Poker Face arrives in Spain eight months late. When we had already become accustomed to having everything and having it already (and legally), the latest reconfigurations of the audiovisual panorama have made some series, even some very good and relevant series, take time to premiere in Spain. That has happened with Poker Face, which is a very good and relevant series. We already have it here at SkyShowtime.
Created by Rian Johnson, Poker Face is a very peculiar update of the classic Colombo. There are many things about that mythical detective in the new series: from the honesty of his approach (Poker Face is a fiction that knows it is a fiction) to the peculiar voice of its protagonist. That no one before has directly connected the dictions of Peter Falk and Natasha Lyonne seems impossible. It had to be Lyonne herself and Johnson, responsible for the successful Daggers in the Back (and husband of Karina Longworth, queen of film podcasting), who draw that line.
Poker Face is Nastasha Lyonne on the same level that Russian Doll was Natasha Lyonne. With her attitude halfway between Lina Morgan and Slash of Guns N'Roses, Lyonne is very comfortable in characters that only she can do. Doll's Nadia and Poker Face's Charlie have things in common. For starters, both have supernatural power. Nadia's was living in a Kafkaesque time loop (more than a superpower, a superpower); Charlie's is knowing when someone is lying by looking at their face. It never fails but, for whatever reason, that more than fixing his life spoils it. And then a series of catastrophic misfortunes forces her to use her gift to survive. Marvel mutants saw how their ultra-capabilities turned them into outlaws and freaks. That happens to Charlie too, but without cool suits or options to save the world. She has enough to save herself.
In Orange is the New Black, considered the reset of her career, Natasha Lyonne demonstrated her incredible ability to turn chaotic and disastrous characters into fun and endearing characters. Delighted to have re-acceded to a stardom that she was about to achieve before 20, the 44-year-old Lyonne now capitalizes on her gifts as an actress: nobody smokes and drinks like her, nobody hits cuts like her, nobody speaks to her insides like her and only she can wear that hairstyle and that condors and storks do not nest in it.
Natasha Lyonne only does it that well Natasha Lyonne and that is why it does not bother at all that it is so clear that both Russian Doll and Poker Face are series made to measure. How can they not be, if she produces them and stars in them. He also directs and writes some of its episodes. And it is that retaco edge crowned by an indescribable red-haired wig is an author with capital letters. If all the products made to measure of its protagonists were like Poker Face, the spectators would be very happy.
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