First series viewing review
51 year old male, I'd never seen an episode of Columbo until two months ago. I had heard about it, especially the "one more question" thing. I entered the series cold as far as expectations. I thought it was a detective show, bumbling goofy detective that acted dumb but was actually smart. That's sort of what I thought the show was about.
Well I wasn't totally wrong. I watched probably 4-6 episodes a week and just finished last night. My only outside supplementation was to read the wikipedia so I could look up the guest actors as I went along. OK here are my thoughts:
- I loved the format. Generally the setup and execution of the crime was so fun to watch. And while the entire episodes kept my attention, I'd say the beginning of the episodes were the best part. It was fun knowing who did it already with the "whodunnit" part being figuring out what clues were left behind
- Always fun watching 70s era shows for the technology and differences. But even though it's an old show it absolutely holds up. Beyond fashion and technology etc it's really not that different from modern realities. The main thing that took me out of reality was the general lack of blood. There were a few murders where that wasn't even addressed (not sure if blood was not allowed on tv back then, etc). The murderers always confessing at the end was a little jarring as well, although that's common for tv. I'd get a laugh how Columbo and the murderer seemed so casual at the end of episodes as if the murderer is "ah you got me!" That being said, I'd probably complain if every episode was left open-ended so I'm guessing the TV show did things right.
- Columbo (the character) got less likable as the series went along. I'm not sure if that's me getting used to him or if the character himself changes (I'd probably need multiple series viewings to answer that). But I found him charming and funny at the beginning and a combination of rude and slapsticky towards the end. There seemed to be less continuity with the later episodes - although if you think about it that's reasonable. Every case is different requiring different technique. Still, I found myself rooting against Columbo the futher the series went
- A lot of fun aha moments. It was fun seeing Columbo's mind at work and the little things he noticed
- Also a lot of rolling my eyes. Entire cases being built on "why would someone who's about to commit suicide brush his teeth first" (or whatever). I did feel the writing occasionally used coincidence and luck as crutches although people would probably say that's the reality of these cases. I kept telling myself all the cases Columbo didn't solve weren't made into episodes. And if I felt it unreasonable him focusing on the murderer immediately, what I wasn't seeing were the other 5 off camera people he was "just one more question" 'ing off camara. So yeah a lot of eye rolling but some of it wasn't justified.
Generally the first 15 minutes of these episodes were 9/10 and the rest of the episode about 7/10. Overall 8/10 for the series. I'd tell friends to watch and enjoy. They don't necessarily need to watch the entire series as every episode is standalone. But it's a fun look at 70s-90s life, well produced, well acted, lots of fun.