Foreclosing a Real ‘House of Lies’

[marmar]

from Consortium News:



Foreclosing a Real ‘House of Lies’
January 19, 2012

Showtime’s “House of Lies” with Don Cheadle dissects the corrupt world of corporate consulting at a time when the Republicans seem poised to nominate Mitt Romney, who made millions at Bain Capital by applying similar strategies for pumping up companies and inflating profits, as Danny Schechter observes.

By Danny Schechter


If you go to the corner of 8th Avenue and 42nd Street near Times Square in Manhattan, just down from the Wax Museum and around the corner from the bus station, and look up, you’ll see an oversized billboard for Showtime’s, fast -paced “House of Lies,” a new cable TV series that is more like a realistic docudrama about the world of hard-charging management consultants.

Don Cheadle stars in this tightly written challenge to the popular “Mad Men” glorification of Madison Avenue in the 1950s, spiced with the insertion of pretty graphic hot sex that makes Janet Jackson’s Superbowl moment seem like it belonged on the Disney Channel. An actor on the series laughingly downplays the explicit physical grappling as “naughty.”

At a time when Mitt Romney, a former management consultant himself in his years at Bain Capital, is running for president, this show offers insight into just how vulgar vulgar capitalism can be.

In one scene, the team headed by Cheadle who plays the superslick Marty Kaan (a.k.a. “King Kaan”) is pitching a bank president on how to win over the public by offering no interest loans and guarantees to keep customers in their homes. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/19/foreclosing-a-real-house-of-lies/