Initially I had qualms about where Lie to Me would fall in my Monday TV lineup, the most crowded day of the week — or whether it would survive at all.
I’m a recent convert to the FOX drama starring Tim Roth in a House-like role as a difficult but brilliant psychologist who’s made quite the career of studying microexpressions. I started watching late last season but caught enough episodes then and in summer repeats to warm up to it quickly.
From what I can tell, critics somewhat panned it because it was too procedural and not character-driven enough. The criticism didn’t bother me much because I am a fan of the procedural, whether crime or law, but after last night’s mesmerizing premiere under new showrunner Shawn Ryan (formerly of the gritty F/X cop drama The Shield), I definitely am down with the shift to the latter.
“The Core of It All,” guest-starring Erika Christensen in a role I, quite frankly, didn’t realize she could pull off so spectacularly, was easily the best show I watched last night. I even watched it again after I couldn’t sleep.
In fact, after a fantastic Castle episode? Well, let’s just say that as long as Louie Vito & Chelsie Hightower and Kelly Osbourne & Louis Van Amstel (and even Melissa Joan Hart & Mark Ballas/Natalie Coughlin & Alec Mazo) remain on Dancing With the Stars, the loser of the lineup might be Big Bang Theory. Last night’s episode had its moments, but it wasn’t nearly as funny as it’s been. (Thank you, God, that I will never have to find myself in the same awkward, insecure situation as Penny and Leonard.)
But back to Lie to Me.
Okay, first of all, I have a predisposed fascination with anything having to do with multiple personality disorder disassociative identity disorder. I saw — and was completely wrapped up in — Primal Fear (book was better). My favorite Mary Higgins Clark book is All Around the Town, which deals with a young college student with DID who allegedly killed her professor — or one of her alters did. Cynthia Nixon’s Emmy-winning guest turn as a DID sufferer on Law & Order: SVU was deserved.
So the premise of “The Core of It All” has Erika Christensen playing a traumatized girl with three alters (one of whom is male), and we don’t even meet Sophie, the core personality, until midway through the episode. She nailed four separate, distinct characters. Nailed them. It was amazing.
There was a moment where Cal and Gillian (Tim Roth and Kelli Williams) are talking to Sophie, and she says, “One day I’m afraid one of them will take over for good and I’ll be…gone.” Her facial expression, the tone of her voice, her delivery — especially the pause before ‘gone’ — were perfect.
And I won’t even get into the scene where Cal has to use…bold methods to draw out RJ, the male personality and mute protector of the other three. Christensen’s performance was both chilling and heartbreaking all at once.
Anyway. I liked Lie to Me well enough last season, but if this first episode under Shawn Ryan is any indication, I’m going to love the second season.
Chelsie Hightower & Louie Vito, Dancing With the Stars
Beckett & Castle bet Esposito & Ryan to see who can solve a case first in 2x02, "Double Down."
Leonard & Penny are in awkward territory on Big Bang Theory.
Erika Christensen as Tricia, one of Sophie's alters, in "The Core of It All."
Erika Christensen
