Lie to Me

What’s the Story?

Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) is an expert in deception who has made a science out of studying the tiny, but telling, behavior patterns and bodily tics that indicate when someone is lying -- at least to people who know what to look for. In LIE TO ME, Lightman is the head of a Washington-based consulting company that's regularly brought in by law enforcement agencies, political agencies, and other groups when they're embroiled in especially juicy crimes and scandals and need to know whether someone is telling the truth.

Is It Any Good?

"Everybody lies," seems to be Lightman's motto, and it certainly keeps him in business. He and partner Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams) investigate a constant stream of murders in which the suspect seems so obviously guilty that you know he isn't, sex scandals with a hidden twist, possibly corrupt officials, unexplainable accidents, and other standard TV conflicts. The cases are interesting but not surprising and will be familiar to anyone who's ever seen a cop show.

The fun in Lie to Me comes from Lightman's explanations about who's lying. The plotlines may be trite, but the show's science is based on rigorous research and is often backed up by pictures of real people involved in well-known scandals. The characters spend a good portion of each episode dissecting their interviews -- examining the hidden meanings in a dilated pupil, a quick glance to the side, a subtle twitch in the corner of the mouth, and other tiny clues. Even more fun are Lightman's on-the-fly assessments of the people he encounters, ferreting out their deepest secrets to share with the world. In the supporting cast, Brendan Hines is particularly entertaining as Lightman's coworker Will Loker, who's committed to speaking only the pure, unvarnished truth -- thus demonstrating the importance of minor, social deceptions. Because it's true: Everybody lies.