Over on the Fox television network the many character on one of their most successful series has a simple Mantra; "everybody lies". While this seems to work well for the highly eccentric Dr. Gregory House it is such an axiomatic statement that the executives at Fox decided to expand the theme to encompass another prime time mystery series, ‘Lie to me’. While House typically supports his misanthropic world view through exceptionally unethical medical procedures, the protagonist of ‘Lie to me’, Dr. Cal Lightman, solidly portrayed by veteran actor of stage and screen, Tim Roth utilizes more direct methods to expose the lies and bring the truth to light. Unfortunately, as is the case with so many high concept television series the ratings demonstrated a strong start but fell victim to steadily declining ratings. The show lasted for good three years, all of which have been released one disc. I don’t know if this is indicative of a network losing interest in a series but the first also were made available in Blu-ray whereas the third and final season remains DVD only. This is probably a coincidence but admittedly an odd one. In any case the series had not been afforded the opportunity to fully explore its potential definitely meeting with a premature cancellation. The series did have a single theme premise, the human lie detector, but for a single note foundation it did present a lot of room to expand into various pertinent subjects.

The factor that is dominantly responsible for the untapped potential of the series is the uncanny ability that is exhibited by Dr. Lightman to detect when a person is being deceptive. As a psychologist his field of expertise is the analysis of somatic kinesthetic changes, body language. Much of his research has been in the categorization of micro expressions, the subtle, fleeting alterations in facial expressions that accurately indicate the person’s mood, truthfulness and general demeanor. While controversial Lightman and the associates that comprise the Lightman group has built a reputation for their frequently brutal disclosure of the truth. In a fashion somewhat similar to Dr, House, Dr. Lightman frequently pushes his subjects utilizing tactics that are ethically dubious. He brings any amount of pressure to bear on the subject of his investigation in order to break down any conscious resistance exaggerating the display of facial and body changes.

By this third season a significant amount of Lightman’s back story has been brought out. He had worked for British intelligence; interrogated members of the IRA suspected of acts of terrorism and have spent time with the American military gathering intelligence. It also comes out that he had a serious gambling problem expedited by his highly honed talents. Much of the potential for the series was inherent in the wide gamut of cases Lightman and his team would undertake. Ostensibly they are on retainer for some federal agencies and metropolitan police forces but due to a financial crunch they begin to work on pushing the scope of their client base. In precious seasons this plot point paved the way to introduce an FBI liaison and a wealthy woman, a former client, who wants to bail out the group’s financial problems in exchange for training. While this helped to fill out the cast and broaden the types of cases the network was apparently felt to be more of a distraction and rapidly removed from the list of prime characters. While this did force the writers to streamline the stories and focus character development more on the core cast it also eliminated several interesting plot developments from the mix. In this third season Lightman did come across a young man who was developing a romantic interest in his daughter, Emily (Hayley McFarland). The lad was hardly up to the challenge but he cared for Emily enough to be persistent. Bounced by shared custody with Cal’s ex wife Emily frequently turns to her father’s partner, Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams), the only one who is in a position to call Lightman out on his outrageous antics. Romantic chemistry start to manifest but the series ended before that predicament could flourish.

The cases that did comprise the third season displayed sufficient diversity to keep things lively. This season upped the ante by placing Lightman directly in the line of immediate danger, typically beyond the call of an academic. Lightman gets caught up in an armed bank robbery, murder in a coal mine and while under cover in a mental institution. Each time he just happened to at the wrong place precisely at the wrong time yet his mastery of deception saves the day and his life. Of course an integral part of how this series worked was the way it clearly demonstrated the collateral toll such an uncanny ability has on the personal life of the practitioner. For Cal Lightman it ruined his marriage to Emily’s mother and prevented him from permitting his friendship with Gillian from ever progressing further. It also placed a wedge between him and his daughter; after all no teenager can cope with a parent who can detect the slightest deviation from the truth in them as well as their friends. This personally destructive side effect of being a human lie detector is echoed to a somewhat attenuated fashion in the group’s associate, Eli Loker (Brendan Hines). He is proficient in what he does and attempts to hide behind a professed policy of total honesty but that only serves to make him Lightman’s personal whipping boy. Loker wants to learn from the best and generally puts up with it but realizes he will never be the alpha male. The junior associate, Ria Torres (Monica Raymund) is a natural, innately born with the ability it took Lightman decades to hone. At first he resented this distinction but Gillian mentoring the young woman helped Ria become better defined as a person in the third season. One aspect of the production that was cut short was how the writers did not use the ability as whitewash to explain away all the relationship failures. Lightman is an acerbic personality, self aggrandizing and basically rude. Even if he could not tell a lie he would be difficult to be around. This gave the show a little bad boy, anti hero appeal that admittedly was starting to wear thin.

This was a character driven drama which set it apart from the currently embraces forensic science methodology. The problem with this approach is really more with the viewer than the construction of the series. On the forensic dependent series the producers have high tech devices, ultra modern computer displays and a lot of technological jargon that sounds mighty impressive. Here, the dialogue centers on the slightest twitch of an eyebrow or glance down and to the left. The only graphics typically employed are a rogue’s gallery of celebrity liars disproportionately showing politicians. It makes the point very well but sacrifices the flash of high tech gear. The show could have continued to develop but unfortunately three seasons is all we will get.