Whereas I often work as a video games critic and editor, my full-time job is telling folks to look at Poker Face. Completely nobody has heard of it, regardless of its being probably the greatest issues on TV proper now. So right here I mix my roles into one. Season two of the Peacock present wraps this week, that means proper now could be precisely the proper time to start out binging all of it.
You don’t need to work arduous to promote Poker Face. It goes like this: “You understand the man who does the Knives Out motion pictures, Rian Johnson? Effectively, he additionally has a TV present, modeled on Columbo, but it surely’s Natasha Lyonne in the primary position.” At this level, most individuals are already in. For others you want to add, “Yeah, from Russian Doll. And, positive, American Pie.”
After I say “modeled on Columbo,” that’s not me being cute. Poker Face follows the Peter Falk present’s format from idea by means of to title fonts. So, as with the ‘70s/’80s traditional homicide thriller, you realize who the killer is from the start of every episode, the homicide proven in a pre-titles vignette earlier than Lyonne’s Charlie Cale seems. Titles and credit then seem within the acquainted yellow textual content, and in season one, Lyonne is even perpetually holding a cigar and strolling with the identical peculiar gait. It’s a pleasure.
Nevertheless, Poker Face can be very a lot its personal present, too. Charlie Cale is an itinerant beginner detective, on the run from the mob after getting far too concerned within the machinations of a Laughlin, Nevada on line casino. Cale, you see, has an innate means to inform when anybody is mendacity. Not a practiced talent, not one thing she’s realized from years of the research of micro-expressions or no matter, however only a superpower. She has an virtually involuntary response of “bullshit!” at any time when she hears a lie. Which makes her a wonderful poker participant, however not effectively favored by these making an attempt to maintain darkish secrets and techniques.
Every episode, Cale exhibits up in a brand new city, largely residing out of her automobile, making an attempt to get work and inevitably changing into entwined within the lives of the homicide sufferer, or certainly the assassin. After the opening scene displaying the crime, the episodes virtually all the time skip again some hours or days to then present how Charlie suits into the scenario, adopted by her reluctantly fixing the killing.
The present is exquisitely effectively written, and superbly directed. Natasha Lyonne is a drive, her tackle Columbo a continuing delight, all the time feeling like a definite homage somewhat than an aping impression. And wow, the remainder of the forged. Given Cale’s nomadic impermanence in anybody spot, there are just a few often recurring characters, that means most episodes construct the forged up from scratch. This system appears to have its decide of any actor it desires, with huge names showing week after week. To call only a few: Adrien Brody, Awkwafina, Jospeph Gordon-Levitt, Richard Variety, Katie Holmes, Giancarlo Esposito, Nick Nolte, John Mulaney, John Cho, Carol Kane, Lili Taylor, Methodology Man, Kumail Nanjiani…
The true talent of the present is to have the ability to herald so many well-known names, and have nobody stick out like a Visitor Star, however somewhat instantly set up deep, significant characters. Regardless of episodes lasting simply 45 minutes to an hour, it paces itself so ideally, permitting you to get to know these folks and to develop invested in Charlie’s relationships with them.
As a result of Charlie’s not a cop, it additionally frees the present to be much more morally ambiguous. This isn’t essentially about capturing the evil killer and seeing justice dealt—whereas it typically positively is that, there’s additionally room for a lot extra nuance. Or, as is typically the case, for Lyonne simply to discover a decision inside the scenario earlier than transferring on that doesn’t contain anybody being hauled away in handcuffs.
The temper of the present also can swing in some deft and spectacular methods. Whereas it’s all the time humorous, that humor can grow to be loads darker, or loads lighter, with extremely breezy episodes between storylines that basically take their toll on Charlie. She’s not asking for any of this, virtually all the time dragged right into a scenario after she by accident (and fairly actually) calls bullshit. She hears the lie, after which can’t let it go. Generally that results in glorious shenanigans, different instances to shedding newfound friendships. And typically she’s fixing the homicide of a faculty hamster.
Of the 21 episodes which have aired, with another showing immediately, July 10, there hasn’t been a dud. There’s none that really feel like a drag, or that felt phoned in. As such, for those who’ve not watched in any respect, then there’s no must counsel you start with a selected spotlight, or supply a advised record—simply begin with the primary and blitz your approach by means of. There are chronological components to the general arc, so it advantages from watching by means of so as, even when every episode additionally efficiently stands alone.
Rian Johnson’s love of ‘70s and ‘80s crime drama and televised whodunits helped make Knives Out and Glass Onion so extremely enjoyable, with Daniel Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc a form of amalgam of all their protagonists, maybe with the heaviest dose of Homicide, She Wrote’s Jessica Fletcher. In Poker Face, he attracts from the identical effectively, however with Columbo as that major supply as a substitute. And its respect for these packages hides no embarrassment, no sense that it must pastiche or satirize, however as a substitute proudly delivers a contemporary model of the identical. Sure, there’s cursing, and it’s maybe a contact extra brutal in among the murders than you’d have gotten away with on ‘70s community TV, however the spirit is similar. And no, Lyonne doesn’t flip round each episode and say, “Ah, only one thing more…”—though there are very occasional beautiful allusions towards it.
Probably the explanation so few are on high of this unimaginable present is as a result of it’s on Peacock, and, effectively, until you’re after the SNL archives, there’s not a substantial amount of different motivation to pay one more month-to-month subscription. However with the second season wrapping up immediately, now could be the proper second to discover a free trial, or pay a one-off to get it for a month. (Ensure to set a reminder to cancel it a few days earlier than it’s attributable to renew—you’ll overlook in any other case, you realize you’ll.)
You’ll like it. You’ll love every thing about it. It’s so humorous, and heat, and simply so extremely effectively made. It’s form of insufferable to know that after immediately, it’ll possible be a yr earlier than we get to see any extra—and that’s if it’s picked up for a 3rd run, on which there’s no phrase but. So, if nothing else, watch it simply so that you push up the numbers and I get to see some extra. For me.
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