Poker Face- Season 1

9/10

In Poker Face on Peacock, Charlie Cale (played by Natasha Lyonne), who has the ability to tell when someone is lying, travels across the United States and keeps running into murderers, whom she tries to bring to justice.

This is a clear attempt by creator Rian Johnson (the Knives out movies and Last Jedi director) to revive the Columbo howcatchem formula. (Heck, Charlie's personality and delivery is clearly modeled off a little from the show's lead.) For those who never watched or were too young for Columbo, the stories weren't mysteries. You always knew who did it. Rather the episodes were about how Columbo was going to catch the killer (and also as character pieces about the murders). Poker Face also revives pre-2000's episodic storytelling. The stories are mostly self-contained. Charlie doesn't have a back-up crew like most crime-solving shows these days, and there are barely any reoccurring characters.

And yeah... This attempt to revive old school television hits it out of the park. The episodes are interesting and diverse (due to Charlie traveling around, one location and story is never quite like the others). Though these aren't mysteries, the show is very good at twists and turns (far more creative than the original Columbo). The writers really wring out the suspense as you try to guess who'll get killed, who'll do the killing, and sometimes the motives.

Charlie is the lynchpin that keeps everything together. She's just a cool gal and personable and is the kind of person without big dreams but just lives in the moment. Natasha Lyonne's star has been rising these past few years, but this is the show that will make her a household name. She's one of those actors with a unique appearance and style and is the perfect type of person to gamble on for a show that is reliant on only one main character.

This has a TON of known or veteran actors. Really, it's a performance showcase much like the classic Columbo. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some nominations come next Emmys.

The cinematography is pretty good for television. It's clearly trying to evoke the look of the 70's and works without feeling straight-up gimmicky.

The show does have a couple points of criticism. Whereas Columbo had movie-length episodes (like today's Sherlock), these are all an hour long, so each episode has introduce the characters and the plot in a short amount of time and the strain can be evident at points. There's also a recurring plot device in this that's innovative the first couple times but soon becomes tired.

Highly recommended. If you liked the Knives Out movies' spin on classic crime stories, you'll probably like this.