Elementary

[The Man]

It's just mediocre enough to appeal to a wide audience.

Every time I hear anyone say something like this, I cringe. Mediocrity is what appeals to a wide audience? Do you honestly believe anyone intentionally looks for mediocre television? "I have a limited amount of time in a day, so what I'm really looking for is mediocre television." No. People watch television because they find it interesting or entertaining. If they don't find something interesting entertaining, why would they bother watching it? People don't watch television because it's bad (unless they're intentionally looking for something to mock, which isn't a large enough demographic to make a show successful). They watch it because it has qualities they find desirable in a television show.

This is not to say that anything that large numbers of people watch is necessarily good (this is obviously not the case in any universe in which Jersey Shore exists). But your line of reasoning appears to be that people watch television because it is mediocre. This is an absurdly elitist and completely unrealistic line of reasoning to take. If people watch a show, it is because it has qualities they are looking for in a piece of television. If a show is mediocre but still successful, it is much more likely that the people who watch it are looking for something that is completely independent of quality than that they are intentionally seeking out So Okay It's Average television. I mean, at least a show that is bad is fodder for mockery, but what can you do with mediocrity, unless there's something about it that appeals to you?

Anyway, Lie to Me got pretty bad towards the end, with Lightman becoming almost a caricature of himself, and the plots got convoluted to the point of nearly breaking suspension of belief (although I still didn't stop watching, mostly because I kept hoping the show would find its earlier quality). This was way better than most of the third season. It also sounds like you're expecting the pilot of this to be as good as later episodes in other established crime dramas, which seems like a faulty comparison, because most shows (especially shows where a lot of the drama stems from the interaction between the leads) rely on character interactions that take a long time to set up. Many great shows had pilots that were rather unremarkable. Hell, apparently Babylon 5 took an entire season to find its footing. (still haven't watched that yet though).