Thinking about TV: Lie to Me

There seems to be a trend emerging.  More often in television we’re finding protagonists that seem to have preternatural awareness of their environments.  I’m thinking specifically of characters like Dr. Gregory House from House.  The trend continues in Dr. Cal Lightman of the new FOX series Lie to Me.  Whereas House’s skills lie in medical diagnosis, Dr. Lightman has extensively studied body language and facial expression, which enables him to very accurately determine the emotion that an individual is feeling, and also if they are being deceptive.  He’s a human lie detector, basically.  The science is certainly interesting, and Tim Roth cuts a mean form on the screen, but can the show hold up over the course of a season?

The first three episodes have thus far served to introduce the Lightman Group (the organization that Dr. Lightman heads), and their function as a resource contracted by government agencies and police departments to assist in solving crimes.

Where my personal interest in the show lies is in the idea that our emotions are readily apparent on our faces, often without our even being aware of it.  In a world that seems more and more predicated on notions of secrecy and deception, that idea is particularly compelling.  In this case, our very biological nature undermines our attempts to conceal information, which is where the central conflicts of the show come from.

In each episode so far, Dr. Lightman and other members of his group have engaged with mysteries, usually a main mystery investigated by Dr. Lightman, and a subordinate mystery often handled by his underlings.

And this is where my one giant concern for this show comes in.

It’s primarily a passive show.  The engine that drives the narrative–Lightman’s ability to accurately read emotions from people’s faces–is a skill that’s limited to only him; we do not share his abilities.  In that sense, we as viewers have little way of discerning for ourselves the actual events of the story and character’s motives.  More often than not, Dr. Lightman’s explanations serve as our only guide–we have to trust that he knows what he’s doing, and, most often, he seems to.  But, contrary to, say, a piece of detective fiction, there is little ability on the part of the viewer to follow along with the logic of events and come to a conclusion.

This dynamic could potentially force the show to rely on deeper and more complex networks of deception and secrecy in the narrative to pull of suspense and intrigue.  For example, a recent episode featured a complicated story of a murdered teenage girl.  As we go along, we find out that the girls’ mother is a  judge who hired one of her daughter’s private school teachers to take an SAT for the girl so that she would have a better chance of getting into a good school.  This in itself is not a terribly complicated scenario, but when you add drug-dealing, other cheating-kids, and a parent who is too quick to protect their own child, the web of deception grows to the point of narrative corpulence, and thus to some degree the verisimilitude is lost.  More than once, I thought to myself, “This kind of stuff does not happen.”  The show, which purports to be rooted in science, is dependent on an unlikely fantasy world to allow it to function at the level of entertainment.

Which is not to say that the show is not worth watching, because I’m having a lot of fun with it.  Tim Roth is great as the gifted perceptionist, and the supporting cast adds some flavor in juxtaposition to Lightman’s rather bland personality.  Best of them is Brenden Hines, who has taken an oath of radical honesty; he says everything that is on his mind, with no cultural filter.

There is already a sense of chemistry between the cast members that I think will only get stronger as the show progresses–if, of course, they can find compelling material for further seasons.

Given FOX’s previous track record for canceling decent and great shows, I worry that Lie to Me will likely fizzle out after it’s first season is over.  At this point, the episodes feel very self-contained, though the end of episode 1×02 did offer what could become and interesting over-arching plot involving Lightman’s past.  We’ll just have to see; TV takes time, and right now it’s too early to call it.

You can catch Lie to Me Wednesdays at 9:00 Eastern of FOX, or on Hulu.