Natasha Lyonne stars in the sensational mystery from Rian Johnson.
Natasha Lyonnecomes off like the last pack of cigarettes in a world of vape pens.
Charlie’s going nowhere so slow her car won’t start.
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in ‘Poker Face’.Evans Vestal Ward/Peacock
Then the weekly mystery (debuting Thursday) sends her everywhere fast.
She knows when you bluff about cards or corpses.
Charlie wants to find out who offed Natalie.
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale on ‘Poker Face’.Sara Shatz/Peacock
Powerful bads hunt her.
The right move is to stay lost forever.
He writes and directsPoker Face’s pilot, which glories in a few influences.
Peter Falk was a Los Angeles cop, so Lyonne’s nomadic freelancing suggests other myths.
They’re watching Samuel L. Jackson inPulp Fictiondeciding to walk the earth “like Caine inKung Fu.”
Charlie embodies that wandering heroism and did I mention Cliff calls Charlie “a regular little Michael Weston”?
Any procedural elitist will praiseColumbo:Guilty.
What I didn’t expect from the homage factory was sincere reverence forBurn Notice.
Those shows don’t remotely exist now.
USA ditched blue skies.
Weekly investigations got co-opted by naval law, science cops, and Dick Wolf’s ever-expanding empire.
Premium cable and streamers prefer longform, but most seasonal mysteries are just short stories made endless.
They share a grim tone of self-righteous navel-gazing.
Serialization used to imply ambition; now it’s lame enough forCriminal Minds.
(Any exception proves the rule, which is whyStumptowndied fast and there were maybe five goodSherlocks.)
The last uncanny private-eye drama was 2010’s blissfulTerriers.
That echoes Columbo, the shaggy cop in a pig-pen convertible outwitting SoCal’s manor class.
Would you believe Griffin appears inPoker Face’s pilot?
Nice hat-tip from Johnson, who directed aTerriersepisode written by Leslye Headland, who co-createdRussian Dollwith Natasha Lyonne.
Johnson directs the first two episodes of the 10-part season, and will direct another one.
Hong Chau is a trucker, it’s awesome.
This is utmost Adrien Brody, sweet yet oily.
Any scene with S. Epatha Merkerson and Judith Light together is the best scene.
A looming threat chases Charlie, though for now individual stories are siloed.
No homicide ensemble operates the same.
Deaths are impulses or heists.
Lyonne gets Falk’s trick of letting guests peacock while she leisurely burrows.
It’s a thrill to watch Charlie think over clues.
Savviness doesn’t make her cynical.
Lyonne can exude low-key sadness or genuine shock.
(Her response to sudden violence is a funny marvel of real-person horror: “Oh f—.
Oh,f—.
What?!?!
F—!")
A human polygraph was ridiculous enough for Fox in 2009.
(Lie to Me, fun!)
It’s marvelous here because Charlie’s gift layers tension under every conversation.
You feel how much she enjoys truth, and how disappointed lies make her.
Charlie always works whatever gig requires the least ID.
So the flashbacks are also social expansions, revealing criminals and victims from an entry-level perspective.
For allPoker Face’s pop history, you could define it by absences.
Hell of a hand, I’m all in.Grade: A
Related content:
