Like Murder She Wrote, if you see enough of Columbo you see a pattern; they do confirm to a formula, but even knowing that, and knowing who the killer is from the beginning, the journey that Peter Falk as the titular Columbo takes to bring them to justice is intriguing, intelligent and entertaining. Falk plays the iconic Detective in his scruffy raincoat and lopsided tie and ever present cigar, he plays the dumb-ignorant cop who wears suspect's defences and patience down until they crack. Unlike some programs like this, the clues aren't so tenuous but are genuine things that a real killer might miss.
Nothing is too obvious and the feature length episodes are easy entertaining watching. There's not much action or anything particularly fast-paced and Columbo just plods along, rather like his unnamed Bassett Hound, and sleuths until he has enough evidence to arrest the killer. It's more cerebral than glossy and like Murder She Wrote - a comparable program - has many big names (before they were famous) as actors, and is definitely of it's time and some quite dated although episodes were made up until 2003 apparently meaning that the series ran for over thirty years! Despite it's age (starting in the early seventies) some of the story themes are quite dark and tackle subject matter that is seedy, although doing it in a generally suitable for TV viewing way, but still gripping. Murder mystery TV is one of my guilty pleasures and this is one of the best.
Nothing is too obvious and the feature length episodes are easy entertaining watching. There's not much action or anything particularly fast-paced and Columbo just plods along, rather like his unnamed Bassett Hound, and sleuths until he has enough evidence to arrest the killer. It's more cerebral than glossy and like Murder She Wrote - a comparable program - has many big names (before they were famous) as actors, and is definitely of it's time and some quite dated although episodes were made up until 2003 apparently meaning that the series ran for over thirty years! Despite it's age (starting in the early seventies) some of the story themes are quite dark and tackle subject matter that is seedy, although doing it in a generally suitable for TV viewing way, but still gripping. Murder mystery TV is one of my guilty pleasures and this is one of the best.