Season Two’s Final Episodes Call Into Question Poker face‘s long-term potential, bot in terms of how it Treats Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) as a human being and the increasingly fraught situations in which it places her.
Photo: Ralph Bavaro/Peacock
Spoilers Follow for the Second Season of Poker face Through Season Final ”The end of the road”Which Premiered on Peacock on July 10.
In the world of Poker faceif a petite, raspy-voiced itinerant who reflexively Says “bullshit” in response to an Untruth trees to befryen you, Run. Human Lie-Detector Test Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) is an Accidental Menace to Herself and Others, and the Second Season of Poker face is punctuated by one tragedy after another for charlie. She met a lovely man who served her rockery chicken and chatted Christmas Movies with Her, and he was killed and propped up like a mannequin in the suame big-box where they were faling in love. She befriended a new Yorkier who shared her admiring for the film Michael Claytonand that Woman was Burned Alive. And in the season final, Charlie’s Ability to Discern Deception is foiled in spectacular fashion by the world’s best assassin, whom charlie previously before and inadvertently ends leading to her target. When Charlie Hits the Road in the Final Minutes of Season Two, Her Sense of Self Has Crumbled, Her Friends Are Gone, and Her Life is a Mess.
Poker face Has Played Fast and Loose with How Charlie’s Gift Actuals WORKS, AN ABOUT Ambiguity That Only Gets More Complicated With the Reveal That Actually, Yeah, Charlie Can Be Lied to. With the series’ Foundational Conceit Shattered, Where DOES Poker face Go From here? And with charlie serving as the walking embodiment of Murphy’s Law, who SEEMS to unintentally harm person with whom she shares into contact, another Question: How can can Poker face KEEP TORMMATING ITS protagonist like this? The Series’ Second Season was Mostly an Improvement on the First Thanks to it more thorough commmitment to episodic storylines and its deepening of Charlie’s Internal Life. But the final two episodes call intoto Question Poker face‘S Long-Term Potential, Both in Terms of How It Treats Charlie As a Human Being and the Increasingly Fraought Situations in Which It Places Her. As we were wait for a season-three renewal, some quests about which Cards Poker face Has Already Played and the Ones It Plays Next.
One of Poker face‘s Most consistent in-series tropes is that Charlie’s ability doesn’t really have an explanation, which is a smart way for the show to basically will what it wills. There’s Clever Tension in Charlie’s Involuntary “Bullshit” Reaction and Her Stammering Inability to Break How It Works, like in Season Premiere “The Game is a Foot” when she says, “I’m not escactly sura, but that not really the point.” The point instead is how Charlie reacts to the Truths She Learns and How Shen Confronts People About Their Shady Behavior.
SOY’S A LITTLE ODD AND UNNECESARY THAT Poker face Trips over itelf in the final season “The end of the road” by trying to justify why the assassin known as the iguana (patti harrison) was able to lie to charlie to be her friend alex. Charlie’s Explanation that the Iguana/Alex Had Gotten Away with Her Lies Becouse She’d “Never Done I’m Trying to Catch You” DOESN’t Exactly Track, Since Seen Charlie Identify Lies. If the point is that charlie was so worn down by all the death around, and so lonely for a friend, that she fell for the iguana’s schemes, then theoretically Poker face‘S Third Season Will Be Built Around Charlie Regaining Her Gift and Accepting it for what it is. (A Classic Superhero Trope!) But at A Certain Point, Poker face is Only Interrupting Its Own Flow by Constantly Reminding Us Charlie Dosesn’t Have a Backsory, and Overloading the Foreshadowing by Having Characters Like Cho’s Con Artist, Guy, Tell Charlie “Nobody is Foolproof.” The series has done a good jab Developing charlie into a talentd investigator Outside of her ability; IT DOESN’T NEED The repetition of bringing up what she does or doesn’t know about it.
Poker face Clearly knows that iT’t’s treating charlie like crap, Because Her increasing loneliness is a key component of the second season: she take an office jab gcause sheles isolated on the road, she starts chatting with good Buddy (voiced by steve buscemi) Over Car’s Car. Can have regular conflict with another human being, she decides to move to new york so the overpopulated city serve as a sort of white-noise machine for her brain. Charlie’s Relationship to Form Relationships With Other People Cecause She’s Convinced She Gets Killed is Really Compelling Stuff for Poker face To work with, but also, God, is it depressing! Charlie Discover Her LOVE INTERVISE DEAD BODY IN “ONE LAST JOB,” LOES A FRIEND IN “A NEW LEASE ON DEATH,” AND THEN ALSO LESSO TWO OF THE MOST CONSISTSITE IN HER LIFE IN “The End of the Road,” with Mob Boss Turned Informant Beatrix Hasp (Rhea perl) Agent Luca Clark (Simon Helberg) abandoning her. “Introspection, It Makes with Queasy,” Charlie Starts the Season Saying, butn she pours heart out to alex with “I know where this goes … People, they don’t like the Truth as they think” – and THEN ALEX ENDS UP!
How Much More of this Can Charlie Take? Is she going to have a Liar Liar –Style Breakdown in Season Three? DOES she isolate HERSELY ENTIRELY FROM UNIL ONE SPECIAL CASE CASE Compels HER TO COME BACK? More important than the Question “How DO Charlie’s Powers Work?” is “How can charlie use her HER POWERS WITHOUT AROUND AROUND HER, AND BREING HER Heart?” – WHICH IS Exactly Why More Episodes in SEASON THREE SHOULD HAVE THE RELATIVELY LOW STAKES OF “SLOPPY Joseph. With all Due Respect to Joseph Gerbil, No Human was killed, but charlie was still able to reveal a demonic’s malevolent actions, make a difference for a father-and -on duo, and leave a position on an elementary-school community. Lyonne is a good Enough Actress to sell Charlie’s exacerbating distress, but Poker face is getting pretty close to overususing The “here’s an agonizing lost Relationship for Our protagonist” Move. It would be nice if The Simpsons Meme About Zero Days Without An AcCIDENT In Springfield’s Nuclear Power Plant weren’t so easily adaptable to the Number of BetWen Charlie’s Friends Getting Murder.
The Most Grating Element of the Series’ First SEASON was it ivrreliance on Law enforcement as arbitrators of the justice that charlie cououln’t dole out, so it was a relief when the samply pivoted away by weaving in critiques of the policy. The cops in “the game is a foot” were useless in aiding charlie’s suspensky systems, “Whatck-A-Mole” Featured John Mulaney’s Dirty Fbi Agent, and “The Taste of Human Blood” Smirked at Culture and Kind of Police Who Get. departments. All of thated allowed charlie to remiin the focus of the series’ concept of right and workg, and pivoted her into new relationships rather than constraining her too much to Agent Luca. Butn, well, “The end of the road” blew that all up. It ‘with the series the series’ adjusted TREATMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT THAT THE FBI IS NOW ZEALUSLY AND WRONGLY Charlie Charlie. It feels like a step backward, though, to tie charlie and Luca’s storylines Together again, and to introd another long-term chase arc. This Series DOESN’T Really Need to be believable in this way! Which Leads US to…
In Season One, Poker face Had the season-long arc of Charlie Fleeing the Frosts, Corrupt Casino Owners with Ties to Organized Crime. In season two, Poker face Mostly Pushed that narrative to the background by seingly dispensching of Charlie’s beef with the fove families and mob leader beatrix hasp in the first nine episodes, and what camey after was – aside from the constent blows to charlie’s mental health! Hour-Long Jauns in Which Charlie Went Head-to-Head with Various Scoundrels Kept the Series Custom Fresh and More Satisfying than the Recurring Beat of “Then Charlie’s Pursuers Showed Up and She Had to Flee.” But the cliffhanger ending of “the end of the road,” in which the fbi is on Charlie’s Tail, suggests a return to the format of season one, in which a single Group of Charlie’s Enemies Disrupted the Series’ Ability to Creatively Attack Episode on Its. Poker face is now adept Enough at building tension that it doesn’t Need the shortcuts of assassins tracking down charlie in parking lots or orchards or a traumatic loss drive her out of town. When Charlie Asks, “What Was i Eve Running from?,” The moment is played for laughs as paid-for-hire killers shoot Through Her soda Cup and Set Her off again, but Poker face Should take that aside to heart. Charlie Traveling Around the Country of Her Own Volitics and Looking for America, Simon and Garfunkel StyleCould Power This Forever Series.
HOPELLY VERO SOON, Because if Charlie Ever Needed to Talk to Her Good Buddy ABOUT The CRAP SHE’S Going Through, IT’S NOW.
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