1x03 The Stall

[7.5/10] “The Stall” is an interesting installment, because my reaction to it was opposite to the first two episodes of Poker Face. For those, my reaction was, “Yes, yes, the mystery is certainly cool, but I’m having more fun just spending time with these characters.” And yet, for “The Stall” the characters are perfectly fine, but I was more captivated by how Charlie solved the mystery.

That's not to say the characters are bad by any stretch of the imagination. Getting Lil Rel Howery of Get Out fame is a boon, and he’s perfectly cast as Taffy, the showboating entrepreneurial half of a brother-run barbecue company. His more sensitive and meticulous sibling, George, has a strong but sensitive presence all his own. And George’s wife, Mandy, does the “steel behind the southern smile” bit well. The setting of an outdoor picnic bench restaurant and mobile home works to mix up the show’s rotating set of backdrops.

The catch is that the details here -- wife conspires and cheats with her husband’s brother when he threatens to bring down their golden goose -- is a bit stock as crime drama plots go. The real flash comes in how Taffy and Mandy pull it off, with a nice alibi in the form of Taffy doing his radio show via recording during the murder, with a live call-in before and after to give plausible deniability, and some creative (and poetic) logistics in the form of Taffy locking his brother’s door from the outside using his trademark dental floss and poisoning George with the exhaust from his own smoker.

The one character-focused element of this one I really liked was Charlie’s interactions with the “fascist dog” who proves to be the break in the case. Her being annoyed by, but also protective of, the yappy little mutt turns out to be a lot of fun. It adds texture to the story, beyond the pup’s relevance to the mystery plot, since seeing Charlie rail against but also look after the pup is alternatingly hilarious and adorable.

But what I really like here is how Charlie ends up investigating and solving the case. Her fast friendship with George is a little too quickfire (as is inevitable for any of these single-serving stories), but you buy their bond enough for George’s “listen to the symphony” message about tastes and smells to sink in. The composer for this one deserves an award, because the way the score sells Charlie’s internal ability to tell where the wood lodged in the dog’s skull came from, not to mention recognize Taffy’s involvement in the door-locking, through little stings and melodies that expertly convey what she’s thinking and detecting.

Likewise, I love the involvement of Austin, the bored theater major at the radio station who puts on different voices to populate an entire programming block’s worth of different personalities. The entire time Charlie was figuring out what happened here, I wondered to myself how she would turn this all into proof enough to convict the evildoers, since it’s largely circumstantial and tough to meet evidentiary standards with.

But Austin is the perfect cinch. Setting up his voice-changing abilities, and then using him to imitate Taffy to (1.) get Mandy to turn on him and then (2.) use Mandy’s own recorded phone conversation with “Taffy” to incriminate her is beautiful. It’s a little too neat and easy, but Charlie taking George’s lesson on “the stall” in a different metaphorical direction, holding Taffy in place with rhetorical cul de sacs long enough for Mandy to show up and sic the cops on him, is a fun enough tribute to the deceased to help the medicine go down.

Throw in some other nice details like George having his vegan change of heart thanks to a bevy of “friendly pig” movies, and the fascist pup ending up cuddled at Austin’s feet, and you have a Poker Face episode that diverts from the previous two, by setting up a mystery and ploy that's more fun than the people and place it occupies. Like someone at a barbecue buffet, I appreciate the variety!