With the show landing today, the Poker Face creator muses on the show’s potential.  

One of our most-anticipated shows of the moment is Poker Face. Premiering today on the US streamer Peacock, the 10-part mystery show stars Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) as Charlie Cale, who has an uncanny ability to tell if someone is lying.

Slick and stylish with an impossibly incredibly starry guest list, it appears to be going for a ‘mystery of the week’ approach as Charlie drives into town and solves a crime.

Ahead of the premiere, show creator Rian Johnson (Glass Onion) has given an entertaining interview to io9. In it, he is tackled with the question of whether Charlie’s ability should be classed as a superpower:

“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.”

An origin story?

While the origin of that power is not addressed in the show, there’s a hint that a further series might explore it:

“You know what, it’s interesting. We thought about doing—we don’t this season, but we thought about doing an episode that’s a flashback to her childhood, or with her dad, or something where you kind of see [where it starts]. It’s hard though because I still haven’t cracked exactly what—maybe I will coming up, but figuring out what that would be, that’s not just kind of a psychological thing that feels like something we’ve seen before.”

And while he’s still on the fence about that, there is a suggestion of meeting someone who Charlie cannot read:

“That’s a very interesting thing. Yes. There is one thing. I don’t even know if I should say it because we might use it for season two. But, actually, there are a couple of different things where we thought in this situation it would be interesting for her to meet somebody who she can’t read. And so I’m not going to say too much about it because I think it is something we’ll use in the future. But I’m very excited about exploring that, and the fact that we got a whole season’s worth of stuff and didn’t even tap into that well to me is exciting.”

While the show lands on Peacock with an initial four-episode drop, we’ve still no news of a UK broadcaster/streamer. We’ll keep you posted.