Maybe there’s hope for House of Lies yet. “Mini-Mogul” isn’t great TV, but it’s also not nearly as embarrassing as last week’s “Microphallus”. It’s still incredibly smug, but “Mini-Mogul” is the first episode to offer more than a fleeting glimpse of recognizable and sympathetic humans, and this time those moments aren’t entirely due to a ten-year-old cross-dresser.
Roscoe is the most important part of this show. He could’ve been the worst sort of David E. Kelley-style quirk, but until now the only human moments on House of Lies have all involved Roscoe. In “Mini-Mogul” Roscoe travels to San Francisco on a work trip with his dad because his grandfather and mother can’t watch him. Once there Marty is too busy to spend time with Roscoe, who winds up hanging out with the rest of the team. Eventually Roscoe has a heart-to-heart with Doug, who’s basically a decent guy struggling to keep up with his coworkers in an asshole marathon. While splurging on a food truck buffet Roscoe asks for advice with his bully problem, and Doug tells a story about his own bullying, and how the bullies only do it because they’re jealous of them. Roscoe finds a friend in the consultant who’s least emotionally prepared for the moral degeneracy that apparently defines their work. The material might be a bit trite but it doesn’t come off as mawkish. It gives hope that Doug might actually grow somewhat as a character and fend off some of the bullying (however good natured) he currently endures from his coworkers.
But as I said, with “Mini-Mogul” House of Lies finally proves it can present compelling human moments that don’t involve young Roscoe Kaan. He had the best moments this week, sure, but “Mini-Mogul” shows that Jeannie is more than just one of the guys. She can be as two-faced and manipulative as Marty, but “Mini-Mogul” fills out her character by giving us a look at her private life. She’s engaged and keeping it a secret from her coworkers. This is revealed early in the episode when Jeannie has a brief scene with her fiancé in an airport. Their connection seems genuine, but as soon as she gets near her coworkers she slips the giant rock off her finger. Oh, and later on she hooks up with a random folk-singer in San Francisco.
Her infidelity doesn’t come off as malicious or predatory. She’s a confused (and probably depressed) woman unsure about the life she’s chosen to lead. She treats the hook up like it’s business, but the singer shoots through her defenses and calls her on her own inadequacies, leading to a second round of (no doubt more passionate) sex. As when John Ross Bowie and Richard Schiff saw through Marty last episode, it takes a minor character piercing the armor of a lead for us to care about anybody in this show.