Poker Face premieres on Peacock Jan. 26 with four episodes, followed by a new episode streaming Thursdays.
Columbo popularized the concept of the inverted detective story, a twist on the crime drama where the audience’s sense of suspense doesn’t come from trying to puzzle out who committed murder but how the killer will be brought to justice. The classic Peter Falk series experienced a resurgence of popularity as comfort viewing during the COVID-19 lockdown and Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne have managed to successfully recreate its formula in their episodic mystery series Poker Face.
Cop shows have faced a reckoning since the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and Poker Face manages to avoid the issue while also explicitly bringing in elements of another ‘70s classic — Kung Fu. Lyonne’s Charlie Cale has the preternatural ability to always tell when someone is lying, a power she used to win poker games until she ran afoul of a dangerous casino magnate. He branded her a cheater and gave her a job as a cocktail waitress so he could keep an eye on her.
But when his failson (played by Adrien Brody) gets the idea to use Charlie’s talents for his own gain, Charlie winds up on the run, drifting from town to town as she struggles to balance her need for safety and security with her strong sense of justice. Each of the 10-episode series’ first four episodes have their own compelling setting and case, with the exception of Episode 2 which is an hour-long Subway ad. Whatever the chain paid NBC to take over plots of Poker Face and Community, it’s not enough to justify how distracting the marketing is.
Poker Face follows the Columbo format, kicking off each episode by showing the crime being committed only to have Charlie appear in the second act to bedevil the perpetrator. The key difference is that Charlie isn’t called in to investigate but is revealed in a parallel narrative to have been there all along, often working a job that puts her both in the killer’s orbit and beneath their notice.
The divide nicely captures both Columbo’s contrast between the perpetually disheveled detective and the rich criminals he brought to justice and the more recent focus on class warfare embodied by The Menu. All of the killers in the four-episode premiere have a strong sense of entitlement and seek to profit on the luck or talent of others rather than putting in the work themselves, making it particularly satisfying when they’re brought to justice.
Just like Columbo, playing the villain du jour is a perfect opportunity for high-profile guest stars to show off. Golden Globe winner Chloë Sevigny drips with contempt for her fellow washed-up bandmates as a one-hit-wonder frontwoman, while comedian Lil Rel Howery is a sinisterly slick co-owner of a barbecue joint in the best outing in this first batch of episodes.
Charlie knows when someone is lying but not why. As she points out in the pilot, people lie all the time and often for reasons that are far more innocuous than covering up murder. Like Columbo’s “just one more thing,” Charlie is constantly calling “bullshit” on the people who lie to her. On the other hand, she immediately bonds with anyone who offers her sincerity, from a surprisingly honest mechanic to a passionate pitmaster who teaches her how to appreciate the scent different types of wood add to meat.
Lyonne does a fantastic job of earnestly expressing enthusiasm for learning new things and meeting new people. That’s helpful for making the audience quickly care for the victim, but she’ll also solve crimes involving those who she doesn’t even particularly like. One particularly hilarious case offers a spin on the kick the dog trope only to reveal in Charlie’s section that this particular canine really had it coming. But Charlie is herself so likable because she’s perpetually fighting for those others are quick to write off, even if it comes at great personal risk.
As Johnson previously explored in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, figuring out who committed the crime doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll face any consequences, especially if the criminal has more power or status than the victim. Charlie’s challenge involves scheming to procure a confession or the physical evidence needed to justify her instincts. She’s just as likely to call in help from a true crime podcaster or a DJ with a knack for impersonations as she is to enlist law enforcement. Breaking Charlie from the cop or private investigator mold restricts Charlie’s access to evidence and suspects, while also freeing the show’s writers to find new avenues for the howcatchem.
The Knives Out films and Russian Doll, which Lyonne co-created and starred in, combined strong central mysteries with more than a bit of absurdity and that dark humor also works well in Poker Face. The crimes might be clean enough to fool the authorities, but they’re often hilariously small time and motivated by goofy scenarios like a star chef becoming vegan after watching Okja.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/poker-face-premiere-review-episodes-1-4