To make new television, it helps if you’ve watched a lot of old television. That’s a lesson evident in “Poker Face,” the crime-thriller series created by Rian Johnson and starring Natasha Lyonne, which makes its debut Jan. 26 on Peacock.
Lyonne, the sharp-witted star of “Orange Is the New Black” and “Russian Doll,” is cast in “Poker Face” as Charlie Cale, a woman with a preternatural ability to tell when people are lying. Embarking on a cross-country trip — how and why Charlie finds herself on the run are established in the show’s first installment — she grapples with new mysteries and new celebrity guest stars (including Benjamin Bratt, Ellen Barkin, Nick Nolte and Chloë Sevigny) in each of the series’s 10 episodes.
While “Poker Face” constructs an overarching narrative, its self-contained installments are a deliberate throwback to a style of TV storytelling that Johnson (the writer and director of “Knives Out” and “Glass Onion”) grew up with in the 1970s and ’80s.
“That’s when I had control of the television,” Johnson said. “And it was typically hourlong, star-driven, case-of-the-week shows.” They weren’t only detective programs like “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote,” he said, but also adventure series like “Quantum Leap,” “The A-Team,” “Highway to Heaven” and “The Incredible Hulk,” which were notable for “the anchoring presence of a charismatic lead and a different set of guest stars and, in many cases, a totally different location, every single week.” Those ever-changing elements kept things fresh and surprising, he said.
Lyonne, who cultivated an appreciation for TV later in life, said she had been drawn to “Poker Face” for its blend of one-off and continuing narratives, as well as the opportunity to work with a creator like Johnson.
“Do I love David Milch? Yes. Do I love Rod Serling? Yes,” Lyonne said, adding that she also enjoyed “the mischief of being up to something with Rian.”
“I don’t feel like I have any pro or con bias on serialized or not-serialized television,” she said. “The best of these shows all transcend those models in their own original ways. But I find it very soothing to know that we’re linking up to precedents that I enjoy.”
In separate interviews, Johnson and Lyonne shared a few of their favorite episodes of these past shows — some that were direct influences on “Poker Face,” some that were personally meaningful to them and some that they simply can’t get out of their heads. Here are edited excerpts from those conversations.
‘Columbo,’ Season 3, Episode 2: ‘Any Old Port in a Storm’
The rumpled detective (Peter Falk) cracks a murder case concocted by a snooty but ultimately cooperative wine expert (Donald Pleasence).
I could have pulled any number of “Columbo” episodes out of a hat. The one with Lindsay Crouse as a sex therapist is terrific, and Columbo is adorably embarrassed whenever she talks about sex.
But I came back to “Any Old Port in a Storm.” It’s a diabolically clever entrapment that Columbo pulls off, and it’s very satisfying. It gets to the heart of what I think the actual appeal of “Columbo” is, which is that it’s stealthily a hangout show with Peter Falk. The mysteries are always really well-constructed, and the cat-and-mouse in this one was very fun. But it really is all about watching Falk be Falk every single week. You’re tuning in to see Columbo and the guest star interact with each other and hang out.
What drives this episode is Donald Pleasence and his towering performance as the murderous wine aficionado. There’s a scene where Pleasence goes ballistic on a waiter when he’s served a bad port. The phrase he unleashes — “This liquid filth!” — is amazing. But more than that, even while Columbo is tracking him down and busting him, Pleasence develops a warm relationship with him, weirdly, and a respect. It’s kind of beautiful.
‘Murder, She Wrote,’ Season 1, Episode 20: ‘Murder Takes the Bus’
On a dark and stormy night, a stalled bus ride strands the crime-solving mystery author Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) at a diner with her fellow passengers — any of whom could be a killer.
I’ve been talking in interviews for the past few months about the influences on “Knives Out” and “Glass Onion.” I had Agatha Christie, the great works from the Golden Age of detective fiction and movies like “The Last of Sheila.” But really everything was because of Angela Lansbury.
For a lot of us growing up, “Murder, She Wrote” was on every day, and the sheer number of hours consumed is hard to top. This episode is kind of Hitchcock-like, in the tradition of “The Lady Vanishes,” where a group of suspects are all displaced together. This one just happens to guest star Linda Blair and Rue McClanahan.
I miss the contract that the audience had with the show of, “I’m not going to find this weird — we’re all just going to agree that this is how this works.” The show operates in this reality [where a murder occurs and is solved in every episode], and Jessica Fletcher was never looking into the camera lens and rolling her eyes and saying, “Not again!” It was like, if you don’t talk about it, we won’t talk about it. There was something delightfully charming about that.
‘Magnum, P.I.,’ Season 4, Episode 1: ‘Home From the Sea’
The series breaks from its customary action-adventure format to tell a story where Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) reflects on his childhood while he is stranded in dangerous waters.
I have very, very vivid memories of this episode, which I saw when I was young. Magnum is lost in the middle of the ocean and has to tread water until he’s rescued. And the whole episode is his flashbacks to memories of his father. It’s really beautifully done.
They intercut it with his dad giving him his watch and going off to war. And then, just as Magnum is about to collapse, they reveal that the father died in the war. The scene is a flashback to the father’s funeral with little boy Magnum saluting him with the watch on his wrist.
I was so young when I saw it. I didn’t realize it was a flashback structure, and I thought they were cutting to Magnum’s funeral. So in my head, this was a towering story of man versus nature with this titanically impactful ending, of this tragic death of this hero. So I totally misread the episode. And yet, it was this huge, huge thing in my psyche as a kid. I thought that must have been the finale. It might not have been until I went back and rewatched it for this interview, that I realized, oh, [expletive].
Natasha Lyonne’s Picks
‘NYPD Blue,’ Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot
The debut episode of this influential crime drama, which pushed the boundaries for nudity and obscene language on network television, introduced viewers to the police detective John Kelly (David Caruso) and his foul-mouthed partner, Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz).
I’m not really a television person. I’m really Mr. Moviefone, if you’re wondering where he went. But I had some dark years that have been well covered. And in those years, I discovered the internet, and what a great way to get lost when you’ve got nothing to do but watch everything in that time.
I just fell in love hard with Sipowicz. To me, Dennis Franz in “NYPD Blue” is up there with [James] Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. I was somebody who had such an early love of Joe Pesci, Elliott Gould, Ben Gazzara, Harry Dean Stanton, Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. Those are all my friends. And so when I discovered Sipowicz, I was like, Oh my God, he’s in that band in my mind.
Those are the sheep I count at night to fall asleep. They all hold hands together and walk around in the shadow and silhouette, like at the end of “The Seventh Seal.” All my boyfriends are there. They all hang out together.
‘Columbo,’ Season 2, Episode 1: ‘Étude in Black’
Along with guest stars like Blythe Danner and Myrna Loy, this episode features a murderous conductor played by Cassavetes, Falk’s friend and collaborator from films like “Husbands” and “A Woman Under the Influence.”
Ah, that one has two boyfriends: John and Peter. So it’s nice to see them reunited. It warms my heart.
I spent so much time with those Cassavetes films and his book “Cassavetes on Cassavetes.” And I love what that episode is saying about the possibility of working together with people you care about. For example, Dascha Polanco was in “Orange Is the New Black” and “Russian Doll,” and now she’s in “Poker Face.” To have Janicza Bravo, who I’ve worked with a few times, and me and Rootbeer [Lyonne’s dog] hanging out in upstate New York, breaking down a script, is everything I love about making things.
Of course my love for Chloë [Sevigny] is complete, and what was fun on “Poker Face” is that [her and Lyonne’s characters] are not pals. That’s her nemesis. There is a real joy to get to do that with somebody that you know so intimately, because you can take bigger swings and keep each other honest. It’s just sparky and fun.”
‘The Twilight Zone,’ Season 1, Episode 4: ‘The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine’
This installment from the original run of Serling’s science-fiction anthology series stars Ida Lupino as a former film star who is obsessed with watching and rewatching her old movies.
The episode is so meta and weird and tragic. The whole thing is bizarre as hell, and she’s great in it.
My other favorite “Twilight Zone’ episode is [“Time Enough at Last”], but that’s also my death fantasy and nightmare — ending up in a room full of books and then my glasses break. It just seems like Ida Lupino was a little bit sexier here. She not only starred in an episode but she also directed one [“The Masks,” from Season 5].
Lupino has a sort of Kathryn Bigelow quality to her that I greatly admire — female filmmakers where it doesn’t feel like she was hemmed in by this necessity of telling a “girl’s story.” I always respect that, because I know firsthand how hard it is that there is this expectation for ladies to tell lady stories. You would think, as a people, we’d be way, way past this by now.
Of course I’m glad to see any progress. But it’s also weird that we’re in a time where it seems to be moving in both directions simultaneously.
Dave Itzkoff
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