That's so that she can peel away the layers of the onion in stages, not all at once, over the course of an episode. So this means that the murders can never be crimes of passion, right? They always have to be very meticulously constructed. WELDON: This is a howcatchem, is the term that people use, which means that the murder in question is revealed at the top, as you say, and we learn how Charlie unpacks it. HOLMES: It is literally the 'Columbo' font almost exactly, almost exactly.

And who knew? Who knew that you can induce a purely physiological reaction in my damn body, one that bypasses all the higher brain functions, simply by listing the year of production in Roman numerals? (Laughter) There's something that happens to me. I was so in from the opening credits, which, if y'all haven't seen them, are this Dijon mustard yellow, squarish typeface that couldn't scream 1978 any louder if it was wearing hot pants. It's a show that I love and have written about. Those are just some of the familiar faces. Among them are Lil Rel Howery, Hong Chau, Ellen Barkin, Tim Meadows, Tim Blake Nelson, Judith Light and frequent Rian Johnson collaborator Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Along the way, she meets up with a genuinely impressive array of guest stars. But more than that, she has an uncanny ability to get people to open up to her. Charlie has a special talent for knowing when people are lying. And from there, each episode takes her to a different place, where there just happens to be a crime to solve. HOLMES: So 'Poker Face' was created by Rian Johnson, whose films include 'Glass Onion' and 'Knives Out,' not to mention the Star Wars entry 'The Last Jedi.' It stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie, who's working in a Nevada casino, and she gets mixed up in some very dirty deeds committed by her boss, played by Adrien Brody, and his henchman, played by Benjamin Bratt.

WELDON: See it was either that or bluffing with my muffin, and I think I made the right choice. Joining me and Aisha today is our POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR co-host Glen Weldon. And today we're talking about the Peacock series 'Poker Face' on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR FROM NPR. She's perfectly suited, as it turns out, to be a modern Columbo.

It's from the mind of Rian Johnson, who's fresh off the movie 'Glass Onion.' And it's the kind of thing that flourished on television for decades but is harder to find now.Īnd at the center of all these mysteries is Natasha Lyonne.

The very entertaining 'Poker Face' is an offbeat, case-of-the-week mystery show, where a dryly witty, down-to-earth oddball solves murders.

Does a poker face mean your sad