Get ready for a lot more Poker Face
The comedy-mystery series from Knives Out director Rian Johnson stars Natasha Lyonne as an amateur detective
Aux News NBCUniversal Television
Better grab some aviator sunglasses, because the future is bright for Poker Face. Peacock has renewed the comedy-mystery series created by Knives Out director Rian Johnson and starring Natasha Lyonne for a second season. The Orange Is The New Black alum plays Charlie Cale, a “human lie detector” who goes on the run after uncovering the truth behind her best friend’s death, only to stumble into solving more murders in every town she visits.
Though Benjamin Bratt recurs as Cliff, the Colorado casino muscle charged with tracking down Charlie, Poker Face largely follows a self-contained story in each episode. The case-of-the-week format has allowed for plenty of high-profile guest stars to drop by, including Adrien Brody, Chloë Sevigny, Simon Helberg, Lil Rel Howery, Ellen Barkin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and newly-minted Oscar nominees Stephanie Hsu and Hong Chau. With the season two announcement, Elijah Wood could be joining their ranks.
“Poker Face is one of those rare, undeniable shows that we all fell in love with from the start, but the critical acclaim and viewer response has been beyond our wildest dreams,” Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming says in a press release. “Working alongside the creative genius of Rian Johnson, Natasha Lyonne and Ram Bergman, along with our partners at MRC and T-Street, has been a spectacular ride, and we can’t wait to hit the road for another season as we continue to build momentum across Peacock’s originals slate.”
While it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for Peacock in the streaming wars—the platform has dropped acclaimed series like Girls5eva, Saved By The Bell, and Rutherford Falls, and parted ways with certified hitmaker Michael Schur—the murder mystery genre has proved to be a winner, with The Traitors also scoring a renewal. It also doesn’t hurt that Peacock has put a significant marketing push behind Poker Face, including a notoriously expensive Super Bowl ad.
New episodes of Poker Face are now streaming on Peacock on Thursdays through March 9.
21 Comments
Last week’s episode showed some promising growth away from some aspects of the show that had started to get irritating. Let’s see if tomorrow shows that was actually the growth it looked like, or just a brief hiccup before it goes right back into old patterns.
What exactly are you referring to? I saw the episode but I don’t know what you mean.
Did you episode 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return? It was like that.
Really enjoying this show, but the problem with rotating cast of guest stars is that she doesn’t have any friends/confidantes, so every episode she explains how she figured out the murders to the person who committed the murders, before realizing she’s talking to the murderer. Then has to rely on pretty much dumb luck to escape. Is that just this show’s “thing”? Like how on House, no one ever believed House, even though House was always right?
its modern Columbo. if you don’t like Columbo you wont like this.
Yeah, I’ve been entertained by the self-contained episodes, but I’m also at the point now where I think I’d like to see a little more connective tissue between episodes.
I think they’re saving the connective tissue for the introduction of Ron Perlman’s character.
I hope so. I’ve enjoyed the show so far, and I think I’m OK with seeing where it goes. I have faith that the creators know what they’re doing. I think they’ll recognize that the central conceit is good but the premise that each week the main character befriends a murderer or murder victim stretches some bounds of credulity, so there will need to be a bit of substance eventually to sustain the show from week to week.
We’ve only watched 2 episodes so far, it’s fun. But yeah, so far in both episodes she’s explained to the murderer that she knows they’re a murderer, instead of keeping that fact hidden, thus causing the murderer to want to murder her, too. Stop being dumb!
I’ve watched five eps so far, and in those five eps, she’s solved five murders and told a total of… 9 murderers.
Is this what they mean by “modern Columbo” – formulaic and cliché?
I’m liking Poker Face, but things have moved on from the 70s era of the same story structure happening each week on a show and that being fine. These days it just seems a little stale to have, every week, Lyonne 1) be around when a complicated murder happens 2) be part of the lives of the murderer/murdered 3) talk to the murderer about something being suspicious about the murder 4) solve the murder.
I feel like so far it’s been varied enough that I haven’t had a problem with it. I just don’t know how many deviations you can make from the formula before it becomes unrecognizable, but I also trust Rian Johnson to know when there’s too much zagging (to be fair, I have to inform people that I liked TLJ so they can calibrate what I consider ‘too much zagging’ accordingly).
As long as they’re serving interesting characters and fun performances, I’m fine with the formula.
There are NO case of the week shows anymore, and case of the week shows are SO nice. Don’t take this away from me lol.
The irony is, that 70s structure seems to be its hook and with a second season its likely strategy. I noticed that it was a weird situation where the guest-star/episodic setup would be more satisfying if it weren’t for the notion that it would be a short-run anthology. It has the comfort-food feel of Columbo/Kung-Fu/The Hulk/Love Boat/Murder She Wrote/Charlie’s Angels, but a 2020s audience, and, at the time, a limited run. That structure needs a run of episodes for the audience to acclimate, particularly when they’ve acclimated to so many other prestige TV structures.
Peacock’s customer service is completely nonexistent and subscribing has been really problematic. I’ve tried subscribing through Apple and I get charged but cannot log in or stream on any device—judging from Apple’s support knowledgebase I am not alone. Then I subscribed directly and keep getting messages that I have to confirm my email but I never receive an email that will allow me to confirm my address. I know they have my correct email because they notify me when I log in from another device. There’s an FAQ to self-troubleshoot, but God help you if you can’t figure out the answer on your own because there is no way to contact these mutherfuckers. When the email confirmation countdown runs out I will have to abandon the service which is a shame because I like this show.
Excellent! Silly show, but lots of fun.
Lucky McKee directed the nursing home episode that had Judith Light. I don’t know why I brought that up. It was fun episode and I really love that horror movie he wrote and directed called May.
Liquor in the front, poker in the rear.
I don’t understand why people like Natasha Lyonne or cast her in projects. The premise to this show seems like something I’d really enjoy but I haven’t watched because I find her face/voice/general presence grating.