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The first time I saw Natasha Lyonne was in a few episodes of, “Orange is the New Black” back when it first started, in 2013. Can’t remember whether I finished watching S1 or not but did not watch beyond it for sure. From what I remember of the series about women in prison was that she played a batsh*t crazy inmate.

The next time I saw Natasha was when she starred in three seasons of “Russian Doll” (2019-2022.) Season 1 had her reliving her death (in various, inescapable ways) every day, like, “Groundhog Day” with a twist. She has a riveting stage presence and everyone else fades in comparison. S1 was excellent, S2 & S3 not so much.

Surfing the library database recently, seeing her face on the cover of, “Poker Face,” I borrowed it. It’s one of those kinds of shows easy to binge-watch, even though the library has expanded borrow time for series from one week to three weeks. S1 has 10 episodes, and it is my understanding that there will be a S2.

Natasha plays Charlie Cale, a woman who has a very valuable skill of being able to tell if someone is lying or not. E1 has her working as a waitress in a casino. She gets called into the big bosses’ office, here played by Adrien Brody as Sterling Frost, Jr., with Benjamin Bratt playing Jr.’s right hand man and head of security, Cliff Legrand. Jr. is new to the helm as big boss, having been given a chance by his father, played by Ron Perlman, Sterling Frost, Sr., to see what he can do to neutralize his longstanding reputation as a f*ckup, three months prior. When Charlie gets the call, she is sure that Jr. has found out her history of using her skill around the casino circuit to win big bucks and plans to fire her. He does let her know he knows what she did, but instead of wanting to fire her, she learns Jr. wants her to help him fleece a wealthy special gambler.

Add into the plot line a friend and co-worker of Charlie’s being murdered, where Charlie does an investigation in her inimitable style and learns Jr. is connected to the murder, and you can see where a dilemma presents itself to her. Can she help the man who had something to do with her friend’s murder if it means a huge money payoff?

I don’t want to give away any spoilers but it is kind of necessary to set up the rest of the format for the rest of the episodes. Things go well in some respects but terribly awry in others for the players involved, and Charlie ends up on the run and trying to avoid being murdered. The rest of the episodes are Charlie moving to a location, a murder happening, and Charlie trying to solve it for one reason or another while at the same time trying not to let Cliff Legrand find her and finish her off.

I really like the format described above. I also like how events are shown out of order and then pieced together. Lyonne is brilliant and fearless as Charlie Cale! She is unflappable and unstoppable as she gets to the root of the crimes. She’s also quick-witted and funny as hell.

The star quality of the actors and directors she and the other executive producers have drawn into the series. Directors include Natasha herself, Rian Johnson, Iain B. MacDonald, Janicza Bravo, Tiffany Johnson, Lucky McKee, and Ben Sinclair. Stars include Adrien Brody, Benjamin Bratt, Ron Perlman, Simon Helberg, Pedro Hollywood, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Barkin, Chloe Sevigny, Hong Chau, Judith Light, Nick Nolte (!), Tim Blake Nelson, Lil Rel Howery, Tim Meadows, Luiz Guzman, and so many more.

Although the show is set out west, imdb says it was filmed in Newburgh, New York. Consider me very surprised if/that it was filmed only there.