Poker Face is a 2023 Peacock original mystery series created by Rian Johnson, the filmmaker behind Knives Out and its sequels. The show stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a woman with an extraordinary gift: she can always tell when someone is lying. After a confrontation with a dangerous casino boss forces her to go on the run, Charlie drifts across America in a battered Plymouth Barracuda, stumbling into a different murder case every week and using her supernatural instincts to uncover the truth.

The series is a loving, expertly crafted homage to the classic American detective shows of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly Columbo. Each episode opens with the murder itself, showing the audience precisely what happened and who did it, before Charlie arrives and slowly, charmingly pieces it together. This inverted mystery format puts all the dramatic tension on how rather than who, and Lyonne's performance is so magnetic and lived-in that the show works even when it isn't trying to surprise anyone. The guest cast across the season is exceptional, featuring names like Adrien Brody, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chloë Sevigny, and Stephanie Hsu.

Poker Face became one of the most acclaimed television series of 2023, earning Natasha Lyonne a Golden Globe nomination and near-universal praise from critics who called it the most purely entertaining show of the year. Johnson's sharp direction across multiple episodes and Benjamin Millepied's retro-inflected score give the show a consistent identity that holds it together across its standalone episode structure. A second season is in production.