Lie To Me: Season One [Blu-ray]
by Adam Davidson, Arvin Brown, Clark Johnson, Eric Laneuville, John Behring
![Lie To Me: Season One [Blu-ray]](/images/Lie-To-Me-Season-One-Blu-ray-B0027FFT70-L.jpg)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brendan Hines, Hayley McFarland, Kelli Williams, Monica Raymund, Tim RothDirector: Adam Davidson, Arvin Brown, Clark Johnson, Eric Laneuville, John Behring
Brand: Fox
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 572 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2009-08-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: Blu-ray
- AC-3; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Subtitled; Widescreen
Movie Reviews of Lie To Me: Season One [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: Lie to Me: Season One (Blu-ray)
Summary: 5 Stars
Movie - 4.5
So a friend of mine introduced me to this show. I was telling her how backed up I was with a bunch of TV series, and in my barrage of titles and their seasons I mentioned The Mentalist. In doing so, she mentioned I try Lie to Me. I knew nothing about the show other than it starred Tim Roth and was essentially another human lie detector procedural. Lie to Me follows Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) and his group of associates Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams), Eli Loker (Brenden Hines), and "natural" recruit Ria Torres (Monica Raymund) who serve as specialists of a study referred to as "Microexpressions" in and around the Washington D.C. area. It's a procedural that works much like The Mentalist where the gimmick is in reading people, or to be exact, things about their behavior and facial expressions, to detect lies. It's fairly episodic in nature with a distrusting and misanthropic but genius protagonist in Lightman, his caring, yet vulnerable colleague in Foster, the radical truth-telling fanboy in Loker, and something of an apprentice in Torres. Much like The Mentalist, House M.D., or even Castle, it's all about the somewhat cynical approach to finding and exposing the liars of the world for who they are. House started it all back in the day and is fused with a great mix of medical mysteries and character chemistry, while The Mentalist solves murders and shows a lot of brooding potential with Red John. And then Castle has Nathan Fillion, which just screams all sorts of awesome and quirky on it. So where does that leave Lie to Me? While this first season is only a mere 13 episodes, I have to say being the slight cynic that I am the science of the show really amazes me. For what little character development there is, I can't seem to get this infatuation with people-reading out of my head. The second half of the season caught me off guard with Loker being a big idiot and all of this over-the-top scenario stuff with terrorist cells, but the last couple of episodes really helped build on some of the characters. A lot of the lies in the show are easy to pick up via visual, audio, and script cues. But again, to me it's about the science, and Roth plays his role of a human lie detector and manipulator masterfully. I'd be surprised if he doesn't earn an Emmy down the road.
Video - 4.0
Lie to me has something of a weird look. The first half of the season appears to be more fluid and TV-like in presentation with a kind of HD sheen and "lightness" I'm used to seeing for stuff like The Office. But then the second half switches to an almost filmic texture and darker, grittier atmosphere that resembles something a little closer to House. Overall, though, I think it makes for a pretty good video transfer. Color reproduction is a tad on the dull side with a lot of blacks, grays, whites, and a fair amount of blues in the "truth box" (or whatever that interrogation room is called) that I feel compliment the series' premise very well (seeing the world as black and white, truth and lie, etc.). Blacks aren't terribly deep and do suffer from a little bit of crush here and there, but it never results in too much lost detail. Contrast is a tad overblown on shots, though I think it's more for theatrical effect than anything else. Skin tones (a very important element in reading the suspects' faces) appear natural and lifelike for the most part with little saturation and make it easy to spot that wrinkled forehead, scowling mouth, or slightly raised cheekbone. Image detail is sharp and shows a good amount of clarity in hair strands and beard stubble (at least for blonds). There's a bit of noise in some of the darker interior shots as well, but it's not as bad as I've seen for most other HD TV shows. Most of this is probably mediocre for some, while it's just fine and dandy for me. But the real culprit of the video is the compression artifacting. The first two discs have 5 AVC and DTS-HD-encoded episodes crammed onto each one, while the third has 3 episodes and the extras. This results in the first 10 episodes having lots of white spots and blips pop up, which I didn't think would be a problem, but with all the dark photography and murky color palettes, it's kind of hard not to notice. However, I'm still happy with what's there. Having watched lots other shows as 720p TV rips, this looks much better in colors, blacks, contrasts, and without all the macroblocking and banding I saw on all that other stuff. It's no Dexter, House, or Fringe, but for what it's worth, I'll take it.
Audio - 4.5
Being both a TV show and a quasi-police procedural, you probably wouldn't expect much in terms of sound design and overall fidelity. Well, thanks to WB and their ever-present stupidity and inability to provide lossless audio tracks for a any and every one of their shows, especially the ones I've recently been watching on BD (namely Chuck and Fringe), it's quite refreshing and joyous to hear a TV series in lossless because it really makes a big difference. Dialogue, sound effects, music, everything is just so much louder. And I can actually feel a good amount of bass as well. It's pretty front-heavy what with all the dialogue, scoring, and ambient drama effects, but it's all very clear and crisp. A few instances involved crashing objects, a big explosion, and even gunshots making for one heck of a sound presentation. The center, as expected, keeps all the talking in one spot and sounds very precise (save for Roth's British accent, though I think I'm getting used to it pretty fast). The front sides do a majority of the work separating music and various sounds of crowds, clamoring, and the occasional computer or weapons noise. But the big surprise to me are the LFEs. Bass is thumping from the get-go of the title card and transition into the prologue. And throughout each episode, they provide a great deal of atmosphere and tension to the onscreen story progression. Maybe it's just the fact that WB sucks for never putting lossless audio on any of their TV shows, or maybe I've just been watching so many HD rips with lossy 5.1 at 384kbps that I'm so happy that a TV show could even sound this good. Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad it happened. Kind of makes me wonder now what Chuck or Fringe would've sounded like... Anyway, while I may seem enamored with the audio presentation here, the one drawback is the limited use of the rear channels. The sound designer put a little noise back there, but I guess the show couldn't afford to it or something. Oh, and I can't stand the music for the ending credits. Something about it just feels pretentious (not really sure how to explain the annoyance of the melody). Nonetheless, it's just great that everything else sounds so full.
Overall - 4.5
It took me a few episodes just to get hooked by the science. But by the time the second half of the series rolled around, I was almost asking WTF. Luckily, the last 3 or so episodes showed enough potential for character development to really raise my hopes for a full and complete second season. I have to admit again that I absolutely love the science of this and will hope I can remember it and be cynical and distrusting enough to apply it to complete strangers and friends who manage to tick me off some day. But in the meantime, I'm also hoping Fox decides to put more of the show on BD. The video might be questionable for some, but I personally like its presentation (yay for lossless TV shows). If you haven't seen this yet and enjoy a good and different kind of psychological mystery/drama, give Lie to Me a chance.
Summary of Lie To Me: Season One [Blu-ray]
Tim Roth stars as Dr. Cal Lightman, a compelling new drama from the producers of 24, about the world?s leading deception expert who studies facial expressions and involuntary body language to expose the truth behind the lies.Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth), a deception specialist, believes that "the truth is written on all our faces." Unlike the psychics of Medium and The Mentalist, he reads body language rather than minds or dreams to crack cases, from murders to business matters, for a variety of law enforcement agencies. His team includes Eli Loker (Brendan Hines), Ria Torres (Monica Raymund), and Dr. Gillian Foster (The Practice's Kelli Williams). Though the show opens with the disclaimer that "the following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event," Lightman often looks to real life for reference, so archival images enter into each episode, sometimes resulting in cheap shots at political figures, like Richard Nixon ("I am not a crook"), but their contradictory gestures can be instructive. Overall, Lie to Me manages to feel both familiar and distinctive. Sleuths who deal better with problems than with people are a television staple, and Lightman is no different (Jennifer Beals plays his district attorney ex-wife). He also condescends to those he considers intellectually inferior or overly instinctive--like Torres--but Roth makes him sufficiently sympathetic. The stories, however, offer more surprises, since they cover the gamut from depressed pilots to gambling addicts. During these 13 episodes, Torres falls for a secret service agent, Foster experiences a personal setback, Loker experiences a professional one, and Ben Reynolds (ER's Mekhi Phifer) becomes a liaison between the Lightman Group and the FBI.
In the making-of featurette, "The Truth About Lies," creator Samuel Baum explains that he strives to explore "situations where honesty may not be the best policy" (Loker believes in "radical honesty," while Lightman won't hesitate to lie to expose a liar). Fun trivia: the first season ends with Roth walking toward the camera in slow motion, a move eerily reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs. --Kathleen C. Fennessy.
Stills from Lie to Me: Season One (Click for larger image)
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