Are you looking for a great murder mystery TV show to fill the Knives Out / Glass Onion hole in your life? Poker Face might be the series for you.
Launching exclusively on Peacock on January 26, Poker Face is a 10-part series that marks Star Wars and Glass Onion director Rian Johnson’s debut in the TV universe. Given Johnson’s penchant for detective-style projects, you already know that Poker Face is going to be one of the first real big hits of 2023, too.
Unconvinced? Well, check out the first trailer for Poker Face below. We’ll wait for you to watch it and then end up agreeing with us:
Well, what is the poker face actually? In a press release, the plot summary of the case-of-the-week TV show reads as follows: “Poker Face is a 10-episode mystery-of-the-week series that follows Charlie Natasha Lyonne, who has the extraordinary ability to tell when someone is lying. She’s on the road with Plymouth Barracuda and with each stop she encounters a new set of strange characters and crimes she can’t help but solve.”
A Knives Out-like TV series starring Russian Doll’s Lyonne as a quick-witted female version of Benoit Blanc? Yes, we will definitely follow up – and you should, too.
Johnson, who created, directed and executive produced the series, also provided a bit more context on how Poker Face came to be. In short: A dinner conversation with Leon, in which the pair shared their affections for the whodunit genre, led to the creation of the show.
“Never underestimate the power of a good dinner conversation between friends,” the duo wrote. What started as a discussion about steak frites over detective shows and what made them so fun—exploration of tiny worlds in each new setting, guest stars playing killers and victims, and, most importantly, a bumbling protagonist whom you were always ready to step back and see the win—eventually resulted in To the creation of Charlie, the driving force behind Poker Face.
We invite you to follow Charlie on a cross-country journey as she meets a rogue cast of characters and exacts revenge on a new injustice each episode, armed with little more than her uncanny ability to spot lies and a true appreciation for her fellow humans (and the occasional dog). Now please leave the overthinking to Ryan, which ingeniously designed ten self-contained puzzles for Charlie to solve. Just hop in the back of this 69 Plymouth Barracuda and enjoy the ride.”
Nora and Lyla Zuckerman (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Prodigal Son) join Johnson in the writers’ room, where the pair also served as showrunners on the Peacock original. Johnson, Leon and the Zuckerman sisters join Nene Rodrigue, Ram Bergman and Ian B. McDonnell on the executive production team.
As for the list of guest stars stacked on Poker Face, it includes – but is not limited to – Adrian Brody, Ron Perlman, Benjamin Bratt, Cherry Jones, Chloë Sevigny, Jameela Jamil, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lil Rel Howery, Nick Nolte, Simon Helberg Stephanie Tso, And Tim Blake Nelson. Suffice it to say, if you’re a fan of any of the above, you’ll want to stream Poker Face when you land on Peacock.
Speaking of, here’s the all-important release date: January 26th. Poker Face will launch with four (!) premieres, before returning to a weekly release schedule every Thursday through the end of the season. In a world where Peacock isn’t one of the top streaming services, a show like Poker Face can finally put it on the map.
For more Peacock-based content, check out our Peacock review and read everything worth knowing about The Continental, the first of many John Wick spinoffs.