But as Charlie hits the highway in her rattletrap Plymouth Barracuda, “Poker Face” takes a lighter turn, one you might recognize from the guest-star-laden procedurals of the ’70s and ’80s.

City leaders were hellbent on a “bold modernization,” as one 1963 headline put it, razing rattletrap buildings for their version of a paved paradise with its million-dollar view of mountains and Puget Sound.

When I decided to leave The New York Times for a new career as a college professor in my home state of Texas, I realized we were going to have to get our cars across the country, including my rattletrap of a 2008 Smart.

Fern, played by Frances McDormand, is a woman nearing retirement age, teetering on the edge of financial ruin, who can’t afford to stay in her longtime home and hits the road for a nomadic year in her rattletrap van.

Disenchantment prevails as he bounces between rattletrap taxis and fancy safari lodges, unleashing a volley of complaints at squalor and tourist elitism alike.