Poker Face: The Night Shift
January 27, 2023 7:38 PM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Charlie, adjusting to life on the run, struggles to clear the good name of an innocent trucker.
So … I’m getting “we’re not going to hook up” vibes.
(I need to use this on my next Tinder date. Well, no, that’s a terrible idea. But still!)
posted by Mr. Excellent at 8:56 PM on January 27, 2023 [10 favorites]
(I need to use this on my next Tinder date. Well, no, that’s a terrible idea. But still!)
posted by Mr. Excellent at 8:56 PM on January 27, 2023 [10 favorites]
This episode gripped me less, but it was still really good. The stakes felt lower? She story seemed smaller? I also kept being amazed at the young-Jack-Black vibes Colton Ryan (Jed) was giving me, which was a distraction.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:19 AM on January 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:19 AM on January 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
Thank you for the list, oh yeah! We tried to rewind the credits to read them all once we caught what was happening… and wound up getting advanced into the next episode.
The “draw the animal on the side of the truck” scene was a particular delight.
posted by thecaddy at 4:49 AM on January 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
The “draw the animal on the side of the truck” scene was a particular delight.
posted by thecaddy at 4:49 AM on January 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
This episode gripped me less, but it was still really good.
It definitely didn’t hold my attention as well as the first episode did. It kind of felt thin, especially compared to the first episode, which was pretty full of plot-points and action.
After we discover the trucker that dumped the body next to the dumpster was Marge, it just didn’t make any sense to me. She was written as such a careful, stay-off-the-grid character. But dumping a body in town, where she knows there are cameras everywhere, just doesn’t jive with the character. There’s a whoooooole lot of empty highway in New Mexico, where a trucker could pull over and toss a body and never be seen, and a character like Marge would know that.
I did like the “ha ha, fooled you” moment with the supposed surveillance camera in the Subway being revealed to just be a cat toy.
I had a bit of an issue with Jed being played in a way that would lead one to assume he was mentally challenged or otherwise “slow.” It’s kind of a trope that folks with mental issues are prone to criminal behavior (and/or being a creeper) and I was a bit surprised to get that vibe with this show.
I really dig Charlie’s 2nd gen Barracuda. Takes me back to my childhood.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:32 AM on January 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
It definitely didn’t hold my attention as well as the first episode did. It kind of felt thin, especially compared to the first episode, which was pretty full of plot-points and action.
After we discover the trucker that dumped the body next to the dumpster was Marge, it just didn’t make any sense to me. She was written as such a careful, stay-off-the-grid character. But dumping a body in town, where she knows there are cameras everywhere, just doesn’t jive with the character. There’s a whoooooole lot of empty highway in New Mexico, where a trucker could pull over and toss a body and never be seen, and a character like Marge would know that.
I did like the “ha ha, fooled you” moment with the supposed surveillance camera in the Subway being revealed to just be a cat toy.
I had a bit of an issue with Jed being played in a way that would lead one to assume he was mentally challenged or otherwise “slow.” It’s kind of a trope that folks with mental issues are prone to criminal behavior (and/or being a creeper) and I was a bit surprised to get that vibe with this show.
I really dig Charlie’s 2nd gen Barracuda. Takes me back to my childhood.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:32 AM on January 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, I loved this, even down to the Sweet reference and the Donald Fagan play-out. I keep trying to quit BitTorrent and they keep dragging me back in with awesome but otherwise inaccessible programming.
posted by Grangousier at 2:47 PM on January 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Grangousier at 2:47 PM on January 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I had a bit of an issue with Jed being played in a way that would lead one to assume he was mentally challenged or otherwise “slow.”
Huh, I didn't read him that way at all! Got the opposite vibe - that he had reason to believe he was destined for something bigger, and just failed to launch and resented it.
I loved Marge and am choosing to believe her name is a tribute to Large Marge from Pee-wee's Big Adventure, my favorite female trucker in the history of cinema. I agree it was out of character for her to try to ditch the body so carelessly and without considering surveillance cameras when she's otherwise so aware of being recorded in any way - seemed like a "blind panic" move but Marge seemed a bit more cool and collected than that. I'm kinda hoping the show maneuvers her back into Charlie's path so Charlie can ask her why she did that. Plus I think they should hook up
posted by potrzebie at 12:18 AM on January 29, 2023 [17 favorites]
Huh, I didn't read him that way at all! Got the opposite vibe - that he had reason to believe he was destined for something bigger, and just failed to launch and resented it.
I loved Marge and am choosing to believe her name is a tribute to Large Marge from Pee-wee's Big Adventure, my favorite female trucker in the history of cinema. I agree it was out of character for her to try to ditch the body so carelessly and without considering surveillance cameras when she's otherwise so aware of being recorded in any way - seemed like a "blind panic" move but Marge seemed a bit more cool and collected than that. I'm kinda hoping the show maneuvers her back into Charlie's path so Charlie can ask her why she did that. Plus I think they should hook up
posted by potrzebie at 12:18 AM on January 29, 2023 [17 favorites]
The “draw the animal on the side of the truck” scene was a particular delight.
I love Charlie's character trait of being unable to recall certain common words, but I'm glad they aren't overdoing it.
posted by cheshyre at 9:52 AM on January 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
I love Charlie's character trait of being unable to recall certain common words, but I'm glad they aren't overdoing it.
posted by cheshyre at 9:52 AM on January 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
I'm loving this show, but one issue with this episode - Subway seems to clearly be product placement, and it's distracting.
posted by condour75 at 1:41 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by condour75 at 1:41 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
"that he had reason to believe he was destined for something bigger, and just failed to launch and resented it.
Entitlement to the extreme, expecting the world to give him privilege. Doing nothing to work towards anything.
The “draw the animal on the side of the truck” scene was a particular delight.
I adored this for the subversion of the trope of dour and unkindly people at truck stops/ transient places.
posted by porpoise at 7:07 PM on January 29, 2023 [6 favorites]
Entitlement to the extreme, expecting the world to give him privilege. Doing nothing to work towards anything.
The “draw the animal on the side of the truck” scene was a particular delight.
I adored this for the subversion of the trope of dour and unkindly people at truck stops/ transient places.
posted by porpoise at 7:07 PM on January 29, 2023 [6 favorites]
Subway seems to clearly be product placement, and it's distracting.
Rian Johnson on Twitter:
Not only was the subway not product placement, but we had to beg them to let us use their logos in the ep. Probably because of the, uh, murder. I was really into having it be a real chain you’d hit on a road trip and not a movie-fied one.
The stakes felt lower?
It was the opposite for me. In the first episode, I wanted Natalie's murder solved/avenged, and I did not give two shits about whether her abusive (and dead) husband was wrongly framed for her murder.
In the second episode, I wanted Damian's murder solved/avenged, and I very much wanted the weird and kind trucker lady to be exonerated.
posted by creepygirl at 8:07 PM on January 29, 2023 [17 favorites]
Rian Johnson on Twitter:
Not only was the subway not product placement, but we had to beg them to let us use their logos in the ep. Probably because of the, uh, murder. I was really into having it be a real chain you’d hit on a road trip and not a movie-fied one.
The stakes felt lower?
It was the opposite for me. In the first episode, I wanted Natalie's murder solved/avenged, and I did not give two shits about whether her abusive (and dead) husband was wrongly framed for her murder.
In the second episode, I wanted Damian's murder solved/avenged, and I very much wanted the weird and kind trucker lady to be exonerated.
posted by creepygirl at 8:07 PM on January 29, 2023 [17 favorites]
So this episode opens with a Tom Waits song and closes with Donald Fagen, which means that Rian Johnson in pandering directly to me now. Not sure how that came about, but I won't say it isn't nice.
posted by Ipsifendus at 5:36 AM on January 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Ipsifendus at 5:36 AM on January 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
So this episode opens with a Tom Waits song and closes with Donald Fagen, which means that Rian Johnson in pandering directly to me now
I KNORITE
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:15 AM on January 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
I KNORITE
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:15 AM on January 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
kind of surprised that Subway was resistant to being product placement, given their absolute shamelessness when it comes to product placement otherwise
posted by Merus at 6:50 PM on January 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Merus at 6:50 PM on January 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
Subway seems to clearly be product placement, and it's distracting.
There are 25,000 Subway locations in the US. Twice as many as McDonald's. Starbucks only has 15,000 locations. It's distracting to not see a Subway at any given moment.
posted by Etrigan at 7:33 PM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
There are 25,000 Subway locations in the US. Twice as many as McDonald's. Starbucks only has 15,000 locations. It's distracting to not see a Subway at any given moment.
posted by Etrigan at 7:33 PM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
When the subway guy got pushed over the roof, I thought "hey that's not very high up." I'm glad they showed that he survived the initial murder attempt (for all the good it did him).
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:48 PM on January 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:48 PM on January 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
It's distracting to not see a Subway at any given moment. Ok, but it's distracting to see an immaculate Subway, especially in the lived-in world of beat up gas stations, truck stops and bars that the show has given us so far.
posted by condour75 at 10:18 AM on February 1, 2023
posted by condour75 at 10:18 AM on February 1, 2023
(At least in Canada) Subways are almost as reliable as McD's.
Tim Hortons was bought by a (Brazilian?) multinational, dropped their coffee supplier - McD's Canada picked the coffee supplier up so Canadian McD's coffee is allright enough, currently.
Timmy's nowadays is garbage.
posted by porpoise at 12:19 AM on February 2, 2023
Tim Hortons was bought by a (Brazilian?) multinational, dropped their coffee supplier - McD's Canada picked the coffee supplier up so Canadian McD's coffee is allright enough, currently.
Timmy's nowadays is garbage.
posted by porpoise at 12:19 AM on February 2, 2023
Alan Sepinwall briefly wrote about this episode in his newsletter (along with the rest of the first four episodes, so spoilers aware if you click through), and I largely agree with his assessment:
“The Night Shift” is, as I say in my review, one of the few episodes that left me a bit impatient to get to Charlie already. I quite like the material about the victim parlaying his job in the Subway Cinematic Universe (see also Chuck and Community) into social media fame, but the killer and his motivation are both pretty simplistic to other people we meet in the series. But once our favorite chatterbox enters the scene — and gets to spend time with newly-minuted Oscar nominee Hong Chau as the trucker with an endless supply of useful tools — things pick up very quickly. Nice to see John Ratzenberger in live-action form again, and I got a kick out of how the conversation by the trash can wound up having such important plot value in the end. Johnson is like Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale at their best together, where even the most seemingly inconsequential bit of dialogue winds up mattering much later on. Not every episode uses the running gag about Charlie’s struggle to pull very simple words off the tip of her tongue, but this one sure does, and is probably the funniest example of it from the ones I’ve seen, with Charlie’s word block leading to a truck stop singalong of Sweet’s “Fox on the Run.” I also appreciate that that episode, like some of the others, has Charlie skip town before justice can fully be done, because Cliff’s hot on her trail. The show may be structured like Columbo, but Charlie is a cop and can’t always stick around to watch the handcuffs be slapped on.posted by General Malaise at 10:19 AM on February 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
Aww, John Ratzenberger as the last honest mechanic in New Mexico. So sad when he turns off his hearing aids and walks away from Jed at the end.
I know this is a murder of the week show, and murders are bad. But the nice thing about showing us the murder to start is there's no need to make all the characters shady and suspicious every episode. We know Jed is the asshole who murdered Damian, and everyone else can be decent, helpful people who Charlie has positive interactions with.
The try to identify the right trucker pictionary game was so fun. Capybara!
I also did not get the impression that Jed was supposed to have any intellectual challenges, just social and moral ones.
I know the Frosts are mobbed up and connected or what have you, but it still seems sus Benjamin Bratt has basically real time access to Charlie's bank info?
posted by the primroses were over at 6:22 AM on February 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
I know this is a murder of the week show, and murders are bad. But the nice thing about showing us the murder to start is there's no need to make all the characters shady and suspicious every episode. We know Jed is the asshole who murdered Damian, and everyone else can be decent, helpful people who Charlie has positive interactions with.
The try to identify the right trucker pictionary game was so fun. Capybara!
I also did not get the impression that Jed was supposed to have any intellectual challenges, just social and moral ones.
I know the Frosts are mobbed up and connected or what have you, but it still seems sus Benjamin Bratt has basically real time access to Charlie's bank info?
posted by the primroses were over at 6:22 AM on February 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
I know the Frosts are mobbed up and connected or what have you, but it still seems sus Benjamin Bratt has basically real time access to Charlie's bank info?
Casinos absolutely have very close relationships with banks, for various above-board reasons and several below-. It didn’t seem suspicious to me at all, given Senior’s threat to devote himself to ending Charlie.
posted by Etrigan at 1:46 PM on February 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
Casinos absolutely have very close relationships with banks, for various above-board reasons and several below-. It didn’t seem suspicious to me at all, given Senior’s threat to devote himself to ending Charlie.
posted by Etrigan at 1:46 PM on February 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah if they own the cops, it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to get a tip off any time her card pings somewhere.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:05 PM on February 5, 2023
posted by miss-lapin at 3:05 PM on February 5, 2023
It's not that I find it implausible, just kind of boring- lazy wording in my prior comment. More a complaint (I didn't personally care for that) than a criticism (that was a bad narrative choice, for reasons). I would like it if the bad guys have to come up with cleverer ways to track Charlie as the season progresses, is all. *shrug* make the cat work for it
posted by the primroses were over at 4:29 PM on February 5, 2023
posted by the primroses were over at 4:29 PM on February 5, 2023
I loved the waitress. She was the inversion of the "friendly waitress with a heart of gold" trope, just like the customers in the animal drawing scene were the inversion of the "dour and unkindly people at the diner" trope. She helps Charlie in various ways, even shows a sort of sisterhood, but she ain't her friend or nurturing mother.
posted by Nelson at 7:09 AM on March 25, 2023
posted by Nelson at 7:09 AM on March 25, 2023
I was a bit surprised to get that vibe with this show.
Yeah my take was that he reminded me of Jack Black from his role in Bob Roberts and was supposed to be an incel weirdo but I agree, it was tough to tell the difference and they could have been more careful with it. I missed Damien's positive energy and was sad we didn't get more time with him and sorry we didn't see Marge again.
posted by jessamyn at 8:05 PM on March 25, 2023
Yeah my take was that he reminded me of Jack Black from his role in Bob Roberts and was supposed to be an incel weirdo but I agree, it was tough to tell the difference and they could have been more careful with it. I missed Damien's positive energy and was sad we didn't get more time with him and sorry we didn't see Marge again.
posted by jessamyn at 8:05 PM on March 25, 2023
I didn't think Jed came across as mentally disabled at all. More lackadaisical and otherwise bored with everything because clearly it's beneath him added to a general vibe of 'may or may not be neurotypical but definitely an asshole'. So, not 'slow', but I'm quite sure he's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. He's definitely a solid example of that type of character.
Meanwhile, a lot about this episode I liked. Marge was great and that's not a bad way to start laying out the rules of Charlie's on-the-road life for the audience. Agreed that her decision of where/when to dump the body was odd at the least, but I could see the desire to dump someone near their home rather than in the middle of nowhere overcoming the fear of security cameras. "Not hooking up vibes" indeed, though. I loved the fake security camera in Subway - I figure a cat toy is probably cheaper than the fake cameras you can buy in various places. The 4-hour countdown was a bit much but I expect that's the sort of thing that will be used to provide dramatic tension for Charlie to get the heck back on the road as things go on. I really liked strangers coming together in the moment for weird trivia type things. Loved the diner pictionary game. Also, the sudden shared "FOX ON THE RUN" chorus.
The time jump didn't catch me quite as off guard this time around.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:11 AM on May 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
Meanwhile, a lot about this episode I liked. Marge was great and that's not a bad way to start laying out the rules of Charlie's on-the-road life for the audience. Agreed that her decision of where/when to dump the body was odd at the least, but I could see the desire to dump someone near their home rather than in the middle of nowhere overcoming the fear of security cameras. "Not hooking up vibes" indeed, though. I loved the fake security camera in Subway - I figure a cat toy is probably cheaper than the fake cameras you can buy in various places. The 4-hour countdown was a bit much but I expect that's the sort of thing that will be used to provide dramatic tension for Charlie to get the heck back on the road as things go on. I really liked strangers coming together in the moment for weird trivia type things. Loved the diner pictionary game. Also, the sudden shared "FOX ON THE RUN" chorus.
The time jump didn't catch me quite as off guard this time around.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:11 AM on May 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
And I do so love the choice of title fonts. As near as I can tell, it's a *perfect* match to the font used in classic Columbo episodes.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:12 AM on May 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 8:12 AM on May 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
Re Subway: I can imagine convincing them to lend their branding to an episode involving murder to have been tricky. I can imagine getting to to swallow an employee who is pimping improved versions of their sauces on his own social media channel - to be even tougher.
posted by rongorongo at 1:21 AM on December 29, 2023
posted by rongorongo at 1:21 AM on December 29, 2023
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Looking at the imdb credits for this episode to figure out where I was recognizing Damian from (Brandon Michael Hall from 'God Friended Me', aww), the credits for the various truckers are fun:
Weirdo Trucker
Scratch Off Trucker
Soul Patch Trucker
Mullet Trucker
Earring Trucker
Early Retirement Trucker
Judgmental Trucker
Grouchy Trucker
Camo Hat Trucker
Mustache Trucker
Redhead Trucker
Polo Shirt Trucker
Portly Trucker
Bald Trucker
posted by oh yeah! at 7:59 PM on January 27, 2023 [7 favorites]