Poker Face season two: Murder games and the truth of the human experience

Being a human lie detector wouldn’t be a lot of fun. Imagine if you could always tell if someone was telling porkies. It would be such a burden.

Do you really want to know, for certain, that it wasn’t “so nice to see you”, or that someone wasn’t not-a-murderer. What would you do with that information?

Happily, watching a human lie detective is a lot of fun, especially when that person comes in the form of Natasha Lyonne whose madcap energy and unbound charisma make it delightful to spend an hour in her company.

Lyonne is not a chameleon, she has a distinct flavour, but that’s why Poker Face is as enjoyable as it is.

The series created by Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Brick, Looper) returns for a second season, following Charlie Cale’s swath through working class America, a transient loner who can’t help but connect with people.

The conceit is this: Charlie can always tell when someone is lying, from the most innocuous distortions to the big ones. This got her into some trouble when she was working at a casino and discovers the cover-up to a murder.

That’s the impetus that got her on the road in her Plymouth Barracuda, fleeing people who want to kill her, and allows the character to travel through different places so she could conceivably come across a different murder every episode without being, like others, a consultant to a police department.

It’s a Columbus-esque set-up, where each episode opens with the crime, including the revelation of who did it, before Charlie works out it all out.

So, we know Giancarlo Esposito’s funeral home director kills his wife, played by Katie Holmes, or that Alia Shawkat dispatches Awkwafina, and that John Cho did Melanie Lynskey dirty. It’s up to Charlie to catch them.

The weekly puzzle is a hoot, especially watching all those guest stars come in and have a ball. This season, that very long list includes the above and Method Man, David Alan Grier, Sam Richardson, Rhea Perlman, Justin Theroux, Taylor Schilling, Richard Kind, John Mulaney, Gaby Hoffman, Carol Kane and Margo Martindale.

Where else but in Poker Face is Kumail Nanjiani going to play a Floridian cop-cum-influencer with a pet alligator? Or let Cynthia Erivo play QUINTUPLETS? Amazing.

As much as Poker Face is about the sheer force of Lyonne’s personality, the success of the show really hinges on each case-of-the-week. If Charlie doesn’t have an interesting sandbox to play, there’s really no point.

Not every case is as compelling as the other but there are some real gems this season including one set in a primary school where the “culprit” is an intense, overachiever student who makes Tracy Flick seem like a slacker. That Charlie has to come up against an 11-year-old and is evenly matched is a bold choice.

That episode with Lynskey (Lyonne’s friend and castmate from But I’m a Cheerleader) and Cho, about a group of con artists, also reveals that for all of Charlie’s easygoing nature, she is yearning to belong somewhere.

It’s a thread that’s then carried through to the rest of the season, an almost surprising emotional layer about the cost of a life-on-the-go and a gift that immediately sets you apart from other people.

The procedural is having a real resurgent moment, and with the likes of Elsbeth also following a similar format, Poker Face is still able to carve out its own place in the culture. That it’s set mostly among the working class still makes it different to most.

Not just because it’s telling stories you don’t often see, but because it is also a reminder that there is a universality to the challenges most people face. We’re all plagued by things like financial pressures, jealousy, the feeling we’re missing out on something or that someone else has an advantage we don’t.

In each adventure, Poker Face captures a truth of the human experience, but it’s also entertaining as hell.

Poker Face season two is streaming on Stan with new episodes weekly