Lie to Me – The average person lies about three times in ten minutes

(Season 1, Episode 1 – “Pilot” – Series/Season Premiere)

As I stated in my preview of Lie to Me, I’m a fan. I talked about liking the writing and the cast in that preview, but I wanted to talk specifically about the pilot for this post. Apart from the show airing opposite Lost, I am hopeful that Lie to Me will have a long and healthy run.

The seeds have been sown for some interesting sub-plot points among the main characters: Dr. Gillian Foster has a husband who lies to her; Dr. Cal Lightman has a teenage daughter, and a former wife who is a smart girl he used to trust; Eli Loker can’t seem to help saying whatever is on his mind … and he wants to sleep with Ria Torres. So, welcome to your first day of work: Here is your dose of sexual harassment.

I’m not going to get bent out of shape about sexual harassment on primetime television. Without a multitude of sins, we as viewers would be stuck only with nature shows on the Discovery Channel. Seeing as Shark Week is only on once a year, I for one will take the sins attached to TV melodramas.

There are going to be some inevitable comparisons between Dr. Cal Lightman and Dr. Gregory House. I have already made some in my preview post. Perhaps the simple truth is that if you are really that good at your job, you can treat everyone on earth badly and get away with it. Whatever the case, it works because it’s so cathartic. Who wouldn’t want to trap someone in their car for stealing your parking space? But how many of us would actually walk away from our cars without concern for the consequences?

The two cases the show investigated gave the set up for how Cal and his team work. Their bottom line is discovering the truth, but they will lie to get it. And once The Lightman Group has the truth? They don’t necessarily care whether anybody else benefits from it. Their job is done.

I think it’s very interesting that Cal isn’t above lying. This says that, although he is aware that people lie, he doesn’t necessarily think that lying is a bad thing to do. Otherwise, he wouldn’t do it. The fact that he has hired Eli, who is radically honest, is a puzzle: Is Eli radically honest because he figures it will do him absolutely no good to lie to Dr. Lightman? Or was Eli that way anyway, and Cal figured it would save him some time having someone he didn’t have to read?

Let me unpack the prior paragraphs a bit. I think there are two things going on with Cal Lightman. For one thing, he doesn’t tell his colleague when her husband is lying, and he lies to the press about the Congressman’s real relationship with a prostitute. To draw another comparison to House, I was watching the pilot the other day, and the patient had decided to refuse treatment and go home, even though they knew what could save her. House said to his team, “We figured out what was wrong with her. Our job is done.” And I think that is how Cal Lightman operates. We found out who was lying; that is what we were hired to do. This suggests that his obsession with finding out the truth, about discovering whether someone is lying and discerning what the truth is, stems from curiosity even more than it stems from a devotion to honesty itself. House isn’t a doctor so he can’t help patients; he wants to solve puzzles. Perhaps there is an element of obsession with the question in Cal Lightman as well.

Of course, nothing is that simple. They wouldn’t have much of a how if they could conclude in five minutes that someone was lying or truthful. That is why there are other members of Lightman’s team. Dr. Foster tells people, “The polygraph shows if they are feeling guilty. Not what they are feeling guilty about. ” Actually, don’t polygraphs reveal lies? Changes in body temperature or blood pressure, based on what the person is feeling? Can we really attribute that to guilt? At any rate, if they are going to make motives important, that gives The Lightman Group more work to do.

I did take issue when Foster said, essentially, that why people lie is more important than whether or not they do (well, like Gregory House, Lightman’s people are just going to go ahead and assume you are lying), because someone can be convicted of a crime without anyone ever knowing their motive. Again, I’m not going to haggle the point too deeply because that issue has never stopped me from watching a procedural drama. But the dishonesty of that statement was jarring.

The great moments from the show: Foster sitting and eating chocolate pudding and responding charmingly to Lightman’s aghast,

“Who eats chocolate pudding at 10 o’clock in the morning?”

“People who like pudding.”

Of course, Cal’s overt rather than covert confrontation with his daughter’s date was designed to be funny, but it still worked, if for no other reason than the manic smile on Cal’s face as he asked, “Do you plan on sleeping with my daughter this evening?”

And perhaps my favorite part of the show was the scene at the airport in which they hire Ria. I liked the  entire scene from Cal flashing her the “partial fear expression” to the signing bonus.

The writers are paying attention to small details, the things that make up relationships people have with their co-workers, how trust is created and sustained, and all of this contributes to a likeable, sharp, funny show. It’s solid. Now, let’s see how it does against Lost…

Clacked by Jen Creer
on Jan 21, 2009 @ 22:30 EST5EDT