"House of Lies," Comedy About Consultants With Don Cheadle Photo: Ken Regan/Showtime From left, Kristen Bell, Don Cheadle and Ben Schwartz as management consultants of dubious integrity on the comedy "House of Lies" on Showtime. IN April, when the actress Kristen Bell appeared on "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson," she had news to share: She would be co-starring in a new Showtime series called "House of Lies." Suddenly Ms. Bell found herself stuck as the straight man in a comedian's bit. Is it like House of Pies? Mr. Ferguson riffed, invoking the name of a legendary Los Angeles coffee shop. Is your show about people who run a pie shop and lie about it? "It's about high-powered consulting firms," Ms. Bell said, gamely trying to get the interview back on track. "Oh," Mr. Ferguson said, in a low, mocking voice. That sounds great. In other circumstances Ms. Bell might have been able to convey to viewers that "House of Lies" is a glossy, dark half-hour comedy about four management consultants who give advice to corporations and are as intelligent as they are full of hollow promises. Ms. Bell did manage to mention that the show stars the Oscar nominee Don Cheadle. To which Mr. Ferguson shot back, "Cheadle's good, but he's no pie." As it happens, those behind "House of Lies" are the first to acknowledge that before anyone can even accept management consultants as comedy fodder, people have to understand what it is they do. "It's a challenge," said the show's creator, Matthew Carnahan ("Dirt"), who, to that end, has taken to comparing these specialized firms to pirates, but those who do more than just board ships and rob their victims. "The guys in this show are pirates who actually leave you thinking that you need them," he said. Which is extra cool and a real accomplishment for pirates. Mr. Carnahan came up with the idea for the series after his production partner, Jessika Borsiczky, handed him a book by Martin Kihn called "House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time." "I read it the same night she gave it to me," Mr. Carnahan said. By morning he had the entire first season of his show mapped out in his head. The central character and our tour guide through this pitiless world is Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle), a partner at the fictional firm of Galweather & Stearn whose idea of a regular day is flying first class to a city and using his whirring brain, unbridled confidence and dazzlingly coarse vocabulary to get any type of organization - global behemoth, symphony, baseball team - to believe that he can help it improve its performance. And even before closing the deal he and his three younger co-workers - played by Ms. Bell, Josh Lawson and Ben Schwartz (best known as the spectacularly deluded Jean-Ralphio on "Parks and Recreation") - think nothing of staging a premature victory celebration at a high-priced strip club and run up a tab that will be billed to their new client. One thing is certain: "House of Lies" knows how to grab your attention. In the opening scene Marty is naked and sprawled on a rumpled bed with a woman wearing just a pair of high heels. It's only when his young son, Roscoe, taps on the bedroom door and Marty begins comically stuffing his unconscious lady friend into her cocktail dress that we learn she's Marty's drug-addled ex-wife (Dawn Olivieri). Marty doesn't want his child confused by his mother's early-morning presence. Though no one can mistake Marty for the kind of guy you'd like to hang out with, in these fleeting moments - when Marty struggles to be a good parent to Roscoe, a boy with a fondness for feather boas, glitter and show tunes - he displays something resembling vulnerability. In the casting of Mr. Cheadle, "House of Lies" underwent what Mr. Carnahan called "a major tectonic plate shift," not just for the serious actor credentials he brought to the project, but also for what Mr. Carnahan gleefully described as the "Don Cheadle coupon." "He's so widely perceived as a good and moral person - kind, philanthropic, decent," Mr. Carnahan said, and indeed the 47-year-old Mr. Cheadle is a good-will ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program and has long campaigned for the end of genocide in Darfur. So we could instantly make Marty more horrible.