Poker Face: New Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson series just scored 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes
Class act: Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in Poker Face. (Peacock)
Knives Out: Glass Onion director and Oscar nominee Rian Johnson has joined forces with LGBTQ+ icon Natasha Lyonne to deliver the tour-de-force of murder mysteries, Poker Face.
The new ten-episode Peacock series stars Lyonne as detective Charlie Cale, a casino worker with an unnerving superpower for spotting lies – who has to go on the run when everything falls apart.
Each week she meets strange people and even stranger crimes in this mystery-a-week drama, with shocking twists and turns. And Lyonne is not the only acting legend, co-starring, Cherry Jones, Clea DuVall, Jameela Jamil, Stephanie Hsu, Judith Light and more.
The whole series is a homage to beloved 70s homicide detective series Columbo and it seems Lyonne and Johnson has risen to the task admirably with a 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes following critic reviews.
The show follows the “howcatchem” rather than “whodunnit” setup, reminiscent of Columbo.
Talking about his approach, Johnson told The Ringer: “Part of the appeal of trying to do one of those shows is recognising the comfort food element that I have with it and getting back to the notion of the true pleasure of the procedural – of something where it has the same pattern, it repeats every single episode, but with a very charismatic, wild-card lead in the middle that is going to draw you back every week.”
And the series is an ode to Lyonne’s screen presence, with Johnson explaining: “Everything about it was trying to harness and even amplify everything that I love about watching Natasha on screen. The whole thing is completely cut to measure for her.”
Describing the charm of her character in her own words, Lyonne told Instyle: “It’s so great to have a character who fights for injustice and the little guy and believes that the truth must come out, no matter what.”
Adding it was a refreshing change of pace from the “city slickers or self-destructive types” she often plays in shows such as Russian Doll and Orange Is The New Black.
And as Johnson rides from the high of his latest murder mystery Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery being nominated for an Oscar, he is continuing to raise the bar.
So what are critics saying about Poker Face?
The series has kicked off to a magnificent start with praise coming in from all directions.
On Lyonne’s performance, Rolling Stone wrote: “It is an utterly magnetic and winning performance, where she is just as good on her own – say, tasting various types of wood to identify one of Lil Rel’s lies – as she is interacting with terrific guest stars.”
While Time added: “The greatest pleasure is in watching an extraordinary character, played by an extraordinary actor, puzzle her way through the bottomless mysteries of the human psyche.”
There are no holds barred for praise for Johnson’s winning mystery formula either, with Mashable describing the mysteries as “extremely well-crafted puzzle boxes. The murders and their cover-ups are deceptively mundane at first, but gradually grow more and more creative.”
It seems both Lyonne and Johnson perfectly captures the aesthetic of “dusty vintage ’70s road-trip aesthetics, wisecracking existentialism”. And the general consensus is raving about the revival of the smaller scale serial dramas that the TV landscape has been sorely missing.
As described by the BBC, who explained: “Poker Face is not necessarily made to binge. It’s there, ready whenever you feel like a reassuring, cosy mystery that’s more rumpled crime-solver than Miss Marple.”
From costuming to cinematography, there is no stone left unturned when it comes to love for the new series.
The first four episodes of Poker Face are available to stream on Peacock with the following episodes coming out every Thursday.
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