This story about the production design of “Poker Face” first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Even in a galaxy far, far away, offscreen alliances can be forged that come in handy down the road. Director Rian Johnson had the great good fortune to meet stop-motion legend Phil Tippett (“Jurassic Park,” “RoboCop”) while he was working on 2017’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” at Skywalker Ranch near Tippett’s home, and the pairing led to “The Orpheus Syndrome,” one of the most satisfying episodes of Peacock’s sleuth comedy “Poker Face.” In the episode, a hermetic, Tippett-like designer (Nick Nolte), scarred by a filmmaking mishap years prior, finds himself blindsided by the schemes hatched up by his effects-house mogul boss (Cherry Jones), only to have the resourceful Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) interfere when she becomes his assistant.