Poker Facewriter and director Rian JohnsonNew murder mystery, premiered last week on Peacock to flattery review. Who would have thought that a remake of a dusty 1970s cop show would have such rich material?
For fairness, Poker Face Not a literal remake. But as a resource no less than the Columbophile Blog points out, “Poker Face maybe one Columbo reboot in all but name.” Both Johnson and Lyonne are acknowledged Columbo-heads, with Lyonne ever threatening to fight Mark Ruffalo through the role of lieutenant. In interviews, Johnson has crept around inspirationsaying, “It was a return to Magnum PI or Rockford files or Columbo.” Or he will explain that “like ColumboWe show you the murder in action first. We show you who did it. And then [about] How will Natasha Lyonne’s character capture them?” And when Vultures Ask John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats how did he get picked in the end, he quit the game: “I probably eavesdropped [Johnson] about something and he texted, ‘Want to talk to you about the TV show I’m doing with Natasha Lyonne. basically Columbo with her as a detective.’”
To all those who love Columbo, this is a great thing. Even beyond the unconventional format, with the reveal of the killer happening first—meaning it was an arrest, not a killer—Poker Face is the embodiment of the raw, old-fashioned, vulgar charms of its spiritual forerunner. Like Columbo, Cale often pursued the rich and powerful who thought they didn’t need to atone. Like Columbo, she is frequently underrated, a trait she strives for best. Peter Falk’s fumbling detective role is a good movie; the way he transitions from clown to razor-sharp gum is an amazing and entertaining thing, which means that Lyonne will cut the work for her if she wants to put Cale in the lead. with Columbo in TV Sleuth’s Hall of Fame. But of the few episodes available to date (a new one came out today), it’s clear that Lyonne — salty, resilient, unreasonably confident — is embodying a very unique type of crime.
In updating the source material, Johnson made some cautious choices for our modern tastes: Unlike Columbo, the LAPD’s murder cop, Lyonne’s Cale is a civilian who always stumbles across death. fishy. She’s also blessed with the aforementioned ability to always know when someone is lying, which adds a fun, clever little hook to the show’s formula. But while Poker Face a lot goes on in modern times, as we can see from all the popular consumer technologies that pop up and sometimes push the plot points, it’s not modern in a murder mystery way Johnson’s former, Onionobviously so.
And that extends to the nature of the show. Like Johnson recent explanation to WIRED, while Poker Face If there is a line throughout, any given set is an independent set. It was “an extremely conscious choice, one that I didn’t know would seem too radical to all of the people we were recommending it to,” he said. The streamed serial narrative has just become the gravitational pull of thousands of suns to the point where everyone’s collective memory has been erased. It is not the mode of storytelling that made people watch television in the vast history of television. So it’s not just an option, it’s a choice that we really have to fight for.”
By now, even the average consumer can spot the signs of a “reputable television”. The gloom, the grandeur, the lavish budget. Almost since television began to be called the new novel, it felt the need to amplify its own importance. In the process, it starts to lose its fun. By doing something subtly daring like stealthily doing it again Columbo, and then went on to create a huge success, Johnson reminded viewers of one important thing: There are many ways to create a critically acclaimed, conversation-setting TV show. Consider another solved mystery.
