Face Time

I really didn't want to subscribe to another streaming service. But I really did want to see the newest TV series starring Nastaha Lyonne, Poker Face. That meant subscribing to Peacock -- and during a big summer sale in which the streamer threw a year's subscription at me for practically the price of a month of some other services, I bit.

Poker Face is the creation of writer-director Rian Johnson, who set out to make the show specifically as a starring vehicle for Lyonne. The two bonded over a love of mysteries, and the format of Columbo in particular, and the resulting series essentially blends Columbo with The Incredible Hulk, casting Lyonne as Charlie, a woman on the run hopping around the country and solving murders everywhere she stops. Her special talent: she can tell, absolutely, when anyone is lying.

If you aren't familiar with Columbo, it's not a "whodunnit?" mystery format, but rather a "howcatchem?" Each episode of Poker Face starts with a full 10-15 minute vignette setting up the murder of the week. We see the crime and the culprit; what we usually don't see is Lyonne's character Charlie. The rest of the episode then shows us how Charlie fits into the scenario (often by jumping back to show us events before the crime), and how she ultimately cracks the case.

It is a challenging thing to make this format compelling, in my estimation. It's a real test of the old adage that it's the journey, not the destination. But Poker Face has two big weapons in its arsenal. One is Natasha Lyonne herself, who here again (as in other shows) is simply a delight to watch. Easy-going but prickly, likable but tough, raspy-voiced but musical, I think she's simply a capital-S Star who would have fit right into classic Hollywood (but who's a little too idiosyncratic to have ever been cast back then, I'd imagine.) To love watching her is to love this show.

The other weapon is the writing. Rian Johnson himself contributes several of the scripts, but he's also assembled a writing staff who makes sure that the show keeps improving as its 10-episode season unfolds. Once the formula is well-established, they begin finding marvelous ways to subvert it. I'd hate to spoil the surprises by giving examples here, but suffice it to say that episodes feature increasingly clever murders, weave Charlie into the story in increasingly smart ways, and throw in increasingly clever twists that reveal the opening sequences you saw at the start of an episode aren't the whole story.

There's also a shockingly deep bench of prominent guest stars. Rian Johnson has accumulated quite the contact list over his career, and many more people besides seem to be lining up to guest star in an episode of "Columbo." Thus, episodes of Poker Face feature Adrien Brody, Ron Perlman, Lil Rel Howery, Chloë Sevigny, Judith Light, Ellen Barkin, Tim Meadows, Nick Nolte, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephanie Hsu, Clea DuVall, and many, many, many, many more.

At the beginning of the season of Poker Face, I found it a fun bit of escapism, rather different than anything else in my regular TV "diet." By the end of the season, I was finding it an addictive dessert I was worried about consuming too quickly. Johnson and Lyonne have both pledged a second season, but between strikes and Johnson's obligations to a third Benoit Blanc movie, my bet would (sadly) be we won't get that until 2025. Still, don't let that stop you from enjoying what's here now (assuming Peacock fits into your streaming budget). I give Poker Face an A-, the "minus" only being a nod to the slower earlier episodes that were setting up the format that the show would go on to brilliantly play with.