoming case they’re on. And again, it’s just another murder case. That’s not compelling television, but it does show that they won’t need to rely on high concept cases to keep the show interesting.

Lie to Me seems like a solid show either way. If it’s going to be the weekly case, it’ll be fun to see how they use their powers for good and not evil. It will be even better if they get into some personal ongoing stories, where the lies have more emotional consequences than criminal ones. Or, if they meet someone who’s actually a good liar they can’t figure out right away. That one might have to be a two parter though.


Crave Online Rating: 7 out of 10