Hundreds of hours of unwatched and unfinished content are becoming increasingly common due to the rise of streaming services. With each service vying for attention, money, and time from viewers, the biggest issue is the amount of time required to watch the endless content. Television shows nowadays are often extended, with series that used to have six or eight episodes per season now running for 10 or 12 episodes. The fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, for example, consisted of nine episodes on paper but was split into two “volumes” totaling 13 hours, which felt bloated, meandering, and self-indulgent. However, there are indications that things may be changing, with Netflix being the only service adhering to the all-episodes-at-once model it pioneered a decade ago with its first original series Lilyhammer and House of Cards.
Though binge-watching was once the future of television, the trend seems to be changing towards episodic shows where each weekly standalone drama has a beginning, middle, and end, with everything neatly wrapped up in an hour (including ad breaks). One such example is Rian Johnson’s Poker Face, a glorious throwback to 1970s American cop and private-eye shows that dominated television. Natasha Lyonne plays Charlie Cale, a former gambler and casino worker gifted with the ability to tell when someone is lying. Each week, Charlie travels to a new place, with a new set of characters and a new murder to solve. Influenced by shows like The Fugitive, The Incredible Hulk, and The Rockford Files, Poker Face brings back the episodic, case-of-the-week detective shows that never entirely disappeared from screens but haven’t sparkled like this in a long time.
