A New Lease on Death

I was a little bit disappointed after a couple not that great episodes in this second season of Poker Face, but this episode made it worthwhile to stick with watching it. Fantastic writing, great acting, intense scenes, flawless directing, and what an apartment...Lyonne is at home and she delivers. The casting for this episode is amazing, just loved the main and the second tier characters as well. I wished it would last 90 to 140 minutes, it always looks like a movie on film, but this episode felt like one in every sense. Oh to be a fly on those walls during shooting this perfect little story.

I reviewed a couple of the early season 2 episodes and frankly was very disappointed. I just loved season 1 for its creativity, nuance, and twists and turns and now over the course of the last few episodes culminating in this one things have been as they were just about perfect. Natasha is great, the guest stars are fantastic the scripting is wonderful you're asking for more than the 47 minutes it's so good. I have the sense that things are going to continue to improve and it only gets better over the last three episodes. Shawkat in particular was brilliant in this episode but everybody was perfectly cast bravo.

Alia Shawkat is a revelation in this - obviously anyone who's enjoyed the fantastic search party will be fully aware of her startling range, but this was something new entirely. Chillingly done, even among all the heavyhanded schmaltz this show has been guilty of peddling at various stages throughout this season.

Awkwafina is decent. A little underused maybe? But probably the most impressive she's been in a cameo - I'd like to see more of her in challenging roles.

Even Lyonne couldn't spoil this one, despite her best efforts. More of this ilk, please - but less of the cheese if you can. Really is a bit of a yo-yo quality wise.

"A New Lease on Death" is an episode of "Poker Face" which offers one of the most unusual murders because the payoff for the killing seems so strange. In this case, a young woman befriends an older woman simply because she wants the lady's rent controlled apartment. But this means killing off the older woman's heir as well as the older woman...and it's tough to get away with this when Charlie is there to spot your lies. So, Charlie is out to prove that the accidental death wasn't accidental as well as the killer's plan for her second killing.

This is a good episode...not among the best but enjoyable and worth seeing. Well written and interesting and, as usual, pretty strange.