(Season 1, Episode 2 – “Moral Waiver”)
I actually hemmed and hawed and postponed this post. Pun not intended. But I fiddled around on Facebook and then watched The Closer that I had Tivo’d from Monday so I could think about Lie to Me more.
I want to like this show. I want this show to be really good so I enjoy watching it. And then I want it not to get canceled. I’m not willing to dismiss the show after its second episode; after all, I loved the pilot. However, networks are not so forgiving. And Lie to Me is going to have to step things up or it’s going to get canceled fast. I mean, Lost is just a click away, people.
Usually, even in an episode of television that I don’t particularly care for, I can dig around in my brain or in the ashes of the episode to find some kind of analysis of it to write about, some angle, some way, even, to forgive the writers, director, or actor for the failure of a particular episode. In those instances, even if I don’t like the episode, I can appreciate a risk taken, or at least I am interested in watching a train wreck in the works. But tonight was different.
Frankly? I was bored. The storylines are all recycled from other shows or the headlines. A basketball player takes a bribe? An important officer in the military is accused of rape? Boring. I have seen it before on Law & Order, CSI, NCIS, and New Amsterdam. So, here is a short list of what I think was wrong with this episode, so they can fix things for next week:
1) Please get an original crime. We only care about whether or not people are lying if the case is interesting and we are invested somehow. The earnest teenage boy wrongly accused of murder from the pilot is a good example. The prickish Sergeant accused of rape is not. The gimmick of, “See how many times we see that partial shrug?” is already wearing thin. We are going to have to develop some character relationships among the four principals fast as well.
2) Speaking of which, there is a distinct lack of chemistry among the principals. I could care less about Eli or Torres. They both bore me. Torres both bores and annoys me because she is like a freaking hammer with her one note complaints about Cal. If watching them work out the kinks in their relationship is supposed to interest me, it’s not working. I don’t care if Cal likes Torres. If he doesn’t like her, he should fire her. Or, they should kick up the stakes and convince me that a) they really need either Eli or Torres and b) that her gift is so special that Cal MUST deal with her because she is so rare. I am not convinced of point a. At all.
3) At least watching Kelli Williams and Tim Roth interact in the pilot was interesting. Let’s throw them back together and get rid of the lackeys. Besides, having lackeys to stand around shocked at your behavior is so House. This show is derivative enough already. But if they get rid of Eli and Torres then the show will be Bones without the Squints. So, I am not sure what the answer is. Interesting premise, but already, they’re running out of ways to make it stay interesting.
4) Having Cal yell things like, “Anyone want a side of feces?” at a falafel vendor is just gross. It’s not as funny as Dr. Gregory House telling a room full of patients that they have been exposed to meningitis so they have to be quarantined, mostly because House doesn’t overplay. Cal just sat there and repeated his stupid phrase loudly when we got it the first time. Wow, someone who sells food as a street vendor lied about washing his hands? That really is shocking.
5) Eli’s radical honesty is only interesting if they give him interesting things to say. Repeatedly hitting on Torres doesn’t constitute interesting.
6) One of the guest stars on “Moral Waiver” was David Anders, who played Mr. Sark deliciously on Alias. Anders was more interesting in his small role on the episode than Brendan Hines (Eli) has been in two episodes. When the hell is someone going to smarten up and give Anders his own show?
What did you think of tonight’s Lie to Me? Should it stay or should it go?
Clacked by Jen Creer
on Jan 29, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
I really think the problem is that there are, like you mentioned, such a ridiculous number of crime shows on tv today, its almost impossible to not be redundant. I watched the pilot, but not last nights episode, because even though it was good, the lie-detecting isn’t enough of an angle to sell it to me as unique. I really, really wanted to like it because of Tim Roth, but he’s much better served with an R-rating and an added dose of crazy.
I agree with both of you.
On top of it all the whole episode felt drawn out. I mean the guy choses his partner based on 1/15 of a second emotional displays and then he needs to get back to his lab to analyze the pictures?
There were THREE cuts back to their headquarters when all they had to do is what they said they CAN right on the spot.
The episode could’ve been 20 minutes long if they simply would use their abilities ALL THE TIME.
And they sound like wiseasses all the time. A bunch of know-it-alls. At the end of the episode they told us people could get hurt if those who know how to interpret don’t know the science behind it all. What a bunch of *beep*. Sorry but that’s just ridiculous because in reality, these emotions can be interpreted in all sorts of ways. There isn’t always ONE simple answer and especially when it comes to lies then (as some of you might have been told in that Mythbusters episode about lie detectors) it’s often enough not about the lie detector but the reaction of the person to the whole test and how they react to a police officer telling them the polygraph showed they lied while they know they didn’t or vice versa.
Interrogation is not a science, is “art” if you want to put it that way. “Lie to Me” treats analyzing facial expressions as a science – I’m fine with that. But INTERPRETING the results is something completely different. The absoluteness of this show puzzles me and that’s why I like “The Mentalist” better. Jane’s never absolute. He’s guessing all the time and that’s what these guys here don’t do. They behave as if they know it all, will know it all and the only thing that can go wrong is if somebody who doesn’t know their tools good enough could get people into trouble. Roth’s character treated his new apprentice as if he was teaching her how to use a high power rifle. To me, that’s when the show jumped the shark.
I’ll return to “The Closer” and “The Mentalist” now. They treat both aspects in a way that I can accept. I guess “Lie to Me” falls in the same category as “Bones” and “CSI Miami” for me. Science is not THAT absolute. I simply can’t suspend my disbelief that much, sorry.
I wasn’t wild about the storylines but really many of the best shows recycle plots (history after all does repeat itself) it is in the unfolding and the characters that the same stuff comes alive. So, Tim Roth is engrossing but I really don’t know why he is so angry and prickly – at least House has the bad leg (although I imagine he was like that before the injury). I like Kelli – I find her fresh and her impudence in Lightman’s face is a welcome relief. I also like her psychological insight and inherent kindness – she has professional integrity with a heart. When I watch Hines I mess The Middleman too much too care about him now. I think we will see some development in Torres, but really she was just pulled off a TSA assembly line and is trying to find out her place and skill in all of this babble.
I think the show also needs to delve more into the psyche more – I like the moral ambiguity of the senator much more than the ball player’s.
Also, can someone please make Sark a nice guy for once and give him his own show.
I liked it. But I LOVE Tim Roth, and will suffer for him (I liked Four Rooms FFS….)
I think it’s an interesting premise, but as many people have pointed out, it can only go so far.
Wow… I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both episodes thus far. Granted, the crimes themselves are retreads (but, as Jen and Cate both mentioned, its hard not to be these days). This show, however, does have its own take on it.
Tim Roth is good, and Kellie Williams is enjoyable on TV again in a way she hasn’t been since the Practice (as I gave Medical Examiners WAY to long of a chance to catch on). Eli doesn’t bother me that much because I’m enjoying (thus far) the hyper-honesty thing. If you treat Torres for what her character is right now, an exposition tool (or, in this case, a scientific explanation tool), then she’s servicable. I don’t find her calling out Cal at the end of this episode, or mentioning what she saw in Gillian’s husband last week was very believable, though.
I love this show. I’m sorry you all aren’t enjoying it. I won’t be shocked if it’s cancelled since I usually resort to Hulu to watch it but I do like it.