cinemabon
12-31-2010, 10:42 PM
About two and a half weeks ago, my son came home on break from school. He was far more interested in Xbox than he was in the rest of my entertainment arsenal, when a strange thing happened. Xbox rebelled and went haywire. I had to send Xbox to Texas for misbehaving. During the "mircrosoft" hiatus, he picked up Netflix via the PS3 (which has had no problems) and started to watch its feed. As I started to work on Book V of my series, I found my son standing behind me on morning and asking: "How do you know when someone is lying?" I tried to answer truthfully. "Usually they cast their eyes down, look away... avoidance, that sort of thing." "Yes," he said, "and no... it's more complicated than that. Come here." This started a bonding with my son and my interest in a television show called, "Lie to me."
I have very little time for television, and even less for reading. So if its a choice, I chose reading... internet newspapers and news sources mostly... for about an hour every day. The rest of my time, when I'm not being a househusband (which takes a great deal of time), I'm trying to write a 1.4 million word saga, thank you very much. My son takes even less time for regular TV. He's Xbox through and through. So when my son draws my attention to a television series, I took a passing interest... at first. I must say that after only one show... I was hooked. Now I consider "Lie to me" one of the greatest television shows of the decade and the best writing/acting/ensemble I have seen on any show since "Frasier."
Tim Roth, of "Rob Roy" fame, heads the cast as Cal Lightman, a man who can read your face and tell when you are lying (among other things). He plays the part so well, its scary. If the man doesn't win an Emmy for that performance, the award is worthless. The rest of the cast is very strong too. His partner, Kelli Williams as Gillian Foster is certainly a strong second to Roth's hard nosed perceptive genius. She brings a perfect balance of charm and intelligence to his brutal style of confrontation. Others include: Brenden Hines as the brilliant lab assistant, Monica Raymund as the woman with a natural gut feeling, Hayley McFarland as Cal's daughter Emily, and Mekhi Phifer as the FBI agent who does it by the book.
"Lie to me" is based on the real life work of Dr. Paul Eckman, first inspired by Darwin's assertions that certain facial characteristics are universal to all mankind, no matter the language, was further helped in the 1950's when Margaret Mead made a similar argument. Eckman went to New Guinea and studied primitive man to find six basic universal facial reactions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. His work has added to what we know about how people display their inner feelings through facial expression. Later, Eckman refined his work to include "mircro-expressions," tiny movements that further betray the inner mechanisms of a person's true feelings. He is also an advisor on the show.
Netflix has seasons one and two available in HD broadcast. I highly recommend Netflix (for 8 dollars a month? Come on! Beats HBO and Cinemax all to hell!) and this show in particular. During Christmas break, my wife and I sat through season one and started season two. It turned into a daily thing with the whole family. We couldn't wait to see the next episode. I'm telling you, you'll be hooked. It's that good!
Happy New Year to everyone, wherever you are. 2011, good year or bad? Predictions? I will bring Books V and VI to market. Obama will have to confront witchy mom from Alaska in the press. The republicans will look even more ridiculous than they did last year. Rachel Maddow will be the next Man of the Year. Jon Stewart will win the Nobel Prize for Peace.
I have very little time for television, and even less for reading. So if its a choice, I chose reading... internet newspapers and news sources mostly... for about an hour every day. The rest of my time, when I'm not being a househusband (which takes a great deal of time), I'm trying to write a 1.4 million word saga, thank you very much. My son takes even less time for regular TV. He's Xbox through and through. So when my son draws my attention to a television series, I took a passing interest... at first. I must say that after only one show... I was hooked. Now I consider "Lie to me" one of the greatest television shows of the decade and the best writing/acting/ensemble I have seen on any show since "Frasier."
Tim Roth, of "Rob Roy" fame, heads the cast as Cal Lightman, a man who can read your face and tell when you are lying (among other things). He plays the part so well, its scary. If the man doesn't win an Emmy for that performance, the award is worthless. The rest of the cast is very strong too. His partner, Kelli Williams as Gillian Foster is certainly a strong second to Roth's hard nosed perceptive genius. She brings a perfect balance of charm and intelligence to his brutal style of confrontation. Others include: Brenden Hines as the brilliant lab assistant, Monica Raymund as the woman with a natural gut feeling, Hayley McFarland as Cal's daughter Emily, and Mekhi Phifer as the FBI agent who does it by the book.
"Lie to me" is based on the real life work of Dr. Paul Eckman, first inspired by Darwin's assertions that certain facial characteristics are universal to all mankind, no matter the language, was further helped in the 1950's when Margaret Mead made a similar argument. Eckman went to New Guinea and studied primitive man to find six basic universal facial reactions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. His work has added to what we know about how people display their inner feelings through facial expression. Later, Eckman refined his work to include "mircro-expressions," tiny movements that further betray the inner mechanisms of a person's true feelings. He is also an advisor on the show.
Netflix has seasons one and two available in HD broadcast. I highly recommend Netflix (for 8 dollars a month? Come on! Beats HBO and Cinemax all to hell!) and this show in particular. During Christmas break, my wife and I sat through season one and started season two. It turned into a daily thing with the whole family. We couldn't wait to see the next episode. I'm telling you, you'll be hooked. It's that good!
Happy New Year to everyone, wherever you are. 2011, good year or bad? Predictions? I will bring Books V and VI to market. Obama will have to confront witchy mom from Alaska in the press. The republicans will look even more ridiculous than they did last year. Rachel Maddow will be the next Man of the Year. Jon Stewart will win the Nobel Prize for Peace.