Rian Johnson & Natasha Lyonne’s ‘Poker Face’ Is a Murderous Good Time

Image via NBC/Peacock

When Charlie ends up at the center of a conspiracy concocted by Jr. and his fixer Cliff (Benjamin Bratt), she seeks to escape the “wolves on her fender” with a cross-country road trip that puts her in touch with all sorts of colorful characters and their own journeys: a one-hit-wonder metal band back on the road for a tour, a set of brothers with a blossoming BBQ business, and a set of retirement home-bound 1960s counterculture protesters.

I’m being intentionally vague so as not to spoil the setup and execution of each episode, as half the fun of watching Poker Face is seeing the who, what, when, where, and why of Charlie’s latest adventure and subsequent murder investigation. (Each episode essentially stands alone, so Johnson, who wrote and directed multiple installments, and his co-showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman get to bring in prominent guest stars like Lil Rel Howery, Hong Chau, Stephanie Hsu, Chloë Sevigny, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.) 

But the real hook of the series is Lyonne herself, who brings a welcoming, human energy as she gets involved in the characters’ lives. Someone meddling in another person’s business could be annoying, but how Poker Face inserts Charlie into each situation becomes a wonderful feature, not a bug. For example, in the BBQ episode, Episode 3 titled “The Stall,” sees Charlie making a pit stop at the restaurant for a few days to work off a debt she incurs. While there, she shoots the breeze with the pitmaster and learns about the benefits of smoking with different wood types. Just as Johnson made sure all the pieces of Knives Out matter, every little bit of storytelling contributes to how Charlie solves the case. To wit: Charlie ends up walking around the BBQ tent, taste-testing bits of bark to catch a character in his lie in a deeply entertaining sequence. After a while, the murders of Poker Face became secondary, as I enjoyed shooting the breeze with Charlie much more instead, regardless of whatever it is she’s up to through a given hour. 

While the show is serious—most of the six episodes I previewed feature a murder to be solved—the tone feels loose and light. Not every television show needs to be a revolutionary masterwork of the medium, but every series should be fun and entertaining. Poker Face has that in spades: The highest compliment I can give Poker Face is that it reminds me of the “Blue Skies” era of USA’s programming when series like Burn Notice and Royal Pains dominated the network. Checking in with those characters week to week felt like dropping in to catch up with old friends, and Poker Face evokes that wonderful same feeling.

Poker Face premieres on Peacock on Jan. 26 with four episodes, with additional episodes dropping weekly.