Lie To Me. I'm Lying to You.
Wow. Best episode so far! There were some great moments in Lie To Me this week where the actors showed what they can really do. Cal Lightman was screaming in fury, Gillian Foster was sobbing on the ground, and The New Girl was breaking all the rules. TMI-Boy, who was busted down to unpaid intern last week even had some very funny lines, though he was definitely not the focus. We thought it was good of him to show up for work, though we wonder how he's paying the rent.There was only one problem with this episode - and it's something we've noticed on Lie To Me before. See what we mean after the jump. First, vote in our poll!
First, the stuff that rocked. And boy, did they rock this week! They did a great job of contrasting the clean, white walls of the Lightman Institute building and the dark, twisted, gritty world outside. We don't know how they did it -- if it was the lighting or the props or the cinematography or what. But we know it was awesome. We feel like we've got dirt under our fingernails just from watching the show. And the Lightman Institute is the only place where we can go to escape the grunge. Love it!
This dark, intense storyline also provided some amazing opportunities for the actors to strut their stuff. When Gillian was attacked - wow, that was so well done! Very realistic and raw - not stylized and made pretty for the camera. The struggle was unchoreographed, and scary. And when she was rescued by Cal -- all we can say is wow. That was raw emotion. So great!
Then when Lightman was screaming at Torres for going against what he had told her to do - we seriously wondered if Batman had finally gone insane. That was just bitter rage. But as we were watching that, we couldn't help wondering -- we've seen Lightman fake anger before. We've seen him fake being an abusive parent, a dismissive boss, an unfeeling automaton. But each time he's gone to these extremes in the past he was doing it to manipulate someone in the room who was watching him. And at he end of each episode, they give us a little peak at his heart of gold, so we know he was only faking.
So even though we loved the acting, and believed in the anger -- even this week, we had to wonder if this was all an elaborate setup. Which it was. Fortunately it was an elaborate enough setup that it was still a fun reveal at the end, even though we had suspected all along. In that case, we felt kind of superior. Like... Hah! We knew it! We were in on the secret all along! There's no way this bad guy can be better than Batman. We knew it!
But one of these days we'd like to see Lightman get seriously angry -- for reals. We want to know what that looks like. He does a good enough job at faking it that we're pretty sure there's a hot temper under there somewhere. (Maybe hiding behind the hot British accent....)
Unfortunately, we weren't as charmed at the unmasking of the hidden bad guy. In that case, we felt like.... Come on already. He's obviously the guy! The husband was the only guy who had a few lines of dialog, but hadn't been interrogated. Of course they weren't going to pluck some schmuck off the street we hadn't spoken to earlier. That's not how these procedural dramas work. Let's just say... we think they have some room to improve in this department.
But it's a balancing act, and we think Lie To Me is getting close to finding the perfect tipping point. We very much hope they get another chance with another season to get that balancing act perfected. Cuz when they get it right - boy, do they get it right! Go get him already.
PS. Yay for a new regular cast member! And he's hot, too. Not that we noticed. Oh no. We also like how he's not entirely sure he wants to work for Dr. Lightman, but pretty much has no choice. Apparently you can blame anything on the FBI in TV-land and we'll buy it. Sure, the FBI will loan him to the Lightman Group as part of the retainer. Whatever. We just want to see him do another flying tackle as the copycat serial rapist is about to escape. G
This dark, intense storyline also provided some amazing opportunities for the actors to strut their stuff. When Gillian was attacked - wow, that was so well done! Very realistic and raw - not stylized and made pretty for the camera. The struggle was unchoreographed, and scary. And when she was rescued by Cal -- all we can say is wow. That was raw emotion. So great!
Then when Lightman was screaming at Torres for going against what he had told her to do - we seriously wondered if Batman had finally gone insane. That was just bitter rage. But as we were watching that, we couldn't help wondering -- we've seen Lightman fake anger before. We've seen him fake being an abusive parent, a dismissive boss, an unfeeling automaton. But each time he's gone to these extremes in the past he was doing it to manipulate someone in the room who was watching him. And at he end of each episode, they give us a little peak at his heart of gold, so we know he was only faking.
So even though we loved the acting, and believed in the anger -- even this week, we had to wonder if this was all an elaborate setup. Which it was. Fortunately it was an elaborate enough setup that it was still a fun reveal at the end, even though we had suspected all along. In that case, we felt kind of superior. Like... Hah! We knew it! We were in on the secret all along! There's no way this bad guy can be better than Batman. We knew it!
But one of these days we'd like to see Lightman get seriously angry -- for reals. We want to know what that looks like. He does a good enough job at faking it that we're pretty sure there's a hot temper under there somewhere. (Maybe hiding behind the hot British accent....)
Unfortunately, we weren't as charmed at the unmasking of the hidden bad guy. In that case, we felt like.... Come on already. He's obviously the guy! The husband was the only guy who had a few lines of dialog, but hadn't been interrogated. Of course they weren't going to pluck some schmuck off the street we hadn't spoken to earlier. That's not how these procedural dramas work. Let's just say... we think they have some room to improve in this department.
But it's a balancing act, and we think Lie To Me is getting close to finding the perfect tipping point. We very much hope they get another chance with another season to get that balancing act perfected. Cuz when they get it right - boy, do they get it right! Go get him already.
PS. Yay for a new regular cast member! And he's hot, too. Not that we noticed. Oh no. We also like how he's not entirely sure he wants to work for Dr. Lightman, but pretty much has no choice. Apparently you can blame anything on the FBI in TV-land and we'll buy it. Sure, the FBI will loan him to the Lightman Group as part of the retainer. Whatever. We just want to see him do another flying tackle as the copycat serial rapist is about to escape. G