Two years ago, Poker Face became a hit on Peacock because of two things: Natasha Lyonne’s ineffable charm and the fact that creator Rian Johnson created the show as a modern tribute to 1970s mystery shows like Columbo, where we see the murder then watch as the unlikely detective figures it out. After an enjoyable first season, Johnson and Lyonne return for Season 2, with a roster of big-time guest stars in tow.
Opening Shot: A closeup of a sculpture curing in a red-hot kiln. It’s made by Amber (Cynthia Erivo) and depicts her and her terminally ill mother Norma (Jasmine Guy).
The Gist: Nora is particularly cruel when assessing the sculpture, and is pretty dismissive of what Amber has become in adulthood, which she’s dedicated to being a caretaker for Norma. Amber has no sense of dread for Norma’s fast-approaching death, because she figures she’ll get the bulk of her mother’s extensive estate in her will, given the time she’s put in with her evil mother and her sisters’ estrangement from Norma.
She’s horrified when she hears from Norma’s lawyer Paul (Jin Ha) that neither she nor any of her sisters — Bebe, Cece and Delia (all Erivo) — will get a cent. It’s all going to some unknown woman named Felicity Price. When Amber Googles Felicity, she’s shocked to see that she’s not an identical quadruplet, but an identical quintuplet. Felicity (Erivo again), who lives a life of minimalism in the woods as an accomplished mixed-media artist, went with the quints’ father when he separated from Norma. So Amber hatches a plan to kill Felicity, pose as her and claim the estate. One thing she doesn’t account for is that she’s missing her left foot.
We go back a bit and see Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), human lie detector and amateur detective, work a few jobs that she has to flee when the minions of Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman) come after her. She is even discovered at an apple orchard, but a fellow picker — Delia — helps her escape being shot at, and the two become fast friends.
That’s when Charlie finds out that Amber, Bebe, Cece and Delia all played a kid cop in one of her favorite shows 25 years ago. Norma put them all to work in order to skirt child labor laws, and then stole all of their salary and royalties. Let’s just say that none of Norma’s kids are sad to see her gone. After Delia finds out about Norma, Charlie drives her to Norma’s mansion, where she meets Bebe and Cece, and who she thinks is Felicity — but is actually Amber in disguise, giving Felicity a southern accent because she was the worst actor of all the sisters (the sisters nicknamed her “Hamber”).
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Poker Face, created by Rian Johnson, definitely takes many cues from Columbo, down to the font used for the credits. Another show that uses the “how catchem” format is Elsbeth.
Our Take: Poker Face‘s second season ups the ante from Season 1 by making the threats against Charlie more immediate than in the first season. No longer are we reminded in only some of the episodes that Benjamin Bratt’s enforcer was looking for her; now Hasp has her men constantly on her trail, and she seems to comedically escape their bad shooting every couple of days, it seems. We especially liked watching Lyonne, wrapped up in bandages as a haunted hayride mummy, running away with bandages flying behind her as she gets shot at.
The mysteries tend to have a similar structure, where we see the killer plan, do the deed, then cover his/her tracks, before Charlie enters the scene. Then we backtrack and find out how Charlie found herself in the middle of yet another murder.
It feels like Johnson, Lyonne and the show’s writers are taking bigger character swings this season, coming right out of the gate by having Erivo play five different characters. We all know how good of an actor Erivo is, but she pulls off playing the quints with a skill we haven’t seen since Tatiana Maslany on Orphan Black. And it seems that she’s just one of a number of big-time guest stars this season, including John Mulaney, Giancarlo Esposito, Alia Shawkat, Awkwafina and Katie Holmes.
Lyonne plays Charlie as the same crusty but loveable ray of light that likes to say “bullshit” when she knows someone is lying. This first case definitely threw off her lie detection skills, due to Amber impersonating other sisters. How she came to figure out it was Amber seemed slightly contrived, but it certainly was done in a funny-enough way that we gave that a pass.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: What you imagine might happen at the end of most of this season’s episodes: Charlie gets shot at by Hasp’s thugs and she has to run again.
Sleeper Star: Jin Ha is low-key funny in this episode, especially as he reveals all to Amber despite knowing it’s an ethical breach to do so.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Poker Face sometimes indulges itself in the cult of personality of its guest murderers and Charlie’s BS detector skills at the sacrifice of making a more intricate case for her to solve. But Lyonne always puts in a winning performance and the guest killers are fun to watch, which is why mystery nerds like us don’t get frustrated watching the series.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.