TV: Poker Face

I hated Rian Johnson's take on Star Wars, but I'm a fan of his latest creation, Poker Face, which is currently streaming on Peacock:

Capably helmed by showrunners Lilla and Nora Zuckerman, Poker Face is a loving tribute to the case-of-the-week shows of the 1970s and 80s and a throwback to Johnson's low-stakes murder mystery roots (think Brick). The series follows Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne, also executive producer), a casino waitress with the nigh-supernatural ability to detect when someone is lying. When a friend of Charlie's is killed, the fallout puts Charlie on the run, drifting from town to town and getting caught up in local murders that she can't help but try and solve.

Lyonne's blue-collar, easygoing charisma is the heart and soul of the show, and her character is an amalgam of the great TV detectives (Charlie has Columbo's raspy smoker's voice and drives an old Plymouth Barracuda like Nash Bridges).  While murder seemingly follows Charlie everywhere she goes (and is even sometimes triggered by her presence, as in Murder, She Wrote ), the series as a whole has a surreal, lighthearted tone and some really fun guest stars.