Like its obvious inspiration, Columbo, Poker Face shows us who did the murder right from the jump. I say mysteries, but they’re not really that.

As Charlie drives across America, working odd jobs, she keeps stumbling into murder mysteries, which she solves using her unique powers of deduction. But, of course, malfeasance finds her, and Charlie has to go on the lam, keeping one or two steps ahead of her pursuer, played by Benjamin Bratt. She once used that to her advantage in gambling, but now she’s trying to stay on the straight and narrow-minus all the booze and cigarettes. Lyonne plays Charlie, a Nevada casino dweller with a special gift: she can always tell when someone is lying. That’s a credit to the show’s creator, Rian Johnson, this year best known for writing a directing Glass Onion, and to its salty star, Natasha Lyonne, who wears the show’s quirky, hang-out energy like a comfy vintage suit. Which should be irksome, and yet mostly isn’t. The show is built, in some ways, as a testament to its own cleverness.

It walks right up to the line of smugness, of tweeness-maybe it even puts a toe over the edge here and there-before it pulls back. The new murder-comedy Poker Face (on Peacock now) plays a very dangerous game indeed.

Jamul casino murder mystery theater