To narrow down the shows on Netflix, watch one of these two shows if you want to immense yourself in a crime-solving or fantasy drama.
It's always hard to decide what to watch out of all the shows on Netflix, but this week I'm making it easy. “Lie to Me” offers an educational and thrilling crime-solving storyline by a sarcastic, witty deception expert. “The Originals” offers a great story line about devotion to family and what it's like to be a powerful vampire against witches and werewolves.
“Lie to Me”
“Lie to Me” stars the eccentric Cal Lightman, head of The Lightman Group. This company works with various law enforcement and government agencies to get to the bottom of tough cases. The Lightman Group specializes in deception, studying the involuntary movements and facial expressions that betray a lie.
Lightman and his colleagues work to find the liars and bring them to justice, but his colleagues spend more time getting Lightman himself out of trouble. Lightman is highly intelligent and thinks he can talk his way out of anything. His sarcastic manner gets him into trouble as often as it can get him out of it.
One of the most interesting things about this show is it’s founded on real science. The real mastermind of this facial reading technique is Paul Ekman.
He teaches classes, mostly to the FBI, explaining how to read involuntary micro expressions every person makes. On his official website can be found a tab under which every “Lie to Me” episode is listed, detailing the micro expressions and revealing any inaccuracies that may occur. Inaccuracies are usually attributed to an actor’s inability to create a certain expression. For example, Ekman will describe the facial expression for disgust, which is a crinkled nose and a raised upper lip and often shows famous people from real life making this same expression, suggesting that everyone makes these expressions.
I am highly entertained by the sarcastic, joking manner of Lightman and the trouble this Irish deceptions expert gets into. The thing I enjoy most about this show is the reading of micro expressions. I find it interesting to study the way peoples’ faces and body language betray a lie. I find myself scrutinizing the faces of the people around me after watching this show. After watching long enough, I am surprised and pleased to say I have caught some people in lies.
“The Originals”
This show is a spin off of “The Vampire Diaries,” featuring the world’s first vampires, the Mikaelson siblings. I tried watching “The Vampire Diaries” and, because of the cheesy narration and subpar acting, I didn’t like it. This series is much better, and I didn’t know it was a spin off at first.
The original vampires include Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson. Klaus Mikaelson returned to New Orleans to unseat his protégé, Marcel, from the throne of the New Orleans vampires. Klaus Mikaelson is a hybrid, which means he is part vampire and part werewolf. Witches live in the city alongside the vampires, although they are under the rule of Marcel. The werewolves were long ago banished from the city. With all of these separate creatures living alongside the humans in the city, there is a constant power struggle between them, each wanting to take power in the city.
The series has an engaging story line, and I enjoyed the depth of the characters. You get to know the characters quickly, and Klaus Mikaelson is my favorite. He has the tortured soul of a typical artist (he is a painter) and he is always making sarcastic remarks.
This fantasy-fiction series has all of the mystical elements one could ask for with mad witches and cursed werewolves, but it also has the basic human elements many relate to. The Mikaelson siblings are always disagreeing on something, but, at the end of the day, they will stand by each other and protect one another from harm.
