We Think Rian Johnson’s Poker Face Is a Superhero Show, and He’s OK With That
By Germain Lussier
Columbo. Kojak. Murder, She Wrote. These are the shows most commonly mentioned when describing Peacock’s new show, Poker Face. And, it being from Rian Johnson, the mastermind behind the Knives Out films (as well as The Last Jedi), the comparisons are accurate and logical. Poker Face is, at its core, about a woman named Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) who travels the country and solves murders.
But there’s a twist. Charlie is a human lie detector. She can instinctively tell, for a fact, if a person is lying about something. So if you step back and describe that in a different way you might say she has an innate, unexplained power that makes her superior to others. Or, in other words, a superpower.
We here at io9 have been debating this conclusion for weeks leading up to Poker Face’s January 26 debut on Peacock—and to get the definitive answer while diving a bit more into this mysterious ability of Charlie’s, we went to the man himself, show creator Rian Johnson.
Germain Lussier, io9: Mr. Johnson, how are you doing, sir?
Rian Johnson: Great, man. How you doing?
io9: I’m doing great. So io9, as you may or may not know, is primarily a sci-fi website.
Johnson: Check it every single day. I read it every day.
io9: Oh. Wow. Thank you. Well, in the past few weeks, we’ve been debating something about the show, so I want to explore and ask this question. Do you think Charlie’s ability to detect a lie is a superpower?
Johnson: [Deep inhale] Where do you draw the line? It’s like the Asimov thing of any significant scientific advancement is indistinguishable from magic. And in that case, I don’t know. What’s the difference between just having something baked in the back of your brain that can pick up subtle little things that trigger that, and quote-unquote ESP? So I don’t know how to answer that question. I don’t know. I mean, it’s definitely superhuman. In that, it’s beyond reality in terms of what humans can do, but it’s also something that’s weirdly plausible. So if it means you’ll cover it on io9, I think. Yes, it’s absolutely [a superpower].
[Both laugh]
It’s pure science fiction! It’s pure sci-fi [Laughs].
