Poker Face plays a high stakes homicide with murderous hilarity

“P-p-p-poker face” Step aside, Lady Gaga, there’s a new sheriff in town, and she has no time for BS. Following in the style of series such as Columbo and Rockford Files, Rian Johnson’s Poker Face follows a human lie detector on the run for her life, encountering a cast of new characters and a murder for her to solve in every show as the winding trail of homicide serves to entertain streamers with a subscription to Peacock.. 

Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll), a casino worker and gifted poker player, has a gift for detecting even a whiff of deception through her intuitive prowess. Because of her talent, and a brief time spent using it to fleece the gambling tables, she ends up blackballed from every casino and relegated to working as a drink server. While Charlie finds peace with her current life, her boss and casino owner, Sterling Frost Jr. (Adrien Brody, Blonde), offers an opportunity to help the casino get richer. Now, beware of spoilers, as Charlie’s life is about to change.

Just as the meeting is going down, Charlie’s friend and coworker, Natalie (Dascha Polanco, Samaritan), hides as her husband threatens to speak with her after their feud. Natalie is saved as security guards remove her husband from the building, but is afraid of what her husband may do to her if she doesn’t return home that night. Despite protests from Charlie, Natalie goes home that night while Charlie resumes her meeting with Sterling. 

Charlie ends up taking the job opportunity for a promise of $1.5 million, but everything seems too good to be true: Charlie wakes up the next morning with news that both Natalie and her husband are dead from a claimed murder-suicide. While trying to solve what happened to her friend, Charlie finds out this job offer was a complete lie and her friend wasn’t killed by her husband, but by someone close to both Charlie and Natalie. In search of this truth, Charlie upsets Sterling and the head security guard, Cliff LeGrand (Benjamin Bratt, DMZ), ultimately leading them to try and kill Charlie.She solves the crime but must go on the run from LeGrand. This premise engineers the ‘murder of the week’ approach, one unfamiliar to 21st century crime consumers.

Unlike typical murder-mystery anthologies, Poker Face opens every episode with the murder, showing viewers the killer but never expressing a motive. Following the preview of the conflict, Charlie is always seen either pulling up to a new town or starting a brand new job while still on the run. This perspective leads the viewers to know everything while Charlie has to figure it out for herself. Some of these murders are either accidents or planned, but are well hidden, leading the viewer to suspect how the heck Charlie will uncover the suspect and bring closure to the town. Thanks to her gift, Charlie always manages to find a way: these suspects never have a good poker face. 

Revealing the murder in the beginning of the episode seems like a sure-fire way to ruin the fun of a ‘whodunnit’ series, as many viewers enjoy solving the murder on their own along with the protagonist, but Poker Face manages to keep the fun still in play with the crime. No two killers are the same, leading to strange murderers who give off a guilty vibe, ex-criminals seeking revenge, and jealous people searching for fame and an escape from their current lives. Once viewers get accustomed to the pacing of the show, learning the backstory of the murderers prior to Charlie’s appearance provides more than half the fun.

While keeping it serious, Poker Face is full of snarky characters and comedy, as well as great acting from the cast and guest stars scattered throughout each episode. Full of thrills and laughter, Poker Face is easy to binge and a pleasure to watch,  each episode brimming with anticipation of Charlie’s fate as well as the motivation and method of murder.. While the formula for each episode is revealed in the first episode, everything from the setting, characters, and murder is unique, and the excitement remains throughout the series. Johnson, the show runner and writer for the first few episodes, obviously enjoys providing viewers with a diverse slate of slayings - drum set electrocution, forced fall off a roof, asphyxiated with barbecue fumes, and all sorts of other fun and games. 

While five out of ten episodes are available for streaming on Peacock, the remainder will be released each week until the end, giving plenty of time to catch up and wait in anticipation for the next. Johnson’s creativity through the mystery genre successfully captivated viewers of his film Knives Out and its sequel, Glass Onion, and Poker Face once again adds to his legacy while bringing the past of television into the future of streaming. Lyonne, who also serves as an executive producer, strikes the perfect blend of hardened cynic and hopeless optimist. For both, they have obviously set off on a labor of love.. This ‘case-of-the-week’ series strikes a perfect balance between mystery and comedy but also paves the way for a new approach to murder mysteries in the future.

Grade: A

Through countless lies in the dramatic yet comedic series, Johnson takes a new approach to a murder mystery series and proves that to kill, it is best to perfect your Poker Face.

by Ruby Pluchinsky

Published February 21, 2023

Oshkosh West Index Volume 119 Issue V