Television: White Lie

With the holidays hiatus going on for most of the shows I watch, I have very little to talk about. There is one shining, adorable exception, and that is the mid-season finale of "Lie to Me".

The Lightman Group offices ends up in a kind of "lockdown mode" when a possible bomb threat comes up a few blocks away... sometimes terrorists wait for mass evacuations before setting off devices, thus maximizing casualties.

Unfortunately, a group of third-graders and their teacher played by Felicia Day (Dr. Horrible, Buffy) was taking a tour of the offices at that time.

What results is the most adorable scene I've witnessed on the show yet, the singing of "White Lies", a song written by (according to the plot) Lightman's assistant and a third-grader who overheard them discussing the bomb, and was asked not to tell his classmates what he heard to keep them from being scared. The lyrics go something like this:

I say that I'm ten when I'm nine and a half,
My uncle tells a joke and I try to laugh,
In gym I fake a headache when I want to quit,
I say I love the sweater that my grandma knit,

But that's a white lie (white lie)
That's the kind you want to tell, a white lie (white lie)
So your mom won't have to yell, a white lie (white lie)
Everyone does it cause it feels alright,
and it's more polite, but
A lie's still a lie even when it's white.

I pretend I'm asleep when my dad walks in,
I said I ate my chicken when I just ate the skin,
Your face can say you're lying when your mouth says you're not,
Your pants are on fire but they're not too hot when

It's a white lie (white lie)
That's the kind you want to tell, a white lie (white lie)
So your dad won't have to yell, a white lie (white lie)
Everyone does it cause it feels alright,
and it's more polite, but
A lie's still a lie even when it's white.

While it might be hard to say what's true,
Would you want a white lie told to you?

But that's a white lie (white lie)
That's the kind you want to tell, a white lie (white lie)
So your mom won't have to yell, a white lie (white lie)
Everyone does it cause it feels alright,
and it's more polite, but
A lie's still a lie even when it's white.

Okay, the lyrics go exactly like that, cause I did a pause and play number with my Tivo Desktop software.

Awesome singing all around, although Felicia's harmony on the last two verses stretched the limits of credulity. I mean, supposedly this song was written five minutes ago and she's not the music teacher, so what the hey? But it was very, very cute. A high point in what could have otherwise been a grim episode.