House of Lies

House of Lies is an American comedy-drama television series created by Matthew Carnahan. The show, which premiered on Showtime on January 8, 2012, 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 follows a group of management consultants who stop at nothing to get business deals done. On May 17, 2016, Showtime cancelled the series after five seasons, with the series finale airing June 12, 2016.
Premise.
The show focuses on both the personal and business lives of Marty Kaan, a manipulative, immoral, driven and cold management consultant.
Originally, Marty was a highly successful partner at consultancy firm Galweather Stearn, where he headed up a pod consisting of engagement manager Jeannie van der Hooven, and associates Clyde Oberholt and Doug Guggenheim. He later leaves this position to head up his own firm, Kaan &amp; Associates.
In addition to the questionable business practices of Marty and his team, the series also focuses on Marty's personal life. He deals with his disagreeable management consultant ex-wife Monica, his retired-psychiatrist father Jeremiah and his confidently flamboyant son Roscoe. The main character, Marty, often breaks the fourth wall; he talks to the viewers in a freeze-frame bit in which he alone moves and the others in the background 'freeze' but continue where they left off. Alternatively, he talks to the audience while everyone moves but the others seem oblivious to the fact that he is on a monologue.
Production.
The series is executive produced by Matthew Carnahan, Jessika Borsiczky, and Stephen Hopkins, with the pilot written by Carnahan and directed by Hopkins.
Development.
On December 13, 2010, "House of Lies" was given a pilot order. On April 7, 2011, the series was given a 12 episode pick-up by Showtime. The series is based on Martin Kihn's book, "House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time". David Nevins, president of entertainment at Showtime, announced during the 2011 Television Critics Association press tour that the show was set to premiere on January 8, 2012.
Casting.
Casting announcements began in December 2010, with Don Cheadle as the first actor to be cast, as Marty Kaan, "a highly successful, cut-throat consultant who is never above using any means (or anyone) necessary to get his clients the information they want". The next actor to be cast was Dawn Olivieri who plays Monica, "Marty's crazy, pill-popping ex-wife and biggest professional competition as her consulting firm is No. 1 compared to Marty's No. 2." Ben Schwartz and Josh Lawson were cast next, Schwartz playing Clyde Oberholt, a member of Marty's team and his closest friend, and Lawson as Doug Guggenheim, Marty's Harvard-educated associate. Last cast were Kristen Bell, who plays Jeannie van der Hooven, "a razor-sharp, Ivy-League graduate who works at Marty’s firm", Donis Leonard Jr. as Roscoe Kaan, Marty's son, and Glynn Turman as Jeremiah Kaan, Marty's psychoanalyst father. Later, Richard Schiff was cast as Marty's boss.
House of Lies Live.
On December 29, 2013, Showtime presented "House of Lies Live" which featured members of the main cast and guest actors on the show performing at the UCB theatre in the first broadcast of long form improv.
Reception.
Throughout its run, "House of Lies" has received mixed reviews from critics.
"Entertainment Weekly"s Ken Tucker, reviewing the pilot episode, thought the show's premise "sounds terrific in concept", that "Cheadle and Bell are each in their own way exceedingly charming performers with a devilish aspect to their images", and that it has debuted at a good time: "at this time in history, who doesn't want to see undeservingly wealthy people get fleeced, or at least brought low by their avarice?" But ultimately Tucker found "House of Lies" wanting, writing that it is actually not "all that interesting", and that its "crucial weakness is its dead language". For Tucker, "there's no novelty or freshness in House of Lies' patter or its penis-placement" (the latter comment being a reference to House of Lies' "butt-load of the sort of sexual activity one can get away with on pay-cable"). He later included it on his Top 5 Worst TV Shows of 2012, taking the fourth spot.
In stark contrast, Matt Rouch, writing for "TV Guide", thought that "as a pitiless, biting satire of the debauched state of American big business, it's no lie to call this one of the smartest, funniest shows of the new year", praising its being "[d]eeply cynical, garish in its raunchiness and always rudely, lewdly hilarious". It "swims in a shark tank of such appalling survival-of-the-nastiest bad behavior it could launch its own channel: Human Animal Planet". Where Tucker finds "House of Lies" lines and dialogue poor, Rouch praises Don Cheadle's character's lines: Cheadle's character "often steps out of a freeze-frame to deliver scathing stylized asides to the audience, talking straight to the camera to teach us his lingo and soulless trade secrets". (By contrast, Tucker found these freeze-frame asides a "visual gimmick" and complained of derivative lines: "Creator Matthew Carnahan [...] loads his new show with lines that sound borrowed from "Glengarry Glen Ross" ("Closing is what I do!")."
Sarah Huges of "The Independent" called House of Lies "A Comedy for the One Per Cent," saying it's a "half-hour comedy about wealthy slicksters screening right in the middle of one of the biggest economic depressions America has experienced." Although calling the cast and production outstanding and funny in an artistic and technical way, the UK reception - by the standards of the Independent - seemed less positive than the rest. "House of Lies is asking us not simply to laugh at this bunch of chancers, but to admire them for the way in which they rip people off," she writes, calling for a check-up on corporate America.