FOX's new show Lone Star has gotten some of the best reviews of the season. Does this show, about a conman leading two lives, live up to its expectations?

The Pitch: Lone Star is Sawyer's backstory meets The Riches with a dash of the Bernie Madoff-inspired plot line from the third season of Damages.

The Set Up Relative newcomer James Wolk plays Bob Allen, a conman who's in really deep. He's married to his mark (Friday Night Lights' Adrianne Palicki) and is working for her father while at the same time has a girlfriend on the other side of Texas, and he's scamming her parents with fake investments as well. He's being prodded by his father, a life-long conman.

Bob is torn. He's torn between his wife and his girlfriend and the two lives that he lives. He's also torn about being a criminal and spends the pilot alternating between attempting to go straight as a legit executive in his father-in-law's company and getting in deeper with girlfriend. He wants out, but can't cut ties, especially with his father, who tries to keep him focused on the prize, and the fact that he's not really who he pretends to be.

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Cringe Factor (Out of 10): 2. This show's gotten some pretty good reviews and, so far, they seem warranted. Every moment of the show is engaging, the characters are well drawn and the tension is very real. Some of the stuff with the father is a little heavy-handed, but we're aware every scene that it can all come crashing down at any time, that Bob's life is the "house of cards" that his father tells him it is and that really works. At the same time, the emotional quality of the interactions is really strong as well and the pilot is filled with little moments that show off who Bob truly is, or at least the best version of the person he pretends to be. These moments are really well done, full of heart and craft. Like the scene when Bob meets an attractive stranger in a hotel lobby that recalls a similar scene from Out of Sight and is just as good.

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Over/Under for Cancellation: 12 episodes. Maybe this show will remain tightly plotted and be compelling for a long time. Or maybe it will run out of steam after the initial elements of the plot run their course, in probably six episodes. Tough to tell. Obviously shows with strong, plotty premises do well on TV these days but it's hard to sustain and there are a lot more the Nines and John Does then there are Mad Men. At the same time, this show has a lot going for it, and hopefully, it'll succeed.