Air Date: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 10/9c on Showtime
RATING: 4
“God help me.” – Marty Kaan
Freeze Frame! What's Marty thinking now?
This week we see a different side of the coin. It’s not all fun and games—there’s no easy going deal, no simple solution to getting new business. “Microphallus” opens with a nightmare and tears. You have to wonder what goes on in the mind of a person dealing with the suicide of their mother when the anniversary of said death is upon them.
Observations:
Guest stars are always fun and Greg Germann as Marty’s (Don Cheadle) thorn in the side, Greg Norbert, is genius. “I’m gonna, I’m gonna smash your head in—then I’m gonna perfectly fuck your bashed in eye socket. Metaphorically.” He effortlessly evokes the spirit of Richard from Ally McBeal (I LOVED Ally McBeal) and it makes me slip into comfort mode easily. I get the feel that this isn’t your typical comedy from every episode of House of Lies, and it isn’t. House of Lies is definitely groundbreaking television and shouldn’t be missed.
I like to think of the freeze frames as Showtime’s use of interactive television. The technique is a part of the show which is being used perfectly to get its point across and it adds to my enjoyment of each episode. This time around, we don’t get helpful jargon tips, but an insight into the game Marty and his team are being thrown into.
The team heads to one job they can't BS through. Nice change.
“Hold on, someone walk me through what just happened.” Doug (Josh Lawson) is hopeless. He is funny without trying to be and it’s embarrassing. He’s utterly clueless, dysfunctional and lonely. I want to know how he makes it through each day without killing himself. He’s like a child. Actually, I think my 5-year-old may be more sophisticated than he is.
Marty has an eye opening experience and it isn’t pretty. I hate to think he’s losing his mind, but his actions at the end of “Microphallus” point to evacuated faculties. He’s hurt, upset and in jeopardy of losing his job. There’s a lot going on in that head of his but he won’t let anyone in. Not even his father, Jeremiah (Glynn Turman), who happens to be a shrink. You’d think dear old dad would be able to get through to him, but he only makes it worse. Throw in his son Roscoe (Donis Leonard Jr.) who wears girls’ clothes and a suicide haunting his every thought, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Funny lines:
Roscoe: “Hey Dad, what do you do when you like a girl and you like a boy?”
Marty: “I don’t know, Roscoe. I don’t know.”
Roscoe: “Huh, I’m open to whatever.”
**
I enjoy “Microphallus” but there’s something missing. The usual laughs aren’t there because it borders on being a serious episode—dramatic rather than comedic. Marty can’t use his typical methods to get what he wants; he has to be really underhanded. I think he crosses the line and it doesn’t win him any points. In fact, he’s threatened with something he doesn’t want getting out (his mother’s suicide) and he falls flat. I don’t like seeing him between a rock and a hard place and I know it’s going to push him to the edge. I only hope he doesn’t go over and into someplace he can’t come back from.
Tune in to House of Lies, Sundays at 10/9c only on Showtime.
Photo credit: Richard Cartwright/Showtime © 2012 Showtime Networks Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved.
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