Lie to Me, "Tractor Man": White lies

Last night gave us the last new "Lie to Me" before the show goes wandering in the wilderness, waiting for some other Fox show to fail so it can claim its timeslot. And if this is it for a while, "Tractor Man" was a pretty good episode to go out on, with both an effective thriller A-story and a surprisingly sweet B-story with the radically honest Loker and guest star Felicia Day(*) telling a lot of white lies to keep some kids from being scared, then making it all better with the very catchy "White Lie" song.

(*) Day is, unsurprisingly, trying to harness her social media might to get "White Lie" released on iTunes.

What did everybody else think?

Reader mail: 'Lie to Me' & Fox mid-season, 'Curb'/'Seinfeld,' and more

As sometimes happens when I'm writing for both a print newspaper (with rigid space and deadline issues) and an online blog (where I can write as much as I want, whenever I want), there's sometimes duplication between the two. So a good chunk of this week's reader mailbag is me rehashing the news about Fox's mid-season schedule, while reassuring a "Lie to Me" fan that the show isn't over yet. Plus there's more talk about why "Seinfeld" fans shouldn't get their hopes up about seeing more of the fab four post-"Curb," and a brief thought on unsold pilots.

As I'm going to be having a busy day, feel free to discuss last night's Vegas/poker "Lie to Me" episode (featuring a couple of familiar faces from Shawn Ryan's "Unit" days) here.

Lie to Me, "Secret Santa": Over there

Spoilers for last night's "Lie to Me" (plus some random thoughts on Jason Gedrick) coming up just as soon as I learn how to pronounce "Baltimore" the way the natives do...

"Lie to Me" initially seemed like it was going to be just another crime procedural in a primetime landscape dotted with them. But Sam Baum argued at the start that the show would be a lot more versatile than that, and Shawn Ryan has helped him back up that statement this year. Because there are questions about truth and lies in every walk of life, because Cal Lightman's services are obviously much in demand, and because the government likes what he does, there is really no professional setting - or, in this case, geographic setting - the show can't plausibly visit. There will always be some kind of mystery at the center of things, but the mystery can range from a murder, to who caused a Black Friday riot, to the location of two captured Marines in Afghanistan.

This story was obviously familiar territory for Ryan and the people he brought over from "The Unit," and I liked that we spent very little time on the Jason Gedrick(*) character distrusting Lightman's methods. It's way too easy to try to set up your guy as a genius by putting him together with strawman characters who loudly question his genius and can therefore be easily proven wrong. Gedrick was right to be at least a little suspicious, and he quickly got on board as much as he could under these harrowing circumstances.

(*) Gedrick takes a lot of heat as one of the pre-eminent showkillers of our age (look at his resume and you'll see why), but I've always had a soft spot for the guy. Not only did he star in one of my favorite Brilliant But Canceled shows ever, "EZ Streets," but I spent way, way too many hours in my youth watching scenes like this one from "Iron Eagle" on HBO. (Look closely and you'll spot a young Melora Hardin - Jan from "The Office" - as Gedrick's worried girlfriend.) One of the best moments of my early career was at a CBS press tour event in 1997. Gedrick was there for "EZ Streets" (which wasn't quite dead yet), and Lou Gossett Jr. was there for some TV-movie. I was talking with Gossett and asked if he realized Gedrick was in the building; Gossett's eyes got really wide with delight and he ordered me to lead him to the "EZ Streets" people, where he gave his old "Iron Eagle" co-star the bear hug to end all bear hugs. Later, Gedrick talked to me for a while about how Gossett more or less taught him how to act, because he was pretty terrible at the time (as you can see in the clip). It made all those hours wasted on the movie feel really, really worth it.

The ticking clock intensity of the assignment brought out the best in Tim Roth. And I love the way the writing staff has managed to take a character who should, because of his talents, be the world's biggest cynic, but instead remains oddly, endearingly hopeful about other people's capacity to be true to both themselves and the world at large. The relationship with his daughter helps, and I was relieved that Emily getting to witness the video feed neither hindered nor helped the case; it was just another complication between father and daughter.

We have one more episode next week, and then there will be four left over from this initial order of 13. Fox didn't order more in the spring because they have a lot of mid-season inventory ("24," "Human Target," "Past Life"); at this point, they might still be able to order more episodes for this season, but the more likely scenarios seem to be either renewing the show for next fall (and dealing with the four leftovers somewhere down the road) or not renewing it at all.

I'll be very disappointed if the latter happens. Not that it was ever a bad show, but "Lie to Me" has been much improved this year, and it deserves a longer chance to stick around.

What did everybody else think?

Lie to Me, "Black Friday": Buyers remorse

As mentioned previously, "Lie to Me" is a show that, due to its nature, I'm not going to blog about every week, but tonight's episode was a pretty strong one, and I want to talk briefly about why. Spoilers coming up just as soon as I run away to that place where all the cool teenagers hide out...

"Lie to Me" showrunner Shawn Ryan told me at the start of the season that he wanted to focus on character first and the science second, and that he felt the stories would have more impact if there weren't always so many of them per episode. "Black Friday," though, managed to spend roughly equal time on two stories without one diminishing the other, and it managed to work in a fair bit of the science without it feeling like it came at the expense of the characters.

Tim Roth is still reasons #1-17 for watching this show, but it's important to develop the other characters, both as foils for Lightman and so the B-stories are interesting even when they're Lightman-lite. The Black Friday story did a good job of setting up Loker and Torres on opposite sides of the issue, and having Loker do the right thing not because he's necessarily a good guy, but because of the (mostly) inflexible moral code he's set up for himself.

The highlight, though, was Lightman taking the kidnapped boy through the looking glass, and the problem getting increasingly messy as it went along. In that way, it felt like one of the better episodes of "House," only instead of one misdiagnosis after another, we got one incorrect set of parents after another, and the final one was so damaged that the kid started to regret looking at all.

"Lie to Me" isn't a straight crime procedural, but it can be close enough that I appreciate episodes like this one that deny you the pat ending. The electronics store will still make a payout, but people are still dead and they probably should be paying more. And the kid finds his biological father, but all four living parties are all so damaged by the experience that they may never put themselves back together again - or maybe they will. (All of this, of course, depends on what kind of time, if any, the adoptive parents have to serve.)

Strong outing. Again, I don't have a lot of room in my life for standalone dramas, but episodes like this remind me why I make an exception for "Lie to Me."

What did everybody else think?

Lie to Me, "Honey": Dun-dun-dun-Dillahunt

Quick spoilers for last night's "Lie to Me" coming up just as soon as I tell you what I do for a living...

An episode where the main character gets taken hostage is a card every drama gets to play once, at most, so they need to make it a good one or else not bother. "House" muffed it last season, but I thought the "Lie to Me" team did a good job with the old cliche, aided by the always-stellar Garret Dillahunt as the hostage-taker (who took a very thin character and made it compelling) and strong work from Tim Roth and Kelli Williams.

The show is clearly traveling down the road of Unresolved Sexual Tension with Lightman and Foster, and we'll deal with that when it happens, but I'm glad they didn't push it too far here. Gillian would've been just as wigged if she didn't secretly want to jump Cal's bones, and I liked that his request for a sleepover at the end of that lousy day was platonic.

What did everybody else think?

'Lie to Me' improves with help from 'Shield' creator Shawn Ryan - andreikirilenkotattoo on TV

In today's second column, I interview Shawn Ryan about the improvements to "Lie to Me," which opens its second season with a good episode guest-starring Erika Christensen.

Because I have the day off, no time for a second episode post, so feel free to discuss the premiere here after it airs. Because of Ryan, and because the show has gotten better in the ways I describe in the column, I'll be watching "Lie to Me" more regularly, though it may be a situation like "NCIS" where I'll only write about it on occasion. (Procedurals don't lend themselves as well to weekly dissection.)

Lie to Me, "Moral Waiver": The soldier who cried rape

Quick spoilers for last night's "Lie to Me" -- and why the show has earned That's It For Me! status -- coming up just as soon as I wash my hands...

I'm good. Don't need to see any more.

As I said last week, the "Lie to Me" pilot was relatively well-executed -- Tim Roth is charming, Kelli Williams is a lot more interesting here than she ever was on "The Practice," learning about the various tells is engaging to a point -- but not something that I ever needed to see again. It's a good formula, but not one that's appealing enough for me to stick around. "House," in contrast, is also extremely formulaic, but Hugh Laurie is so funny, and the medical mysteries usually compelling enough within the formula, that I'm still there five seasons in.

I put on episode two to be sure that they'd be sticking to that formula, and they did, and I'm out. Neither case interested me in the slightest, the micro-expressions are already losing their novelty, and while Roth is fine, Lightman isn't colorful enough to elevate the material the way House does.

So unless I hear down the road that the show started deviating significantly from the formula, I don't think I need to stick around.

What did everybody else think?

Lie to Me, "Pilot" Open thread

I gave my own thoughts on "Lie to Me" in this morning's column, and though I'll probably give it a few more shots just based on Tim Roth, the pilot, though relatively well-executed, doesn't exactly have me salivating for additional episodes. But what did everybody else think?

andreikirilenkotattoo on TV: 'Lie to Me' review

In today's column, I review Fox's "Lie to Me," which I thought was relatively well-executed, but which I'd be fine with never seeing again.

I'll have a separate open thread-type post set to go tonight at 10 for those who want to discuss the episode after it airs.