POKER FACE (Peacock)

jian

Hero
As some of you probably know, Poker Face is a recent murder mystery series created by Rian Johnson, who’s also behind the Knives Out murder mystery films (Knives Out, Glass Onion, and Wake Up Dead Man is due in December).

Poker Face is a beautiful redeployment of the Columbo formula - we the audience know who did it, and why, and how, from the beginning, and so the fun is watching the murderer try and stave off the inevitable revelation by the detective for as long as possible. And our detective isn’t an affably goofy LAPD detective, but one Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), a Vegas waitress who happens to be an infallible lie detector. So the fun (sometimes) is seeing how quickly the murderer cottons on to this and does whatever they can to misdirect and avoid Charlie without actually lying to her face. It’s a lot of fun.

Also built into the first one and a half seasons is a season arc of Charlie being on the run from a mob boss who’s very upset with her because (spoilers) and so travelling through the US in a new town or state every week and running into a guest star murderer every time.

The second season just ended and honestly I’m not sure Johnson stuck the landing - I think there could have been a little more foreshadowing - but it was excellent. I really liked how the writers realised that as fun as murder/town/state of the week was, it was getting repetitive, and so change it up halfway through season 2. My favourite so far is episode 1 of season 2; the guest star is Cynthia Erivo (from Wicked) who gets to enjoy herself playing quadruplets (or is it quintuplets?). Episodes 4 and 7 of season 1 are also very strong.

In any case, I really recommend it if you like murder mysteries, it’s one of the sharpest and best series around right now. If you’ve seen it, what do you think?
 

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I am a big fan, in my opinion it's definitely the better of the two Columbo style shows on at the moment. I think it's wonderful that they allow some old school cheesiness to come through. My favorite episode this season was probably the one set in the school, it was interesting to see them lower the stakes so much but still have a frightening villain.
 

I am a big fan, in my opinion it's definitely the better of the two Columbo style shows on at the moment. I think it's wonderful that they allow some old school cheesiness to come through. My favorite episode this season was probably the one set in the school, it was interesting to see them lower the stakes so much but still have a frightening villain.
Yes, that was pretty amazing. Which is the other Columbo like show at the moment?
 

Elsbeth also brings in celebrity guest stars who murder someone at the start of the episode. It might actually hew closer, since she works with the police and is more similar in mannerisms to Columbo.
 

I've really enjoyed about the 4-5 episodes ive seen. Problem with this type of show is I tend to tire of the formula and lose interest. Though, the heavy metal band episode was a blast.
 


The first season was stronger than the second.
I don’t disagree - while episode 1 was a banger, episode 2 was a letdown (even with Giancarlo Esposito, which takes some doing). Episodes 6, 8, and 9 were also excellent. I think the main thing I found annoying about season 2 was just how crowded with guest stars it was. Episode 9 has Akwkwafina, Lauren Tom, AND Alia Shawkat (not to mention Steve Buscemi on the CB). Katie Holmes was wasted in episode 2.

Sometimes the guest stars were slightly forgivable as a callout to contemporaneous mystery shows such as The Residence (Esposito) or The Afterparty (Sam Richardson).
 

I've enjoyed all of Pokerface so far. The second season finale was "interesting" and definitely played with Charlie's talent in a way I did not see coming. And I now suspect Charlie will be forced to keep runnng at the end of each season just to to keep the format going. I think its the production style, the writing and the characterisation that's kept me watching.

Seconded on the Elsbeth recomendation, again its the acting that's kept me watching as we know who did it.

Some more crime series recomnendations while I'm here:
  1. Matlock, starring kathy Bates - normal weekly lawyer courtroom fare enhanced with a overreaching story arc of a drug misuse liability mystery
  2. My Life is Murder starring Lucy Lawless, episodic almost cosy Kiwi murder mysteries very well made
 

Thanks for all the recommendations! Looks like Elsbeth* and Matlock are on Paramount+ (boo) and My Life is Murder is available for purchase in Canada, I'll probably give the latter a look.

*Though season 2 is available on Global, but not season 1, which is a bit odd.
 

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