Poker Face: Natasha Lyonne’s seriously funny whydunnit caper is back with a cracking A-list cast
Cynthia Erivo plays sextuplets! Katie Holmes is an undertaker! And Kumail Nunjiani is the new Tiger King! The super cool, celebrity-packed show is even wilder than everThe best thing about Poker Face is that it doesn’t bother trying to shore up what it knows is a flimsy premise. Fans of the first season will recall that Charlie Cale, Natasha Lyonne’s wisecracking 70s detective homage, has an in-built ability to detect a lie as soon as someone tells it. Instead of trying to explain this gift away as the result of a gamma storm or spider bite or covert government experiment, it now accepts that, yeah, she has a “freaky little lie detector trick”, that’s the extent of the idea, got a problem with that? These days, Charlie waves away any queries about it with an “Eh”, a shrug and a cheeky nudge of the baseball cap and aviator shades.After using her talent to work her way through a series of increasingly preposterous case-of-the-week murders last time, then ending up with the mafia putting out a hit on her, Charlie begins the second season (starting 8 May, 9pm, Sky Max) on the lam once more, only now goons with guns keep popping up and shooting at her. For what could have been a high-concept show, Poker Face is surprisingly fuss-free about all of this, and barely lets a violent mob-based subplot get in the way of what Charlie does best. That is, wandering around small-town America, working out who is a killer and how/why they did it, then exposing them for their terrible crimes. She has to dodge bullets on occasion, sure, but she always keeps her eyes on the prize: coughing out the word “bullshit” and cracking the case. Continue reading...
Cynthia Erivo plays sextuplets! Katie Holmes is an undertaker! And Kumail Nunjiani is the new Tiger King! The super cool, celebrity-packed show is even wilder than ever
The best thing about Poker Face is that it doesn’t bother trying to shore up what it knows is a flimsy premise. Fans of the first season will recall that Charlie Cale, Natasha Lyonne’s wisecracking 70s detective homage, has an in-built ability to detect a lie as soon as someone tells it. Instead of trying to explain this gift away as the result of a gamma storm or spider bite or covert government experiment, it now accepts that, yeah, she has a “freaky little lie detector trick”, that’s the extent of the idea, got a problem with that? These days, Charlie waves away any queries about it with an “Eh”, a shrug and a cheeky nudge of the baseball cap and aviator shades.
After using her talent to work her way through a series of increasingly preposterous case-of-the-week murders last time, then ending up with the mafia putting out a hit on her, Charlie begins the second season (starting 8 May, 9pm, Sky Max) on the lam once more, only now goons with guns keep popping up and shooting at her. For what could have been a high-concept show, Poker Face is surprisingly fuss-free about all of this, and barely lets a violent mob-based subplot get in the way of what Charlie does best. That is, wandering around small-town America, working out who is a killer and how/why they did it, then exposing them for their terrible crimes. She has to dodge bullets on occasion, sure, but she always keeps her eyes on the prize: coughing out the word “bullshit” and cracking the case. Continue reading...
