Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

And so the trend continues from the past few entries: some connection from my life inspires to watch a certain pilot and this week is no exception.

Recently I saw the new Tarantino film Hateful Eight, which I absolutely loved (go see it in 70mm if you can) and there on the screen I saw my old friend, Tim Roth.  I absolutely loved him in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs and immediately thought “Where has this guy been since the early 90s?”

After consulting IMDB, I was reminded of a TV show he was on: Lie to Me.  It only lasted a few seasons on FOX and as the title suggests, it has a similar premise as CBS’s The Mentalist:  A man who has an uncanny ability to tell if people are lying.

Going into this pilot, I loved Tim Roth and now coming out the other side, I still love him.  But unfortunately, I had several seasons of The Mentalist in my memory bank for a ready to go comparison.

Obviously the shows invite comparison: the shows premiered within a year of each other.

Both of these shows are procedural dramas featuring a gifted man who doesn’t work as a policeman or an FBI agent but a freelancer for hire.  Both men have a loner vibe to them, but perhaps for different reasons.

Even the lead actors are both not American, although Tim Roth kept his British accent, while The Mentalist’s Simon Baker masks his Australian one with a flawless American one.

Generally I don’t watch procedural dramas as much because it really doesn’t matter if you watch one episode or the entire series.  There’s rarely a continuous through-line and every episode follows the exact same format.  (ie. Law & Order: someone commits a crime and the guilty party is either the first person they interview or someone related to that person.  House: it’s never Lupus, etc.)

I have to imagine the main reason to stay with a procedural drama then, would be because the characters are compelling and you want to visit them once a week to see what they’re up to.

Lie to Me didn’t really hit that for me - Tim Roth is smart, but in a callous Sheldon Cooper “I don’t care about people’s feelings” kind of way.  His female work partner (whose name I can’t remember but she did look good in her work dress so I’ll call her Hot Dress) is clearly supposed to be his foil and I guess love interest?  I didn’t really feel any chemistry, but there was an attempt at banter (Roth belittles Hot Dress for eating a pudding cup at 10 AM and then later for an orange slushy…yes, fortunately this is the show’s only awkward attempt at humor.)

Also the show relied heavily on the science of body language and facial ticks, which got very technical and didn’t really engage me.  The Mentalist had more of a Sherlock Holmes feel to it of noticing tiny details and making everyone feel stupid.  After watching several episodes of The Mentalist, I feel like I can play along and be smart like our “mind-reading” protagonist”.  With Lie to Me, I feel like they constantly were teaching me the slight variations of facial expressions with real science (maybe?) and I didn’t feel engaged.

The biggest difference between The Mentalist and Lie to Me, which made me find the latter lackluster, is that I have no real backstory for Tim Roth or explanation as to why he is the way he is.  On The Mentalist, Simon Baker has a very interesting backstory where he used to pretend to be a psychic and he pissed off a serial killer, Red John, on national television, and said serial killer murdered his wife and daughter.  Red John is still at large and clearly Simon Baker is hoping to find him and exact revenge.  Simon has a charming wit and fun loving exterior, so I was immediately charmed by him and then to learn of this dark past where he is dead set on revenge is absolutely thrilling.  

So, as you may have guessed, I will not be watching another episode of Lie to Me, but I do highly recommend The Mentalist.  Simon Baker’s quips alone are worth it and then the Red John hunt through-line through the series makes the viewing so much fun!

I give the Lie to Me pilot 5 out of 10 pudding cups

It's easier to get into than to get out of...

After another kick of Gilmore Girls episodes, this week, I felt inspired to watch another critically acclaimed TV show featuring Lauren Graham: Parenthood!

My first impression, upon finishing the pilot, was surprise.  Surprise because of how funny the show was.  This humor may stem from the original source material: the 1989 movie Parenthood, featuring Steve Martin, Keeanu Reeves and countless other recognizable names.

Don’t get me wrong: this is a drama, no doubt in my mind.  (And we’ll get to the tears, don’t worry!)

But the highlight of this show for me was the large family meal scenes.  I loved the natural chaos, the give and take of conversation.  A lot of comedy flows out of these moments.  It felt like a real family dinner and not a heavily scripted drama.  

Peter Krause (from Six Feet Under and Sports Night) is the first brother we meet as he is taking a morning jog and soon receives a series of phone calls from various family members.  It reminded me of Arrested Development, where Jason Bateman’s character has a heart of gold who is always called upon to bail out his family when everything goes terribly terribly wrong.

Peter Krause definitely had this helpless feeling to him.  He’s such a good guy, he can’t NOT help, even if he overextends himself in the process.

My favorite actress, Lauren Graham is a sister in this family and a single mother (Clearly she’s got the market cornered).  She is moving into her parents’ house because of her financial troubles with her two teenage children in tow.  She then goes on a date with an old high school boyfriend and has a classic meltdown at the restaurant.

Bring on those Graham tears!  Honestly I love when Lauren Graham cries because without fail, it hits me where I live and I start crying as well.

Dax Shepherd plays the black sheep brother, who really can’t get it together.  His opening scene has him climbing out of a girl’s bed and finding random frozen sperm in her freezer.  A great TV moment where with no dialogue I know a lot about his character.  Dax definitely has some great moments throughout this pilot as the commitment-phobic man child who needs a big brother to constantly run to — I definitely am excited to see where they take his character throughout the series.

The patriarch of this family is played by Craig T. Nelson (apparently there were recent talks of rebooting Coach, an early 90s show that he was on and I honestly was very confused as to why this show was pulled into the revival/reboot tornado that we currently find ourselves in).

I mostly remember Craig T Nelson as the voice of Pixar’s Mr Incredible, but I always thought he looked like a sweet older man, full of wisdom and experience.  In Parenthood however, they decided to make him a genuine asshole.  There is a scene where he plays one on one basketball with one of his grandsons and proceeds to elbow the boy in the face, causing a severe nosebleed.  And while the rest of the family clamors to get some ice, a towel, etc, Craig T Nelson actually defends his action, saying the boy needs to toughen up.

Wow.  This boy, by the way, is around 8 years old and in a moment I’ll reveal how truly messed up Mr. Nelson’s tactics are.

I feel like the writers are offering an older generation’s perspective.  Less touchy-feely, everyone gets a gold star/participation trophy, don’t use red pen, it hurts kids’ feelings to a philosophy of strength and independence, where emotions are weak and hugs are for sissies.

It’s hard to watch at times, but clearly it does have a place on TV, especially for an older viewership who perhaps isn’t as appalled as I am and can actually relate or at least understand where my boy Craig T is coming from. 

The last sibling is a sister played by Erika Christensen, a big shot lawyer whose career clearly dominates her life.  So much so that her young daughter prefers her father and starts having little tantrums every time Erika tries to read her a story or cut her food for her.  I really enjoyed the inclusion of this character because I think it demonstrates a struggle that women have to face even in 2016: Trying to make it big in whatever career field they’ve chosen and then raise a family on top of it.  And I thought the portrayal of this family felt more balanced.  Usually a TV portrayal will either have the mother be completely ignorant of her children as she greedily climbs the corporate ladder or she struggles so hard to balance the two and her family is so blind and unappreciative of her sacrifice.  In this pilot, I felt both ways at different times, so no one person was the villain and thus this mother/daughter relationship felt more real, because it was complicated and not clear who was at fault.

A slightly spoiler-y thing ahead so in case you want to watch the pilot with fresh eyes, you’ve been warned: SPOILER ALERT

A big reveal about three quarters of the way through the episode is that Peter Krause’s son is autistic.  With my 2016 POV, it was pretty easy to notice this, but I think all the way back in 2010, this topic was not breached nearly enough on national television.

Talking to people who watched the show when it originally aired, I learned that the openness with which they addressed autism in the pilot episode was considered groundbreaking and I completely understand why.

Watching both parents try to process this sudden and unexpected diagnosis is so heartbreaking.     Peter Krause is in full denial of this reality and his wife, played by the lovely Monica Potter, is devastated.  She is grieving at the difficult life her son, Max, has ahead of him and also angry at Peter Krause for not facing the truth.

By far the most heartbreaking was the interaction Craig T and Peter Krause have together after the diagnosis.  Unaware of the news, Craig T heartlessly criticizes Peter’s parenting.  Peter turns to him and says “Dad, there’s something wrong with my son.”

Peter proceeds to say more than once and I could feel my lip quivering, holding back tears.  Whew boy!  Heavy stuff for primetime.

Luckily the pilot has an uplifting ending of Max wanting to go to his baseball game and the entire extended family uprooting their lunch plans together to take him.  And Peter Krause, who has been a little intense about Max’s baseball career, simply beams as his son takes the plate, not caring what happens next, just glad that he’s participating.

Overall this pilot succeeded in providing so much information without feeling like a dreaded info dump.  It showed family tension and history through action, rather than clunky dialogue and while they unpacked a lot of characters and story arcs in one episode, it didn’t feel rushed or disjointed to me.  I was engaged and am excited to see what happens next.  Of course my only reservation, which has been confirmed by those who’ve watched the show, is that most prime time dramas quickly slip into melodrama and become a soap opera.  But as a pilot I will give it 8 out of 10 Lauren Graham tears.