There are many possibilities regarding what mysterious questions will be haunting the narrative of a murder mystery. Many of them focus on who killed the victim (the so-called whodunnits), but other things can conduct a story until its final twists: who was killed, when the murder happened, how and why it happened…
Thinking of this, Rian Johnson’s Poker Face had its first season released in 2023, with its ten initial episodes telling a different kind of mystery tale. Here, every episode begins with a situation that triggers a conflict between two or more people, as we watch when, why, and how the killer decided to commit the murder, so we know who did it, who died, and how/why everything happened from the start.
After this killer opening, we go back in time to watch how this story unfolded from Charlie Cale’s point of view. Charlie (played by the always charismatic Natasha Lyonne) has a superpower — she knows when someone is telling a lie. So after she connects with the soon-to-be killers and victims, she throws herself into investigations to solve the cases and bring justice to the dead. Most of the time, Poker Face does not bring us whodunnits, but “howcatchem”, taking inspiration from the classic crime drama Columbo.
With that premise, the first season of Poker Face accomplished to deliver a variety of interesting, compelling cases-of-the-week, weekly bringing along fantastic guests to interact with Lyonne, such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephanie Hsu, Charles Melton, Judith Light, S. Epatha Merkerson, Chloë Sevigny, and Ron Perlman, to name a few. And the new season opens with a superb, truly magnificent guest: Cynthia Erivo playing Amber, Bebe, Cece, Delia, and Felicity, quintuplets! Four of them find themselves fighting against each other after their mom dies and leaves the money to someone unexpected — their lost sister, Felicity.
“The Game Is a Foot” – POKER FACE. Pictured: Cynthia Erivo as Bebe, CeCe, and Delia, and Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale. Photo: PEACOCK ©2025. All Rights Reserved
Well, actually, four of them are fighting, but Felicity is not present, because after discovering the truth about the will, Amber, the sister who took care of the mom, plotted to kill Felicity and assume her identity to take all the money. And she would have gotten away with it if Delia hadn’t become a friend of Charlie at their work. After bringing Charlie with her to the funeral, it doesn’t take too long for our incidental detective to notice the lies in “Felicity’s” stories. What a start! I love it when a TV show gives a chance to someone to play multiple characters at once (the feels of the old, good Orphan Black days are unmatched), and Erivo doesn’t disappoint, shining as these sisters who are all artists in their own ways. Part of me wants to see Delia or one of the least explored sisters (Bebe and Cece) return at some point in this season, such fun characters.
As Charlie continues running away from the Hasps’ assassins, Last Looks introduces Giancarlo Esposito and Katie Holmes as a couple in crisis. Even if not as strong as the premiere, this episode has an interesting take on death and abusive relationships, as Fred (Esposito) decides to use the set of a movie to cover up the murder of his wife, Greta (Holmes), after she decides to break up with him. Esposito and Holmes are both great at what they do, but I felt like Katie Holmes’ talents were underused — more screentime to Greta would have made this episode better, I think. But Esposito is wonderful in this morbid role, and how this whole situation ends is electrifying.
Finally, Whack-A-Mole brings the whole situation with Beatrix Hasp and the mafia families to an end, with Rhea Perlman and Simon Helberg returning as Beatrix and FBI agent Luca Clark, and introducing John Mulaney as Daniel, a dirty FBI agent. I loved this episode, it was so surprising — as usual, nothing went as I’d expected, but I had lots of fun the entire time. It was unexpected to see this conflict being solved so early in the season, but so refreshing too. Richard Kind as Jeffrey, Beatrix’s husband, is one of the best characters of the hour, funny and tragic in equal parts. Rhea Perlman also brings her Beatrix to life as a comedic but still threatening antagonist, and I’m sorry to see her arc concluded this fast.
Otherwise, I think this could be the first time that Charlie is not running away from anything or anyone — she will be travelling to places with no worries other than the usual ones, and that’s very exciting, as there’s the rest of the season to develop other storylines for Charlie. In conclusion, Poker Face returned as strong as ever, with three episodes filled with the technical qualities and the twists and turns that we all love it for, leaving the door open to more intriguing, comedic, twisted adventures.
Feel free to leave a comment with your impressions and thoughts, and thanks for reading!