Natasha Lyonne Does It Again
Poker Face, a Peacock Original created by Rian Johnson and starring Natasha Lyonne, has a 99% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. The show also features some big names in supporting roles. Other cast members who appear in the series include Adrien Brody, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ron Pearlman, Benjamin Bratt, Lil Rel Howery, Charles Melton, and Rowan Blanchard.
The series made it to No. 3 on Nielsen’s Streaming Original Series Top 10 chart, which makes it Peacock’s highest-ranked original series ever to hit the chart. According to Variety, “During the Jan. 23-29 viewing window, the show recorded 547 million minutes viewed in the first four days of availability with its four-episode opening.”
Creator Rian Johnson, director of Knives Out andGlass Onion, said in an interview that the show’s installments are deliberate throwbacks to the style of TV storytelling that Johnson grew up with in the 1970s and ‘80s. Johnson shared some of his favorite shows that influenced Poker Face: Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, and Magnum, P.I.
Poker Face
Starring Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, an eccentric character blessed with the extraordinary ability to tell when someone is lying or, as Charlie would put it, to detect bullshit. In a TikTok interview, Natasha explains that “Poker Face is a puzzle box, a mystery that is on the road.” The show takes place as Charlie is on the run after exposing criminal activity within a casino and follows along with her while working odd jobs and solving crimes.
Through wild adventures on the road with truckers, touring as a merch girl for a metal band, being a janitor in a nursing home, and far more, all while solving crime, the show constantly leaves viewers desperate for more.
In James Poniewozik’s article in the New York Times, he explains, “You would think that Charlie’s superpower would make the solution to the case less than suspenseful. You would be correct. Johnson shows you up front who did it and how…The real mystery is whether and how Charlie can assemble enough proof to make the case stick. Along the way, the series makes some sly points about who, in our society, cases do and don’t stick to.”
Rylee’s Thoughts
I went into “Poker Face” with high expectations, which the show met and exceeded. Natasha Lyonne does a fantastic job, as always, embodying a character who is a little rough around the edges and is stubborn while simultaneously being caring and hilarious. With each episode having a new cast, exciting story, and insane crime, there are so many sides of Charlie to be portrayed and many characters to love. As an avid crime fiction fan who grows bored at overly predictable shows, I can say, without a doubt, that Poker Face is a new favorite of mine, and I am anxiously awaiting Thursday’s episode.
Eight episodes have been released, and two more will be released in the next two weeks. Episode 9, “Escape from Shit Mountain,” will be released on March 2nd. Episode 10, “The Hook,” will be the season finale on Thursday, March 9th.
“Poker Face” is streaming now on Peacock.
To hear about Rian Johnson’s experience working with Natasha Lyonne as well as the differences between “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “Poker Face,” check out Rian Johnson’s interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers attached below!