The fifth and final season of House of Lies ended last night, and star Ben Schwartz recently spoke with Zap2It about the Showtime series finale.
The comedy starred Schwartz, Kristen Bell, Don Cheadle, and Josh Lawson as high-powered management consultants. The fifth season marked history as the first scripted American series to film in Cuba.
Schwartz said the show’s time in Cuba was a “big celebration”:
All of us have been doing this for five years and we flew to Cuba for a week, shot everyday for 14 hours in the rain and tried to make it work and have so much fun there. It was a big celebration that night that we did it and were able to do this historic thing.”
Even though he didn’t know the last scene would be the dance party in Cuba, he said it’s the perfect ending:
For me, when we did that ending, I thought to myself there’s no better way. This is the way the show has to end. The idea that Marty and Jeannie get together, Doug and Clive are partners and learning about how to handle themselves in life. The idea that these guys choose being good people for the first time ever. They chose to not ruin an entire country, which I think is so great.”
Schwartz added that he’s proud of his character’s, Clyde Oberholdt, growth over the series:
He’s kind of like a baby at the beginning, just messing around. Then slowly, as all of these things happen in his life, he’s forced to grow up and try different things. For him to redeem himself, for him to get a partnership, for him to get over the struggles with drug addiction and killing his father … To have a character like that really come into his own and redeem himself is so lovely for me.”
What do you think? Are you a fan of House of Lies? Did you find the series finale satisfying?
“House of Lies” made history as the first U.S. scripted series to film in Cuba since the U.S. and Cuba restored diplomatic relations last year, only to end up getting cancelled so that those scenes in Cuba took place in its VERY LAST EPISODE. I find it sad that the cancellation of “HoL” has hindered such a historic occasion. I think there needs to be more U.S. scripted series and movies that shoot at least one of their scenes in Cuba, especially with the “Cuban Thaw” still ongoing.
I think the show could have gotten meatier but it seemed that there was a lack of attention to it ever having sustaining power.