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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
67
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
If the format is lovingly pinched from Columbo, along with some memorable plot points, the social worlds Charlie dips into are not just inspired, but also vividly fleshed out. ... Of the many bespoke touches that make Poker Face a true midwinter gift, the greatest pleasure is in watching an extraordinary character, played by an extraordinary actor, puzzle her way through the bottomless mysteries of the human psyche.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Natasha Lyonne comes off like the last pack of cigarettes in a world of vape pens. ... Poker Face rehumanizes and re-weirds TV crime, carving a third way between network franchises and prestige gloom. ... Here's a detective with no home, no gun, no phone, no supporting cast, a past to escape, and a doomed future. Hell of a hand, I'm all in.
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ColliderJan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
This series has everything — from a killer cast, deliciously clever dialogue, smartly delivered mysteries, and a creative team to die for. Peacock, it’s time to up the ante and bet on this series’ success. Poker Face has the potential to not only become the best series of 2023 but also inspire the industry to see the benefit of episodic storytelling that draws audiences into the glorious, nostalgia-filled realm of howcatchems again.
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May 2, 2025
Season 2 Review:
Season 2, while still largely adhering to the format established in Season 1, never feels totally beholden to its established structure, in ways that create surprise on a regular basis. There’s even an episode where there’s no murder victim — not a human one, anyway. One thing remains consistent: Much of the joy of a Poker Face episode (ten of which were provided for review) is finding out how Charlie fits into whatever tale is unfolding.
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The PlaylistJan 25, 2023
Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
You could accuse Poker Face of lacking ambition by drawing so heavily on the past, but that would be missing the point. What Johnson, Lyonne, and the Zimmermans have done is identify what was so magnetic and crowd-pleasing about Columbo and his kin, and translate it to a whole new era, in ways that feel of the moment and fresh.
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May 9, 2025
Season 2 Review:
You may want Charlie to stay on her summer road trip forever, and she just might. For now, it is enough that the show gives us 10 superb reasons to sit with it, appreciating how sturdy some entertainment styles and mechanics that worked decades ago remain even now, when the right hands are on the wheel.
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Mar 13, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Lyonne is perfect, bumbling and stumbling like Peter Falk in his trench coat (right down to the cigarettes). ... Johnson hasn’t reinvented the TV wheel. But he’s merged two types of TV sensibilities into something that feels comfortable and new at the same time. “Poker Face” is a joy. Don’t miss it.
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Feb 3, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The irresistible Natasha Lyonne dives into the role of her career as a human lie detector in this fabulously addictive mystery series from Knives Out/Glass Onion creator Rian Johnson. On the run from a vengeful Vegas boss, she leads the best joyride of the 2023 TV season.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Because shows like Poker Face have become so rare — or, at least, ones like it that are also executed this well — there is a risk of wildly overpraising it. Like any episodic drama, some episodes are stronger than others. ... But goddamn, what a relief and delight it is to see a TV show that actually wants to be a TV show, and that knows how to do that at this high a level. ... This one’s wonderful.
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Jan 25, 2023
May 8, 2025
Season 2 Review:
Poker Face sometimes indulges itself in the cult of personality of its guest murderers and Charlie’s BS detector skills at the sacrifice of making a more intricate case for her to solve. But Lyonne always puts in a winning performance and the guest killers are fun to watch, which is why mystery nerds like us don’t get frustrated watching the series.
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The IndependentMay 2, 2025
Jun 1, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne have brilliantly recreated Columbo’s howcatchem formula in the first four episodes of Poker Face. The mystery-of-the-week show is packed with quirky characters, humor with a bit of bite, and excellent performances from Lyonne and the murderers she must puzzle out how to bring to justice.
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Jan 26, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It’s a hangout show that relies on the pleasure of Natasha Lyonne’s company, which even in the weaker installments is considerable. ... If you miss the kind of episodic storytelling that cares more about delivering a one-hour-long bundle of amusement than in keeping the viewer in suspense until the next installment, you’re likely to enjoy being around her, too.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
In some episodes, I got impatient for Lyonne to arrive. In others, the introductions were as thrilling as one-act plays. Johnson’s stamp as the director of the first two episodes is hard to overstate: He makes ugly landscapes seem beautiful, blocks interior scenes with an artist’s eye. ... On Poker Face, it’s easy to forgive the fact that Charlie often accidentally nudges people toward their imminent fate, or that the show’s vision seems rather cynical, with the do-gooders invariably getting bludgeoned by the devious schemers.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
“Poker Face” is an entertaining throwback to a time when murder cases on TV weren’t quite as bloodily realistic and morally challenging. Like so many other crime shows right now, it isn’t asking you to explore your own sense of right and wrong. Instead, it’s offering you a mild diversion, in the playful manner of “Knives Out,” and an hourlong hang with Natasha Lyonne.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Generally, the series has a confident throwback style, with solid location shooting and the occasional ’70s flourish — an unexpected zoom or whatnot — as a reminder of the project’s origins. Maybe I didn’t love Poker Face quite as much as I wanted to, but it’s doing its odd thing with great enthusiasm and I can easily see how it could get more and more comfortable with its derivative-but-distinctive voice.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It is a sturdy kind of storytelling, and sturdiness is not splashy or thrilling. But it is reliable, and the show’s structural resilience fits neatly into its underlying worldview. There’s a deep, warm sweetness inside Poker Face’s ten episodes. ... Poker Face knows itself, and it gives viewers exactly what it has promised: a criminal, a detective, a crime, and a solution.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Surely one of the strongest series yet to launch on Peacock, this streaming drama feels like the best sort of vintage, comfortably spread-out TV. This elegant set of mystery stories allows an established star the time and space to crack a new sort of case, that of how to evolve a familiar persona and bring fans along for the ride.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Charlie Cale may be too similar to Lyonne's other characters to make the impression that Jessica Fletcher or Lieutenant Columbo did, but this is a worthy use of the esteem Lyonne has generated as she hits middle age. Some episodes ramble on a bit long, but it's hard to mind when there's so much going for them.
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IndieWireMay 8, 2025
Season 2 Review:
The formula requires a certain amount of repetition, just as the audience demands a new mystery each week. When episodes rely on people to bring them to life — be it famous guest stars, well-realized characters, life-affirming arcs, or all of the above — they’re that much easier to enjoy. For the most part, “Poker Face” Season 2 is quite easy to enjoy.
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SlashfilmMay 2, 2025
Season 2 Review:
Some episodes are light-hearted and utterly ridiculous romps to a fault, while others occasionally feel a little too clever for their own good. Every single one, however, delivers something we simply can't take for granted anymore. With each self-contained adventure and brazenly premeditated murder, "Poker Face" stands out as an oasis in a streaming desert.
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Jan 26, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The appeal of "Poker" is in its nostalgia and simplicity. The series is unpretentious, the scripts aren't rushed and Charlie makes a rather lackadaisical hero. Those looking for the fiery chaos of "Glass Onion" might be disappointed, but the series scratches a different itch. A leisurely, yawning itch on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The writing is steadily sharp; with the whodunit part always abundantly evident, the show can focus on the intricacies of the why and the how. And the killer guest spots just keep coming. ... Watching “Poker Face” is like seeing a bunch of old friends, realizing they’re murderers, and liking them all the more for it. They’re all here to get busted by Lyonne.
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IndieWireJan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
All this star power (with Lyonne leading the way) is enough to guarantee “Poker Face” will be, at least, an enjoyable diversion. But as the once-sharp dialogue dulls, the playful spirit fades, and the episodes overall regress to serviceable puzzle-solving, it’s hard to shake the feeling that “Poker Face” isn’t as good as it could’ve been.
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May 2, 2025
Season 2 Review:
Several of the episodes still show us too much too early, which makes Charlie’s sleuthing feel perfunctory as we wait for her to connect information that we’re already well aware of. In favoring a more comedic style, these problems have merely been slyly de-emphasized. And yet, even an underwhelming mystery never totally sinks an episode, as so much of the fun of Poker Face is discovering the colorful context surrounding it.
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Jan 25, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Occasionally, Poker Face feels as though it’s running up against the fundamental disconnect of its format: that murder is a serious crime that happens to a real person but also a constant vehicle for pure entertainment. ... But in the end, the series is designed to ably coast on Lyonne’s charm as she spars with its myriad guest stars—and on that front it delivers in spades.
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The GuardianMay 8, 2025
Season 2 Review:
Despite the variety of settings – a gym, a baseball stadium, a cabaret theatre, a police awards ceremony – and a multitude of high-profile guests (among them Katie Holmes, Awkwafina, John Mulaney, Melanie Lynskey, Steve Buscemi and Alia Shawkat, enjoying herself immensely), the mechanics can feel repetitive.
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