I’m an unlimited fan of homicide mysteries. I grew up studying as many examples of the style as attainable, absorbing every little thing from Agatha Christie to Encyclopedia Brown. If there was a puzzle I may attempt to resolve earlier than the top of a narrative, I’d devour it. That’s why just lately, I’ve been so jazzed by the narratives cooked up by Rian Johnson in his Daniel Craig-led Benoit Blanc mysteries. The characteristic movies Knives Out and Glass Onion each have revitalized the business’s emphasis on whodunit tales, resulting in a revival for exhibits resembling Matlock, A Man on the Inside, Elsbeth, Solely Murders In The Constructing, Deadloch, and extra. Desperate to dig into one other offbeat thriller present, my spouse and I began up Excessive Potential on ABC. We like Kaitlin Olson, and have been hooked on the premise of a superb cleansing girl employed by the cops to help their investigations.
The one factor is, the present jogs my memory an excessive amount of of Natasha Lyonne’s Poker Face… a detective collection with far superior writing.
This, little question, has to do with the truth that Poker Face is a facet venture for the aforementioned Rian Johnson, as if the person simply had too many twisty mysteries in his head, and wanted a intelligent outlet on which to unleash them. You would possibly argue towards my premise that these exhibits are comparable. One’s a gritty (although typically hilarious) character drama obtainable to stream with a Peacock subscription, and the opposite’s a blatantly made-for-TV dramedy that’s palatable for all customers.
However to me, they each characteristic extremely clever feminine lead characters who’ve a novel present that enables them to see by crime scenes. And the construction of the episodes results in a crime-of-the-week that have to be solved, whereas additionally constructing a much bigger thriller behind the scenes.
Katlin Olson and Natasha Lyonne are each excellent at what they do. Neither of their characters care very a lot for authority, they usually’re each very comfy bending the principles if it means they will help somebody who’s distressed (and combating the system – that’s an enormous hook on each applications). In addition they each excel at delivering jargon, the required data dumps that transfer the mysteries by the situational-comedy pipeline. However it’s within the writing the place, in my view, Poker Face triumphs over Excessive Potential, not less than following the primary season of the Peacock streamer.
We ranked the episodes included within the first season of Poker Face. And even within the lamest of the 10-episode season, Lyonne’s Charlie Cale nonetheless finds herself in an unpredictable and murderous state of affairs that highlights the flyover nation of this nice nation. All through the course of the season, Charlie – who has a God-given skill to smell out when somebody is mendacity – has been bouncing from state to state, fixing crimes and serving to the harmless. However she additionally has been staying forward of an enforcer performed by Benjamin Bratt. It’s important to anticipate the season finale, titled “The Hook,” to study why Charlie’s on the run. And the best way that “The Hook” connects a number of dots from your entire season earns a spherical of applause from me.
Maybe Excessive Potential will attain the next potential. I’m undoubtedly intrigued by the continuing investigation into the disappearance of Morgan’s (Olson) first husband, Roman. And the instances in Season 1 of Excessive Potential have grown extra fascinating, although once more, with the extent of writing, the present too typically leans on contrivances and coincidences the place a present like Poker Face discovered methods to be extra intelligent and concise.
My takeaway right here appears to be that if you’re one of many individuals who’ve tuned in to Excessive Potential on ABC, and also you haven’t but seen Poker Face on Peacock, dive head first into the latter and binge away earlier than Poker Face Season 2 arrives on the streaming service. You’ll not remorse it.