08-08-2025, 11:21 AM
Poker Face S2 is still pretty good, but its beginning to get a liiiiiitttttttle full of itself - like, spending a whole episode referencing Michael Manns Heat, while having a film nerd character talk about Heat and showing diegetic clips from Heat relevant to whats happening in the story 
Its also structurally a little weird - the first few episodes seem like they actually belong as tail end episodes for the first season, as they fairly definitively conclude last seasons ongoing plotline and then very firmly move on, and the last few episodes seem like they wanted to be an old school TV movie (as Columbo was) rather than a series of linked episodes. Also, ends on a fake out cliffhanger for reasons? Has an ongoing Steve Buscemi VA cameo, that then never pays off? Very weird structural shenanigans.
Also, yeah, I get it, you wanted to make a show like Columbo - don't fucking put a photo of Columbo in an opener as a wink to what you're doing, I fucking get it. It also doesn't do the Columbo thing as well as Elsbeth does it, because it really seems like they wrote themselves into a corner (and theres a pretty big plot point that seems to be directly addressing this near the end of the season) with the main character being a literal superpowered human lie detector (Karl Pilkington should get royalties, because they're literally Bullshit Man) as the 'catching the culprit in a lie' isn't nearly as satisfying when Charlie just goes "bullshit" as Columbos "one more thing..." conclusions did.
Having said that, where its basically a crime anthology vignette show its really good - then deux ex charlina shows up at the end, and they get arrested, wrapping things up in a neat bow to move onto next week.
Just kind of weird where the weakest element of the show is fundamentally the narrative hook of the main protagonist.
Its also structurally a little weird - the first few episodes seem like they actually belong as tail end episodes for the first season, as they fairly definitively conclude last seasons ongoing plotline and then very firmly move on, and the last few episodes seem like they wanted to be an old school TV movie (as Columbo was) rather than a series of linked episodes. Also, ends on a fake out cliffhanger for reasons? Has an ongoing Steve Buscemi VA cameo, that then never pays off? Very weird structural shenanigans.
Also, yeah, I get it, you wanted to make a show like Columbo - don't fucking put a photo of Columbo in an opener as a wink to what you're doing, I fucking get it. It also doesn't do the Columbo thing as well as Elsbeth does it, because it really seems like they wrote themselves into a corner (and theres a pretty big plot point that seems to be directly addressing this near the end of the season) with the main character being a literal superpowered human lie detector (Karl Pilkington should get royalties, because they're literally Bullshit Man) as the 'catching the culprit in a lie' isn't nearly as satisfying when Charlie just goes "bullshit" as Columbos "one more thing..." conclusions did.
Having said that, where its basically a crime anthology vignette show its really good - then deux ex charlina shows up at the end, and they get arrested, wrapping things up in a neat bow to move onto next week.
Just kind of weird where the weakest element of the show is fundamentally the narrative hook of the main protagonist.
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