Tuesday, January 15, 2013

House of Lies - Stochasticity


House of Lies opens its Second Season with Galweather Stearn still reeling from the aftermath of the failed merger and sexual harassment suit against one of the firm's partners (Griffin Dunne) that killed the deal. Jeannie (Kristen Bell) returns to work after a two week enforced vacation, which was prompted by setting both her personal and work life of fire at the merger party, unsure whether or not her drunken misadventure that night which saved everyone's jobs ended with sleeping with Marty (Don Cheadle).

The firm's interim CEO Julianne Hotschragar (Bess Armstrong), a failed gubernatorial candidate, begins a new "era of women" which starts with Jeannie's new "please don't sue us" promotion to engagement manager. Meanwhile Marty's team has to come up with deliverables for a client they've never heard of, or know what industry he represents, even when he sits down in their conference room the next day.


Marty takes time out of back-to-work insanity to try to reconnect with his son (Donis Leonard Jr.) and try to figure out Monica's (Dawn Olivieri) angle in her perfect new life. He also makes a stop at the local bar to submarine Clyde's (Ben Schwartz) weird semi-committed relationship with two women (Melissa StephensJackie Tohn) by introducing logic into their relationship.

The conference call and conference room sequence as the team stalls and bullshits their newest client, until they can figure out who the hell he is, are the highlights of the episode. Jeannie and Marty's flashbacks are both simultaneously entertaining and disturbing, especially for Jeannie who realizes she may have shared a little too much truth with her boss on the black-out drunk adventure.

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