‘House of Lies’ season 3 premiere review: Don Cheadle delivers in best opener yet

After two seasons, has “House of Lies” really started to find itself? We’re actually starting to believe so. Sunday night’s premiere is the best start to a season to date; not only was the tale cohesive, but it was also sharp and extremely funny.

One of the reasons why this premiere episode worked so well is mostly just because of the sole fact that it took a few risks in regards to the characters. For example, Marty no longer is this sort of titan that can do everything and recruit anyone. Now that he is out on his own, he is basically the sort of guy who has to travel halfway around the world just to be rejected by someone. That cannot be easy. You also got more insight into what is Marty’s inner monologue, in particular some of the feelings that he has about Jeanie that may not always be shown in the forefront.

While we saw Marty in some ways suffering with a somewhat-unfulfilled team around him, Jeanie was starting to move up some of the ranks at the old firm … but it was revealed that there are still some things that each one of them can learn from the other. What we are looking forward to here is more of a back-and-forth than anything that we have seen before. They may have feelings for each other, but the two as rivals of a similar stature is much more interesting than one simply working for the other.

More so than any of the individual stories, though, this episode was just funny. We found ourselves laughing a good dozen or so times in half an hour, which is much more than almost any of the season 2 episodes. “House of Lies,” thanks for getting the season off to a great start; this is the sort of Marty that we want to sell the story to us. Grade: A-.

What did you think about the “House of Lies” premiere? Let us know your thoughts below.