Lie To Me: Season One

Lie To Me was treated a little unfairly when it started to air at the beginning of 2009. It was labelled as a clone of The Mentalist, another new show that happened to have a similar premise and debuted a few months earlier. But by the end of the first season it had carved out its own niche and was deservedly renewed for a second season. The series features Tim Roth as Dr. Cal Lightman, an expert who can tell when someone is lying by analysing their body language and micro-expressions, which give away falsehoods. His company works to prove just who's telling the truth and who's lying, getting involved with a mixture of police and other matters before inevitably saving the day. It might just be another procedural drama but it's one that's more firmly based on something remotely plausible, rather than completely suspending disbelief. Lie To Me has a lot going for it. Roth's performance is charismatic and world-weary, with the same kind of cynicism that makes House so entertaining. It also has a strong supporting cast, including Kelli Williams (from The Practise), who's wonderfully understated, and Brendan Hines, who provides comic relief as a compulsive truth teller. Best of all, it has that pseudo-educational aspect where after watching just one episode viewers are likely to think they can spot a liar from the other side of the room, which alone might be enough to keep people tuning in. Throughout the 13 episodes that make up the first season, the show manages to present an interesting mix of cases, stopping it from becoming too formulaic. But that's a real danger. After all, Roth's character can only say people are lying in so many different ways and if he happens to rely on the same tricks again and again it'll start to get dull. Until then, the premise is fresh enough to remain interesting and Roth is more than talented enough to carry the show. The four-disc set saves all the extras for the final DVD, meaning that the majority of the deleted scenes are irritatingly separated from the episodes they're taken from. The only other extra is a 30-minute "behind the scenes" feature that has interviews with Paul Ekman, the psychologist whose work the show is based upon, and the show's creators.