Review: Poker Face, "Time of the Monkey" | Season 1, Episode 5
In which Charlie meets a pair of hippies with a past.
“What a fucking cop.”
In my first review of Poker Face, I noted that while Lt. Columbo of the Los Angeles Police Department was an excellent detective, he was not an excellent cop. In one episode, a patrolman pulls him over for a busted taillight before realizing he’s pulled over one of his own; in another episode, Columbo constantly tries to shirk a regular target-practice test because he doesn’t like firing guns. So many of the typical images we think of when we think of the police run counter to many of the great detectives, from Columbo to Sherlock Holmes to Jessica Fletcher. They’re great detectives, but they’re not really great cops.
Of course, to some people, being a cop doesn’t mean you wear a badge or sport a pistol. Being a cop can be metaphorical as opposed to literal. You could just be overly nosy, asking questions when you shouldn’t, or you could value something above your personal beliefs. And so it goes with this week’s episode of Poker Face, “Time of the M…