‘Poker Face’ — A Murder Mystery Without Evidence
by Frank Martin
Although it clearly falls into the category of a murder mystery, Poker Face is really in a league of its own in terms of detective storytelling. In a typical detective story, intellect is the driving factor in solving the crime. Detectives are known for being extremely perceptive in terms of figuring out what is missing and what is not. Often times, detectives can solve a crime without ever interacting with suspects or witnesses. Of course, interrogations are important to the process and are good for creating tension and drama in stories. But they aren’t really necessary. A great detective can figure out the culprit merely by looking at the evidence.
But Poker Face defies this notion. The entire premise of the show is that Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) has a near-supernatural ability to tell when someone is lying. While this power could have been used to tell a million different kinds of stories, Poker Face decided to use it to tell a series of murder mysteries. But, at the same time, Charlie isn’t a detective. She doesn’t have a keen eye or an analytical mind. Instead, all she has is her mysterious ability to detect a lie. She then has a near irrational drive to discover why the person is lying.
In this regard, many episodes of Poker Face unfold without any clues or evidence at all. Charlie does examine some crime scenes and occasionally finds clues, but that is more or less irrelevant to the show as a whole. Charlie isn’t a professional crime solver. All she really has to go on is the fact that someone is lying. And it’s not a hunch or a guess. She knows it with certainty. That’s really her only clue that a crime has been committed. So it’s quite fascinating to see Poker Face as a murder mystery show that can exist without any evidence needed for its story to unfold.
Poker Face is now streaming on Peacock.
