Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in Poker Face.Credit:Evans Vestal Ward/Peacock
Even in the 1970s and 1980s,television shows such asColumbo,and other mysteries likeMcMillan&Wife,Cannon andKojak,were not considered classics,either of the time or in the making. But the passage of time,and the lineage of shows which owe them an inheritance,has proven their significance.
The premise here is straightforward:a spot-on-for-the-genre balance of real and slightly surreal. Charlie Cale is a working-class girl who seems to be just getting by. But she’s got one trick up her sleeve:a bullshit detector without equal. That is,she spots liars easily.
In the first episode,she is conscripted to deal with a murder case at the casino where she works. But things don’t go quite to plan and circumstances force her out of town,with a bad guy –Law&Order actor Benjamin Bratt,in a more sinister role – on her trail. In that sense,it’s equal parts Agatha Christie mystery and American road trip.
Lyonne plays Poker Face’s resident sleuth to the hilt.Credit:Sara Shatz/Peacock
Getting the execution right in a show like this is a delicate dance.Poker Face effortlessly immerses itself in the gritty dust of modern small-city America. Everything about it feels contemporary. But in truth,it is fresh skin draped on old bones,and it’s those bones that lift the series from above average to great.
Even the title of the opening episode –Dead Man’s Hand – feels straight out of junior mystery literature. It could have been aHardy Boys orNancy Drew title or,better yet,Robert Arthur jnr’sThe Three Investigators,which,of the three franchises,was always the one that felt most comfortably enmeshed in the American ’burbs.