My Thoughts on "Lie to Me" - Renee Ellory

Here are your questions and my thoughts from the first episode of “Lie to Me.”

What was your overall impression of the show?
For a drama, amazingly, I enjoyed it. As my regular readers know, I don’t watch too much on TV that is fictitious. It just doesn’t cut it for me, but this show, naturally, had interesting content that relates to my passion, so I liked it. I will definitely watch it again.

I was surprised that the show focused on body language and more importantly microexpressions alone when there are so many other clues to deception. For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know there are a whole host of other clues that I use. See this poll.

I was a little concerned that people will think that just because someone touches their forehead that it will always mean the person doing the behavior feels shameful. This is not the case. As with all clues to deception, they cannot be applied across the board.

For me, each case needs to be looked at individually. If I applied clues across the board to all people I saw, I’d be mistaken equally as much as I am correct. In essence, I’d be no better than chance. Deception detection, for me, isn’t about the clues as much as it is about the “inconsistencies” of behavior, speech, personality and demeanor. I am fearful that people will attempt to do this, and it could have devastating results. I’ve seen many people here on my blog attempt to read microexpressions, and miss the mark. In my opinion, not all head shakes “no” when someone is talking positively about something automatically means the person is lying. And if you can’t accurately identify a smile and its meaning, it can be disastrous. Not all smiles mean a person is happy. Nor is every hand to the forehead shame. So please be cautious, and realize this is a TV show. Spotting deception is much more complex than what this show can cover in an hour. Liars are as diverse as the lies they tell. If it was only about spotting the clues to deceit, I think most people would be wizards.

I also don’t know why the show uses the polygraph, or at a minimum shows it. It doesn’t make any sense. People with this ability do not need to use, nor would they want to use a polygraph. I suspect it is all for effect, but if people believe this show is “the science”, it may send the wrong message. I think people should know the show is “based on science,” but they need to take into account that it is a drama and entertainment, first and foremost. You can’t forget it has been “Hollywoodized.”
Did you feel like the actors were acting to you, or did it seem real to you?
It was a toss up for me. There were times when I was really absorbed into the show, and there were other times when I’d lose the moment because something wasn’t right. That is very normal for me, and why I typically don’t enjoy dramas or movies. It’s nothing specific to “Lie to Me”.

I did think, however, that “Lie to Me” did a good job with all the expressions and acting out emotions overall. Some were perfect! I think Monica Raymund did a superb job, and I really liked Tim Roth and Kelli Williams. I struggled, however, with Brendan Hines’ character. He just didn’t do it for me. He seemed to want to laugh or be giddy when he said really serious things, and it just didn’t work for me. His character, in my opinion, is a liability rather than an asset, but I also have a horrible sense of humor. I am way too serious most of the time for my own good, and I know it. So take that for what it is worth.
What are your thoughts about the show seeming to endorse or at least show indifference to lying at times?
That’s a great question. In the one scene, Dr. Lightman lied to the student to get her to confess what she knew about the murder by telling her another student committed suicide (which was a lie). In the police interrogations I’ve seen, when the police lie, it has had devastating results, getting honest people confused and mixed up. It’s caused honest people, who are insecure, to doubt themselves and make false confessions. I do not believe in lying to subjects in interrogations.

As for Brendan Hines, and his radical honesty: Is it radical honesty when someone says everything that is on their mind? I think rather it is about having no tact. Being honest does not mean that one has to be tactless or say whatever is on their mind; nor does it have to be horrible in timing.

As for Dr. Lightman not going public with the information he found out about the senator, is that lying? I don’t think it is. Just because we have become privy to information, and choose not to share it with people, in my mind, isn’t considered lying. Now granted, if he was paid to do a job and discover if someone was lying, well, he had an obligation. In that circumstance, I would probably have to tell my client that I discovered the truth and that truth is not what I expected, and is more private than I ever could have imagined. I would likely refund his money, and refer him to talk to the senator. That wouldn’t be lying, but choosing to respect the complexity of the situation I found myself in.

I am a firm believer you can be honest in 98% of situations with people; it’s just a matter of what you say, and how you say it. If you don’t like something, you don’t have to say you hate it. You can always say something that you believe to be true instead of lying by changing the focus, and still dealing with the subject at hand (i.e., “The jeans you wore last night were my favorite. I prefer them to these.”). There are always tactful ways to be respectful, truthful and not lie.
Were the microexpressions displayed longer in the show than in real life?
That’s a good question. There were times when they clearly slowed them down, or replayed them so that people could see them, but I am not sure if they did that for every single one. I didn’t pay that close attention. I would think they would have had to speed them up actually to make them 1/25th of a second, because when we make the expressions consciously, they are much slower. I don’t know if they did that. That’s a great question for the producers of the show! You’d need to contact them directly, as I am in no way affiliated with “Lie to Me”.
Did you experience the scenes and lies like you do in real life, or was it different?
The answer is no, it felt different to me for a variety of reasons. It definitely felt like acting. I do have to say that it didn’t seem natural for me to spot the lies on the show. It felt weird, probably because people were acting. More than that, to spot deception, a lot of what I do is match people’s personalities to their behaviors. I look for inconsistencies. By looking at a face, I immediately get a sense of a person’s personality, and that information gives me a foundation to understand people. Peoples’ facial features give me valuable information, too. I talk about this in what I call “paralleling” elsewhere in my blog, and with actors, you can’t do that because the actors don’t play their true selves. The actors play “characters”, and many times, the actors chosen for the part don’t fit the “characters” they are playing. More than that, their behaviors across the board are not natural. They are scripted, so things don’t occur naturally.

Interestingly enough, more than one of you have pointed out to me that I need to change careers and go to Hollywood to become an acting coach/consultant. I should help actors achieve their expressions, and hit the mark more. It’s an interesting concept. I’ve always thought about doing that for the television commercial industry, because they miss the mark all the time! Missing the emotions and expressions in a TV commercial has to influence how people buy products. I bet you’re not surprised to know I am rarely ever influenced to buy a product due to a commercial. I find them very ineffective for the most part.

Overall, I think the show is good, because it opens people up to a valuable science. It introduces that there are people who can spot lies by using body language and a host of other clues that people give off when they deceive. So, I’ll leave you with a word of caution. Just remember, the traits of a liar are as diverse as the people who lie. Just because someone does something you think only liars do, it’s not that simple. I can almost always find an honest person who does the exact same behavior for a different reason.

So there you have it, an inside perspective from a wizard. What did you think of the show? Will you watch it again?

*For more comments about the show from me, click on the “Lie to Me” label below.