TrueTV May 2025: Crime & Comedy 

• Peacock
• Poker Face

Way back in 2023, Peacock renewed comedy thriller Poker Face for a second season while the first season was still streaming week-to-week. Season 2 finally arrives this month, giving you some wiggle room to relive the 10-episode first season (worth it) or maybe even watch it for the first time (elongated wooorrrrth it).

Either way, you'll be hungry for another comedic mystery when it's over. Here are a few other TV shows that fit the profile.

Poker Face (2023–Present; Peacock): Might as well start with creator/producer Rian Johnson and star Natasha Lyonne's tribute to '70s and '80s detective shows, specifically Columbo (also streaming on Peacock). Charlie Cale (Lyonne) possesses the ability to spot a liar immediately, which helps her solve mysteries while cruising the country in a sweet blue 1969 Barracuda. She's also on the run from some Very Bad People, adding an underlying tension to the comedy. Poker Face is easily Lyonne's career best, and the Season 2 premiere on Thursday, May 8 can't come fast enough.

Pretty Hard Cases (2021–2023; Prime Video): Baroness von Sketch Show alum Meredith MacNeill and Orange Is the New Black's Adrienne C. Moore star as Toronto police detectives in Pretty Hard Cases, a procedural dramedy that was initially—and more perfectly—titled Lady Dicks. The three-season Canadian import follows a case-of-the-week format that allows MacNeill and Moore to shine both as competent cops and less-than-perfect off-duty women while never losing sight of the funny. If the U.S.'s genius tariffs ever apply to Canadian TV, then it'll be time to panic.

Psych (2006–2014; Peacock, Prime Video): Before Suits, the USA Network ruled early-2000s cable with comic-tinged crime series like Monk, Burn Notice and the eight-season juggernaut Psych. The series centers on "psychic" Shawn (James Roday) and his business partner/BFF Gus (Dulé Hill) as they assist local police with solving cases in the criminal hotbed of ... Santa Barbara, California. Over the course of 120 episodes and four movies, Psych's comedic batting average more than earned its rabid, pineapple-obsessed fan base.

Bored to Death (2009–2011; Max, Roku Channel): Unlike Psych, HBO's Bored to Death flew so far under the radar that most don't believe it ever really existed: "There was a show starring Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis that ran for three seasons? Get outta here." The series stars Schwartzman as a struggling Brooklyn writer who moonlights as an unlicensed private detective, taking on the smallest and weirdest of cases. The understated drollery of Bored to Death would probably never fly on today's HBO, a.k.a. Bill Maher's retirement home.

The Resort (2022; Peacock): What if The White Lotus was fun? Or at least fun-adjacent? Peacock had it in the one-season-and-done series The Resort, even if few noticed. The eight-episode mystery-comedy stars Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper as a couple on vacation in the Mayan Riviera for their 10th anniversary. Their stay and their marriage are decidedly meh until they get caught up in solving the disappearance of two young lovers from the resort 15 years prior. A brief-but-engaging watch, as is anything with Milioti (sidenote to Netflix: Give her a Black Mirror/U.S.S. Callister spinoff series already).

The Afterparty (2022–2023; Apple TV+): Christopher Miller's exceedingly clever The Afterparty not only tells the story of a murder at a high school reunion afterparty from the viewpoints of several attendees, but also in wildly different cinematic styles. The episodes bounce from rom-com to psychological thriller to action flick to even animation, propelled by a cast of comedy killers including Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer and more. Season 2, set at a wedding, doesn't fare quite as well, but it's a valiant effort.

Mapleworth Murders (2020; Roku Channel): The short-form video streamer Quibi launched and folded five years ago, and we're still discovering originals that escaped the fallout. Mapleworth Murders is a straight-up Murder, She Wrote parody starring the brilliant Paula Pell as Abigail Mapleworth, a murder-mystery novelist investigating suspicious deaths in her small town. The most impressive part of Mapleworth Murders is how it squeezes over 20 big-name comic actors into just a dozen 10-minute episodes. Quibi died so you could laugh.