YMMV / Lie to Me

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Cal is utterly brilliant. He also has an awkward body language and very little regards to things like tact and the like. Is this a choice, or a sign of him being on the autism spectrum?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The end of "Funhouse", which, instead of ending on Cal and Emily and the burned birthday cake, gives us a mouse's-eye-view tour of the Lightman Group, ending by finding the mousetrap Cal set at the beginning of the episode.
• Complete Monster:
  • "Depraved Heart": Mike Personick uses his position at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to manipulate female immigrants into becoming his surrogates. Personick forces these women to live in poor conditions and suffer immense pain carrying his client's babies, before discarding them after they give birth. His callousness as well as his horrific treatment drive three women to suicide, to Personick's complete apathy, and he would have killed more women by this method if Cal Lightman had not rescued the captive women. When confronted by his crimes, Personick refuses to accept any responsibility, callously blaming his victims for the predicament he placed them in.
  • "Blinded": Andrew Jenkins is a Serial Rapist whose crime spree involved raping 12 women. When he was done, Jenkins would focus their gaze on him before he blinded them so he would be the last thing they ever saw. Knowing a copycat of his is out there and kidnapping a woman to blind and rape, Jenkins enjoys playing a twisted game with hero Cal Lightman as Lightman tries to save the woman. With a reach extending outside prison, Jenkins has a guard pass letters to his copycat by threatening the man's life and promises Lightman his copycat's next victim will be someone Lightman loves.
  • "Sacrifice": Nabil Kahn is a terrorist who creates makeshift bombs before planting them inside the belongings of those who attend his mosque, having them unknowingly distribute his bombs to high populated areas throughout Washington, D.C. before detonating them. Nabil has detonated two bombs in a bus and mall, already killing a total of 40 people—including his own cousin, Rasheed—and had five more bombs ready to be detonated, planning to kill hundreds more.
  • "Beat the Devil": Martin Walker is a Serial Killer and torturer. At first, he gains Lightman's notice when seeing photos of women being tortured arouses him. It comes out Walker is a vicious murderer who gets his kicks by waterboarding young women. He then forces them to dig their own graves before murdering and burying them in them. The waterboarding is related to how he allowed his sister to drown as a child, allowing her to drown merely because he wanted her bike.
• Growing the Beard: Most critics seem to agree that the storytelling got much more dynamic with the inclusion of Shawn Ryan as co-Executive Producer in the second season.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The plot of 'Undercover', which is eerily similar to the Trayvon Martin tragedy... which happened three years later.
• Ho Yay: Cal and Jeffrey, his buddy from Oxford in one episode.
  • And Cal comes onto the character played by David Anders, but that's just to get a rise out of him (it doesn't really work).
  • Let's face it, Cal/every male character. His complete lack of respect for personal space just amps it up.
• Jerkass Woobie: When Cal finally opens up and admits his failings and feelings, you just want to hug him. A particularly poignant example is the opening sentences to his (as yet still-unwritten) book:
  "Let me be clear. I understand very little, least of all the people closest to me."
• Narm: Because Cal and his team are looking for very specific reflexes, actors have to telegraph certain expressions to make sure the camera and audience can catch them. Some actors can pull it off but others over exaggerate, making it seems as if their characters want to be caught.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Ben Reynolds switched to the CIA, then joined Torchwood.
  • Mike Ross from Suits plays an idealistic young US embassy employee, and Louis Litt plays a cynical State Department employee in a high-stakes negotiation involving a whole lot of pride. Wait a minute.
  • Longmire's Branch shows up as a well-off (former) protege of an eccentric but talented man (Lightman/Longmire) and tries to steal his baliwick right out from under him. Again, this may be Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • A pre-Black Panther (2018) Chadwick Boseman in "Truth or Consequences", and Michael B. Jordan in "Smoked" and "Killer App"
• Special Effect Failure: In "Love Always", Cal demonstrates the shocking effects of gunfire by firing a semi-automatic handgun in the air; the scene is repeated in slow motion, too, and the gun is visibly fake: the slide doesn't move, and no bullet casings come out.

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