With the overabundance of current shows involving forensics-themed investigation, it was only a matter of time before a show whose lead character was a human lie detector. To its credit though, Lie to Me is focused on moving past what previous shows have done in this genre.

In Lie to Me, Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth, Reservoir Dogs) is an expert at identifying and interpreting facial micro expressions and body gestures to determine what a person may be hiding. These typical signals are made in fractions of a second, but interestingly, facial expressions in different emotions - disgust, fear, anger, etc. - are universal in humans. Lightman is the head of a company whose clients need to discover the truth in a variety of situations, which he does with help from Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams, Men in Trees, Eli (Brendan Hines) and Ria (Monica Raymund).

In a casting sense, the show is similar to earlier seasons of another Fox show House. Both include young supporting cast members. Both include an older woman for the lead to flirt with and play off of. And both leads include a British actor whose character alternates between arrogance and brilliance. So it does seem a tad derivative, and when Hines and Raymund fail to deliver any real spice from their positions, creator Samuel Baum didn't hesitate to roll the dice with some new blood. Sean Patrick Thomas (Save the Last Dance) plays Raymund's love interest in a recurring role, and you can tell the importance of her role has increased because of the interaction between the two. Late in the show's first season was the addition of Mekhi Phifer (ER), an aggressive FBI agent who serves as a liaison between Lightman and the agency. That ability to take some risk and adapt to keep things fresh is commendable.

Yet the show still feels hamstrung at times, largely because of how it's executed. In a portion of the episodes, Lightman gives a preliminary opinion of what he thinks might have happened to someone, and more often than not, he's spot on. Only occasionally is a red herring thrown into the mix. I think Baum may have recognized this predictability, so he introduces secondary storylines to make any given episode more enticing to watch.

A good case in point is the show's fifth episode, "Unchained." It juggles two stories; there's the a case of a retired firefighter (Antonio Vargas, Car Wash) who attempts to find out how his firefighting son died, while in the other story, a felon and reformed gang leader (Paul Calderon, Q & A) is about to be paroled from prison. He can take over his old gang if he wants, but he swears he's reformed. It's surprising when the widow (Deirdre Lovejoy, The Wire) of the man he killed testifies on his behalf. The performances of these actors make it compelling for the viewer to see how the events unfold.

But while some of the individual stories are pretty good, and the guest stars choices they've made have been inspired, it seems as if the writers and cast of Lie to Me are still trying to find their footing. I would characterize the show as a dramatic interpretation of Monk and House, giving way in later episodes to a 24 vibe. With the show's second season about to start with a new creative presence in place (Shawn Ryan, formerly from The Shield and The Unit), it will be interesting to see where Lie to Me will go.

Fox introduces Lie to Me on Blu-ray with an AVC-encoded 1.78:1 high-definition presentation. Similar to how it appeared in its broadcast form, things are strong for the most part. Image detail is respectable, and there are even a couple of instances on exterior shots that look multidimensional. However, film grain does make the picture distracting at times, and there are some instances of softness that tends to disappoint. At the end of the day, it's perfectly satisfactory viewing.

The DTS-HD Master Audio lossless 5.1 surround track is a modest surprise. Sure, the film's score is punctuated with music cues that engage the subwoofer almost excessively. But dialogue is strong in the center channel, and in some of the action sequences (a bus is blown up by a suicide bomber in the season finale) glass rains from all of the channels with clarity and effectiveness. There's more use of the soundstage than expected, and it's done well.

Unfortunately, there's not much worth talking about. "The Truth About Lies" (26:06) serves as the behind-the-scenes look at the show from creation to casting. The producers talk about the casting choices, along with the pursuit to sign Roth, and later the cast talks about how they got the roles and what they try to do with them. The real-life Lightman, Dr. Paul Ekman, briefly talks about how his scientific led and contributes to the show. All in all, it covers what you'd expect it to cover. Deleted scenes on many of the season's episodes are next (19:19), but they're minor extensions of existing scenes in the show, so no big deal.

The premise of Lie to Me is interesting enough, and the show's first season does have its moments, but it feels like a work in progress. Roth's work in the show is without complaint, but there's still room for improvement among the three co-stars, which may be remedied with Phifer's addition. Technically, the Blu-ray set (the show's 13 episodes are on three discs) is presented decently, though it's light on the extras. Thankfully, the episodes are fairly standalone without much individual character exposition, so I'd recommend watching a few episodes of Season Two before deciding whether or not to buy.