Don Cheadle has always been one of the most fully dimensional actors working today, dividing his time between splashy box-office works to pay the bills (Ocean's 11 series comes to mind) and darker, deeper work. (Crash, Hotel Rwanda). Now, for the first time since a memorable stint on ER a decade ago,, he returns to series television in Showtime's House of Lies.
Cheadle plays Marty Conn, a management consultant who can not stop talking. In his job, that's a critical requirement, as he has to convince the biggest corporations in the world why they're in trouble and why they desperately need his help. He will say anything, do anything and screw anyone --- and because this is Showtime, we're not being metaphorical with that last one. Marty is the best at his job, and a complete disaster as everything else. He loathes his ex-wife, but can't stop having sex with her. He wants to be there for his cross-dressing son, but has no problem missing his school play to bang a fellow stage mother in her car. Even the men he works for at his company can only stomach him because of the hundreds of millions he makes them. And after he pisses off one particular client in the pilot, they consider acquiring his company just so they can fire him.
Cheadle makes Marty the fully etched and dimensional character I've seen since the early days of Nurse Jackie. And for once, he has a fully loaded cast to back him up. Kirsten Bell continues to demonstrate why she is one of our most complex actresses as the only female on Marty's team. Glynn Turman continues to add to the brilliant resume of character portrayals he's been doing on TV since The Wire. And the show has one of the best used guest casts I've seen in a long time with Greg Germann, Richard Schiff and Griffin Dunne all creating memorable sketches of the people who fill Marty's world.
Showtime has been very good at creating their mix of series that meld drama and comedy, but this may be their first brilliant one centered around a male world. It's only a matter of time before the world that Marty's been building for himself collapses. He may be the first character in a while where I hope he survives.
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