Editor’s Note: Apologies for the delay - it’s been a busy start to the year, but we’re back now for weekly recommendations for 2023.
What You Need to Know
Poker Face is an American TV show created by Rian Johnson for NBC’s streaming service Peacock. The first season premiered January 26, 2023 and is seven hour-long episodes into a ten episode season. New episodes release on Thursdays.
From Wikipedia:
Stylized as a "case-of-the-week" murder mystery series, it stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a casino worker on the run who entangles herself into several mysterious deaths of strangers along the way.
Why it’s a Recommendation
Much like Johnson’s Knives Out movies, Poker Face is a modern take on a classic formula and it works beautifully. Just like some of my favorite shows to watch growing up (Jonathan Creek, Midsomer Murders), the episodes are individual, self-contained stories meaning you don’t have to watch them in order or catch up what you missed to enjoy them. It also means each episode has the variety of brand new characters, and brand new locations and settings (which all look fantastic) as Charlie travels across the US to avoid being pursued.
The murder mystery element has a formula where each episode begins by introducing the new characters and showing us the murder, then going back in time to show how Charlie knows the characters, and finally leaves us to wonder how Charlie figured out the details of the murder. Showing it in this way keeps the mystery and tension of the episode alive, but twists the classic formula to make everything feel fresh and interesting. On the flip side however, the formulaic nature does make this show less amenable to binge-watching - I’d recommend spreading it out and ideally keeping up with it as it’s released once per week (the show was recently renewed for another season!).
Peacock clearly know they have a winner here as they have been marketing Poker Face heavily (including a Super Bowl advert for the show last weekend). If you haven’t already got a Peacock subscription for the Premier League or The Office, Poker Face is a strong reason to consider it; it’s fun, it’s funny, it’s familiar and it’s well worth your time to try.
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Reviews
Yesssss you're back! Great rec!