Lie to Me
Lie To Me has the potential to be a great show. Tim Roth gives an amazing performance as Cal Lightman, the short genius who can read anyone’s facial expressions. Kelli Williams also does a great job as his partner. Not only that, but in these past two episodes (including this week’s) they’ve had Melissa George, who I know more of you probably recognize from Grey’s Anatomy but for me will always be the former Alias irritant who seduced Gabriel Byrne in In Treatment. (And I mean that as a high compliment.)
The problem this week is the same one for any given week of the series: the plots aren’t up to par with the acting. Who cared about the whole who shot the cop and why mystery Cal had to solve? It was everything around it that made the hour fun. Cal having to appeal to investors for a loan to keep The Lightman Group up and running. Cal getting low boil furious when some cops pulled his daughter in on a drug charge. And Cal and Clara eating what looked like cold grilled cheese sandwiches from a street vendor. (Where do you get such rancid looking things?)
I have no idea what Lie To Me is going to be like next season. Shawn Ryan of The Shield came and went as show runner; he improved their interaction between regulars, but didn’t stick around long enough to fix their mediocre plots problem. It looks like Melissa George may be hanging around for awhile though, which is fine by me; her character seems interesting already because she isn’t buying into all of Cal’s crap right away.
If I were running Lie To Me I’d clear everyone out except Roth and Williams, sign up George as a regular, and reboot The Lightman Group as a procedural in reverse instead of ever leaving the office to visit crime scene, have clients and suspects come to them, solve every crime inside office’s four walls, with the help of Cal’s high-tech interrogation box.
But really, is fun between the stars enough? It is for many viewers with a series like Castle. Is it for Lie To Me? Come on tell me the truth.
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