“Poker Face” is a new American murder mystery series created by Rian Johnson.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the new series.
- Poker Face is an American television series
- It is created by Rian Johnson
- It airs in the streaming service Peacock
- 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
- Peacock announced the series in March 2021, with Lyonne attached and Johnson as director
- Nora and Lilla Zuckerman were named as co-showrunners
- Poker Face consists of 10 episodes
- The series debuted on January 26, 2023
- The series has received critical acclaim
- Poker Face is a murder mystery series stylized as a character-driven, case-of-the-week mystery
- With each episode adapting the howcatchem format popularized by Columbo
- The series centers around Charlie Cale, a casino worker with an innate ability to detect lies, traveling across the United States on the run from the casino boss following a suspicious death
- Along the way, she encounters colorful characters and solves homicides in a variety of settings
- The project was announced in March 2021, with Rian Johnson serving as creator, writer, director and executive producer
- Johnson stated that the series would delve into “the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching”
- The series was inspired by Columbo, being referred as a “howcatchem”
- Johnson also used Magnum, P.I., The Rockford Files, Quantum Leap, Highway to Heaven and The Incredible Hulk as influences for the tone of the series
- Johnson was interested in “doing that Columbo or even Quantum Leap thing of having every episode be an anthropological deep dive into a little corner of America that you might not otherwise see”
- The announcement of the series included that Natasha Lyonne would serve as the main lead actress
- She was approached by Johnson about working on a procedural project together, with Lyonne as the lead character
- As Johnson explained, the role was “completely cut to measure for her”
- While the series and lead character would share things in common with Columbo, the writers sought to differentiate the lead character by making her a con artist, instead of working with the law
- Due to the series’ procedural aspects, the episodes feature several guest stars
- Johnson was inspired by the number of actors who guest starred on Columbo, wanting to deem each guest star as the star of the episode, which allowed them to attract many actors
- In April 2022, Benjamin Bratt joined the series
- Instead of a guest role, his character would recur as Cliff, the head of security at a casino where Charlie works
- When she escapes the casino, his character would go after her, deeming it “a ticking clock for the show”
- According to the director of the Hudson Valley Film Commission, filming was based in Newburgh, New York, and ran from April through October 2022, in locations throughout the mid-Hudson Valley
- At least one episode of the series was filmed in late August 2022 in Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Some scenes were filmed at a casino in Laughlin, Nevada, in September 2022
- Poker Face premiered on January 26, 2023, with the first four episodes available immediately and the rest debuting on a weekly basis
- Poker Face was met with critical acclaim upon release
- The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 98% approval rating
- With an average rating of 8.6/10
- Based on 62 critic reviews
- The website’s critics consensus reads, “With the incomparable Natasha Lyonne as an ace up its sleeve, Poker Face is a puzzle box of modest ambitions working with a full deck”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 85 out of 100
- Based on 34 critics
- Indicating “universal acclaim”
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