Poker Face Season 2 has finally hit Peacock, and while we’ve thus far only been treated to the first three episodes, they feature some A+ guest stars. Right off the bat, we have Cynthia Erivo playing a whopping five different characters, and that story is followed by Giancarlo Esposito and Katie Holmes sharing the stage. This is Holmes’ first live-action TV show appearance since 2017, and oh boy, it's a bonkers one. According to the showrunner, this was the intention, as he wanted to show a side of Katie Holmes we’ve “never seen from her before.”
The episode stars Katie Holmes as the wife of a funeral home owner/director who is fed up with her sheltered, conservative life of applying makeup to the deceased. Taken by the glitz and glamour of filmmaking as a movie is filmed on the mortuary's property, she starts to catch up on the social life she’s been deprived of with a childlike enthusiasm – and the odd contrast makes for a performance unlike anything we’ve ever seen from Holmes. I recently caught up with Season 2 showrunner Tony Tost to talk all things Poker Face, and when the subject of Katie Holmes came up, he told us that this was exactly the intention:
I think we all got excited about the idea. We haven't seen Katie Holmes in this type of role. Natasha [Lyonne] directed that episode. I think Natasha very much encouraged Katie to just go for it, to try things. Like, it was very much like, we didn't cast you to replicate some previous performance you’d done. We want you because we think you could bring something really interesting and do something maybe you haven't done before. And that was, I think, very much the informing attitude. I was like, ‘Oh, I haven't seen this from her before.’
Katie Holmes rose to fame on TV’s Dawson’s Creek, and given that it doesn’t feel like the fabled revival is coming anytime soon, it’s fun to see her back on the small screen via streaming. As Tony Tost said, we haven’t seen her like this before, and it specifically reminded me of the hype surrounding Parker Posey in The White Lotus – a casting choice that has been lauded as “brilliant.” Tost agreed, saying,
And it's interesting and it's unexpected. There's an odd, in the best way, an oddness to her character or performance, or an unexpectedness that you don't necessarily—she wouldn't necessarily come first and in mind for that type of performance… The Parker Posey [comparison] in particular is interesting. That kind of energy, that kind of like, she could do anything at any time. That unpredictability that she brought.
As previously mentioned, Katie Holmes also stars alongside Giancarlo Esposito in the episode, who is magnificent as her cold, odd husband who presses his cremated clients into fresh vinyl records and other assorted items. As if Natasha Lyonne isn’t reason enough to tune into Poker Face, other major names making an appearance this season include John Mulaney, Sam Richardson, Rhea Perlman, Simon Rex, and Kumail Nanjiani (who has been making a lot of smaller TV show appearances these days, having recently appeared in seven episodes of Only Murders In The Building).
Guest stars aside, Poker Face Season 2 is one of the more exciting things to hit the 2025 TV schedule. Critics are calling the new season “more ridiculous fun,” and you can watch it right now with a Peacock subscription.
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