NEW SERIES TONIGHT - Lie To Me

Lie To Me

Sky 1, 10pm

Tim Roth is an expert in deception detection who works for clients including the FBI, spotting ticks and tells to get to the truth. 

OK, we've seen a lot of this type of show recently: expert in some obscure pseudo-science (this one is lie detection through body language and linguistic analysis) helps cops/Feds, some of whom are dismissive but proved wrong, others of whom say "he's a nutjob but he gets results". But this is more fun than The Mentallist (though, of course, not in the same league as the great kooky genius, the OCD-suffering Monk, or indeed the original... Columbo). My problem with The Mentallist (see review below) is that it doesn't explain how the "genius" is making the mental leap – it doesn't do the Holmes or Poirot exposition. There's no problem with that here – in fact, just in case you think that convenient body language ticks are being made up for the sake of the plot, they flash up images of notorious liars like OJ Simpson and Dick Cheney to illustrate the point.

Roth plays it pretty straight, not trying to do a crazy/genius thin-line high-wire act. Instead, it's the support cast who do quirky – his junk food-guzzling business partner (who presumably is bulimic, since despite her calorie intake, she's slim and hot); and a guy who indulges in "radical honesty" (his excuse for being late for work is that he was in bed with a hangover fantasising about a TV anchorwoman).

One piece of advice: don't watch this with your partner – you'll be under scrutiny after every episode. Men in particular - keep your hand away from your nose. You'll see why in this first episode...

WOT WE SEEN URRIN? (Familiar faces from your favourite shows)

Show...    Sons Of Anarchy

Character...   Gemma Teller Morrow

Actor...   Katey Sagal

Wot we seen urrin?

Actually, it's more a case of "Wot we urd urrin?" If you think that voice is familiar, Sagal is the voice of big-booted cyclops freight-captain and blurnsball washout Turanga Leela from Futurama.

Older viewers (and Germans - who inexplicably loved this awful US sit com) may remember her as tarty Peggy Bundy in Married With Children. 

TV BLOG IN QUOTING SHAKESPEARE SHOCK

Sons Of Anarchy

Bravo

Tuesdays, 10pm (and +1)

The latest big US show hit our screens last night and immediately went weird. Apparently this story of a California biker gang is based on Hamlet, and it's created by an ex-The Shield writer, so it's bound to be oblique. But sometimes, if you're doing a show about biker gangs, you need to show the gang on bikes for more than a minute in the first half hour of the show. This was an intriguing rather than dramatic start...

It's going to take some commitment, because there are so many Sam Crows to get to know (yep, after Generation Kill, it's another show with its own language – you don't call them Sons of Anarchy; it's Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original; SAMCRO). There's the Jewish Elvis impersonator (oh, they're very quick to make it clear the Sam Crows aren't racists, with black business partners and a rivalry with a white supremacist gang), the bloke who looks like he's wearing eyeshadow... and the Scotsman. That was particularly odd - I thought I wasn't hearing his accent right.

There are some interesting pieces of casting. Ron "Hellboy" Perlman makes total sense as the patriarch (or Claudius figure); Katey Sagal (see the next post, "Wot we seen urrin?") is Gertrude, though with a touch of the Lady MacBeth's about her too; Drea de Matteo (Adriana in The Sopranos) is Ophelia going off the rails (get thee to a nunnery); and isn't that the FBI boss from The X-Files (Mitch Pileggi) lurking as a rival gang leader? (They're called the Nordics, so presumably he's Fortinbras).

Of course, no show can succeed without a decent soundtrack these days and while it's heavy on Americana (the theme's by Curtis Stigers), it's not a case of playing "both kinds of music - country and western" – I think that was even a Jesus & Mary Chain tune accompanying a pool cue beating.

I'll be following the exploits of the citizens of Charming (Really? That's the ironic town name gone with?), if only so we can work out which characters are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and will be hoist by their own petard, and who is Osric - a part whose portrayal was greeted with critical acclaim in a 1985 production at King's School Canterbury ("a foreboding presence" - The Cantuarian).

AXE-WIELDING SEASON...

Next month the US networks announce their preliminary autumn schedules, but already some big shows are heading for a "fall"...

As you know, ER has run its course and is going out with dignity in the geriatrics ward. Prison Break suffered a massive ratings slump in season 4, so that's gone.

Brit actors are suffering (maybe a touch of US trade protectionism?):  Pushing Daisies (Anna Friel) and Eli Stone (Jonny Lee Miller) are cut and Eleventh Hour (Rufus Sewell) isn't looking good for renewal (hope it's not because it lost the "Who are the new Mulder & Scully?" head-to-head with Fringe on Barking At The TV). Damien Lewis's Life looks under threat too. Remakes of Brit shows are also faring badly: as well as Eleventh Hour, Worst Week (from the Ben Miller farce) is gone and Life On Mars bombed. The Sam Tyler actor, Jason O'Mara, was too square-jawed, Harvey Keitel was too serious as Gene Hunt and Michael Imperioli had to carry all the comedy on his own... 

In the animation world, King Of The Hill makes way for the new hit Sit Down, Shut Up (which was a live-action Aussie show, but has been remade as animation by the Arrested Development team) and possibly for unlikely Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show (which seems like an April Fool's gag that's gone too far).

Also looking doubtful for renewal is the narrative mess that is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. And another sci-fi brand is tarnished too: Joss Whedon of Buffy fame, looks like scoring a second miss in a row with Dollhouse (although, unlike Firefly, this humourless bore doesn't deserve renewal).

In the balance are dramas The Unit, Cold Case and Without A Trace; and comedies Scrubs (don't worry, there's the usual petitions) and My Name Is Earl.

Definitely ongoing are Lost (of course), 24 and Heroes; plus procedurals Bones, NCIS, the CSIs and Law & Orders. 

Of new shows, Fringe goes to a second season, hooray, but so does The Mentalist, yawn. And One Brit keeps his job: Tim Roth's Lie To Me (coming to Sky 1 soon) continues. Make that two Brits: House will return for a 6th season with Hugh Laurie.

For the ladies... Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives are all go.

And for laughs... Comedy's first lady, Tina Fey, will make more 30 Rock (although the other Rock, Chris, loses his voiceover role on Everybody Hates Chris); The Office: An American Workplace marches on; and Paramount can fill space with repeats of Two & A Half Men for another few years. Finally, the three big animation sit-coms, The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad, are green-lit too.

AD BREAK: Never mind the swine flu...

... we're being overrun by meerkats and lemurs!

Ladbrokes Casino

There's much twittering and blogging about the new Ladbrokes ad ripping off Comparethemarket.com. Sure, the animal has a funny accent like the meerkat (which is voiced by the guy who played the Geordie in I'm Alan Partridge, by the way) and its face looks similar, but it's a lemur – primate, not mongoose family. Sure, it's a rip-off, but not of the price comparison ad, durr brains... both ads are a rip-off of King Julien in Madagascar (that's why they have silly accents). I like to plagiarise it, I like to plagiarise it...

More to the point: what is the message of a giant lemur running riot and damaging property in a game of hide and seek? It looks like an anti-gambling ad: the lemur represents something you might think of as benign and fun, but it has grown out of proportion until it's out of control and destructive. The gamblers try to escape it, but end up in a dumpster in a bad part of town. Hey guys, log on to Ladbrokes with your credit card!

PLAYER POWER (The shows you haven't missed after all)

                

Reggie Perrin

BBC iPlayer

'Til Friday 8pm

It was always going to have a job living up to the original and, God knows, Martin Clunes is no match for Leonard Rossiter, but the remake of The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin actually stands up. It seems that the combination of Perin's creator David Nobbs and Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye works - presumably Nobbs throws in new versions of all the original gags ("I didn't get where I am today...", "27 minutes late..." etc.), while Nye does the updating. There are a few proper laugh-out-loud moments, as well as nods to the original (his company is next door to Sunshine Desserts). It's a BBC1 prime time sit-com, so it's hardly edgy, but comes up with a few naughty moments. Not sure this'll make it onto the Barking At The TV Sky+ series link, but it's worth a shuftie.

CRIMINAL MINDS: Guest star alert

Criminal Minds

Living, 9pm

Criminal Minds has always had great guest stars - Keith Caradine as Frank was probably the most chilling – and does a great line in letting nice-guy actors play psycho (Frankie Muniz, Malcolm in the Middle, as an unravelling cartoonist, was a highlight). But recently the show's been chock full of resurrected 90s stars. We've already had evil James van der Beek or, if you will, Dawson's Creep; Star Trek: TNG's Will Wheaton as Wesley Bonecrusher; and Beverly Hills 90210's Luke Perry as a cult leader. And tonight, best of all, here comes Jason "George Costanza" Alexander. Who's bringing the big salad?

UNMISSABLE - DEXTER SEASON 3 TONIGHT

Dexter

FX

Friday, 10pm (and +1)

One of the best shows on TV currently - certainly the best crime thriller – is back tonight with Season 3. In case you don't know the show, Michael C Hall of Six Feet Under is Dexter Morgan (managed to resist writing Dexter Fletcher, Press Gang fans), who is a CSI specialising in blood spatter by day and a serial killer by night. He's not an antihero - he is 100% hero, as his adoptive father channelled his psychopathic urges into vigilantism. He only kills killers and rapists. But that code is about to be put to the test...

For fans who might be concerned that offing skanky-but-sexy Brit nutter Jaime Murray (ex-Hustle) in the Season 2 coda would reduce the raunch, it appears that Dexter's girlfriend, played by Julie Benz (Darla from Buffy, one for the nerds), is on heat (the patter of little psycho feet later in the series, perhaps?). And having seen off the bloodhound tec played by David Carradine in Season 2, Dexter has a new nemesis to deal with – played by Jimmy Smits (NYPD Blue and President Bartlett's successor in The West Wing). Oh yes, we love a Special Guest Star.

THEY CAN'T BOTH BE THE NEW X-FILES...

Eleventh Hour

FX, 9pm tonight (and +1)

Fringe (by JJ Abrams of Lost and Star Trek fame) & Eleventh Hour (the US adaptation of the British Patrick Stewart vehicle) have both been described as "the new X-Files" - FBI adventures with a scientific bent. But which one really does have the best chance of filling the TV shoes of Mulder & Scully?

FBI chick who's hot and a hardnut?

Fringe: Agent Olivia Dunham can handle herself, but she often looks close to tears. 7

Eleventh Hour: Agent Rachel Young's first appearance sees her trip up a bloke, put her boot on his neck and point a gun at him, because he may be a threat to the scientist she is protecting. The bloke she takes down is a cop. Yes, blonde hottie, yes, hardnut. 10

Spooky obsessed weirdo hero?

Fringe: Well, scientist Walter Bishop is a complete nutter, with a great line in scatalogical oversharing, but he's a bit old to be a Mulderish hero and too forgetful to obsess over anything. 6

Eleventh Hour: Rufus Sewell plays bug-eyed science genius, but he hasn't got the driving dogma of Mulder 6

Supernatural/extraterrestrial element?

Fringe: Teleportation, a hedgehog werewolf, walking through walls, giant slugs making Alien-style escapes from people's bodies, dead men talking, a weapon that encases victims in amber... That supernatural enough? No proper aliens yet, though. 9

Eleventh Hour: At first sight, these are investigations into unexplainable phenomena, but they usually have a rational explanation. There seems to be a fair deal of Daily Mail-style bad science (we're not really that close to human cloning, are we?), but that's not the same as sci-fi. 5

Shadowy forces forces at work?

Fringe: Who is creating "The Pattern" of strange happenings? Is it the suspicious Massive Dynamic corporation, with its fake-armed spokeswoman and its as yet unseen chairman William Bell? Or is it the creepy David Robert Jones and his fellow-believers in the "Destruction by the Continuing Advancement of Technology". 9

Eleventh Hour: We surely haven't seen the last of the mysterious doctor/scientist woman known as Gepetto, who turned up fleetingly in the pilot. 7

Tragic past?

Fringe: Well, Olivia's boyfriend died in the first episode, but since she was chasing him with a warrant for his arrest when his SUV crashed, this tragedy is somewhat tinged. Not exactly Mulder's sister being abducted. 6

Eleventh Hour: Dr Hood lost his wife to illness not long ago, but it doesn't get mentioned very often. If she was the victim of shadowy forces, that's a plotline yet to be tapped. 8

Unresolved sexual tension?

Fringe: There's going to be a will-they-won't-they between Olivia and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson - Pacey from Dawson's Creek), the nutty professor's son, which will probably drag on too long. 7

Eleventh Hour: Agent Young does stare with wonder whenever Dr Hood makes a huge logical leap, and she seems even more protective than her job description requires. 8

Funny nerds?

Fringe: Only one, rather than the threesome of The Lone Gunmen from The X-Files, but a belter. Walter keeps a cow in the lab, gives constant updates on his erections, has more food cravings than a pregnant Kerry Katona and conducts his experiments to an Al Green soundtrack. 9

Eleventh Hour: While being briefed on an air crash, Hood drifts off into a seeming daze, before snapping out of it and saying, "Ice cream... Do you have any ice cream? And a hotplate?" It is, of course, an experiment which solves the mystery of the crash in seconds. 8

Going into warehouses with wobbly torch'n'gun combo?

Fringe: Tick. 10

Eleventh Hour: Tick. 10

Total

Fringe: 64/80

Eleventh Hour: 62/80

Fringe shades it...

Fringe

Sky 1

Sunday, 10pm (after Lost)

POSH PRESENTERS: Class or arse?

Alexandra Tolstoy's Horse People
BBC2, 9pm tonight

Alexandra Tolstoy (yes, as in that Tolstoy) is the latest member of the upper class to get her own TV show. Conforming to stereotype, she presents Horse People, in which she travels the world neighing with pleasure at the equine lifestyle. She's typically posh – charming, game for anything (holding a rubber horse vagina as a stallion shoots his load into it) and naïvely coming out with an entertaining stream of double entendres: "I've never ridden such an intelligent animal". Brilliantly, she also pronounces "horse" as "whores". 

But is she class or arse? High-fallutin' frontmen and -women fit into two categories. Suggestions for the full chart welcome via the Comment button below...

Class: the upper crust

1 Valentine Warner from What To Eat Now – the chef who loves huntin’, shootin’ an’ fishin’ and doesn’t mind playing Nicebutdim, even though he seriously knows his food.

2 Peter Owen Jones from Around The World In 80 Faiths – the rocking vicar brought awestruck wonder to his religious tour of the globe. Showed Michael Palin how it should be done.

3 Dan Cruickshank from Adventures In Architecture – brought a grandfatherly Attenborough-lite style to architecture. There are Werther’s Originals  under that hat, I’m sure.

Arse: the cream of society (rich'n'thick)

1 Charlie Boorman – How come Joey Dunlop, Barry Sheene and Evel Knievel are dead and this twat is still riding his motorbike?

2 Ben Fogle – You boring, thick, present-anything bastard.

3 Tara Palmer-Tompkinson – Not sure which are worse: the appearances when she's coked up, or the ones where she's "thinking straight". Brian Blessed's pooch came up with a critical response to her presenting skills on The Underdog Show that no critic or blogger could better. It pissed on her leg.