Poker Face Review 2023 Tv Show Series Season Cast Crew Online

Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) is a cocktail waitress and former card hustler working at the Frost Casino in Nevada, but following the murder of her best friend, Charlie finds herself on the run from her past with her abilities as a human lie detector serving her on various self-contained mysteries.

Poker Face is the new Peacock series created by Rian Johnson of Looper, Knives Out, and Glass Onion fame. Much like how Knives Out tapped into the framework star studded closed room murder mysteries, Poker Face evokes a number of classic examples of “case of the week” detective series and the show definitely has DNA from the likes of The Rockford Files, The Fugitive, but most especially Columbo which is deliberately homage by Johnson with its usage of yellow text opening credits and the “howcatchem” format popularized by Columbo. Johnson and company have used these well worn TV frameworks to create a memorable and unique closed ended murder mystery series that does a lot to stand out from the crowded field of procedurals taking up the TV airspace.

At the center of the show is undeniably Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie Cale character, and with Johnson’s writing and Lyonne’s performance the two create a likable and memorable character who we want to see go on further adventures because of how unique she is. While Charlie Cale is able to discern whether people are telling the truth or not, Charlie herself is a bit of a mess barely keeping her head above water and driving a car and living in a mobile home which have both seen better days. In many ways the character reminded me of Jeff Bridges’ The Dude from The Big Lebowski as filtered by way of Peter Falk’s Columbo as both characters’ slovenly appearances cause their antagonists to underestimate them which leads to their downfall. Because Poker Face is up front about its antagonists and doesn’t rely on all the post CSI flash of many procedurals, Poker Face distinguishes itself by making itself a character based affair with the cases being a battle of wits between crook and sleuth and we definitely get some memorable crooks from the get go.

Poker Face is a really entertaining series and it definitely has the legs to be a long running and fun bit of investigative escapism. Definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of classic sleuthing tropes.