Kong Ah-jung (Yoon Eun-hye), is a single woman, living with her widowed father Joon-ho (Kang Shin-il), and working for the Culture and Tourism board. She seems quite content in life, until she starts having one too many unfortunate run-ins with her "friend", Yoo So-ran (Hong Soo-hyun), a spoiled braggart who just so happens to be married to Ah-jung's school crush, Chun Jae-beom (Ryu Seung-soo). It pains Ah-jung's heart to see the two of them together and the love that never was, and it angers her to no end to hear So-ran boasting about her luxurious lifestyle (Jae-beom's a well-off attorney). However, something happens at Ah-jung's workplace which doesn't end well and she's to blame. She feels terrible about this incident and feels it might just be best to submit her resignation. She goes to drink her sorrows away, sloppily writing a resignation letter on a cocktail napkin. A young man by the name of Hyun Sang-hee (Sung-joon), is intrigued by Ah-jung's drunken behavior in the club and decides to strike up a conversation with her. Even through her slurred speech and unsightly demeanor, he's a bit taken with her and decides to keep her company. Meanwhile, Hyun Ki-joon (Kang Ji-hwan), is living on the other side of the spectrum as a wealthy, good-looking, young president of the World hotel group. It turns out that Sang-hee, the young man keeping Ah-jung company at the club, is Ki-joon's younger brother. Sang-hee had just returned to Korea from a stay overseas and Ki-joon hasn't seen him in years. You can imagine, he's a bit eager to see his younger brother again and by circumstances only a drama can create, he spots his younger brother at the club with Ah-jung. Sang-hee leaves before his older brother can get to him, but Ki-joon notices a drunken, passed-out Ah-jung in front of the club and, being the gentleman that he is, makes sure she gets to the hospital. Wanting to know as much about his younger brother as he can, he decides to stay by Ah-jung's side while she recovers at the hospital. It doesn't lead to much, but his actions leave a lasting impression in Ah-jung's mind.
After another chance meeting with So-ran and Jae-beom, (you have to understand, coincidence's are a dime-a-dozen in the world of dramas), at the hair salon, the topic of conversation turns to relationships. Ah-jung, feeling fed up with how she's pitied for still being single, lies and says she's married. So-ran can't believe it and is determined to expose this little white lie. Ah-jung then heads to the World hotel to pay Ki-joon back for his kindness in staying with her overnight at the hospital, but nothing in this world can ever go as smoothly as that, can it? She makes a fool of herself, spilling tomato juice all over the floor, but Ki-joon is there to keep her from slipping and cracking her head open. This all seems fine and dandy, but wouldn't you know it, Ah-jung's group of girlfriends just so happen to be at the hotel to see all this and thus, the rumor of her being married to the young president are off and running!
There's your rundown in a nutshell. Ah-jung's lie about being married turns into a much bigger thing because Ki-joon has a status and professional profile to maintain. His Aunt Hyun Myung-jin (Oh Mi-hee), can't believe her nephew would do such a thing, potentially hindering his role as president and complicating their relationship, and Sang-hee, having developed a small crush on Ah-jung himself, feels his older brother has, yet again, stolen love away from him! To complicate matters even further, let's introduce Oh Yun-joo (Cho Youn-hee), Ki-joon's former love, whom he was engaged to three years prior. Sang-hee was also in love with Yun-joo, and in a true sign of bro's before ho's, Ki-joon let his love go because these brother's stick together and have since their parent's passed. Yun-joo returns to Korea from time spent in Paris and yeah, she wants Ki-joon back. I mean, this guy looks good in a suit. I get it. See how messy things are getting? Well, Ki-joon annoyance with Ah-jung's marriage lie eventually turns into acceptance, only because the lie turns out to be a necessity. You'll have to check the show out if you want to know what I mean by this. Oh, and why can't Sang-hee find a girl his brother isn't involved with?
Being the honest guy that I am, I'll tell you flat-out that I only watched this series because I love Yoon Eun-hye. I told myself that after, "The Coffee Prince", that I would check out anything else she does, so that's what I'm doing here. Get it out of your mind now that this was anywhere near as good as, "Coffee Prince", because it's not. You should never even think to make comparisons. However, Yoon Eun-hye is still very charming in her role as Ah-jung, although, my God is she a total crybaby in this. I counted at least six awkward scenes where you just sit at watch her ball uncontrollably for seconds that feel like minutes. Very long minutes. I rather enjoyed Kang Ji-hwan's performance as the confident, but not cocky, Ki-joon. The way he played it made him quite easy to like. Watching Ah-jung and Ki-joon together is when this drama really shines. However, there are a lot of side characters in Lie To Me that are obnoxious and uninteresting and take away from the main two. I really can't stand So-ran, regardless of how attractive she is and her husband, Ah-jung's first love, Jae-beom, comes across as so bumbling and incompetent, you wonder how he's even a lawyer. Maybe there's a lawyer joke in there somewhere. Anyway, Ah-jung's group of "friends", also come across as possibly the worst, most-gossipy friends, you could ever hope to not have. Seriously, if these are her friends, I'd hate to see her enemies. Yun-joo also annoyed me every single time she had a scene because all she did was mope. We get it, you want Ki-joon back but Cho Youn-hee, haven't not seen her in anything else, pursued her goal of re-obtaining love in the most boring performance possible. Her face expressionless and her delivery emotionless. Basically, a difficult character to watch. Sang-hee is slightly interesting at first, when he's getting to know Ah-jung, but then he gets written off towards the second half of the series as a jealous, cry-baby who does nothing but sulk and paint all day. It's almost as if the writers ran out of ideas for him once the ball got rolling with Ki-joon and Ah-jung. I just thought there would be more to him. Oh well. I would like to point out that Hwang Suk-bong (Kwon Hae-hyo), turns in another amusing performance as the restaurant owner. I always get a kick out of him.
Lie To Me is mediocre drama that I suppose you want to be better than it is because of the two stars, but the pacing is off and the supporting cast is obnoxious. The side-stories, anything deviating from Ah-jung and Ki-joon, are simply annoying and uninteresting. The soundtrack is mind-numbing (especially that ice cream song - enjoy below!), and really, just how big is Seoul? These same characters bump into each other at every turn. I'm nitpicking on that last point, but I guess it's my semi-clever way of saying: let's try harder next time guys. (Lee)
Grade: D+
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