Premierewatch: 'Lie to Me'

"The truth is written on all of our faces," declares Dr. Cal Lightman (the delectable Tim Roth) as he explains to a group of Homeland Security officials how he was able to question a skinhead and discern in about five minutes in which black church a firebomb was planted. Thus begins Lie to Me, a smart, fast-moving procedural that will make you question your every microexpression before the end of the hour.

You don't have to tell me; I can see the spoiler written on your face...

Lightman, we find out, specializes in reading people -- he devised a deception detection program at the Pentagon, but a few years back he left the government to form his own firm, The Lightman Group, with his partner with Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams). Their firm works with law enforcement, government agencies and private clients -- and their stock in trade is the universal expressions that everyone, no matter how well they try to conceal their truths, display. And business is great -- they just got a call from the DEA and Homeland Security, as well as the prime minister of Uzbekistan, and they need to hire some extra help. Cal's an intense, serious workaholic with a healthy helping of cynicism, and Gillian is a perfect foil for him -- bright, quick, even-keeled where he's cranky, good at dealing with people when he gets brusque. And she eats chocolate pudding at 10 a.m. She's a woman after my own heart.

They get a call from the D.C. Mayor's office to investigate 16-year-old James Cole, who's been arrested for murdering his teacher, Ms. McCartney. James is from a family of devout Jehovah's Witnesses, was until recently home-schooled and has been having a hard time getting along in school. He was apprehended leaving Ms. McCartney's house, resisted arrest and failed a polygraph. The U.S. Attorney wants to charge him as an adult, thinking it's an open-and-shut case. And of course the guy's a classic cocky, condescending boob who sees fit to insult Cal and Gillian. When they get a chance to sit down and talk to James, Cal asks James, a track runner, about recent races, and gauges his reaction to questions about his teacher's death. They can tell he's lying about something; it's just not clear about what.

Digging a little further at James' school, they find out his father objected to Ms. McCartney's assigning The Color Purple -- and that even if he did do it, no teacher believes James should go to jail. Cal and Gillian interview 57 of James' classmates, and not one of them turns up a credible account of him having problems with aggression. Then there's one classmate: Jackie Mathis, who's displaying signs of emotionality with her fast, shallow breathing. I can't speak for how it will play in the long run, but I really ike the way they hone in on the tiny details that Cal sees. The little close-ups are quick, add a lot to context, and convey an interesting sense of urgency.

Meanwhile, they head to Dulles Airport, where Cal gets pulled out of the security line by Ria Torres (Monica Raymund), a perceptive TSA agent who turns out to be a natural at detecting deception. She's made seven times more arrests than the average TSA agent and scored 97 percent on the specialized deception diagnostic, which Cal created. They've cleared it with her boss that she should leave the TSA and come work for them -- and have thrown in a briefcase full of cash as a signing bonus.

Back at the office, researcher Eli Loker (Brendan Hines), who sticks to speaking "radical truth" (the bit about Nancy Grace being nasty hot is funny, if slightly stomach-turning) reports that James' classmate Jackie has been seeing the school nurse a lot lately, which puts her under suspicion -- drugs? STD? Pregnant? While that's going on, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee calls, looking for some help. He was tipped off by someone at the Post that a congressman who's about to become the chair of the House Ethics Committee is about to be accused of paying for sex -- and he needs to know if it's true. Gillian demurrs, saying that it's not their job to go through people's dirty laundry. But she's pulled back in by the notion of not letting an innocent man go down. The story is that the congressman frequents a high-priced escort service on Fridays at an underground club in Georgetown.

Cal and Gillian talk to James' parents, looking for what they're hiding. They sought to shield their son from sex and corruption -- which turns out to be a key piece of information. Looking back at James' polygraph, they see that a question about his teacher registers sexual arousal when her name comes up. It turns out that James, repressed by his religious upbringing, had been spying on his teacher and taking pictures of her. We believe your son is innocent, Gillian tells James' mother. Cal confronts James with the photos, and James admits that he became aroused while spying on Ms. McCartney on the night of her death. But he didn't know she was dead until he was leaving. The police, clearly tipped off, caught him leaving the area, and he panicked and ran.

Now it's time to figure out what's making the congressman tick. Under Gillian's questioning, he refuses to admit that he's ever been to the club, and tells her a story about what he did last Friday night. But can't repeat it in reverse order. That's another beautifully done thing about this show: smoothly delivered little nuggets of exposition. They convey a huge amount of information, and you learn a ton about the science of reading people, without it ever seeming loaded or awkward or dropped in out of nowhere. And it's an enormous credit to Tim Roth that he can say things like "Body language tells the truth -- even from the grave" without it sounding in the slightest like David Caruso's overwrought Horatio Caine.

Ria does some digging and meets with Melissa, the escort whom the congressman has been seeing. And from Melissa's reaction to the conversation about her Friday-night "regular," it's clear nothing toward is going on. Then the congressman's name turns up on the internet, registered as a birth parent who wants to be found by the child who was given up for adoption. It turns out that Melissa is the congressman's daughter, and he started going to see her after he registered to be found and she didn't contact him. When he learned where she was working he wanted to get to know her and started spending time with her. He's almost convinced her to give up the life, and even though the story about him has broken and he's resigning his post, he doesn't want the detail that she's his daughter getting out. "I've already betrayed her once," he says. "I won't do it again."

The U.S. Attorney is throwing the book at poor James, who's had an acute breakdown. It turns out there are photos of Ms. McCartney on the afternoon she died, arguing with someone at the window of their car. Cal and Gillian go back to the principal to try to ID the car, and even though he covers, he recognizes it. Oh, and by the way, classmate Jackie is pregnant. Cal picks up on the principal's fear, and Jackie ends up getting hauled into the police station when it turns out that she was the one arguing with Ms. McCartney. Cal tries to force her to tell him what happened, warning that it will be her fault that an innocent James could spend the rest of his life in jail. A grim-faced Gillian hands him a note, and after reading it he tells Jackie that James has hanged himself in jail.

Which of course is when the dam breaks. Jackie 'fesses up that she's involved with the principal, and that Ms. McCartney was threatening to turn them in. She admits she's pregnant with the principal's baby, and that he told her he'd leave his wife for her. Well, I suppose it's never to early to learn the lesson that that's a BS story, Jackie. She never thought he'd kill Ms. McCartney, she says. But Cal's a sneaky one -- now that they've got the story and that the principal is being arrested (he pleads guilty in exchange for 30 years), we find out the note was a lie and James is OK. He goes home with his crying parents, who hopefully will make sure he gets some therpay after this.

And in the end, the disgraced congressman gets what he wants. Though the DNC chair calls them to find out the truth, Cal tells Ria they're sticking with the congressman's story. She's shocked that he would lie, and wonders what she's supposed to believe about him. "Believe whatever you want -- that's what everyone else does," he tells her.

Some other observations:

• I for one could not be more thrilled that Tim Roth, an English actor, gets to keep his accent on American television. A big thank you to the producers for letting that remain.
• The chemistry between Gillian and Cal is wonderful -- not sexual tension, but the kind of jousting camraderie that grows out of working closely with someone you like and respect for a long time. And the orange slushie bit was great.
• Gillian's husband lying to her about why he was late for dinner -- I'm sure this will come back as a plot point, and since both Cal and Ria can see that the guy's lying, it could well end up an illustration about how we don't see what we don't want to see. Otherwise there's no way that Gillian, a trained professional, would miss deception in her husband. P.S. I am loving Gillian's sheath dresses.
• Love the interaction between Cal and his daughter. Clearly this will develop, and I like watching him dance on the knife's edge of fatherly affection and concern while giving in to the overprotective thing. Plus, the daughter's obviously precocious and will give him a run for his money.
• I'm interested to see how we learn more about what happened to Cal at the Pentagon. The smarmy U.S. Attorney brought it up as a way to poke at him, but he didn't rise to the bait. Will be interesting to see if he ever does.
• I love Eli, but given his radical honesty -- particularly with Ria and his "I'd like to sleep with you but I have no chance" bit -- it did cross my mind how they can keep a guy who's a walking sexual harassment suit waiting to happen.

What did you think? Did you learn a lot? Anything feel implausible to you? Do you think that the exposition will eventually wind down, leaving us with less absorbing stories? Are you more likely to be conscious of what you're projecting after seeing this?

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