# TV Shows where the main driving force is dishonesty **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865 "2012-02-05T15:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/42 "2012-06-11T14:03:02Z")
The Borgias. As a personal comment, my wife and I rarely watch such shows, because the characters themselves are usually dislikeable. Some of the comedies – Lucy, Bilko, Simpsons – are enjoyable because the main characters ARE likeable, despite their flaws. Shows like DEADWOOD or THE SOPRANOS or GAME OF THRONES just leave me cold, and we usually stop watching if there’s no one that we care about. If I want to watch drama about people that I don’t care about, I can go to the hardware store and watch the customers. ---
**Author:** ![BeaBeautyful78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@BeaBeautyful78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaBeautyful78)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/43 "2012-06-11T20:23:43Z")
Nip/Tuck ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/44 "2012-06-11T20:24:38Z")
Meet The Press ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/45 "2012-06-11T21:13:29Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > But can you name others where any promise is going to be broken and where characters regularly lie to everyone, their friends and family members especially? _Fawlty Towers_ springs to mind. Basil Fawlty is a conniving swindler who regularly lies, but because he’s fundamentally incompetent it never works. He lies to his staff, his wife, his wife’s family, his guests, hotel inspectors, etc. This was taken to extremes in “Communication Problems” - the one where he bets on the horses, and wins, but it looks as if he’s never going to get his money - which is basically a chain of lies from start to finish. It seems to be a characteristic of British sitcoms that the characters are often self-loathing slobbish layabouts, either likeable (_Red Dwarf_) or just horrible (_Chalk_, _Steptoe & Son_, _The Office_, _I’m Alan Partridge_, which are about a bunch of broken friendless simulacrums living horrible meaningless lives and being cruel to each other all the time). In America everyone is nice and the audience applauds when the characters make their entrance; in the UK no-one is nice and there is silence. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/46 "2012-06-11T21:29:41Z")
James Garner in\*\*\* Maverick \*\*\*was always duplicitous, even if he was usually good hearted. Anyone else remember Jason Bateman’s first sitcom, _ **It’s Your Move** _? All about a kid who’s a major liar, cheat and operator. ---
**Author:** ![FrigidLizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@FrigidLizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrigidLizard)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/47 "2012-06-11T23:16:28Z")
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned **House of Lies** yet. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/48 "2012-06-12T00:21:12Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > James Garner in\*\*\* Maverick \*\*\*was always duplicitous, even if he was usually good hearted. > > Anyone else remember Jason Bateman’s first sitcom, _ **It’s Your Move** _? All about a kid who’s a major liar, cheat and operator. That wasn’t his first sitcom, he’d previously been on Silver Spoons. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/49 "2012-06-12T01:51:39Z")
> [@grude](#): > > LOST was the king of this, characters lied and concealed when it made absolutely no fucking sense to! Nobody shared information, answers to intelligent questions where bizarre and cryptic to the point of absurdity. > > “do you live there?” > > “I have lived there” > > The antagonist tells the protagonist “we’re the good guys” with no further explanation or context, after they have been kidnapping and murdering the protagonists group. It’s complicated . ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/50 "2012-06-12T01:55:30Z")
There isn’t much truth telling on _Survivor_, and its close cousins like _Big Brother_. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/51 "2012-06-12T02:32:29Z")
Damages. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/52 "2012-06-12T02:44:54Z")
Hmmm…how about Dexter? I mean, wouldn’t you consider a serial killer with a day job in the police department “_dishonest_”? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/53 "2012-06-12T03:22:10Z")
Veronica Mars. She was an awesome liar. She could get caught red handed and just brazen her way on through anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/54 "2012-06-12T12:58:18Z")
_Burn Notice_ is a good current example of this, in the tradition of shows like _Mission Impossible_. Every episode they elaborately deceive a bad guy who is himself/herself dishonest. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/55 "2012-06-12T13:56:58Z")
What about The Closer? Brenda lies to everyone she interrogates. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/56 "2012-06-12T15:18:55Z")
Jem and the Holograms. The point of the show is that Jerrica and the rest of the band is lying to everyone else that Jem exists. Most pointedly, they’re lying to Jerrica’s boyfriend Rio, who has a crush on Jem, and apparently _hates_ dishonesty. It’d be funny as hell, if it didn’t make me want to slap Rio and Jerrica. Another one, The Joe Schmoe Show. Everyone is an actor but one guy who thinks he’s on a normal reality show. Fortunately he’s so charming and sweet that the show doesn’t make you want to hurt people. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/57 "2012-06-12T21:11:22Z")
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**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865/58 "2012-06-13T01:10:09Z")
> [@Silver\_Tyger](#): > > Jem and the Holograms. > > The point of the show is that Jerrica and the rest of the band is lying to everyone else that Jem exists. Shucks, that opens up a whole bunch of other possibilities. SMALLVILLE, for example, was all about Clark Kent pretending to be a regular guy with no super powers; his family members – by which I mean _“via the fake adoption papers”_– and various other people routinely lied to help him keep up the act, all while yet other folks kept faking their deaths or hiding their secret identities behind disguises or voice scramblers or whatever. (Obviously that wasn’t enough to sustain an ongoing series, and so young Lex Luthor got called on to do his soap-opera best in episode after episode: he’ll walk in on someone committing murder, and promptly lie to cover it up; he’ll blackmail a guy for a while, then kill him and lie to make it look like a suicide; he’ll discover his entirely-cured father has been faking blindness for quite some time, and he’ll eventually kill the old man before lying as usual to cover it up; he’ll get framed for some _ **other** _ murder, he’ll feign insanity, he’ll make sure a woman gets pumped full of synthetic hormones in time to fake a pregnancy, he’ll strongarm the Daily Planet into killing story after story – honestly, didn’t just saying _“Lex Luthor”_ pretty much suffice?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-main-driving-force-is-dishonesty/611865.md?page=2)