Rian Johnson Wanted Poker Face To Be A 'Hangout Show' – Is It Succeeding?

Each episode of Rian Johnson's "Poker Face" is a joy to watch. The show brings in stellar guest stars week after week, but with the cast, location, and narrative focus ever-changing, what sort of consistency do audience members have to hold onto? The answer is simple — Natasha Lyonne. The episodic crime formula is pretty uncommon in streaming series, but there's one thing that Johnson is sure will keep people watching

"It's interesting," Johnson told Men's Health. "I think right now, especially in the streaming world, everyone's gotten so used to the serialized form of storytelling, where if it's a mystery show, the mystery's over the entire season, and that's what keeps you watching. Where, for most of my TV-watching life, TV was the opposite of that — it was episodic."

Each episode of "Poker Face" after the pilot kicks off with a murder. We know who committed the crime, but things aren't always usually what they seem. As Charlie Cale slowly uncovers the murderer and the motive, the audience gradually learns more and more about the killing — and the killers. But Johnson doesn't think it's the crimes that keep audiences engaged.

"I don't really watch those shows for the mysteries, I watch them to hang out with James Garner [in The 'Rockford Files'], or to hang out with Peter Falk [in Columbo]," he said. "They're really hangout shows. So seeing Natasha, and realizing she was a presence who would bring me back every week — this watchable, charismatic presence, that can center a show — everything kind of clicked."

Charlie Cale weaves in and out of "Poker Face." The real mystery is not the murder, but when and how Charlie will amble into the mystery, and how she'll inevitably solve it. It's a "howcatchem," rather than a whodunit. She's more of a Philip Marlowe than your run-of-the-mill detective. Her rolling stone status gives her a gritty and meandering quality reminiscent of New Hollywood anti-heroes, much like Elliot Gould's characters in Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye" or "California Split." Still, her sixth sense gives her otherwise passive character the perfect excuse to get involved. Almost everyone is charmed by Charlie, and so is the audience. She often finds herself a step behind, but she's incredibly perceptive and charismatic. Johnson accredits the character's je ne sais quoi to Lyonne herself. Here's what he told NPR: 

"Well, that's Natasha. She's funny, and she's also incredibly wise. I mean, and I'm talking about in real life, not the character, my friend Natasha. She's, you know, she's lived a lot of life. She's been through a lot of stuff. She's got a lot of wisdom under the hood. And yeah, and just — and this is similar to Charlie Cale You know, you underestimate her at your peril."

And if you ask Lyonne, the actress aimed to create an interiority to all her characters. "It's so fascinating to watch a human being in process, ruminating, that we trust that to hold an audience's attention," Lyonne explained to Time. Rather than allow herself to play a female character that's "defined by an outer life," she prefers her characters be led by "their inner beat." Charlie definitely fits the bill — the character has almost no outer life at all, and she's as interesting as they come.

Natasha Lyonne is the reason why "Poker Face" succeeds as a hangout show, and she was at its center from the very beginning. Even when the show was just a twinkle in Rian Johnson's eye, he knew that Lyonne was the key.

"There was virtually nothing [to pitch to Lyonne]," the "Knives Out" director confessed to Collider. "The only thing I had was, 'It's a procedural case of the week show starring you, what do you think?' [...] This is really a house that the two of us built together. Even once it was on the page, figuring out how to play Charlie and what makes that character unique and special, it's really been a collaboration with Natasha from the word go."

After co-creating her own Netflix series, "Russian Doll," Lyonne is also an executive producer on "Poker Face." She even put her directing chops to the test in episode 8, airing February 23. But above all, her performance has been the key to the series' success. Her compelling onscreen presence is truly the driving force of the series, and Johnson couldn't agree more.

"To me, the key to this kind of show is casting Natasha Lyonne," he told Men's Health. "Making the show with her. I think, ultimately, that's where the show places its chips, is the character of Charlie Cale, and having her be someone you're going to want to come back to every single week and see her win."

"Poker Face" might be one of the most successful hangout series of all time, and that's all thanks to Lyonne. Johnson may have had the incredible idea to revive a dying form of television at the perfect time, but he couldn't have done it without one of the most incredibly watchable actresses of all time.