Lie to Me

Washington PostTom Shales

Lie to Me seems an unusually meaty, thoughtful and thought-provoking crime drama--another police procedural, yes, but one with a dramatic and mesmerizing difference. The strength of the premise combined with first-class production make this easily one of the season's best new shows.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

Roth makes for a tartly witty hero, the mysteries are intricately plotted, and the show makes the most of the weird dynamics of an office where the boss can ferret out everybody's secrets.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

Based on the first episode, the team seems to work about two cases at a time, and while neither of tonight's feels wildly creative--one warns of the downside to an intense religious upbringing, the other catches an elected official in an ethics scandal--both are engagingly told, with humor and little twists.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

Roth's Lightman is not nearly the curmudgeon Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) is, nor is he as entertaining, but Lie to Me has the makings of a fine procedural for viewers who can't seem to get enough of this type of series.

SalonHeather Havrilesky

OK, fine, so maybe the pilot does wrap up with your typical teary-eyed confession. Otherwise, though, Lie to Me is as thoroughly entertaining and charming as its fine-looking cast of characters.

The New York TimesGinia Bellafante

There is an appealing cheekiness to the show’s insistence on dressing up hunch work as the purview of serious science.

San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

Lie to Me comes out of the box strong, and it's especially encouraging that the cases at hand and the science used in the first hour is compelling enough that Roth's character (based on Paul Ekman, a real-life expert on lying and microexpressions, among other things) can evolve more slowly.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

This [is a] crisply shot, well-paced drama: It could venture into the darker and knottier realms of morality, as “House” did in its first few seasons.

TimeJames Poniewozik

Lie to Me's pilot is brisk anthropological fun.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

The show's gimmick does extend beyond reading expressions--they analyze voices and psychoanalyze answers--and the show does have its amusing moments. What it doesn't have is any sense of surprise, and once the novelty factor wears off, you just wonder whether there's enough here to sustain a series.

Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond

The Fox drama from the Imagine TV stable is fortunate to have a guy with the talents of Tim Roth as a trump card. But even apart from him, the writing and the concept are sufficiently developed from the get-go to prove an instantly intriguing entry that has the major benefit of following "American Idol" and should hold on to a good portion of that audience.

Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith

He's Washington, D.C., consultant Cal Lightman, helping authorities solve crimes and suss out liars by reading their facial gestures and demeanor cues. As science, this is a slim reed indeed, but it can make stories go around.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

Lie to Me, based on the real-life lie-detection work of Dr. Paul Ekman, doesn't extend much beyond its genre's borders. But if you're fascinated by the poker-game elements of crime-solving and a man obsessed with "tells," you may connect with this show.

Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd

Roth is a fine actor and a welcome presence on the small screen, and he manages to integrate a catalog of amazing facts into a character. But the show will be better for giving him more to do than bust liars, then explain how he did it.

Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker

Lie to Me is derivative yet well crafted, predictable yet ever-so-slightly novel.

Chicago Sun-TimesMisha Davenport

I’d be lying if I said I thought Lie to Me won’t get old fast.

PopMattersCynthia Fuchs

Lie to Me offers well-designed (and repeatedly, very white) interiors, utterly formulaic scripting, and familiar characters.

Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall

If Lie to Me wants to elevate itself above all the other shows like it, it not only needs to beef up the quality of its mysteries, but to spend more time focusing on these unexpected downsides of the power to live a life of absolute truths.

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

I found Fox's Lie to Me, about a brilliant deception expert, to be predictable, standard fare.

New York PostLinda Stasi

Lie to Me isn't terrible. From what I've seen so far, it's like "The DaVinci Code," in that it's something full of riveting information unfortunately wrapped around a dopey story and characters who should be in love with each other but aren't.

VarietyBrian Lowry

There surely have been worse hours on primetime, but seldom has there been one more predictable--not in the resolution of the cases, necessarily, but in every beat surrounding them.

New York MagazineEmily Nussbaum

The show is slack and often phony and stuffed with TV clichés, but the science is wildly fun, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a big hit.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

I bought into Ekman's ideas so immediately that I found myself looking at my watch as Lightman and company tried to persuade others. In the TV critic business, this is known as Not a Good Sign.

Slant MagazineLen Sousa

Unless creators can shift Mr. Orange's deception detective into an area viewers won't see coming every week, Lie to Me's science gimmick is sure to wane thin soon into its short first season, a truth that doesn't bode well for a series renewal.