five snouts up for poker face

Poker Face | Official Trailer | Peacock Original

(:)(:)(:)(:)(:) for poker face 

the simplicity of the formula can deceive you into missing the high art of poker face, first season streaming on peacock now, second one just green lit (lighted?).   created and directed by rian johnson (knives out)  and starring natasha lyonne as charlie cale (orange is the new black, russian doll) , poker face marries tv’s “how you gonna solve it” formula popularized in such series as columbo and murder she wrote with film production quality art: setting, costume, cinematography, and movie stars.

and speaking of movie stars, with each episode standing on its own and virtually no continuing characters other than charlie, it’s easy for rian johnson to bring his fancy friends to the poker face table. episode 1 kicks off with a perfect adrian brody  as the son of the casino owner who gave charlie her new life. stars from various eras grace other episodes brilliantly: nick nolte  as a washed up weird horror clay creator, ellen barkin  as a conniving actress, simon helberg  as a disaffected fbi agent, chloë sevigny  as a death metal star turned amazon warehouse grunt.

as charlie cale on the run works at cash jobs across the us, she encounters many levels of society–often its seamy underbelly but sometimes adjacent to the rich and famous. from someone living in the cab of a long haul truck to the head of a horror studio to petty thieves, each environment has an entirely new color scheme, set of costumes, music, vibe. each episode is a mini movie. and natasha lyonne is such an unlikely mixture of tough, real, guileless, brilliant yet strangely hot and hetero (although chicks obviously dig her too) that you can’t help but be fascinated by her crazy columbo act in a woman’s body. 

we just watched the 10th and final episode of season 1. it has been picked up for a second season. apparently rian johnson is having the time of his life creating these eps. don’t miss it.