People say this show has a lot of sex, slurs ... who cares? This show is pure Showtime, so, if you like Californication, you will like House of Lies. If you like Downtown Abbey, maybe you will not. Another reason to watch this show is the cast. Don Cheadle is a great actor, and having the possibility of watching him in this kind of show is awesome. No more "Hotel for Dogs", Don. And Kristen Bell. Everyone loves Kristen Bell. Natural beauty and great actress. Can't wait to see if both characters end up having some kind of relationship ( aka sex ) We'll see how the plot resumes, but the groundwork is done. Showtime is back. The sex, the slurs are back. Who cares?
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kunmercenario11 January 2012
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ladlaw1216 February 2012I'd say the show deserves to stay on air and in the lineup with all of the other Showtime shows. Upon reading other reviews, I realized certain ridiculous things that were being said about the show. What's the name of the show? Oh yeah, "House of Lies", so of course it isn't "Californication". There are several things that are labeled as a comedy that we actually would not agree with. Comedy, in it's original definition, means a story in which the main character(s) end up better off, ultimately. It didn't always mean a show or movie that will make you laugh. Regardless, I do end up laughing especially when Don Cheadle's character starts describing things to the audience while time freezes, the ridiculous banter between Schwartz and Lawson's characters, as well as Kristen Bell's sarcasm. Going along again with the debate of the term "Comedy" and the comparison of this show with other shows that exist, on HBO the show "Entourage" was considered a Comedy. That show made me laugh even less, yet I still enjoyed it. It wasn't busting-at-the-seams funny. So, let's stop being so ridiculous and just ENJOY a show for what it is instead of having expectations of what other show it should be like.
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ano-272-40140821 January 2012This has to be one of the most lewd and rude shows I have ever seen. Push that aside for a tick and discount the machine gun humour that's leaving gaping holes across the corporate back drop in which this is set. Move to the foreground to where I want to dwell. The great mix of self absorbed characters with more hang ups than a normal closet. A dollop of kid dealing with coming out of a closet, or is that his dad and dad's dad that are dealing with it? Those two generations of fathers are definitely not sure how to do the job. Only seen two episodes but I am hooked, line and sinker. Sprinkle the whole thing with a reasonably good support cast. Greg Germann was so good in Episode one, good to see a reprise in next weeks. Kristen Bell is OK as is Ben Swatz & Josh Lawson in full geek mode.
But what is with the on again off relationship with Don Cheddie and Dawn Olivieri who plays his hot ex? Gold, pure gold! This is one of those multi layered comedies that I look for from the UK.
Bravo ShoTime for making, what is at present, my new favourite TV show. Keep it strong! -
hannah-uzelac10 January 2012I just read a review in which someone complained about the amount of "slurs" and basically equated the show to pornography. They couldn't be more wrong.
Yes, the show has some swears. And yes, there is nudity. But how is that worth a 1-star review? Are you 10 years old? This is a program created by and for Showcase, a network that shamelessly brands itself as "television without borders," so there should be an expectation of some level of debauchery. How many other top shows out there contain the same material? Look at True Blood, Game of Thrones, Californication, and the list goes on. House of Lies is an adult show with adult themes. Get the hell over it! This show is clearly not for you. Everyone's welcome to their own opinion but I doubt anyone will find yours to be useful here. Don't give it a 1-star review just because you don't approve of its content. Go watch "The Wind at My Back" or something like that instead.
That being said, Don Cheadle is fantastic as the lead part in this comedy. He pulls it off so well that it's unexpected and refreshing. Cheadle's "psycho" ex-wife is also a great character, flipping between pill-popping party girl and smart, driven career woman that we love to laugh with even though we hate her for being such a b*tch. I can't wait to see more of this show and I applaud everyone involved for a job well done. The acting is convincing and the writing is sharp. There is a great dynamic between all the characters, especially that of Cheadle and his father. The only acting that's less-than stellar comes from Cheadle's son's character, but it's difficult to find a convincing child actor anywhere. He'll probably improve as the show goes on.
I was laughing throughout the episode. Don't let the review of some prude turn you away from this great comedy. -
blkpearl2223 January 2012Whom ever suggested that porn is better must not watch porn at all. As an adult I am tired of having television shows watered down to please those who are afraid of adult content. I love the savvy business talk,the fact that the consultants do what they have to do to get what they want. We all know that that's not the real world but it's a TV show. The banter is brilliant and the humor is memorable. Don Cheadel's character is so unapologetically ruthless that you can't help but like him. A welcome break from mindless reality shows. This now my favorite Showtime Series. The only reason I gave it a 9 and not a 10 is because I wish it were an hour long.
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hemril11 March 2013This show was going so well in the first season. It had my votes. But this second season is not worth my time. The writing is all over the place, Marty's wife is nowhere near as spicy as she used to be. And... oh well, the writers messed it up and it is going the way of the dodos. We no longer know what the show is about. I have seen enough. I will not return and this show shouldn't either. Too bad. It had started very well. The characters are supposed to have this interaction, you know, this sexual tension between Marty and and the Jeanny, they keep on reminding us about it at the beginning of every episode that something is going on, but we never get to it. Spit it out! Too much useless stuff around all this. Inspiration has ran out.
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bunnybraids9 January 2012House of Lies (stylized as Hou$e of Lie$) is a great new Showtime comedy television series created by Matthew Carnahan. The show is based on the book, House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time, written by Martin Kihn, a former consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. It's about a group of management consultants (Cheadle, Bell, Schwartz, Lawson) who stop at nothing to get business deals done, even if it calls for extremes. It's an interesting mix about work and the racy private lives and shenanigans of the characters. The non-PG pilot looks at Cheadle's complicated love life (sex with the ex and, incidentally, also the mother of his gender-neutral son and his professional competition) and self-loathing behaviour (sex with strippers, hurray! and sex with the mother of his son's 'friend' in the school play), while he tries to close a deal with MetroCapital, a bank looking for a plan to unscrupulously justify their year-end bonuses as the financial world around them burns.
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0gmios11 January 2012The pilot of "House of Lies" showcased a funny, stylish, and fast-paced dramedy focused on the world of big business. Don Cheadle plays Marty Kaan, a fast-talking, self-loathing, consultant trying to balance his broken home life with his high-powered job. His father is a liberal psychologist and his ex-wife is his mirror image(who works for a rival consulting firm.) The pilot reveals a lot of reasons for his self- loathing nature and sets him up a lot of character development later on. Kristen Bell plays Jeannie Van Der Hooven, the smart, tough, and somewhat mysterious second-in-command to Cheadle. She doesn't have a ton of screen time in the pilot, which is obviously a mistake when you're talking about Kristen Bell. Really hoping that more is revealed about her later. The rest of the cast is passable but not memorable.
The plot of the pilot is centered on the consulting team trying to retain a big client. The competing firm is lead by Marty's ex-wife. The forth wall is frequently broken for Cheadle to explain some consulting jargon to the audience. It works pretty well and flows with the overall fastness of the show. There are also some showy quick cuts for travel and non-essential scenes which add a bit of style. There is also sex and nudity peppered throughout the entire half hour. Id say 7 minutes don't go by without some sort of sex. The sex lends to the overall feel of the show, but may be overdone.
Overall, House of Lies shows a lot of promise, or at least enough to keep me watching -
izmcoolu16 September 2012I never ever write reviews and honestly this will be my first ever review for a movie or TV show in my entire life lol, that being said I can't even begin to understand why this show is rated so low. This show is the most entertaining show I have seen since "office", plus it has all the adult themes that you wished was displayed in "Office". No its not a work of art of some yuppy's view of how great television is supposed to be but wow this is just that perfect show for the normal person who still has some sort of pulse left in his veins. I can understand how the older generation would not enjoy this show but it truly is just great mindless fun to watch and enjoy. Once again I never wrote a review before in my life but I just had to after seeing such low ratings, I really hope they don't cancel this show like all the other great shows that was low rated because people are just too uptight in their ideas of proper television. IDK maybe because I don't have grey hair yet or don't pretend to be sitting in a directors chair that I don't understand such low rating. Anyway if you take a regular guys advice, try this show cause it really is the most under rated comedy out there.
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Bad language and nudity is not my idea of being an adult. It was for a while.
Then turned twelve.
Nowadays takes a lot more to get my attention let alone keep it.
The odd obscenity and bared breast does not automatically make a show more "mature".
This looked like a third rate californication ripoff. That show works occasionally. This one didn't. At all.
In the Wire even the foulest language sounded authentic. Here everything is jarringly fake.
Good cast could have been used to better effect. Instead you get stripper and closet lesbian and other nonsense.
Could not crack a smile let alone laugh at this "comedy".
Only joke here is the writing.
Realize they need to distinguish themselves from the bigger networks but can't they show a little class while doing it.
Could get better but wouldn't hold my breath.
Wish them well.
Thank you. -
SirBurgh10 February 2012First off, I have to say I don't watch a lot of "TV". But by TV I mean regular shows or sitcom type material (if they still call it that). I watch movies or sports, news, etc...
But I saw the trailer for this and thought it looked great so I watched it. Now I just love it. It's raunchy and something you're embarrassed to watch with your adult kids, but it's still utterly hysterical. Cheadle makes the whole thing go - but Kristen Bell is excellent as she shows some business savvy with the comedy as well. The other two...well, they are kind of straight men so that's okay. I can watch the same episode three or four times and still laugh and enjoy it.
Personally I think Cheadle is one of the best and most underrated actors around. He should be more of a feature star than doing a cable show, but I'm thrilled he's doing this.
Having said all that, I'm in business. Not Management Consulting, but on the other side, and heaven knows I have encountered their types and typically loathe them. Maybe that's why I find this so funny. If you have no business background, I still think it'll be funny for you, but being in the corporate world makes you laugh that much harder.
Excellent...just excellent. -
PlugInYourBrain24 August 2012The biggest lie here is that "House of Lies" pretends to be a show about management consulting, but is really just another soap opera.
If I watch a show about management consultants, I expect it to be about management consultants. Instead we've got a soap opera with everyone shagging everyone, a soap opera about Kaan's kid's gender identity issues, a soap opera about Kaan's dad's Parkinsons, a soap opera that a narcissistic sleep-around Kaan should inexplicably fall in love with a heart-of-gold stripper who decides to enroll in law school and moves across the country to be with her client, a soap opera about Jeannie's engagement, a soap opera about Kaan's ex-wife, a soap opera about workplace politics, nudity, nudity and nudity, and so on.
Everything except management consultancy.
If I want to watch a sitcom or life drama, I'll watch one of those instead. Same goes for the nudity. Now some of these may appeal to some people, but not all in one lump.
Cheadle is great in his role and his associates, despite their many faults, are lovable characters. It was that and the promise of the first episode that kept me watching. The scenes where everything freezes while Cheadle explains something are well done.The boozing, sex and partying scenes can be quite funny but the problem is they've taken over the entire show.
What's sad here is that the series is based on a real-life book about management consultancy. There was plenty of material to work with: you have people under stress working with clients whose careers are on the line. But this material is almost completely ignored for sex, sex and more sex. Some episodes have nothing to do with management consultancy at all. In the few episodes where there is some management consultancy, the business problems they are given are trite and the solutions dull. Instead sex and soap opera dominates. The poster advertisement for the series showing suits and the sharks is misleading: They should have shown Cheadle's butt instead, because that's what most of this show is really about.
This show has a lot of potential and could have been a big draw to the business crowd. Instead it tries to be too many things to too many people and ends up pleasing no one. The first episode is good and the finale was good, but there's too much soap in-between.
"House of Lies" has been renewed for a second season. I hope the producers ditch the soap opera and concentrate on what should be their USP (Unique Selling Point): A show about management consultancy.
SEASON 1: 6/10.
SEASON 2: 8/10. It's back and much better. Management consultancy has all but disappeared, so it's become just another sexy Showtime comedy. Unfortunate, but that's Showtime. The crudity, dildos and bare bums won't be everyone's cup of tea but this time around it's better edited and much more engaging than first season. -
boner-597261 February 2016What started out as a scathing, hilarious indictment of the management consulting racket within just a few episodes has unfortunately turned into a heart-warming/-wrenching story about dysfunctional family life and damaged people.
Even the remnant veneer of business-side stories are beginning to cast the consultants as good guys, working hard to save troubled businesses rather than the leaches and scum of the original premise.
Also, very regrettably the show falls for the false premise that gender-bending is automatically funny and risqué. In fact for those to be funny they have to be, well, funny, as opposed to simply slapped in with a teenage breathlessness about how cool they are. -
gary8943612 January 2012I almost never write movie reviews, but feel I need to weigh in on this show after seeing it panned by the 1-star prude. I watched the first episode of 'House of Lies' twice after it was highly recommended by a trusted friend. I loved the show, and agree with hanna uzelac on virtually every point.
I found the way this show breaks the fourth wall was brilliant. Sorry, I haven't watched much cable television the last couple of years, so I don't know how innovative this was, I just love the way the show used it to underline the action and reach out to the viewer.
Yes, there was a lot of swearing and sex, at least in the pilot episode, but that didn't bother me. I'm no prude by any means, but at age 56 I've just come to a point where gratuitous sex doesn't grab me, and I'll often find myself fast-forwarding much of it, but not here. What sex there was was brief, not gratuitous, and served to punctuate a comedic scene to follow, like... ***spoiler alert***
***spoiler alert*** ***spoiler alert*** ***spoiler alert*** . . .
the quick look grandpa gives his son (Don Cheadle) after he comes inside to the end of the his grandchild's play after Don was out banging his son's rival wife in her minivan. It's just brilliant, and I thought it plays very well. Other times, it was used to set up a fourth-wall comedic break, such as Don telling us from the very start to ... never...f&@k...your...ex...wife." Good advice or not? You decide.
I also found the interactions of both grandpa and father with his gender-curious son hilarious, with dad trying valiantly to at least fake positive support despite his own conflicts on that subject. This too was used as a set up for a steamy scene in the restaurant bathroom, enough said.
I also loved how, after layering on its thick frosting of brutal cynicism throughout the entire episode,the last scene has Don almost, but not quite, breaking through to a more human level. It's set up as another fourth-wall break as we see him alone in the bathroom mirror shaving, but instead we see him reaching out to one of his colleagues. but it was the only real moment we see the humane core character break through.
I usually consider it an error to judge a series based only on a first/pilot episode, but reading the 1-star sexually-repressed review, felt I had to chime in. This is an adult show for adult viewers on and adult channel, so if you can't handle it, go watch 'Malcolm in the Middle' or an LDS movie for god's sake, and leave this alone. It was a great show, and I can't wait for more. -
sramv17 February 2014This is a fantastic show. It's caustic but it also has heart. The cast is excellent - Don Cheadle is amazing and the rest of the cast plays off him really well. DC is able to project so much just with a look or a gesture at times. The show is also refreshingly NOT dumbed down. They don't feel the need to explain everything - the viewer is treated as a reasonably intelligent person who is able to put two and two together. Hope the show never loses that! If you are new to it I suggest you start with the excellent pilot and watch through the series sequentially. It really is a serialized dramedy in my opinion, so you get to watch the plots and relationships evolve over time. This has become one of my favourite shows of all time.
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ani-for-prez8 November 2012When I looked at the IMDb reviews for this title, I saw the weirdest bunch of reviews of any title I had seen. Most people had heaped praises on the show and those who didn't, I could safely classify as prudes. I decided to watch the show and as a non-prude, I was not completely impressed.
The good things first of course. Everyone cast here is amazing. They lend great depth to their characters and pull off great performances. Don Cheadle is given the meatiest role here and he pulls off humorous cynic and depressed egotist with panache. His scenes with the breaking of the 4th wall are done really well. It was only in the pilot episode that I felt it was a tad overdone. Certain scenes when he holds a conversation and slips in single words to the viewer keep you interested amidst all the business jargon and keep you entertained. The business lingo is still kept to a reasonable level with most of the dialogue being banter or 4th wall shattering stuff. This is good since we can't have all those numbers clouding the experience for the uneducated.
Now the not-so-good things. People have rebuked the amount of sex in this which is incredibly foolish considering this is a Showtime feature. But I did feel that the sex, though few and far between, is sometimes stretched beyond the comic threshold. And at these times, it's not pretty. Sex jokes only get you so far. The show also treats most other businessmen either like complete morons or shrewd underhanded jackals. The show bathes in the stereotypes set by the populace and doesn't ever seem to want to show some of the truth in how people actually do business. They mostly seem to want to concentrate on humour and Marty Kahn's character but using clichéd business as a backdrop. This in itself is clichéd and this disappointed me greatly.
But on the whole, going simply by the intelligent humour, this is a great watch though taking this show seriously would not be recommended. -
UniqueParticle22 April 2020Incredible fun all around, surprised I didn't watch sooner! Delightful cast throughout that do business stuff, fool around, and get things done. I love the dialogue quite well written and the parts Don Cheadle breaks the 4th are greatness! I'm gonna enjoy binging House of Lies.
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davidjr-577-74524929 September 2016Sex, laughs, intrigue, rivalries, nudity, this show has a lot going for it. I enjoyed the intricacies of the business world and the playful banter and pranks between coworkers. The only criticism I have about this show is that I did not care for the pause scenes where Don Cheadle directly speaks to the camera. When one of these scenes is executed everyone around Cheadle plays red light, essentially standing still while he talks. There are a couple of these scenes where they used obvious CG to freeze the rest of the room. There are just too many ways to execute type of scene(see House of Cards) This show could be great if they cut out the freeze scenes.
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jeppy345623 January 2012This is a great show for young adults and in particular young men. To me it is Californication with a little more whit. Cheadle is perfect for the role; making the viewer really believe he can make any deal happen with his quick tongue and confident demeanor(he plays a consultant for the number two ranked company if you didn't already know).Each show consists of him and his team trying to make one deal happen and then generally shows Cheadle returning to his family life in the end. Not sure why it isn't more highly rated, but I give it an 8. If you enjoy the playboy type role that Duchovny plays in Californication you will love Cheadle in House of Lies!
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krzysiektom28 May 2020Overrated. About half as smart as it thinks it is. Not very realistic regarding the internal politics and relations in a management consulting firm, or any firm. And Cheadle's character is rather irritating.
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sensaybooo26 June 2013House Of Lies is a fun, refreshing, TV series. I started watching the 2nd season and had to catch up by buying the first season. The writing is smart, silly, serious and comedic and the actors do a really great job, really good casting. Shotime seems to have the best T.V. Shows on premium cable television in my opinion and House Of Lies is definitely one of them. I'm looking forward to watching the 3rd season and seeing what fun drama Marty Kann and his team get themselves into and how they talk themselves out it and still seal the deal LOL. The House Of Lies casting directors made a really good move when they brought Nia Long's sexy self into the show. I love how Marty, Monica and the rest of their family and friends love and respect their son Roscoe's life choice even though they may not agree with it. Over all House Of Lies is a smart well written and acted TV show.
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jaowood3325 January 2013Not every show is for everyone and having a negative review can help someone else who's not into the same thing. What are you, 10 years old? Grow up, and let everyone have their view WITHOUT attacking them for it. I usually like Canadians. I am making an exception to this in Hannah's case because some apparently do suck.
My review of Hannah's review of someone else's review = 1/10.
Show is abrasive but funny.
Don Cheadle is funny. Good cast.
Showtime is definitely into pushing the envelope and has done so here. Sometimes too abrasive but still a good show. -
ninjawaiter8 September 2016I found this show on Amazon Prime and decided to give it a watch because I have a huge crush on Kristen Bell. Yeah, I know. Sue me. Anyway, I binged all 5 seasons in about a week, so I'm reviewing the entire show, pilot to finale. All my commentary will remain general, so no spoilers ahead.
Overall, I have to say I don't think the show is worth watching, even if you're a big fan of one of the actors or some other specific element that went into it.
The show does occasionally have its moments. Once in a while, but generally not more than once a season, there is something to really get excited about, something that will stir some emotion if you're invested in the characters and story. Sadly, none of those moments are quite grand enough to make it worth the grind of reaching them. And it is a grind.
For starters, it's hard to really root for any of the characters. I've seen plenty of shows/movies where you're "rooting for the bad guy," which is sort of the premise this show was going with- a bunch of management consultants whose job it is to trick corporations into paying them ridiculous amounts of money. Okay, no problem there. Except that they're not just bad guys in business. They're constantly backstabbing, back-biting, and generally treating everyone around them (including each other) terribly. And if we weren't supposed to like the characters, that MIGHT be okay. But then we're given all these subplots and interactions that are clearly designed to make us feel for and relate to the characters. And just when you're getting to like them, they turn around and do something horrible again. It's a bit like a very unpleasant roller coaster.
Part of that, the very worst part, are the 'false growth' moments. The show will give you some sequence of events that seems to lead one of the characters to grow and change, and then a couple episodes later (if it even lasts that long) they revert right back to who they were in the pilot. After a while it gets hard to watch the same characters doing the same things without ever growing, learning, or changing.
This is especially pronounced with the "sidekick" characters played by Ben Schwartz and Josh Lawson. They're more caricatures than characters, and every time they seem to start turning into real people, the show pulls a 180 and they're right back where they started.
I'm not going to say much about the acting except that I didn't think anyone spoiled it with their performance, but likewise the only one that really impressed me was Glynn Turman, who plays Don Cheadle's character's father and pops up pretty regularly throughout the show without being one of its leads. He steals virtually every scene he's in, but part of that may be that he's the only truly likable character in the show.
House of Lies rarely lacks for unpredictable twists and surprises, but by the end even that starts to become predictable. Once you get a good feel for the show you can actually predict when the next twist will pop off, and what sort of character it will have (blow to personal life, blow to the business, etc.) without having any clue what form it will take.
Even if you don't know the first thing about corporate America, the show requires a ridiculous amount of suspension of disbelief. The team deals almost exclusively with powerful CEOs, Board Members, and other titans of industry who are, one and all, half-wit fools and cowards. They are all just bumbling around, doing obviously stupid things, waiting for the team to arrive and trick them with the most childishly obvious ploys and strategies imaginable, treating each one as if its an act of sheer brilliance. I'm sure the writers like to imagine that everyone who goes into business is an idiot because it fits with Hollywood's preferred narrative about capitalism, corporations, 'rich white men', etc. but it's really quite ridiculous, especially given how big a part of the show it encompasses.
And speaking of narratives, strap in for some seriously preachy story lines, because you're going to get force-fed a lot of the usual Progressive talking points in the process of watching this show, and House of Lies doesn't do subtle. So you'll see Don Cheadle deal with over-the-top racism, and Kristen Bell with over-the-top sexism. Then you'll see the obvious knock-offs of real people the show wants to mock by presenting them as caricatures with slightly altered names. And if anyone brings up religion, you don't even have to think about it, because they're all fools, hypocrites, and bigots. Cap it all off with a portrayal of the brutal dictatorship in Cuba as some kind of paradise on Earth and... well, you get the idea.
My final note will touch on the series finale, but without any spoilers. The entire final season feels like it's building to a logical ending business-wise, as if they were planning to end the show at the end of season 5. But for some reason they don't take any steps at all to set the characters' personal lives on a matching trajectory, so we roll into the final episode with nothing close to resolved for anyone, and then suddenly the characters just turn themselves inside out to give the ending we've all been waiting for, which I found completely unsatisfying.
Anyway, I hope this review helps. I really wanted to enjoy the show, and you can't say I didn't give it a fair shake, but they just didn't make something worth the time. -
njeri-clark25 July 2012Don Cheadle is excellent in this comedic drama. House of Lies keeps you on edge. Once you start watching it, you will beg for more. The writing is excellent. I can't wait for the new season. Cheadle definitely deserves and Emmy for his role. The other cast members are perfectly fitted into the plot and with each week, the plot thickens. I also truly love the child who plays Cheadle's son. He is a great little actor and brings an interesting dynamic to the show. At first, I was Leary about Kristen Bell. I was unsure if she penetrate her "girl-next door" image, but she certainly surprised me. House of Lies is full of comedy, drama, and sexuality. It is not for kids. House of Lies is my favorite!!
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Big business is a bogeyman in today's world. When the subject of corporations and wealth come up, things often turn to talking about lies, greed an grabbing power. So it's no surprise that these ideas are front and centre in House of Lies. But where a lot of shows would explore the consequences of a life built on lies and deception, this show attempts to see the benefits. In a world of full of liars, the best liar is the one who succeeds. Enter Marty Kahn, played by the great Don Cheadle, a management consultant who is second to none at the game they play. He can sell anything to anyone on a bad day. On a good day he can talk them out of house and home and make them think it was their idea.
It's often said that with any new business or industry that there are bound to be spin off industries looking to take advantage of the relatively uncertainty that comes along with establishing it. With the multi-million or billion dollar conglomerate it seems, management consultancy is that spin off. A business built upon coming in and telling a massive organization how to be more efficient at high costs. And there in lies the fun of the show. Marty Kahn and his team of consultants are masters of manipulating businesses.
You might say that it is one of the best examples of shows which fight back for the anger and resentment towards corporate greed and power. In the same way that Arrow and other shows in recent years have been like rallying calls reflecting society's perspective, House of Lies shows that even within the system itself there are people who look for ways to screw the big boys out of their money.
Adding to this modern story is the phenomenal talent of the previously mentioned Don Cheadle, the fantastic Kristen Bell as Jeannie Van Der Hooven, the incredible Dawn Olivieri as Marty's psychotic ex wife Monica Talbot ultimately rounded out by what can only be described as the comedy duo of Ben Schwartz and Josh Lawson as Clyde Oberholt and Doug Guggenheim. They are today's unsung heroes, the wish-fulfilment of the audience in a world where things just don't tend to go their way. And it's a joy to watch them work. Set from the personal perspective of Marty Kahn as he struggles to balance work, home and his relationships we still never lose sight of the lives of the people around him and their own struggles.
Can you find truth in the House of Lies? Absolutely, especially when a lot of those lies also happen to be the truth. If you haven't seen this show, then you're lying to yourself if you say you don't need to.
To check out more of my reviews, go here:
http://andrew-heard.blogspot.ca/