The detective series from Knives Out writer Rian Johnson puts a refreshing twist on the mystery-of-the-week structure
Poker Face, writer-director Rian Johnson’s whodunnit series for Peacock, is the rare show to deliver on the elusive promise of fun. Plenty of TV shows aim for it – fun via competency porn, addictiveness, skewering societal critique, sexiness, suspense or brain numbness. But fun, as in well-structured, confidently filmed visual treats with the aim of delivering pure, non-binged enjoyment? Hard to come by, and suavely delivered by Poker Face’s comfortable rhythm and Natasha Lyonne’s charismatic, bumbling detective.
If last year’s Glass Onion got bigger, more explosive and ludicrous than Johnson’s theatrical hit Knives Out, Poker Face represents ambition steadying out. (Johnson wrote and directed the pilot; the subsequent nine episodes are written and directed by numerous others, including one episode by Lyonne.) The six episodes made available for review are assured, stylish television that delivers on a near-unending string of scene-chewing guest performances, a reliable mystery-of-the-week structure and a magnetic Columbo update in Lyonne’s Charlie Cale.
