'House of Lies,' Season 1, Episode 1, 'Gods of Dangerous Financial'

In "House of Lies," Season 1, Episode 1, "Gods of Dangerous Financial," Don Cheadle plays Marty Kaan, a ruthless, dishonest, amoral management consultant who is paid a lot of money to offer advice to companies whether they need it or not.

Kristen Bell plays Marty's right hand girl whom he lusts after named Jeannie. Spoilers surely follow.

The target of Marty and his team's avarice is an evil bank named Metro Capital which is said to have caused the sub-prime mortgage disaster. In the "House of Lies" reality, the government and the Community Reinvestment Act had no role is the current economic downturn. In any case, the robber barons of Metro Capital want a way to justify the huge bonuses they would like to give themselves. Marty and his group need to find a solution to this problem.

In the meantime, Marty has other problems. Jeannie will not sleep with him. His son wants to play girls' roles in a school production of "Grease" and his shrink dad is down with it. He makes an eternal enemy of one of the folks at Metro Capital because the stripper he takes to a business dinner as a date has sex with the guy's wife in the ladies room of the restaurant where they are eating. Finally, a rival management consultant firm led by Marty's estranged ex-wife is after the Metro Capital contract.

This is all in a day's work for a man who explains to the audience, through the fourth wall, that his task is to extract the maximum amount of money from clients for the least amount of work. If this means selling them on a "right sizing plan" that they don't need, then so be it.

Marty comes up with a solution to Metro Capital's problem. After convincing the robber barons that they are hated by all America from President Obama all the way down to the newly homeless that they have put in cardboard boxes due to their predatory lending practices, he suggests a loan amnesty program.

Marty has put together a study that suggests about 17 million people will apply for the program. But the program can be structured so that only 50,000 will qualify -- an acceptable expense for all the media good will that Metro Capital will gain.

Mind, a good financial writer for the Wall Street Journal would be able to see right through this gambit. But the folks at Metro Capital like it. So Marty wins again, the devil that he is.

Source: House of Lies, Gods of Dangerous Financial, TV.Rage