- Network: SHOWTIME
- Series Premiere Date: Jan 8, 2012
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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- By date
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It helps that Cheadle is surrounded by characters, and actors, who seem like they will go interesting places.
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I didn't laugh much. I did, however, check my watch, still secure on my wrist, to determine when the show would be ending.
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There's enough involving the main characters that I'm willing to stick around for a bit to let the rest of House of Lies find itself.
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Well-crafted and a little--sometimes more than a little--unpleasant.
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Like many of Showtime's most cherished series, House of Lies can be annoying and entertaining at the same time.
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House of Lies somehow manages to be funny despite it all. That's mostly do to great casting. Cheadle, particularly, is brilliant.
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Too brittle and full of bile to cleanly hit the target.
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It takes a few half-hour episodes before the tone gels. [16 Jan 2012, p.39]
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Lies is cynical enough to make "Up in the Air" look like "Once Upon a Time," but it's a stylish, sometimes witty cynicism.
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House of Lies is not a revolutionary show, but it is a fun study of men behaving badly.
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With the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the show right away telegraphs that there is more to Kaan than meets the eye, that he's not just a con. We're just not inclined to believe him.
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House is more solidly built [than "Dirt"], thanks mostly to the bracing quality of Cheadle, who scarcely has time in the mayhem to reconsider what he does.
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The series is so pervasively cynical--and, by the way, brilliantly funny--it has the potential of making any viewer feel his or her life isn't so bad after all.
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Because from its embellished execution to its uninspired writing and very conception, the smarmy House of Lies is like so many speculative financial bubbles that characters like Marty have had their hands in: There's just nothing there.
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House of Lies is giving him (and the rest of the actors) something fresh and different to devour, which makes it a show you need to consult with.
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[The actors] are cramped by obvious, unsubtle writing and a show that doesn't seem to have much of an idea of where to take these sardonic characters.
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This Good Marty/Bad Marty dynamic may prove more fruitful for the show in the long run than the well-worn punching bag that is corporate America.
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House of Lies is sharp, but not big on subtext.
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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.
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House of Lies' excesses tend to be counter-balanced by its overall look and feel. The production values are first-rate and the storytelling is crisp.
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There is much to admire here, from the snap in the dialogue to the show's willingness to tackle issues of race in the workplace--but there might be even more if creator Matthew Carnahan (Dirt) could learn when to stop pushing.
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The program is moderately entertaining and very much in keeping with the tone of "Californication."
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House of Lies about the thievery of management consultants, manages to turn a theme with reasonable comedic potential into a vehicle for 16-year-old males, though dressed up as satire for sophisticates.
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In trying to be about over-the-top characters, it forgets to be about people.
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House of Lies lacks the heart of "Shameless" and Kaan lacks the likability of Duchovny's Hank Moody, which means we care very little about the characters after two episodes.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 60 out of 119
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Mixed: 20 out of 119
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Negative: 39 out of 119
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Jan 8, 2012
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Jan 8, 2012
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Apr 12, 2014