[7.7/10] My favorite part of this episode is the first twenty minutes or so, which have more in the way of intimate and spine-chilling vignettes than they are a murder mystery. That's all good! It’s okay for the show to have different featuresdifferent weeks. But the upshot is that i was more invested in the characters and their little world than in Charlie unraveling the mystery this week.
I especially like the opening bit, where young mechanic Jed, is creeping on adjacent minimart clerk Sara, before an intervention from sandwich artist and ex-marine Damian. It’s a tidy little morality play. Damian is friendly with Sara and generous with her. The two are cute in a way that's instantly resonant. Jed is, by contrast, an unwelcome presence, clearly making Sara uncomfortable.
The ensuing confrontation on the roof of a mechanic shop which is Jed’s vantage point to spy on his crush is riveting. You see the dpeeth of Jed’s unsettling attitude, one that is self-aggrandizing in his hown “like a god” self-estimation, and which shows the tribute to Damian’s positive attitude and willingness to put in work to make the most of his circumsmtances rather than blame it all on bad luck. The contrast between Damaian’s empathy for someone who isn’t necessarily worthy of it, and Jed’s sense of entitlement collides when Damian wins the lottery, and Jjed murders him because it’s a bridge too far after he sees someone who seems to have all the luck, in his misugided view of how the world work, get head of him yet again.
Likewise, I love the interactions between our protagonist Cahrlie and Marge, and off-the-grid trucker who ends up getting framed for the murder. Marge seems to be Charlie’s equal, showing her kindness with a savvy that arguably saves Charlie’s life. The tips about superglue to close up wounds and how to get along without leaving a trail are key to Charlie’s future survival. As with Sara and Damian, Charlie and Marge have an instant rapport and chemistry that makes you buy why Charlie would stick her neck out for this woman she just meant, which helps preserve economy when all of this needs to be established quickly.
From there, the ymstery elements are fine, but not quite as compelling. Again, the show plays fair with the clues, with Charlie noting Jed’s lies, and tying it to details ike the camera footage of the tarpover her car being difference from moment to moment, and an elbaorte song-based scheme to get dashcam footage that might exonerate Marge. Watching Charlie piece the clues together and have tense of charming itneractions with the residents of this pitstop are all solid. I especially like the conceit of Charlie having only four hours to solve the mystery, lest Cliff use the fact of an ATM ping to locate and kill her.
It just doesn’t have the same oomph as those first two acts of the episode, which are more founded on character.
That said, I like the theme here. Jed blames his problems and failure to reach his potential on outside factors, when really it seems to be his own fault. The show has empathy for him, with Damian talking about the monotony and how it can lead to obsession. (There’s shades of Chris Moltisanti’s “regularness of everyday life ”speech in The Sopranos there.) But it also shows him trying to drag down Damian’s achievements to make himself look better, usurp someone else’s life to get out of town, and try to live the blueprint of the man he just killed to raise himself up. It’s perverse and sad, with Jed as both a figure of revulsion and pity, a tough balance to strike that Poker Face hits perfectly. There’s an idea of luck being a scapegoat In all this, when really it’s choices -- to see the positives and strive for more or give into stupor and blame everyone else -- that make the difference.
The performances are still very good though. Natasha Lyonne continues to shine as Charlie, giving her a rough-and-tumble eccentric edge that makes you enjoy spending time with her whether she’s solving mysteries or pestering truckers. And Colton Ryan does particularly good work as Jed, making him seem creepy and menacing in the right ways, while also showing that melancholy side of someone who feels life owes them something they’ve been denied.
There’s other nice grace notes here, from Sara throwing Cliff off of Charlie’s trail as a way to show those choices and acts of compassion paying off, to Jed’s uncle (John Ratzenberger!) recognizing his nephew’s skullduggery and disowning the kid who violates his innate decency. I even like Jed burning up the winning lottery ticket, which you can read either as him accepting the theme that luck is not an excuse by destroying the symbol of it, or as him refusing to learn the lesson and simply destroying some key evidence. It works either way.
Overall, Poker Face is two-for-two, with an episode that does better at character work and vignettes than at the mystery side, but which is still well worth enjoying for that alone.
Come on, what are those vfx, sfx ?? Other than that the episode is okay, you know what happens before it even does but that’s entertaining enough to watch
The first 20 minutes or so of this episode were great.. felt like a different show all the sudden, and I got really invested on the drama and suspense.. it was also a nice transition and more uplifting and funny vibe afterwards. Good episode overall.
I think I enjoyed this one more than the first
So, Marge, who's sort of a recluse and parks her truck away from the others, in a place beyond the CCTV reach, finds a dead body inside her truck and decides do bring the truck close to the others, within CCTV range and drop the body right there, instead of just dumping it near where she was parked at first, where no proof would have been recorded of such action. Then, the rest of the episode is set upon this badly written scene.
Apart fro that, it was an entertaining episode and, of course, Natasha's quirky character made up for that initial blunder.
you know everytime what is gonna happen in every minute... you guessing it and it happen like in front of ur eyes :joy:
wish we couldve had more charlie and marge interactions, really enjoyed marge and sad that her time in the episode is so limited.
I love Natasha so much. What a screen presence!
This does not bode well. I felt my least favorite emotion through most of this ep... "fear." Not even a Steely Dan outro can wipe that taste away. Otherwise this'd be a solid eight or more.
Two episodes in, there is not enough to save this show from being solidly mediocre so far. There are some good elements to it, but it's lacking something for me. I heard about the good reviews this was getting, but had very subdued expectations because the trailer wasn't anything impressive but was determined to give it a watch because of the cast, and giving Rian Johnson the benefit of the doubt.
I don't think this show's for me. It's a 'how catch em' not 'whodunnit'. I think the trailer didn't do a good job of showing what the show is about. I was expecting a mystery show but they show you what happens right at the beginning of the episode and then you just sit there and watch the main character to figure it out. All the tension is in the 'how to turn the bad guys in when I'm not a cop' moments. I can only imagine by the end of episode 4 (let alone all 10 episodes) the beats are getting way familiar and redundant, and it seems like too much of a coincidence that Charlie finds herself involved in new murders every episode.
It is a procedural and very predictable already. But Law & Order, NCIS, CSI, and stuff like those shows are popular, so I think there is an audience for Poker Face, I'm just not one of them though. It’s a bit of a commitment at an hour per episode to watch something you don't like that much.
The new iPhone 13? Someone did not anticipate that there would be a new model before the premiere of the show.
Review by Paladin5150BlockedParent2023-02-02T08:59:08Z
I agree with monsieur Bloom and others that the first 20 minutes or so is indeed the best part on this episode, which is not to dismiss the remainder, but, that it was superbly set up and acted, with special kudos going to Colton Ryan's seemingly low IQ'd creepy future serial killer "Jed", and scene stealing Hong Chau's "Marge", with a shout out to "Cliff Clavin" himself John Ratzenberger, who, like all of us, has gotten a bit older and rounder as the years have gone by.
Seeing the entire set up and committing of the crime in the first act, before the "star" makes her appearance, seemingly shouldn't work because we the audience already know who did it, but, the fun and intrigue is in figuring out the clues that Charlie will eventually use to expose the real perpetrator, and how she will put it all together. Added to that in this episode is the knowledge that, according to he new friend Marge, she only has 4 hours after using an ATM or credit card before whomever Charlie is running from will be able be where she last used it. So, the clock is ticking when she decides to stick around catch the real killer to clear Marge's name rather that immediately exiting stage east. Good stuff. Once again, the guest stars do journeyman work in their supporting roles, which makes the whole thing work.