In Partnership with Stan
If watching Season 1 of “Poker Face” made you nostalgic for classic, old detective shows, you’re not the only one. In a streaming world obsessed with binge-watching, Easter eggs, and slow-burning multi-season arcs, Poker Face goes the other way. And it’s got audiences, both young and old, hooked.
The Stan Original series, created by Rian Johnson (“Knives Out”), marks a quiet return to the pleasures of ‘70s and ‘80s episodic television – shows like “Columbo,” “Rockford Files,” “Knight Rider” and “Quantum Leap.” Back then, the case-of-the-week format was familiar, the series lead was charismatic and eccentric, and the episodes began and ended with satisfying consistency.
“I was watching most of these shows in reruns, probably out of order,” Johnson tells Variety AU/NZ. “And the pleasure was just in every week, every episode being its own little complete journey and arc.”
That self-contained rhythm is part of what makes “Poker Face” feel so refreshing. It’s less about building a world and more about dipping into one. Each episode is a new town, a new puzzle, and a new moral dilemma that lie-detecting drifter, Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), somehow finds herself wrapped up in.
“I was writing the pilot during lockdown,” Johnson says. “The notion of bringing it back to a dusty road trip where you’re actually meeting people in diners… that felt like bliss. Still kind of does.”
When dreaming up “Poker Face,” Johnson didn’t want to deconstruct the detective genre. He wanted to tap into what made it work in the first place. “I’m usually focused on finding what brings me joy about the genre,” he explains.
“Trying to project myself back to when I was sitting on the carpet in front of the TV watching those shows. And then trying to isolate that pleasure centre and do that as purely and as effectively as possible.”
Season 1 was the proof of concept, earning four Emmy nominations. Now, Season 2 sharpens the vision. “We’re still playing with that structure,” Johnson says. “But we’re letting ourselves get a little stranger. A little looser.”
He points to the first episode of the new season, starring Cynthia Erivo as sextuplet sisters, as a case in point. “It strikes a real sweet spot where the stakes feel real and yet it exists on this very heightened level.”
“The relationship between the character in the apple orchard that Cynthia plays and Charlie, I think feels very grounded and real and I love the dynamic between them. And then you also have the heightened antics of severed legs on the beach, the French professor character, the DJ character,” he says. “To me, that sort of is what we’re going for with every episode.”
The show works so well, Johnson thinks, because of Charlie. She’s the thread that holds it all together, a modern unofficial-detective cut from the same cloth as characters like Peter Falk, James Garner and Angela Lansbury.
“It takes somebody who has an inner life that’s going to come through on screen. Not just to hold you for a two-hour movie, but to draw you back every week.”
Charlie doesn’t have a badge, a tech team, or even a smartphone. “I wanted her to be off the grid, so we didn’t have to shoot a bunch of inserts of cell phone screens,” Johnson says. “And so she actually has to talk to people.”
Rather than trying to reinvent TV, “Poker Face” reminds us why we loved it in the first place. A weekly puzzle where the joy isn’t in guessing the twist, but in watching how Charlie unravels it.
“You know the shape of the chessboard as an audience member,” Johnson adds. “There’s a strong character at the heart of it that you genuinely want to spend time with… and then you’re surprised and delighted by what the actual moves are.”
The Stan Original “Poker Face” has new episodes dropping every Thursday, only on Stan.