It also suggests a darker, “Chinatown”-like direction, with its themes of exploitation, violence against women and the rich getting away with unspeakable acts.īut as Charlie hits the highway in her rattletrap Plymouth Barracuda, “Poker Face” takes a lighter turn, one you might recognize from the guest-star-laden procedurals of the ’70s and ’80s. Her first case, involving a casino housekeeper (Dascha Polanco, Lyonne’s castmate from “Orange Is the New Black”), awakens that rage.
“Easier than being broke, harder than doing just fine.” But her Zen has limits she has a deep-seated sense of justice and fairness, which at the outset of the series she channels into angry replies on Twitter. “I’ve been rich,” she tells a casino boss (Adrien Brody) in the pilot. The ’70s loved a beautiful loser, like James Garner’s Jim Rockford, the ex-con private eye whom the world gave the bum’s rush no matter how many cases he cracked.Ĭharlie has a similar working-class panache. The atmosphere is so immersive that when a contemporary reference comes up - to MAGA, say, or “Euphoria” - it feels anachronistic.īut the vintage echoes are also deeply thematic.
The camera tracks the baroque carpet pattern of a slightly dated casino hallway the yellowed screen credits could be lifted straight from a “Columbo” episode of the early ’70s. “Poker Face” draws you in first with its retro style. Along the way, the series makes some sly points about who, in our society, cases do and don’t stick to. The real mystery is whether and how Charlie can assemble enough proof to make the case stick. Johnson (who also writes and directs multiple episodes) shows you up front who did it and how, as “Columbo” did. You would think that Charlie’s superpower would make the solution to the cases less than suspenseful. The murder of a friend makes her realize that she can also use her intuition to solve crimes - and after she implicates a dangerous suspect, she ends up on the run down the back roads of an America that turns out to be full of wacky killings. As any reasonable person would, she applied her gift to gambling, but after some unfortunate turns she has ended up waitressing at a casino.
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