Poker Face Episodes 1-4 Review

Credit to: Paramount, T-Street, MRC Television and Peacock

If any of you reference That song, we’re gonna have a problem

Welcome back, y’all! This time around, we’re taking a look at the first 4 episodes of Peacock’s brand new original series, Poker Face! It’s a comedy-drama and “case-of-the-week” mystery series directed by Rian Johnson, which revolves around the life of a human lie detector named Charlie Cale, a woman that can’t help but call bullsh- uh, “nonsense” (watered down to keep it a little PG-13 on here), when she knows someone is lying. Nothing magic about it, she just knows 100% of the time, which she uses to dig up the truth on whatever case she’s working on. P.S. she’s not a cop. She’s just a casino worker that can’t help but to get to the bottom of things. Now, because this is in fact a short review on 4 entire episodes, I’m going to simply point out the pros and cons of all 4 episodes at the same time, then give my final thoughts. This would make for a massive review if I tried to break down everything in 4 parts (I made that mistake once, never again I assure you). But that’s enough blabbering. Without any further ado, let’s just jump right into it.

Pros

So, let’s start off with the main character herself, Charlie Cale, played by the amazing Natasha Lyonne. Charlie, as I said before, is a casino worker, where at the casino of interest, puts her powerful ability of lie detecting to good use, specifically within management. Not to give too many hints about the story or anything, but I will say this: This series is already doing a wonderful job at keeping me glued to the screen. There’s moments in the show where I remember audibly reacting to Charlie’s bad decision making, followed by the immediate relief of seeing how the mystery is solved, or at least how she gets around her own bad decisions. Charlie herself is extremely compelling as a character. She’s funny, she’s a loose cannon, she’s witty, and she’s very, very good at picking up on bullsh- nonsense, jeez. While she’s pretty bent on drinking, she’s still sober enough to pull herself together and jump on the clues around her. She’s not a cop, but we see her working around the police to scan evidence, speak to the accused, and examine crime scenes. We can tell that the way the characters moves about and reacts to the people around her, that she’s definitely not new to this, but she seems to use her ability as if she’s some sort of vigilante. This isn’t a superhero show, don’t get it confused, it’s more like a “What if?” scenario to me. Like what if someone in real life could tell whether or not someone is lying 100% of the time? Charlie herself is a pretty questionable person at first glance, until you get to know the character and spend the time to analyze and listen in and pay attention to what’s going on in the world around her, but that same statement can apply to most people in the real world. Would someone use the ability she has for good or bad? Depends on the person of course, but the point that I’m trying to make is that Charlie feels like a real person, rather than just a character. The situations she finds herself in are a bit whacky perhaps, but it’s the character herself that really helps the show feel grounded. There’s times where she can’t pull the answers together, because while she’s literally perfect at detecting whether or not someone’s lying, she’s not a proper detective. She really is just a woman who cares enough to get to the bottom of things, and that’s what I like about her. The show is about her of course, but the situations she gets into are all situations I found myself genuinely caring about. I never found myself not wanting to get to the bottom of a mystery. I did however, find myself analyzing many scenes, wondering if there’s any clues that I myself could pick up on and apply to the mystery. I felt like I was participating in the show, and honestly it was cool. It was very enjoyable, from the first episode all the way to the fourth.

Cons

There is one issue that I have with the show, and it’s the fact that there’s a couple of moments that are a little too cliche. Of course a project is going to ride on certain trends sometimes, but there’s just a few moments during these episodes that I did kinda feel a bit bored, wanting to move on from what was going on because I’ve seen that exact situation(s) play out the way it did. It’s not horrible, not at all, but when it comes to something like mystery, I like to feel genuinely lost. I like to feel surprised at the outcome. The first episode was a nice little surprise in terms of the resolution (which wound up causing more issues for Charlie in a way that I won’t spoil), but going forward, it’s a liiiittle cliche. I don’t dislike the series because of it, I’m actually having a really good time so far, and I can’t wait for the fifth episode, but I want to see a bit of a fresher take on the upcoming mysteries we’ll come across.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, it’s so nice to take a break from these established series that I’ve been reviewing. I love them to death, but it’s so nice to have zero expectations for a project and be taken by surprise at its performance. So far, I’m really enjoying this series. I like all the quirky characters and weird or grim antagonists, and I especially like Charlie. This series has a lot going for it, and I really can’t wait to see what we have in store for it in the upcoming episodes. This is a nice, fresh, comedic, grounded mystery series, and I really like that. It doesn’t have to always be cops with gruff voices or detectives with a suave attitude, it can just be a witty woman with a drinking problem who can smell bullsh- nonsense, from a mile away. It’s nice. But what do you all think? Let us know on our Instagram, and make sure you’re following to stay up to date with the latest entertainment news and reviews. But that’s all from me, this has been The Wolf Den!

4.5 out of 5.