There’s a very specific kind of crime show that features a disarmingly incongruous detective figure stumbling across murders in a much lighter environment than most TV dramas; let’s call them comfort crime. Agatha Christie arguably began the cute little subgenre with her Miss Marple character (and its many visual adaptations), but a similarly soothing streak can be found across Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, Midsomer Murders, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Matlock, Diagnosis: Murder, and many others.
Despite dealing with death, these are the light, breezy alternatives to the much heavier crime shows that have become increasingly trendy. There have been some holdovers of this style, such as Castle, but most of them are made in the UK. If audiences are missing their comfort crime, especially after the passing of Murder, She Wrote star Angela Lansbury, they’ll be delighted to stream Poker Face on Peacock, a very fun murder mystery series that self-knowingly hearkens back to these comfort crimes of yore.
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Created by Rian Johnson (of Knives Out fame, and whose Glass Onion actually had Lansbury’s final appearance) and sewn together by a great Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face is truly delightful, if a bit repetitive.
Natasha Lyonne Is Perfectly Herself in a Killer Opening Episode
Poker Face begins with a downright wonderful episode of television; it will likely remain one of the best hours of TV this entire year. The series introduces us to Charlie Cale (Lyonne), a cocktail waitress at a Las Vegas casino seemingly stuck in the ’70s. Charlie has seemingly lived two years for each of everyone else’s, her life filled with misadventure, danger, travel, huge highs, and lugubrious lows. She used to be a famous gambler, but was blackballed from the community when the casino owner discovered her trick — she can tell people’s tells; she knows if someone is lying, and can thus confirm whether someone’s bluffing or not. Yes, that was the gimmick in the Fox show Lie to Me with Tim Roth, but it’s a hell of a lot more fun with Lyonne.
With her fiery red hair, sunglasses for eyes, and sarcastic asides made more biting by a raspy voice, Charlie is, well, Natasha Lyonne. She’s one of those talents who can somehow basically just play herself in any role (Russian Doll, Orange Is the New Black, But I’m a Cheerleader) and yet still be magnetic and dynamic. Her Poker Face character is essentially a variation of her Russian Doll character, but lighter and without the self-destructive pursuit toward oblivion. Whether Lyonne happens to simply be an extremely cool and funny person, or she’s somehow putting on a consistent front, whatever it is, it works.
Rian Johnson Continues His Mysteries on Peacock
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When her friend dies under mysterious circumstances, Charlie becomes the Miss Marple, the Jessica Fletcher of Poker Face. Using her lie-detecting abilities, she brazenly digs around despite all signs pointing toward danger. Adrien Brody is really wonderful here as the casino owner’s son, a slightly slimy but ultimately pathetic character; hopefully, there is an ‘Adrienaissance’ coming, because this great actor deserves more work.
Related: Brick: How Rian Johnson Used Film Noir to Depict High School
Rian Johnson writes and directs this opening episode of Poker Face, and it’s almost as fun as Knives Out itself (and even better than its sequel). Johnson loves mysteries, right from the start of his career with the high school noir masterpiece Brick. His brother Nathan provided a great score for that film and does the same with Poker Face. Charlie’s main theme is an achingly beautiful acoustic guitar motif, reminiscent of Ry Cooder’s work in Paris, Texas, but everything else works perfectly as well.
Poker Face Has the Columbo Style
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The opening episode is a surprising blast. For better or worse, every subsequent episode imitates its exact structure — setting up the murdered and the murderer before flashing back to Charlie and her involvement, ultimately leading her to solve the case and confront the murderer. This is what’s called a ‘howcatchem,’ an inversion of the traditional whodunit detective story. Columbo popularized the structure half a century ago, opening with the crime and the criminals, with the rest of the episode detailing the fun of how the detective solves the case.
It made sense with Columbo, as its titular character was actually a homicide detective in a major city. It made less sense with Murder, She Wrote, where a mystery writer stumbles across and investigates way more murders than most cops will ever solve; Cabot Cove only had a population of 3,500, but Murder, She Wrote made it seem like Baltimore. Poker Face requires a similar suspension of disbelief — somehow, despite Charlie being on the run and traveling across the country, she always happens to stumble across an elaborately staged murder that the police have failed to properly investigate.
Poker Face Is a Self-Aware Old-School Murder Mystery
Peacock
Perhaps there’s some comfort in this repetition; Murder, She Wrote was a long-running hit, after all, despite the ridiculousness. One of the many reasons why crime shows have taken on serialized, season-long story arcs is because of this ridiculousness; it’s much more realistic for a small town to experience one or two murders which are solved over the course of several episodes. Poker Face sticks with the past, though, disregarding the more logical approach taken by its contemporaries.
Related: Peacock Hotline Grants Callers Access to Natasha Lyonne’s Poker Face Character Charlie Cale
The series is self-aware about it, though, with its old-school opening credits and frequent mentions of silly crime shows. From a fictional podcast called Murder Girl to a group of old women religiously watching comfort crime shows, Poker Face has a lot of references to its own style and knows what it’s doing. Whether its pre-modern approach gets repetitive and predictable, or its consistency is comforting, how much Poker Face resonates with each viewer will be up to their taste in crime shows. This is hardly the Nordic noir of The Killing or the grim murder-drama of Broadchurch, but it is Jessica Fletcher approved.
A Great Cast and Talented Directors Keep Poker Face Fresh
Paramount Global Distribution
As Charlie travels the country evading a crime boss, she meets a bevy of fun supporting characters who keep Poker Face pretty fresh. The series has a large, great cast, featuring Benjamin Bratt, Ellen Barkin, Chloë Sevigny, Nick Nolte, Ron Perlman, Tim Meadows, Hong Chau, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Simon Helberg, Tim Blake Nelson, Lil Rel Howery, Stephanie Hsu, and more, but Charlie is just about the only character who appears in every episode. She’s the audience surrogate, bringing the viewer into a different mystery each week, and sometimes she doesn’t even appear until 20 minutes in.
Johnson created the show and directed three episodes, including that perfect pilot, but the other directors assist with a coherent style, including Natasha Lyonne herself. Ben Sinclair (High Maintenance), Iain MacDonald (Shantaram, Shameless), Janicza Bravo (Zola, Lemon), Tiffany Johnson (Black Monday), and Lucky McKee (Old Man) all direct episodes, providing snippets of their cinematic style while adhering to the comfort crime coziness of the series.
Nobody can say that Poker Face isn’t consistent, even with the different directors. If that predictability doesn’t deter you, there’s a lot of fun to be had watching the character-based comic excellence of Lyonne solving offbeat crimes amidst an excellent supporting cast. She’d make Columbo proud.
From T-Street Productions, Animal Pictures, Ninja Puppy, and MRC Television, and distributed by Paramount Global Distribution Group, the first four episodes of Poker Face will be available to stream on Peacock beginning January 26. The six subsequent episodes will air weekly each following Thursday.
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