Lie to Me (TV Series) Moral Waiver (2009) User Reviews

The Rape and the Bribe

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 30 September 2017]

Dr. Lightman is hired by the US Army to investigate an accusation of a female soldier that claims that her sergeant has raped her. He is also hired to investigate a college basketball player accused of taking bribe. Dr. Lightman and Ria Torres interview the soldier and the sergeant while Dr. Foster and Eli Locker investigate the player. Will they find the truth?

"Moral Waiver" is the second episode of "Lie to Me" with two good story lines about a sergeant accused of raping one of his soldier and an Afro-American basketball player that raises his little brother and is accused of accepting Bribe. The subplots are well resolved and the end justifies the means. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Moral Waiver"

Note: On 01 January 2024, I saw this episode again.

I like the show, but not this episode

[Curt1222 · 2/10 · 2 October 2009]

I'm in Iraq right now and have finally made it through the entire first season on Blu-Ray. While I like the show as a whole, and Tim Roth and Kelli Williams in particular, this episode actually made me angry at certain points. The writer(s) of this episode obviously has/have no personal knowledge of anything military, nor the Army specifically. The US Army has no "Platoon Commanders" and no Enlisted person is ever referred to as "Sir". There is no such thing as an "Article 32 Court Martial Proceeding", it's an "Article 32 Investigation" and is the military equivalent of a Grand Jury. Even a JAG officer would never were his dress green uniform to a rifle range, and certainly not allow his epaulets to be outside of his collar at any time. Even if an epaulet slipped out, any other Soldier would have spotted it and made a correction. Civilians (hell, anybody) on a rifle range with no helmet? Come on; if you're going to write an episode focusing on the military (even if you're going to bash us) at least have somebody with some relevant military experience review it. Those of us in uniform take a lot of crap from the entertainment business, and we can take it when it's right and justified (pssst: we even protect your right to criticize us) but please, at least get the uniforms, mannerisms, customs and courtesies a little closer to reality. Can you do that little favor for us, please? Two stars for this episode, but only for Kelli Williams, who can do no wrong.

Cheap shots by non-military

[denis-robertson · 11 March 2009]

This show had me really excited. My kids and I all thought the concept was great. Kinda like psych (which lost me when they also assumed that TV watchers would miss the clues unless they flashed and zoomed; a story for another day).

I agree with Woodmage. One of the things that will completely ruin a show for me is a lack of knowledge of the subject being discussed.

The example of the PFC that said "My job was to say yes. Yes sir". This had a few problems:

1: No order that violates the law can be followed. For example, If you obey an order to kill unarmed civilians, you are guilty of murder.

2: A Staff Sergeant is not a commissioned officer, and would *never* be called Sir.

3: Her *duty* when confronted by such blatant harassment as this is to report the offender. If she does not report him, she is also guilty of the act.

I was in the Army from 1982-1985. As much as people like to view the military as neanderthals, even back then a female soldier was *never* called a woman, girl, chick, or anything other than female soldier. ever.

I had never heard anyone call a female soldier "bitch or a whore". If a soldier had used those words, it would have been a quick walk to the CO's office. If you were lucky, you would only get a summary article 15, and not a field grade.

Now from G.B. "The argument has been made that this is from the left liberal side. So does that mean brining (sic) to light some uncomfortable truths is liberal and covering them up is conservative?"

Not even close. The argument is that the liberal side of the aisle tends to dislike the military, and will use any excuse to bad-mouth it.

This plot-line could have been used in a lot of other ways. However, just to get a few cheap shots, they placed it in the military and then used that to trot out a few "facts" to make the military look bad.

And one final note: OMG when she saluted her friend at the end of the show? My kids and I were howling with laughter at the sheer cheesiness and stupidity of that gesture. (and why did she not have her BDU top on, she can't walk around without a complete uniform).

Sigh

I had all the shows so far on my DVR, and this one was the last one to get watched. All the others were erased without viewing.

Moral Waver - sexist and misleading

[christheunwise · 1/10 · 29 January 2009]

The show is a political statement and, among other misinformation, promulgates two sexist myths:

1) that only 8% of rape accusations are false. This has been shown untrue: Source 1: 18% rape cases false: Study, The Times of India, December 29, 2008.

Source 2: "False Allegations." Forensic Science Digest, (publication of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations), Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 1985), p. 64.

2) The provided example of a false accusation is actually "proven" to be "morally just" because while the accused did not rape the accuser, he did rape another person under his command. This is little more than a political statement excusing false rape accusers.

Additionally, The rape that was done under the sargeant's command was actually an offer of preferential treatment in exchange for sex. Within the context of the story, the accusing soldier was allowed to omit a dangerous job that the other soldiers in the unit were forced to do as a matter of rotation. Arguably, she slept her way into a lighter duty load.

Don't lose sight of the point

[box_garrett · 18 February 2009]

The point of this episode isn't to bash on the military, it's to bring to light the fact that there are women serving in the military who are raped by their male counterparts. Don't take this as "oh, they're saying that all men rape women. Now us men are the bad guys". There are women in the military that share the same experiences as the character in this episode and their story has the right to be heard. Shindler's list wasn't meant to be an attack on the German people and this isn't meant to be an attack on the military, unless you find it offensive that bad things do happen in the military. The argument has been made that this is from the left liberal side. So does that mean brining to light some uncomfortable truths is liberal and covering them up is conservative? Also it's been 18% of rape cases are false which would mean that 72% of them are real and even more of them go unreported. It's amazing how upset people get when someone points out some uncomfortable facts. The truth is that the women in the military, or wherever, deserve better from us males. Who do you think that's raping them, other women? This episode is important because for too long the plight of women go unnoticed or slammed by those who are clearly too misogynist to know night from day. This does happen, not often, but it is a truth and I applaud this episode for brining it up. Women should not be treated as liars. The military keeps us safe. We love them. There is nothing wrong with wishing for a better tomorrow, a place where women don't need to be afraid of being raped (which they do, by the way). Women are people too.

Main character helps a woman lie about a rape allegation.

[badwolf-61159 · 1/10 · 3 June 2020]

The guy really thought the girl liked him but she was using him so she could get out of doing her job. This is called quid pro quo harassment. She wanted to end the relationship but did want to do the job she was evading so she goes awol. Main character helps her beat a polygraph with drugs. This episode disgusted me and I cannot watch this episode without thinking the main character is a piece of garbage. I cannot continue watching this show.

(minor spoilers, not plot-specific)

[woodmage · 1/10 · 2 February 2009]

I didn't care for the blatant anti-military propaganda in this episode.

This episode suggests that the majority of enlisted men in the U.S. Army are sexist pigs who routinely sexually harass the women with which they serve, treating each as nothing but a "bitch or a whore" (to cite the episode), and that many moderately senior NCOs are dangerous felons. When I was in, we certainly used rough language, but if a guy went over the line, he'd apologize (I know I did). And, if some enlisted male was a problem, the rest of us would let him know that it was NOT acceptable.

However, the people who produce Lie to Me are completely and absolutely ignorant about military culture. This was shown conclusively. No E3 would be expected to say "Sir" to an E6, and no E3 would ever refer to an E6 as her "commanding officer".

The "statistics" presented in this episode were probably made up out of whole cloth, or maybe pulled from some anti-military website, which may or may not have provided context.

If you want to enjoy the writing and acting in this show, go ahead... but be aware that Lie to Me is no more relative to the real world than Lost or America's Next Top Model.

Just not good

[vn_larsen1 · 1/10 · 16 April 2021]

Setting aside a few other things I found wrong with this episode, what I don't understand the most is how the main guy in any way was committing rape. At the very worst, the only thing he did was give his gf special treatment. He thought they were dating. She never said no or even hinted that she wanted no. She simply slept with him to get out of doing part of her job. How was he supposed to know she felt like she "had no choice"? She didn't say anything.

And that salute at the end was just absolutely cringe worthy.

Anyway, episode just seemed extremely biased and was not enjoyable IMO.