FUCCC!!!! "House of Lies" just got cancelled. The current Season 5 will be the last season: http://tvline.com/2016/05/17/house-of-lies-cancelled-showtime-season-5/
I thought that was the plan all along although I could be wrong. I didn't see it going beyond a fifth season because I think they are heading to some sort of wrapup conclusion for Marty and Jeanie's relationship. Anyway the show gets no buzz outside of Cheadle's annual Emmy nomination. Even the ubiquitous black twitter ignores it. Besides the leading lady of the show has a starring gig on a new NBC show so I hope TPTB had told her in advance that this year was to be the last in order to free her up for pilot season.
Though I could see them making that guy gay. That would firmly lock these "soul mates" in platonic territory.
That would be weird, what would be the point in having a soul mate, if they had relationships with other people?
This makes sense. I quit on the show during Season 1 because overall it was just a mediocre show & I was turned off by Marty's son. The only reason I decided to get back into & catch up to the show in Season 4 (or right before Season 4) was because Kristen Bell & Don Cheadle's characters finally got together (Plus Kristen Bell also messing with T.I. in season 3). So I can see why Black Twitter & folks on other Black/Urban forums barely care about this show. If you wanted to get other black people into this show, I'd recommend Season 3. Season 3 is my favorite season because Mekhi Phifer & T.I. are major recurring characters that season and they bring entertaining fuckery to the show. Anyways, I hope Kristen Bell & Don Cheadle's characters get back together by the end of the season. I haven't watched this week's episode (Episode 6) or last week's (Episode 5) yet. But it looks like they were definitely headed in the right direction in the episode that aired 2 weeks ago (episode 4).
The show was never perfect and I never bought Cheadle as a guy who could get all those hot babes (like his ex). In fact once they decided to racebend the role I kept thinking that this would finally be the perfect part for a guy like Blair Underwood who is not as talented as Cheadle but nonetheless is good enough to pull off the role and possibly bring in more ladies. I stuck with the show because it wasn't half-bad, it had a black male lead who wasn't being limited in terms of having a love life and who he could have it with and because as mentioned in one interview the show was a rarity by displaying a household with three generations of black men. By the way I didn't care as much for the TI/Phifer storyline in season 3 because I don't take TI seriously as a n actor and his role on the show didn't change that. And I also never liked Phifer because he could never convey anything to me other than a snake whenever I saw any of his portrayals. Plus the whole violent element to the story was a bit off-putting to me and a tad stereotypical (although Marty/Cheadle got some moments to poke fun at that whole perception). Black Twitter gives life to a LOT of bad shows so quality doesn't have a damn thing t do with it. The problem was more that it was a show that fell under the radar and a good reason for that, IMO, was because of the race of the vast majority of the women Marty hooked up with. Put out the same type of show but this time have Marty exclusively with "the sistas" and suddenly black people become aware of the show and the black media promotes the show the was they do, say, Being Mary Jane.
He's rich with swagger why is it hard to believe a well educated rich man can scoop up whomever he wants. That's kind of how it works in real life no?
I gotta agree with The Dark King. If the Marty Kaan on the show was a real person, he would have no problem pulling women. Wouldn't matter that he looked like Don Cheadle instead of Blair Underwood. Also, I'm not that convinced that Don Cheadle's love interests being exclusively black women would've helped the show with Black Twitter & media. You had fine-ass Megalyn E.K. playing Cheadle's girlfriend all of Season 1 & Nia Long as a love interest in Season 2. The show still fell under the radar. I just think "House of Lies" was a mediocre show, folks (Viewers & tv critics) quit on it & never came back to it.
The show was too formulaic, conventional, and simplistic in its structure to actually be edgy (dark humor and content requires it) but made up for it with great-to-strong performances from its cast. The showrunner never had a serial program go beyond its first season so in that respect he was a novice and seemed to write the show from leftover sitcom scripts. Also, once Marty got his own firm, the show had nowhere else to go and no more stories to tell.
I haven't seen the show. But I understand where you're coming from. The same sort of thing happened on the British sitcom Are You Being Served?. The central plot was around the longtime employees of Grace Brothers retiring and living in a large home. The cast loved working together again but without a threat(Young Mr. Grace), they really had no direction or purpose.
LOL. I just watched last week's episode last night. The main storyline this season about Marty trying to sell his firm off to a big company for a big payday is repetitive AF. They just a had a major storyline last season about Marty's firm being sold to a bigger corporation & Marty having to deal with his new female Boss that he's sleeping with. This repetitive main storyline this season does make me think the producers/writers did write season as if it's gonna be the last though.
I'm absolutely certain Showtime insisted they write the season finale as a series finale. Honestly, what else are they going to write? Marty runs for president! It had its flaws, but it was lively where it needed to be. The show ran out of creative gas after season three.
Am I the only one here believing that 5 seasons is a successful run? I mean what is the deal with every show having to be nearly 10 years or over. Only certain shows I feel can go on and on and on. Some shows I believe works with a minimal season run. There's nothing wrong with that.
Naw, you're right. For most TV shows, running for 5 seasons is a success. When you think about the fact that "House of Lies" lost most of it's buzz by the end of Season 1 (Off the top of my head I can't think of any notable sites that does TV show reviews, that does weekly reviews for this show & most of the reviews from notable TV critics that I found when I did a Google search are all from Season 1), this show running for 5 seasons is a big success.
(Long response ahead) Bro, have you checked out some of the shows that black twitter elevates in the trending mentions? Many of those shows are straight garbage. So let's not get into this notion that House of Lies wasn't getting love from Black Twitter because its mediocre. Hell, there's some God awful show about a fictional female dance team (made up primary of black women) who work for a fictional pro basketball franchise. Black Twitter LOVES that show. It has nothing to do with quality though. It has more to do with black women and their love lives being more front and center. Have you seen Being mary Jane? Terrible. Echikunwoke's role was small in season one of House of Lies and she was the type of complexion that made people wonder what nationality/ethnicity and race she was when you first saw her. And despite her presence she seemed overshadowed by Mart's contentious relationship with his ex-wife (who is white) whom he found himself still sleeping with/screwing. That's a damn no-no to black women and their well-trained black men who follow their lead. Seriously all across twitter I keep stumbling into remarks by black ladies who get irate over any sexual relationship between a black man and a white woman on TV and movies or any suggestion of it. There are black women right now making something out of nothing by being mad at non-black folks who are shipping Black Panther and Black Widow. hey are more upset with that stuff than those who ship Black Panther in a gay relationship with Bucky/Winter Soldier. House of Lies have un-apologetically never shied away from the presentation that mating with white women is an option for Marty and has been for him in the past. The Nia Long storyline? That was water-downed and clearly not going anywhere. By this time you started seeing that Marty may have had a thing for Jeannie and vice versa. In other words the road was still leading towards a white female. If it ain't about the black woman then it ain't about nothing for many on black twitter. And they proudly champion their hypocrisy of being all thrilled when a black female hooks up with a white male ("progress"; "go get 'im, girl") compared to when a black male character hooks up with a white female ("not that bullshit again"; "aw hell no"). I have many examples I can share although this post is already running too long. But let me at least get in quickly that the buzz from black twitter and the coverage by black media for Jessica Jones was relatively muted despite the presence of two main black male characters, including black superhero Luke Cage. Not all black people (women) resented Cage's involvement with Jessica considering its true to the comic books, but a lot of them did. These same women I'm guessing would not be so upset if the new Iron Fist show has Iron Fist hooking up with Misty Knight (a famous black female character). Instead if that happens watch that explode in black twitter like 'The Flash" does (but Supergirl does not). Was House of Lies perfect? Never. Too inconsistent, too often unimaginative. It would never crack my top ten shows of any year with the possible exception of season two. But it did have wonderful performances by a very good cast and some nice guest stars. It gave me a show with a black male lead with an actual sex life (sometimes graphic) with women that weren't always black...and he didn't have to get on his knees and beg black women and black America for forgiveness for his sleeping with non-black ladies. It addressed this whole transgender thing well via Marty's son and another character well before that became an issue addressed on TV shows. It dealt with how even a successful black man like Marty still had to take shit from the police, something it did before other shows tackled the subject. I'm just happy it got five seasons and I hope Marty and Jeanie end up with each at the end. And I don't doubt that rich guys like Marty get hot women in real life because of their money, power and swag. But regardless if you don't look like a stud you are still going to have to put in more effort than they ever show Marty doing when he attracts another dime to his bed. Also in the real life plenty of those ladies who go for the guy who has more bucks than looks, are often primarily drawn to the man because of his bank account. But on this show almost all of Marty's women have shown very little interest in his cash; they just want him. The most greedy of all his lovers is his ex-wife who fell for Marty and had a child with him long before he became successful and before he became rich. It's a small complaint. Just another example of male showrunners pairing average dudes consistently with babes who are out of their league in terms of "hotness" only to excuse the decision by explaining how this particular male is simply very charismatic or very powerful, blah, blah, blah. That type of stuff can be annoying regardless if the male is white, black, whatever.
Absolutely. I thought it was gonna end at season four to be honest and didn't expect another season when season four started. Once I realized it was going to a season five I was pretty much hoping TPTB would wrap things up for good and call it a day. Looks like that is what happened in one way or another.