History Series / LieToMe

* ConsultingAConvictedKiller: Cal pays visit to a serial rapist and torturer for clues about the recent string of copycat crimes. [[spoiler: It turns out to be the first victim's boyfriend.]]

* BilingualBonus: In the beginning of "Pied Piper", Wilkes is praying the Confeitor, the confession of sin from the Roman Catholic church (which is also the origin of the phrase "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa") in the original Latin. The show is also fond of only translating Spanish when it's plot-relevant, so that also probably counts.

* EmotionsVsStoicism: Lightman and Foster are able to suppress their emotions at all times due to their experience and professionalism, Loker as well for most of the time due to his general laid-back nature (with a few exceptions), but Torres, being the least experienced, has an unfortunate habit of letting her emotions cloud her judgement, and as soon as Lightman sees them having any sort of influence over her, quickly dismisses anything she says (possibly after a bit of mocking).

* EmotionsVsStoicism: Lightman and Foster are able to suppress their emotions at all times due to their experience and professionalism, Loker as well for most of the time due to his general laid-back nature (but with a few exceptions), but Torres, being the least experienced, has an unfortunate habit of letting her emotions cloud her judgement, and as soon as Lightman sees them having any sort of influence over her, quickly dismisses anything she says (possibly after a bit of mocking).

!!Provides examples of:

*** "Funhouse", though, takes the expectation of the "Cuckoo's Nest" parallels and then brutally subverts them.

* BetaCouple Loker and Torres, to Lightman and Foster's [[EveryoneCanSeeIt alpha couple]].

* ShoutOut: "Because [[StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan you always have been, and you always will be...]] my best mate!"

* WhatTheHellHero: See NightmareFuel

* WhatTheHellHero: See HighOctaneNightmareFuel above.

* BatmanGambit: Cal's prone to these.

* KansasCityShuffle: A fairly brilliant one, combined with a Xanatos Gambit. In the teaser for "In the Red", Cal inexplicably has joined a bank robbery team. As we learn from the episode-long flashback, Cal actually [[spoiler: saw Miller in the bank, read from his face how badly he wanted to rob the bank, convinced him to hire him on, then immediately went to the bank manager and informed him he was about to be robbed. He convinced the bank manager to cut him in - money which he desperately needs since his accounts are frozen and he's about to be sued by his publishing company for breach of contract - and then turned the bank manager into the police for the inciting error that pushed Miller over the edge.]]

* XanatosGambit / XanatosRoulette: It's a given that in any episode, Cal will be pulling at least one of these.
** Cal, Gillian, and Burns vs. Little Moon in "Exposure" is one big one: [[spoiler: Cal's mixing lies and his science to prove Burns didn't kill Little Moon's father, Gillian is worried about Burns but backs Cal's play, and Burns is following Cal's lead some of the time and going off script others, and they're trying to keep Little Moon convinced that he needs them all alive]].

* NoEndorHolocaust: It appears the entire lead cast have an immunity to PTSD. In one episode Cal gets waterboarded (which involves being drowned to death and revived repeatedly). That's kind of BeyondTheImpossible trauma that ''no one'' gets over.

** Cal seems to have a thing for hot blondes with whom he's in over his head. First Poppy, the Vegas card shark (or, as Gillian calls her, "roulette"); then Clara, the former gold-digging businesswoman who, as of "Teacher and Pupils" [[spoiler: loans the Lightman Group around seven figures worth of money, making her the lead investor and Cal's new boss]]. She lasts until "Bullet Bump", [[spoiler: when we find out that Clara helped a politician's wife cover up a murder]]. Then there's Naomi, from "Double Blind", who [[BeyondTheImpossible actually successfully cons him]]. Now it looks like Wallowski's going this way, too, though she isn't a blonde.

** Not only does he not seem to care, but no one else cares either. One of the girl victims seen earlier in the episode seemed horribly traumatized, but not Lightman. Not only this, but no one else seems to care either. Not even Gillian, which just screams shoddy writing, as she cares about him more than anyone.

Lightman is joined by a team of [[OddlySmallOrganization three other analysts]]. Dr. Gillian Foster is Lightman's close friend and the other senior staff member. She usually heads up another investigation while Lightman is busy on a separate case. Ria Torres is a "natural" deception-detector. Lightman found her as a security agent at the airport. Rounding out the band is Eli Loker, an utterly shameless flirt committed to [[WillNotTellALie 100% honesty]][[hottip:*:[[spoiler: His radical honesty disappears quickly in season 1]]]].

* HesitationEqualsDishonesty: Deconstructs it: Prepared lies in fact generally cause people to answer quicker, not slower, because they have already prepared their story for questioning. The show goes on to explain that the way to catch these people is to ask them to repeat their story ''backwards'', which is a definite case of ShownTheirWork - your average liar won't bother to practice enough to get this right, but someone telling the truth will obviously be able to draw on their memory to answer (i.e. "I went to the park at about midnight, before that I was at the restaurant, and before that I was out giving candy to orphans.")

* DisabledHottie / DisabledSnarker: Sarah, the new grad student in season three, who is also deaf.

* OverprotectiveDad/PapaWolf

* InformedAbility, or perhaps more InformedAttribute: Eli Loker is said to be a practitioner of "radical honesty", but apart from an occasional tactless line we don't ever see it, though supposedly it should be quite radical. In fact, a major story arc has him lying extensively and dragging Torres into his lies. He was caught lying about his feelings for a woman, and was insincere about his motives when pretending to be Emily's friend in order to keep an eye on her.

Lightman is joined by a team of [[OddlySmallOrganization three other analysts]]. Dr. Gillian Foster is Lightman's close friend and the other senior staff member. She usually heads up another investigation while Lightman is busy on a separate case. Ria Torres is a "natural" deception-detector. Lightman found her as a security agent at the airport. Rounding out the band is Eli Loker, an utterly shameless flirt committed to [[WillNotTellALie 100% honesty]][[spoiler:[[hottip:*:His radical honesty disappears quickly in season 1]]]].

Lightman is joined by a team of [[OddlySmallOrganization three other analysts]]. Dr. Gillian Foster is Lightman's close friend and the other senior staff member. She usually heads up another investigation while Lightman is busy on a separate case. Ria Torres is a "natural" deception-detector. Lightman found her as a security agent at the airport. Rounding out the band is Eli Loker, an utterly shameless flirt committed to [[WillNotTellALie 100% honesty]][[hottip:*:His radical honesty disappears quickly in season 1]].

Lightman is joined by a team of [[OddlySmallOrganization three other analysts]]. Dr. Gillian Foster is Lightman's close friend and the other senior staff member. She usually heads up another investigation while Lightman is busy on a separate case. Ria Torres is a "natural" deception-detector. Lightman found her as a security agent at the airport. Rounding out the band is Eli Loker, an utterly shameless flirt committed to 100% honesty.

Despite only initially being ordered for 13 episodes, it was a big hit with audiences. As of May 10, 2011, it has been canceled by FOX.

Despite only initially being ordered for 13 episodes, it was a big hit with audiences. As of May 10, 2011, [[TooGoodToLast it has been canceled]] by [[NetworkDecay FOX.]]