Dead Man's Hand

I like a good character study. I give a show/movie 20 minutes to hold my attention. Charlie has me intrigued. I dig Adrien Brody's character as the foil. So far so good on the first episode. I plan on watching another episode so well done. I hope this isn't a series where the first season is well written but subsequent series suck because they change the writers. We shall see!

Natasha Lyonne's gravely voice-I dig it! So NOT mainstream. Well done casting director!!! I look forward to seeing other cast members story lines: Chloe Sevigny, Simon Helberg, John Ratzenberger, Benjamin Bratt, Ron P Perlman...comeon dude I see some great character actors and look forward to the journey.

"Dead Man's Hand" is the first episode of "Poker Face"...a TV show from Rian Johnson which is an obvious homage to "Columbo". In this episode, you learn the backstory for Charlie (Natasha Lyonne). She works at a casino and her boss realizes she's essentially a human lie detector. And, because of that, he wants to use her to fleece one of his patrons. The problem is that despite being a bit rough, Charlie is a decent person and cannot abide that they are just robbing the man...as the patron is also a pedophile! What becomes of all this and why does a casino employee chase her throughout season one? Well, tune in to see.

The show does a great job of establishing the characters and setting the stage for future episodes. And, more importantly, due to excellent writing, acting and directing, it's enjoyable and you'll find youself wanting to see more. Not the best episode of season one, but one of the better ones.

What we have here is essentially a remake of the littlest hobo, but instead of London the dog we have Natasha Lyon.

The cast of actors is good, but this is simply to detract from the obvious short comings of the show.

The plots are obvious.

Like pretty much everything from Rian Johnson the plots are unoriginal, taken from successful movies or TV shows and rehashed, badly.

I'm at a loss at how the man continues to gain employment!

It shows what a sorry state the "business" is in.

Run by the talentless that think anything earlier than 2000 is ancient and anything is black and white is simply not to be watched.

So here we have another show, ripping off a classic from yesteryear, being passed off as an original.

It's not Rian!

We all see through you.

"There's a voice that keeps on calling me....."

It's not often I get excited about a new tv show these days, but when I stumbled across Rian Johnson's new offering, I could tell something special was in store when the opening credits used the Columbo font.

As the story unfolded it became clear how deliberate that was, when Charlie's gravelly voice delivered lines very reminiscent of Peter Falk's legendary detective.

This is a cool, fresh take on the old 70s TV detective format. It felt very modern, and even though it adopted the Columbo pattern of showing the murder in all it's detail at the beginning, there were still plenty of surprises and twists in store.

There were plenty of little clues that viewers paying attention could detect ahead of the reveals, and there were plenty of movie and tv references, most notably the huge stuffed birds of prey behind the psychotic killer referencing Anthony Perkins in psycho

There are also great guest star appearances in each episode, and wonderful cinematography throughout. A strong series that I hope will continue!

And was pleasantly surprised at how this episode held my attention both with the characters, the actors who played them and the story! Also, I had to rewind a few times because the location looked so familiar. Recognized so much of the area, as we stop over in Laughlin and Bullhead City every winter on our way towards Yuma, AZ. Love Natasha's quirkiness, both comedic and semi-serious. Always liked Benjamin Bratt and Adrian Brody. Scrolled through the cast list and there are alot of well known actors to be featured in coming episodes. So glad I took a chance on this show, hope the coming episodes don't disappoint!