# Lie to Me or 24: Which should I watch next?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-to-me-or-24-which-should-i-watch-next/569787>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 1, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-to-me-or-24-which-should-i-watch-next/569787 "2011-02-01T15:50:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-to-me-or-24-which-should-i-watch-next/569787/21 "2011-02-04T10:43:01Z")

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The first season of _ **24** _ was brilliant, the second one was a roller coaster – but the main character turned into superman which took away a lot of fun. Sure, agent Bauer was already outstanding in the first season but there were some scenes that made him .. human. Supermen bore me.

All in all, however, the 2nd season is still very entertaining tv; I couldn’t say the same about the third one – which was the last season I saw fully.

From my pov, the drama of the first season plunged totally into the melodramatic in the 2nd and distorted into an involuntary self-parody afterward.

I haven’t seem much of _ **Lie to Me** _ but would agree that it is highly repetitive; and it’s one of the shows where I have a problem with a real-world application that is propelled into fantasy territory (but I don’t watch any of the CSIs either, so I might have a general problem with the suspension of disbelief when it comes to the distortion of anything remotely connected to science).

> [@gallows\_fodder](#):
>
> You should watch [Carnivale](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319969/). Of course, everybody should watch Carnivale, so we can get a discussion going about it here. 🙂 It’s got such an incredibly rich mythology and great drama _and_ woeful flaws and inadequacies that there’s plenty to talk about!

Agreed. _ **Carnivàle** _ was a treat. Even where it failed, it did so gloriously. Much better tv than either \*24 \*or _Lie to Me_.

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**Author:** ![Eriond\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ad7895/32.png) [@Eriond\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eriond_s_Revenge)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-to-me-or-24-which-should-i-watch-next/569787/22 "2011-02-04T12:47:33Z")

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> [@wintertime](#):
>
> The first season of _ **24** _ was brilliant, the second one was a roller coaster – but the main character turned into superman which took away a lot of fun. Sure, agent Bauer was already outstanding in the first season but there were some scenes that made him .. human. Supermen bore me.
> 
> All in all, however, the 2nd season is still very entertaining tv; I couldn’t say the same about the third one – which was the last season I saw fully.

Jack Bauer was no Superman – sure, he had nerves of steel, but he was eternally conflicted and often did things for the greater good which were nearly as evil as the terrorists he was fighting, which is what makes 24 such a terrific show.

The 1st & 3rd seasons were fanstastic, but season 2 got a little silly – especially Kim Bauer’s subplot which turned into “The Perils of Pauline” every episode (lost in the woods surrounded by cougars??? C’mon, man…)

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**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-to-me-or-24-which-should-i-watch-next/569787/23 "2011-02-09T15:44:11Z")

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I don’t know how you guys get anything done (unless you were watching the shows in real time!) We’ve been watching 2 episodes a day.

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