The Positively Positive

Guest star Garrett Dillahunt and Tim Roth in Lie To Me season 2, episode 4 “Honey”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

I’m not sure how it works with anyone else, but for me, the point at which I go from simply liking a show to loving it usually happens on the turn of a dime. There will be a moment (sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes sad) where suddenly I know that I’ll have to watch the show forever.

That moment happened for me last night on Lie To Me. A crazed gunman claiming that he didn’t kill his wife (all evidence to the contrary) comes in and takes The Lightman Group hostage. This all happens in the first few minutes and right before the opening credits the man nearly shoots someone, points a gun at a girl’s head and asks the room in general if anyone thinks he is kidding around. Cal’s response “Absolutely not.”, added with the rest of the drama had my heart pounding in my chest.

The rest of the episode played out very well with Cal and some of his people negotiating to get all of their employees out of the building. Cal offers himself up as a hostage (no real surprise there) and proceeds to try and solve the mystery of who actually killed the man’s wife. All while staring down the barrel of a gun that he has no doubt will be used on him if he doesn’t come up with the right answers.

As it turned out this episode had a second “moment” and if I hadn’t already switched over to loving this show, that one would’ve done it as well. After doing everything they could to solve the murder, only to find out that the man’s wife was forced to sleep with another man and in trying to get herself out of the mess she got herself killed, Foster (played excellently by Kelli Williams) tells the gunman the news. She knows he won’t be pleased and in a second of weakness breaks down and begs for Cal’s life. Cal softly says her name just twice, but with only those words he managed to convey his gratitude for the plea and sympathy for her predicament. It was truly a powerful scene.

The show ends with the team rallying to save not only Cal’s life but the man responsible for the wife’s murder. They refuse to give the murderer over to the gunman to be killed. In a tricky maneuver, they pull the gunman’s attention off of Cal long enough for Agent Reynolds (Mekhi Phifer) to wing him with a shot to the arm.

In the end, Cal goes off on his own to obviously think about things. That he arrives at Foster’s door came as no real surprise and had me wondering if I was missing something about the relationship between them (since I missed the first season of this show). When he asks to spend the night in her spare room and they hug instead of kissing (which a part of me expected), my love of the show grew even more. Perhaps these two characters will share more someday, but for me it meant so much more to watch them get through a tough day together as friends.

Overall this was my favorite episode so far and as I’ve only seen four episodes of this series, has me very excited to see what else is in store.

More Lie To Me…

Lie To Me, Season 2, episode 1 “The Core Of It”

Lie To Me, Season 2, episode 2 “Truth Or Consequences”

Lie To Me, Season 2, episode 3 “Control Factor”

Erika Christensen, Hayley McFarland and Tim Roth in Lie To Me: The Core Of It. Photo from www.tvguide.com

Well here goes another (somewhat) shorter review than normal. Once again it’s only because I’m still not quite familiar with this show, its characters and basic storyline. However with all that said, I really enjoyed the first episode of the second season.

I’m a huge Tim Roth fan, but never got to see Lie To Me in its first season. I kept forgetting when it was on, missing it, catching it halfway through and not understanding what was happening, etc. This, my friends, is why I’m so happy that I finally got a DVR a few weeks ago. All the shows that I used to miss, I now get to see, Lie To Me included.

I was impressed by this episode, it had a lot of humor in it which was something I wasn’t necessarily expecting. Something I did expect was that Tim Roth would be brilliant and of course he didn’t disappoint. His character is unnervingly able to read right through people to see whether or not they are telling the truth. The way he plays Cal, with piercing looks and quick movements, makes me believe he can do it. So much so that I felt like he could see right through the screen to me, sitting alone in my bedroom. Okay maybe not, but he did do a great job.

I’ve been in love with Mr. Roth ever since I saw him for the first time in Reservoir Dogs. In fact, I’m not embarrassed (much) to admit that my very first fanfiction story ever, was based on Reservoir Dogs. It still sits on fanfiction.net to this day. Sadly unfinished but still, it’s there for all the world to see. Just do a search for me (Mokibobolink) and you’ll find it.

I was also really impressed by their guest star this week, Erika Christensen. As a woman with multiple personalities who may or may not have witnessed a murder, she shines. In some scenes she plays as many as three different people and from her posture to her eyes, you can actually see each one. Amazing!

Overall a really fun show, with lots of drama and mystery mixed in with a bit of humor. It has an awesome cast and I can’t wait to see more.