Rian Johnson’s mystery-of-the-week series Poker Face premieres this Thursday on Peacock. The whodunit stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a young woman on the road, solving crimes, who knows exactly when someone is lying. Peacock believes that some of us could benefit from Charlie’s intuition, so they’re inviting users to reach out to Lyonne’s character through their BS Hotline. The clever promotion, available until February 19, grants caller access to pre-recorded messages from Charlie. By calling 1-866-Noblsht, users can listen to advice from Charlie on how to deal with sticky situations involving colleagues, partners and others.
The anticipated series is written and directed by Rian Johnson, most known for his work on Academy Award nominated mystery films Knives Out, its sequel Glass Onion, and writing and directing the $1 billion grossing film Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Lyonne is a veteran actress best known for her work on Orange is the New Black and Russian Doll, which she co-created. Lyonne’s other notable credits include Everyone Says I Love You, Slums of Beverly Hills, But I’m a Cheerleader, Scary Movie 2, Party Monster, Ad Astra, and the American Pie film series.
Poker Face consists of 10 episodes, the first four of which will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 26. New episodes will air every following week. During the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, Johnson discussed his future hopes for Poker Face, saying that he did not develop it as a limited series and believes there are endless possibilities and “infinite stories to tell.”
Natasha Lyonne Leads an Impressive Guest Star Roster
Peacock
To create Poker Face, Johnson looked to the detective series he enjoyed during his childhood, where each episode featured a brand-new case that was solved by episode’s end. In a recent interview with Empire, Johnson discussed why he chose this style for Poker Face:
Poker Face will undoubtedly fulfill the “fun guest star” requirement. Its impressive list of guest stars includes Nick Nolte, Chloë Sevigny, Ellen Barkin, Tim Meadows, Rhea Perlman, Ron Perlman, Stephanie Hsu, Jameela Jamil, Lil Rel Howery, and Benjamin Bratt, among others. Adrien Brody will appear in the first episode.
“You sat down and you got an entire story. There was usually a fun guest star, and it was always anchored by a truly cool, charismatic personality. The fact that with each new episode we can attack a totally different style and story and cast … it’s something similar to the mystery movies with Daniel [Craig]. If I can keep doing it, then I will,” he said.
Poker Face is executive produced by Lyonne, Ram Bergman, Nena Rodrigue, and Lain B. MacDonald. Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman serve as showrunners and executive producers.
