A new TV series on TNT, Perception revolves around Doctor Daniel Pierce (Eric McCormick), an eccentric neuroscience professor with paranoid schizophrenia. He’s recruited by the FBI to help solve crimes. The show also stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Arjay Smith, Kelly Rowan, and LeVar Burton.
During last night’s premiere, McCormick visited Jimmy, a young man with Aphasia — a disorder that causes someone to lose the ability to comprehend spoken language. To compensate, many Aphasiacs become highly tuned to subtle speech inflections. They are heightened when someone lies and, to people with this condition, lies seem funny. In short, they are human lie detectors.
To demonstrate the young man’s abilities to his former student (Cook), Pierce first shows Jimmy a video of President George W. Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, when he said that Saddam Hussein amassing materials to build weapons of mass destruction. The young man laughed, inferring that Bush was lying.
The scene lasted a minute or so and wasn’t the focus of the episode but many people have expressed upset over it and have vowed to never watch the show again. (Despite the fact that Jimmy was later seen laughing over President Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman.” speech.)
What do you think? Was this a poor choice? Will the Bush scene influence your decision to watch the Perception series again? Is the show too political?
Perhaps I stopped watching after the Bush clip or my DVR cut off the Clinton clip (if it was at the end) but I didn’t see the Clinton clip. I might have watched the show again even though it was rather weak. But not after that. Won’t watch it again and I don’t think it will be on very long.
The Bush segment was highly political and screamed that Bush intentionally lied about the causus belli. If true, that cost thousands of American soldiers.
They made a weak effort at balance by showing Clinton who certainly lied about sex. Consequences of that lie were minor compared to implications of Congress’s declaration to take action against Iraq (which was supported by Hillary and John Kerry).
A much more interesting attempt to provide political balance would have been to use a clip of Obama talking about how much he cares about the deficit
The lie to the public by the media is that Bush alone out of everyone knew that Saddam did not have a current WMD program. Clinton bombed Iraq to divert attention from his perjury but he claimed it was because Saddam’s WMD program needed to be stopped. Sen. Clinton, Sen. Kerry and everybody else was convinced Saddam was still developing WMD and thats why Congress authorized the Iraq War. When we invaded we did find thousands of WMD but they were chemical weapons Saddam had hidden from the inspectors, not new weapons. He also buried his nuclear weapons program (literally)… Read more »
I have it on my dvr but now I’ll have to make sure it’s live – of course the people who whine about dubya being called out wouldn’t flinch at it being clinton. they have no consistency in their thinking – it’s the same group that yells keep your govt hands off my medicare.
So sad that the writers chose to show their bias instead of entertaining us! I don’t need to watch shows that offend me! I was really looking forward to this show but I am done! Why didn’t they use the clip of Bill Clinton saying “I didn’t have sex with that woman!” or maybe John Edwards telling his dying wife how much he loves her while simultaniously impregnating his mistress? And how could we forget “Weinergate!” Lets face it, there Is an abundance of modern day McCarthyism in Hollywood today…where if you dare to offend the left you are left… Read more »
Redd Skyy » As the article says, they used the Clinton clip at the end of the episode.
people its like watch doctor who the first rule is the doctor lies. actually more and more i believe that is the same for any and most politicians. so what if some one makes a joke about it in person but oh no that cant happen on tv. what is that oh yeah the constitution right of freedom of speech. personally i believe that there has NEVER been a president that has NOT lied to the people or used the position for their own personal gain. so if some one makes a joke about the president get over it. cause… Read more »
I was beginning to enjoy the show – McCormack looks like a real person now, and it was nice to see Rachael Lee Cook, whom I haven’t seen since that cute movie with Freddie Prinze, Jr. Then, the politics. I groaned audibly, thinking, “Another writer is determined to slap us in the face with his own very slanted politics”. It’s rude, it’s arrogant, it’s unnecessary. Why not use “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” (Clinton)? That was later admitted to be a lie. Why not OJ professing his innnocence of murdering his wife? Instead, this example was… Read more »
Pete’s right and Jay SHOULD TAKE A CHILL PILL. I saw nothing political about this very small scene. Just a funny moment. I’m not a Replicrat, so not taking sides. We all know Hollweird is mostly liberal but I/we should take things coming from there with a grain of salt.
Will have to see more of this show to see if they make fun of both parties. But that won’t influence me and other intelligent people from liking this show.
Yes, I thought that was very inappropriate about Bush because every information gathering agency in the world said there WMDs and Bush acted accordingly. Will this change my mind about watching the series? No. I think the show has a very premise and the acting was convincing enough for me to continuing watch it. Though, if the writers continue to use things like the Bush incident I may stop watching it.
What people seem to forget is that they did this very same thing on Lie to Me sometimes and no one said anything about it.
Lighten up people. It’s a show for entertainment but if you want to be sticklers, they had both parties represented. Republican Bush and Democrat Clinton. It’s a show for your viewing pleasure.
It shows like more liberal passive-aggressiveness in a very poor attempt to be “clever” to me.
Except it’s not passive. Just aggressive.
The victim card is strong with the GOP…especially if they are conservative Christians.
Sometimes I wish there were a way to “Like” some posts. +1000, my friend.
Are you serious? Gays whine all the time, feminists whine about how much they make compared to me, minorities whine about not getting enough goodies from the government, unions whine about not getting enough goodies from the government and the tax payers, etc. etc. The Democrat party is nothing but whiners. Conservatives succeed despite the government getting in the way, complaining only when the government that is supposed to protect our liberties tramples on them. Life knocks a conservative down, they get back up. Life knocks a liberal down, they whine, call a lawyer, call their congressman, call their union… Read more »
You say that just like ant left-wing. Anti-Christian, anti free speech bully would.
Wow – some of you people just take yourselves way too seriously!!! It’s a fictional television show, solely made for the purposes of entertainment! It’s not like they showed someone being honored for beating an animal or child, or winning an award for rape and murder! It was a few clips of people who have purposely put themselves in the spotlight by becoming politicians! They showed both a republican and a democrat, and both times – they were lying! Even if they had been telling the truth, the name of the show is PERCEPTION, as in everything can be perceived… Read more »
The real issue is that Bush wouldn’t have thought he was lying during the speech, so the show was making up history.
Actually – you can’t say whether or not he was lying – he may have absolutely known it was a lie or he may have been unaware! The point is that the “perception” of the boy watching was that Bush was lying! It’s not a statement – it’s anecdotal at best!
The difference between the two clips was that the Bush one was much earlier in the show and was prefaced by the female character saying “Why are you making me watch this nightmare again?” (which based on my perception was referring specifically toward Bush) and it played for approx. 3 times as long as the Clinton clip which was played with very low audio and at the end as the show was ending, having no relevance. Had it been Obama, I have absolutely no doubt that you would have been outraged, wouldn’t watch it again and would post here and… Read more »
First – I don’t do “Facebook” – I have no interest in it! Second – I like exclamation points because they emphasize what I’m saying (and because they tend to irritate the weak and small-minded)!!!!!! Third – a political opinion on a TV show would never “outrage” me, my sensibilities are not so easily offended! I am capable of discerning fiction from non-fiction! This is a fictional show! So, last, I would wonder why, out of all the people who have posted on here, you would tell me, personally, to relax! I suppose I should answer you with – take… Read more »
I was going to watch it on the saved play, but now I won’t.
I am sick of being bashed by television writers. I stopped watching Law and Order for this same reason.
BUSH LIED AND PEOPLE DIED—THIS WAS UNNECESSARY AND OUT AND OUT SAD THAT THE LEFTIST WRITER WOULD ALLOW THIS POLITICKING WITHIN THIS PROGRAM. IT WASN’T EVEN SUBLIMINAL , JUST IN YOUR FACE. THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS, THERE’S NO BUSINESS I KNOW–ETC.
I watch entertainment tv for entertainment. I watch the news for political, national and world events. Please don’t dilute entertainment by inserting political prejudices. Please don’t try to indoctrinate me or insult former presidents under the guise of entertainment. Lying means a person purposely tells an untruth. If that event were purposeful, then every person in congress is a liar because they all believed it as well as did the president. The indictment in the show reveals the director’s prejudices.