‘House of Lies’ effectively canceled, season 5 finale will be show’s last

With Kristen Bell’s new series “The Good Place” coming to NBC last this fall, it’s possible that there are many people out there who likely saw the writing on the wall in terms of the future of “House of Lies” on Showtime. Now, it’s set in stone even more than ever, as Showtime has confirmed that the fifth season is going to be the last for the series.

In a statement, network programming head David Nevins had the following to say on sending the show off:

“House of Lies is a comedy that has frequently been ahead of the curve … Over the course of its five seasons, it has tackled such hot-button topics as gender identity, wealth inequality, white privilege, police brutality, interracial relationships, and code-switching with honesty and a biting sense of humor. [Series creator] Matthew Carnahan and Don Cheadle have been dream partners and impeccable leaders. The core cast of Don, Kristen, Ben and Josh are one of the best comedy teams on television. They have brought the series to an incredibly satisfying conclusion with this historic final episode shot in Cuba.”

So why do we say that the show has been “canceled”? It’s something that we are a stickler on, and to us the distinction is that a cancellation happens when the original plan was not necessarily to end the show at this particular point. That seems to have been the case here. We had heard that Bell could try to balance both shows in the event that “House of Lies” was renewed, and the 13-episode pickup for “The Good Place” as opposed to 22 showed that could be possible.

In the end, we’ll miss the show, and some of bold storytelling that it decided to illuminate the majority of the time.

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