About 27 seconds into the pilot for Poker Face, I thought, “Oh, it’s Natasha Lyonne Colombo,
After four episodes, I admit I was wrong. Its Colombo plus murder She Wrote,
For young readers, those two American murder mystery shows were iconic and beloved parts of the TV landscape of the ’70s and ’80s.
In ColomboA scheming, unassuming detective played by the great Peter Falk weaves her way into the lives of the rich and famous before finding her guilty of murder. murder She WroteMeanwhile, a mystery follows a mysterious writer played by Angela Lansbury who solves a surprising number of murders for a former English teacher.
Sure, there were secrets in those shows, but we were having a lot of fun with our leads. Columbo, the sly elf who catches her villain unawares, and Jessica Fletcher, the bubbly, shrewd retiree who sees the obvious answer. Both characters have an urgent need to poke their noses into other people’s affairs and don’t let go of minor contradictions until they settle a matter.
Charlie Cale as Leon poker face, is cut from the same cloth. Charlie is a living lie detector, instinctively feeling when someone is hiding the truth. When she was young, she tried to use her skills to gamble her way across America, but when a casino magnate saw her potential and banned her from high-stakes games His luck shone. At the start of the show, she has settled into a comfortable life waitressing at a casino and living in a trailer on the edge of the Nevada desert. But, when a co-worker and friend dies under mysterious circumstances, she begins her own investigation.