History Series / HouseOfLies

* ButNotTooBlack: Marty, often. This comes up in diverse scenarios, such as in a Season 1 episode where he consults with a racist Mormon CEO, and his Season 3 attempt to woo a hip-hop label from Compton.

* PowerWalk: The team, frequently.

''Hou$e of Lie$'' is a {{Showtime}} original series adapted from the nonfiction business book ''House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time'' by Martin Kihn. It follows Marty Kaan (Creator/DonCheadle), a partner at a management consulting firm, and his three underlings: Clyde Oberholt (Creator/BenSchwartz), Doug Guggenheim (Creator/JoshLawson), and Jeannie van der Hooven (Creator/KristenBell). Kaan is a lonely womanizer with a sociopathic ex-wife Monica Talbot (Creator/DawnOlivieri), also a management consultant. Kaan and Talbot have one son together, Roscoe, an exuberant elementary school student with transgender identity issues. Kaan has sole custody, though his father, Jeremiah (Creator/GlynnTurman), a retired therapist, lives with them and serves as a co-parent.

''Hou$e of Lie$'' is a {{Showtime}} original series adapted from the nonfiction business book ''House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time'' by Martin Kihn. It follows Marty Kaan (Creator/DonCheadle), a partner at a management consulting firm, and his three underlings: Clyde Oberholt (Creator/BenSchwartz), Doug Guggenheim (Josh Lawson), and Jeannie van der Hooven (Creator/KristenBell). Kaan is a lonely womanizer with a sociopathic ex-wife Monica Talbot (Dawn Olivieri), also a management consultant. Kaan and Talbot have one son together, Roscoe, an exuberant elementary school student with transgender identity issues. Kaan has sole custody, though his father, Jeremiah (Creator/GlynnTurman), a retired therapist, lives with them and serves as a co-parent.

''Hou$e of Lie$'' is a {{Showtime}} original series adapted from the nonfiction business book ''House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time'' by Martin Kihn. It follows Marty Kaan, a partner at a management consulting firm, and his three underlings: Clyde, Doug, and Jeannie. Kaan, played by Don Cheadle, is a lonely womanizer with a sociopathic ex-wife Monica Talbot, also a management consultant. Kaan and Talbot have one son together, Roscoe, an exuberant elementary school student with transgender identity issues. Kaan has sole custody, though his father, Jeremiah, a retired therapist, lives with them and serves as a co-parent.

As the series progresses, there is less focus on the teams getting clients, and more on character development. The central plot in the first season is a 'merger' (more like a hostile takeover) between Galweather & Stearn and Metro Capital, the client that was wooed by the Pod in the Pilot. Marty's relationships with his subordinates and his dysfunctional family also come into play, with him sacrificing his personal life for his job. The second season had ongoing stories involving a big deal in Las Vegas, along with a lot more interoffice politics. Season 2 also reveals a lot more of the RomanceArc between Jeannie and Marty, which [[PlotTumor continues until the end of the series]].

* {{Transgender}}:
** Roscoe's Season 3 boyfriend, Lex, is [=FtM=] transgender, though [[spoiler: Lex's parents refuse to recognize him as such]].

* OnlyChildSyndrome: Roscoe, though he doesn't seem spoiled. (This is also a subversion, since both Monica and Marty ignore him, leading him to rebel against his parents and grandfather.)

[[caption-width-right:350:[[LoveableRogue Oh, Daddy]].[[note]]L-R: Ben Schwartz as Clyde Oberholdt, Josh Lawson as Doug Guggenheim, Creator/DonCheadle as Marty Kaan, and Creator/KristenBell as Jeannie van der Hooven[[/note]]]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Doug Guggenheim.

** End of Season 3 sees Marty convicted of an unnamed crime, due to his (and Jeanne's) plan for unethical backdoor information sharing while servicing competing clients.

** There’s no discussion of hormone treatments, but Roscoe seems to identify more with the feminine gender.

* BiTheWay:
** In Episode 3, [[spoiler: Roscoe asks his dad, "What do you do if you like a boy and a girl?"]].
** Almost every female character in the series shows bisexual tendencies.

* BiTheWay: In Episode 3, [[spoiler: Roscoe asks his dad, "What do you do if you like a boy and a girl?"]].

* {{Transsexual}}: There’s no discussion of hormone treatments, but Roscoe seems to identify more with the feminine gender.

* GenreSavvy: Nobody knows management consulting like Marty Kaan knows management consulting.

* AllGaysLoveTheater: Roscoe tries out for his school’s production of {{Grease}}. For the part of “Sandy,” of course.

* RomanticFalseLead: Everyone Jeannie sleeps with or dates.

* TheSociopath: Monica

** Roscoe's Season 3 boyfriend, Lex, is FtM transgender, though [[spoiler: Lex's parents refuse to recognize him as such]].

* AuthorTract: Martin Kihn's indictment of corporate consulting firms.

* BasedOnATrueStory: fictionalized take on Martin Kihn's time working as a corporate consultant.

* BourgeoisBohemian: Jeremiah, Marty’s therapist father, who lounges around the apartment in African daisheiki.

* CannotSpitItOut: [[spoiler: Jeannie spends much of season two trying to forget that she loves Marty, while Marty ends season two failing to tell Jeannie his real feelings.]]

* DontDoThisCoolThing: The show drives home again and again that Managing consultants are essentially parasitic con men who produce nothing of value... while partying it up on someone else' dime and getting laid several times an episode.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: season 3's ending.]]

* TheFilmOfTheBook: Based on the book '''House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time''' by Martin Kihn.

* FreudianExcuse: Jeannie states that Marty's commitment issues are due to his mother's suicide.

* HideYourPregnancy: During filming of season two when Kristen Bell became with child. Averted when she became pregnant again.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: April, the stripper who secures a business dinner for Marty with Greg Norbert of Metro Capital.

* OnlyChildSyndrome: Roscoe, though he doesn't seem spoiled.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Almost every episode.
** The NBA episode is a take on the divorce of the LA Dodgers drama.

* SafeWord: "Amsterdam," used by Monica and Marty.

** Justified, since it was Cat fucking Deeley.