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narcasseI had problems with the progression of season one of Lie to Me so I’ve been quite lax in bothering to watch season two, but having finally made the time to watch an episode I was equally unimpressed.
I caught the end of the first episode which entirely spoiled the plot for me so instead I took a stab at episode two and found myself really quite annoyed with the main plot. To qualify, the secondary plot had that light touch of sexism that’s become so common in this sort of series that I almost didn’t register it. While the plotline of a woman too scared to leave a controlling partner, in this case a cult leader, because if she left she’d lose her children could have been handled well it simply wasn’t given enough time. The obligatory escape occurred due to another woman, who’d evidently suffered because she couldn’t have children, wanting to save the victim and her family complete with victim hesitance which was overcome by one of her sons stating that he’d leave. It’s a general theme with Lie to Me that themes are almost handled well or at least neutrally but somehow always just miss the mark though in this case I will at least say that the lack of time focused on this plot can’t have helped.
The main plot on the other hand was one of those odd affairs that waved it’s not racist credentials at the viewer from the outset before plunging into subtle racism topped off with a garnish of sexism just for good measure. You almost knew right from the start that the black guy was going to be innocent because the setup was simply too clichéd. Underage white girl goes to a frat party, sleeps with black frat boy, guy gets charged with statuary rape, didn’t actually know said girl was underage. That’s pretty formulaic so in this case the twist was that said underage sex was filmed and posted online, presumably not on youtube. Of course the guy still didn’t know anything about this and events transpire that the girl filmed it because of some bizarre pact she had with school friends who had all decided that they were going to lose their virginity to college boys. The convoluted reasoning of the girls’ pact aside the rest of the plot faded into background detail due to the combination of cliché and somehow implied irrelevance. I simply couldn’t buy into the drama, though I was amused by the idea that the main character’s daughter was simply storing up birth control for future use.
What caught my eye was the subplot that the main plot seemed to be framing like background noise. Namely that Lightman’s wife was a WOC. To be honest I’d not really read her as one possibly because of her juxtaposition with Lightman’s much darker skinned protégé. Far be it for me to call anything in terms of anyone else’s skintone but for a series that had made a point of highlighting every single POC just so you know it was a surprise to suddenly find the spotlight turned on the character. So we have the setup that Lightman’s ex wife is a POC and we discover this because she wants to take the case and defend the chap charged with statutory rape which Lightman states is due to her own POC status. One parent was black and one white we find out more specifically later because we have to know the details, in the same way that straight folks always have to know if you're gay. This scene where her POC status is revealed degenerates into angry WOC having tone issues right off the bat. She states that the prosecution lawyer was someone who looked down on her due to her background and who has issues with POC which will result in a very prejudiced case. This statement about the prosecution lawyer becomes relevant later of course.
After the obligatory black college guy is found innocent we have a face-off between the prosecution lawyer and the Angry WOC where she finds out that she was wrong, he didn’t dislike her due to her background but because she was better than him at something or other. Damn those WOC, having tone issues and jumping to conclusions about White Middle Class Men. Because it’s not as if there are ever race issues in the professions. (For a better example of lawyer racism being handled Kavanagh QC does rather well, especially since it deals with class and sexism in the same arena too. It also lampoons the ‘well intentioned’ racist marvellously.) Also, just in case you miss the idea that WOC have tone issues the secondary plot finishes up with an epilogue of sorts where a WOC gets angry at the serene white woman for Doing The Right Thing. But said WOC doesn’t get a redeeming moment, where she realises what good intentions the white folks involved had because she’s pretty dark skinned.
Already the setup of justified but Angry WOC being transformed into WOC not quite grasping the Well Intentioned White Man’s intent annoyed me but then, just in case it wasn’t blatant enough the Well Intentioned White Man gets killed. He’s actually murdered for dropping the charges against the black college guy too and we’re treated to a little honour parade where the main characters arrive too late to save him and end up watching in sorrow as the paramedics carry the body away. Again, if this had played out without the silent, lingering close-ups of the sorrow of all the main characters present then I’d believe it was just meant to be a reaction shot. Instead we get a ‘look, two white men, a white woman and a WOC (not the formerly Angry WOC, mind) honour the fallen’.
Lie to Me irritates me so much due to things like this. The concept is interesting, the main character is likeable, the supporting main characters seem reasonable enough but it just keeps missing the mark. This episode is just like the last episode of the first season where the message was that not all Muslims were terrorists, which was where it ought to have stopped, but then followed that up with the message that all non-US Muslims were terrorists, especially relatives of American Muslims who must only want to enter the US to blow people up. I highly suspect that at least someone with some clout involved in the production of this series really doesn’t grasp the concept that if you have to say “I’m not racist but” then that doesn’t actually disqualify your racism.
I caught the end of the first episode which entirely spoiled the plot for me so instead I took a stab at episode two and found myself really quite annoyed with the main plot. To qualify, the secondary plot had that light touch of sexism that’s become so common in this sort of series that I almost didn’t register it. While the plotline of a woman too scared to leave a controlling partner, in this case a cult leader, because if she left she’d lose her children could have been handled well it simply wasn’t given enough time. The obligatory escape occurred due to another woman, who’d evidently suffered because she couldn’t have children, wanting to save the victim and her family complete with victim hesitance which was overcome by one of her sons stating that he’d leave. It’s a general theme with Lie to Me that themes are almost handled well or at least neutrally but somehow always just miss the mark though in this case I will at least say that the lack of time focused on this plot can’t have helped.
The main plot on the other hand was one of those odd affairs that waved it’s not racist credentials at the viewer from the outset before plunging into subtle racism topped off with a garnish of sexism just for good measure. You almost knew right from the start that the black guy was going to be innocent because the setup was simply too clichéd. Underage white girl goes to a frat party, sleeps with black frat boy, guy gets charged with statuary rape, didn’t actually know said girl was underage. That’s pretty formulaic so in this case the twist was that said underage sex was filmed and posted online, presumably not on youtube. Of course the guy still didn’t know anything about this and events transpire that the girl filmed it because of some bizarre pact she had with school friends who had all decided that they were going to lose their virginity to college boys. The convoluted reasoning of the girls’ pact aside the rest of the plot faded into background detail due to the combination of cliché and somehow implied irrelevance. I simply couldn’t buy into the drama, though I was amused by the idea that the main character’s daughter was simply storing up birth control for future use.
What caught my eye was the subplot that the main plot seemed to be framing like background noise. Namely that Lightman’s wife was a WOC. To be honest I’d not really read her as one possibly because of her juxtaposition with Lightman’s much darker skinned protégé. Far be it for me to call anything in terms of anyone else’s skintone but for a series that had made a point of highlighting every single POC just so you know it was a surprise to suddenly find the spotlight turned on the character. So we have the setup that Lightman’s ex wife is a POC and we discover this because she wants to take the case and defend the chap charged with statutory rape which Lightman states is due to her own POC status. One parent was black and one white we find out more specifically later because we have to know the details, in the same way that straight folks always have to know if you're gay. This scene where her POC status is revealed degenerates into angry WOC having tone issues right off the bat. She states that the prosecution lawyer was someone who looked down on her due to her background and who has issues with POC which will result in a very prejudiced case. This statement about the prosecution lawyer becomes relevant later of course.
After the obligatory black college guy is found innocent we have a face-off between the prosecution lawyer and the Angry WOC where she finds out that she was wrong, he didn’t dislike her due to her background but because she was better than him at something or other. Damn those WOC, having tone issues and jumping to conclusions about White Middle Class Men. Because it’s not as if there are ever race issues in the professions. (For a better example of lawyer racism being handled Kavanagh QC does rather well, especially since it deals with class and sexism in the same arena too. It also lampoons the ‘well intentioned’ racist marvellously.) Also, just in case you miss the idea that WOC have tone issues the secondary plot finishes up with an epilogue of sorts where a WOC gets angry at the serene white woman for Doing The Right Thing. But said WOC doesn’t get a redeeming moment, where she realises what good intentions the white folks involved had because she’s pretty dark skinned.
Already the setup of justified but Angry WOC being transformed into WOC not quite grasping the Well Intentioned White Man’s intent annoyed me but then, just in case it wasn’t blatant enough the Well Intentioned White Man gets killed. He’s actually murdered for dropping the charges against the black college guy too and we’re treated to a little honour parade where the main characters arrive too late to save him and end up watching in sorrow as the paramedics carry the body away. Again, if this had played out without the silent, lingering close-ups of the sorrow of all the main characters present then I’d believe it was just meant to be a reaction shot. Instead we get a ‘look, two white men, a white woman and a WOC (not the formerly Angry WOC, mind) honour the fallen’.
Lie to Me irritates me so much due to things like this. The concept is interesting, the main character is likeable, the supporting main characters seem reasonable enough but it just keeps missing the mark. This episode is just like the last episode of the first season where the message was that not all Muslims were terrorists, which was where it ought to have stopped, but then followed that up with the message that all non-US Muslims were terrorists, especially relatives of American Muslims who must only want to enter the US to blow people up. I highly suspect that at least someone with some clout involved in the production of this series really doesn’t grasp the concept that if you have to say “I’m not racist but” then that doesn’t actually disqualify your racism.
