THE MENTALIST HAS COMPETITION.

I guess these two fairly new  TV shows have something in common. Obsession with the truth. The Mentalist is more of a Sherlock Holmes style whose analysis of all details solves the mystery. “Lie To Me” seems to hinge on the reading of facial expressions that are the tell, though they do make some mention that one is telling the true or lying as he/she
had  perceived the events.

“The Mentalist” seems to be more professional in his appearance, while the lead character of “Lie To Me looks” like he’s been up all night, The first episode, he is plenty red eyed and a bit disheveled and more believable that he he can make a quick read and has to live with it.

Like other TV programs similar to Numb3ers, these specialist are hired (we can only guess what fees they command)
by law enforcement or other organizations to solve crimes and/or find out the real truth. Of course they have the latest technology, slick offices and dazzling arrays of wide screen monitors, I’d like to see them play Texas Hold`em though.

One of the humorous moments of Lie To Me, I thought, was the scene with the food server who was grilled
by Cal about whether he had washed his hands or not. The food server, when questioned, instinctively grabbed the back of  his neck, to Cal, an indication that he was lying, to me, he`s saying “this guys a pain in the neck”!
So I guess we have seen enough CSI style TV forensics. This cast certainly has Obsessive Truth Compulsion Disorder.

viewing the election

While I am not a huge fan of television provided by cable , dish, fiber, or for that matter any paid content contract , when you are able to receive television broadcast choices off the air for free, I have over the years have had a broader choice of content since being connected to the the internet. The election night proved that the interactivity of the user has more of their choice through the internet. By an internet connection, websites had the interactive maps that showed the election results auto updated and, with various mouse rollovers, could be zoomed in for various results from different areas and even senate and house results on demand. About the same thing that the TV networks would provide, only the TV networks passively provided the results at their discretion . With the internet’s ability to have your own choice of concurrently running web pages, maps and even live commentary ,such as twitter, which provides more broadbased comments and the ability to rebut from just about anyone able to text a message, this can be streamed to your desktop or networked devices. (or wide screen if you have the internet connected to it). Another example on how the internet and paid content subscription services are differing. With the connection speeds increasing and the boom in online video, some will choose the mouse over the remote.