Because of Lone Star's premature demise, Lie to Me returns earlier than expect in its old time slot.
While I was watching "In The Red," I was trying to figure out why Lie to Me only clicks with me on occasion. I can follow The Wire, The Sopranos, and most of Deadwood fairly well, despite them using more esoteric language, but sometimes I find my head swimming while watching Lie to Me. I have no clue if I'm heading in the right, but here's what I think.
The writers want you to think that the plot is complex, and that Lightman is a smart guy who unravels it all. The key is that they want you to think that way. In fact, the opposite is true. The plots are too simple, so Lightman has dialogue for the majority of the episode--except half the stuff he says is useless babble that only soldifies his tough guy persona. But the way the music goes, building towards something, and the way Tim Roth says his lines, you'd think he was talking about a major plot point. OK, now this is a stretch, but it's all a big deception to make viewers think things are more complicated than it should be.
In "In The Red," the setup is deceptively simple. Usually, bank robberies are complicated with lots of twists and steps, but in the episode, there's really nothing. It's only about a guy who was turned away from the bank and is back for revenge. That's it. The stuff with the bank employees, Wallowski, the prison information, and Henry are all extraneous, and the verbose dialogue, along with Tim Roth's overly energetic delivery, have no relevance in the end.
It's late and I have a bunch of thoughts swirling in my head, so I'm not going to devote any more time to this line of thought. If I might be on the right track, leave a comment, and if not, do whatever you want.
I can normally stand Lightman's behavior, but I had huge problems with the way he treated Gillian, Loker, and the memory of Reynolds. He's smugness and arrogance has a breaking point, and for me, it's how he acts like he's the king of the world and under no influence from others.
Score: 8.4/10
