(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.
