Ever since "The Pitt" premiered in January, the Max medical drama has been held up as an example of how streaming services can embrace the lost art of the procedural. Four months later, reinforcements have arrived in the informal campaign to preserve classical TV structure.

As Poker Face returns with a new batch of even-more-self-contained mysteries for Natasha Lyonne's Charlie Cale to solve, Johnson talks Columbo, the whodunit vs. the “howcatchem,” and how Steven Sondheim influenced the next Knives Out movie.

Poker Face is, by nature, a show where everything is in flux. As Season 2 opens, Charlie is on the run from crime boss Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman), introduced in the Season 1 finale. That means she follows the road wherever it takes her, from apple orchards to funeral homes.