‘Poker Face' offers a fantasy of truth divining that would be exhausting in real life
Pop culture has often batted around the idea of what it means to lie and tell the truth, usually to comic effect. In 'Liar Liar' (1997), Jim Carrey plays a truth-challenged lawyer whose son makes a wish that Dad will no longer lie. Presto! A movie full of (often quite funny) jokes about a lawyer forced to be honest. In 'The Invention of Lying' (2009), Ricky Gervais, who also co-wrote and co-directed, plays a writer in a world where the first lie has yet to be told. In a burst of inspiration, he becomes a pioneer in the field of fabulism.
A lineup of criminals and hucksters test Charlie in the new season, played by the likes of John Cho, Katie Holmes, and
call
them out. She's not naïve, but she is offended by dishonesty. In the present-day real world, she would never get a wink of sleep.
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Culture critic Chris Vognar was the 2008 Nieman Arts and Culture Fellow at Harvard. He cannot tell a lie.
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