"Lie to Me" - a procedural worth watching

I'm not normally one for procedurals. My kind of show is not the kind that you can drop for several seasons and then pick up again with no problem. I will watch and enjoy them from time to time, though, when I need something to sit back and enjoy without thinking. When you're working hard on something, nothing makes better background noise than an "NCIS" marathon on USA Network which, fortunately, happens pretty much every other day. Even shows I love I tend to eventually tire with if they veer too much into the procedural territory and don't have enough character development or long-term story arcs to keep me interested. A prime example of this is "House," which I loved for the first few seasons. But after they scrapped the original doctors helping House, got some boring new people, then attempted to bring back the originals to no avail, I gave up on the show. By then, you knew what would happen - a few incorrect diagnoses, the one they think is right but isn't, then the one that is after House gets one of his "a-ha!" moments. It is clear, however, that America absolutely adores procedurals. Just look at the ratings something like "NCIS" or "CSI" gets. So it irks me more than usual when I see a quality procedural like "Lie to Me" fly under the radar of the average viewer. This isn't entirely the viewers' fault, as FOX has toyed around with this show for a while, ultimately banishing the rest of its second season to the end of the regular TV season in June. In my ideal world, this would give the show a boost since it has little if any competition now.

"Lie to Me" centers around Cal Lightman, played by Tim Roth, who runs a group that aids law enforcement by using psychology. The concept is mostly why I enjoy this show, as you get tons of fun facts about deception and lies and 'microexpressions.' It sounds slightly ridiculous, but it is based on a real person and a real type of science. Lightman works with Kelli Williams' Gillian Foster, Brendan Hines' Eli Loker, and Monica Raymund's Ria Torres. Mekhi Phifer, of "ER" fame, recently joined the cast as a liasion between The Lightman Group and the FBI. We also occasionally get to see Lightman's ex-wife and his daughter, and family drama and romantic relationships are so much more fun when everyone is skilled at lying as well as detecting lies. The fun, fascinating characters matched with the unique concept make for one worthwhile procedural drama. Also, any person remotely interested in psychology should enjoy this show a lot.

The series finally came back with a new episode Monday night, which featured a guest appearance by Jason Dohring, who viewers might possibly recognize as Logan Echolls from the criminally overlooked drama "Veronica Mars." Dohring played a serial killer who Lightman encounters while giving a lecture at a university. When Dohring's character challenged Lightman's observations about Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook" speech, I assumed at first that he was joining the show and I had just not heard about it yet. I thought he would be another 'natural' like Ria Torres who would butt heads with Lightman. But instead, he was a psychopath who was torturing and killing women. I think Dohring completely pulled this off. I always thought (well, at least for the last season of "Veronica Mars") that he seemed like a guy who could snap at any moment. He plays the arrogant, charming, damaged psychopath very well. Many mind games ensue and Lightman eventually gets him for his crimes after he gets himself kidnapped. That was the only moment in the episode that was a little awkward for me, when Dohring's character finally captures and waterboards Lightman. It was glossed over so quickly that it was over by the time you realized what was happening. I liked the twist of him getting captured, but it felt very rushed. Perhaps they could have cut a little from Loker and Torres' B-story about a teacher who claims to have seen a UFO. On the plus side, we did get to see yet another military character played by Glenn Morshower, the go-to guy for military roles. To "24" fans, he's best known as Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce. The first episode back was a fine return to form for the show, and I'm really looking forward to next week's episode, where it looks like Lightman's checkered past comes back to haunt him in a big (read: explosive) way.

For any interested person, the first season is out on DVD and the rest of Season 2 is probably available online somewhere. The pilot would be best to start with, obviously, and it showcases lots of fun deception tips. My favorite thing "Lie to Me" does, which they do in the pilot, is when they show a character making some expression and then pictures of famous figures pop up with the same exact expression. It mixes psychology and history, and I just love it. There are many other great episodes to check out, which feature hostage situations (and those always make for riveting TV), poker tournaments (with deception experts, so it's not as boring as real poker tournaments), a harrowing trip to Afghanistan, plenty of psycho killers (Qu'est-ce que c'est? Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba...), undercover operations, and conspiracies. Also, the show gets extra brownie points for actually bothering to have a theme song and opening sequence. That's a dying art in television that they really need to bring back.