One of Showtime’s Best Original Series Just Landed on Netflix (And You Can Binge Every Episode)

Showtime doesn’t get nearly enough love for the amount of prestige TV programming it’s created over the years. But while HBO may have solidified its brand around Emmy Awards acclaim, Showtime has had to make the long play of rolling the dice on bold concepts for series and letting the test of time dictate their successes. Luckily, the streaming era has only helped to highlight just how many fantastic blocks of content Showtime/ Paramount+ has to offer viewers.

From the bigger hit series like Shameless to the darker cult-favorites like Ray Donovan, Showtime has managed to offer an eclectic range of genres and stars. Now, Netfflix has just begun streaming one of the network’s best dark horse hits, which means it’s set for a meteroic rise in popularity as more people discover it. And it shouldn’t be hard, as Showtime’s House of Lies has everything going for it to get the average user to click “play.”

What Is House of Lies About?

House of Lies is based on the book by Martin Kihn, and follows the “charming, fast-talking Marty Kaan and his crack team of management consultants,” who “know how to play the corporate game better than anyone, by using every dirty trick in the book to woo powerful CEOs and close huge deals. In the board rooms, barrooms, and bedrooms of the power elite, corruption is business as usual, and everyone’s out for themselves first. Nothing is sacred in this scathing, irreverent satire of corporate America today.”

The series aired on Showtime from 2012-2016, earning both critical acclaim as well as three consecutive years of Golden Globes nominations, and four consecutive years of Emmy nominations – including one win in 2014 in the category of “Outstanding Art Direction for a Contemporary Program (Half-Hour or Less)”. More importantly, though, House of Lies was one of several shows that Showtime launched at that time, which broke through to earn a cult-following and helped establish the network as a secondary competitor in the premium channel space.

The series runs 5 Seasons and 58 episodes, which are all now streaming on Netflix.

House of Lies Had An Incredible Cast

It’s hard to look at the cast of House of Lies now and imagine all these big stars doing a TV show together. Marvel star Don Cheadle stars in the series as Marty Kaan, and led the awards charge, with multiple Golden Globes and Emmy nominations for the role. Right beside Cheadle was the odd-pair casting of Kristen Bell (The Good Place) as Jeannie van der Hooven, a partner at Marty’s firm with whom he shares a complicated relationship and past, coming up together through the corporate ranks. Sonic the Hedgehog star Ben Schwartz played Clyde Oberholt, the ‘spin master’ of the team; Mortal Kombat movie star Josh Lawson played Doug Guggenheim, the number guy, and Dawn Olivieri (Yellowstone) played Monica Talbot, Marty’s ex-wife and a partner at a rival firm.

Additonally, Glynn Turman (The Wire), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Adam Brody (The O.C.), Lisa Edelstein (House), Nia Long (Friday), Jenny Slate (Parks and Rec), Mekhi Phifer (Day of the Dead), Daniel Stern (Home Alone), Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), Valorie Curry (The Boys), Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny), Donald Faison (Scrubs), Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead), Wanda Sykes, and many others appeared in the series throughout 5 seasons.

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House of Lies offers a lighter comedic tone to the kind of boardroom knife fights and backstabbing that viewers would later come to enjoy with Succession or Billions, with the latter series actually premiering on Showtime the same year HoL ended. It’s the incredible ensemble cast and the chemistry between them that make the scenes of verbal wheeling and dealing so much fun to both watch and hear. Like It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the unapologetically immoral characters have only begun to look tame compared to the real world we’re now living in, which only adds another twisted level of humor to a show about chasing money and personal gain at any personal cost.

House of Lies Seasons 1-5 are now streaming on Netflix.