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Rating: I have always been a fan of Lieutenant Columbo.
A TV show that lasted for 35 years!
From 1968 to 2003.
The great Peter Falk practically lived off it, managed to retire from it. Then in old age he went mad and died, amen Peter.
And then, Lieutenant Columbo artistically castrated Peter because he was Columbo and nothing else, so he wasn't given other roles, but hey Peter, what do you care? You were the coolest of all, excuse me?
There are many strengths to this magnificent TV show.
First of all, him. Scruffy, shabby, clumsy. More or less always in a good mood or at least cordial, affable, gentle… especially with the murderer of the day, whom he identifies immediately and takes for a ride throughout the episode, only to gently lead him to prison.
And here comes the second strength, an original feature not found in similar TV shows (yes okay, today they call them TV SERIES, but Columbo was a TV SHOW… The best TV show ever, I would add). I digressed. We were talking about the second strength which we will call the “prologue.”
THE PROLOGUE.
In the prologue, we invariably witness a murder. We have the victim, the perpetrator, the motive. We have everything. For us viewers, it's all clear from the beginning! It's not about “discovering who the murderer is.” We know right away who it is. Columbo doesn't, but with his formidable instinct, he identifies him immediately and works him over. And what a job he has to do every time. Yes indeed, because it turns out that the murderer is always a very intelligent, clever type. Someone who has devised an “apparently” perfect crime… but nothing escapes Columbo. Yes, because okay, he's distracted, clumsy, whatever, but Columbo is also very intelligent and it's precisely his way of being that makes the murderer tend to underestimate him. In reality, that's exactly what Columbo wants. To be underestimated to make the murderer relax…
Indeed.
The third strength, namely the construction of the crime. Always rather ingenious, complicated I would add, and here a sincere applause to those who wrote these 69 episodes. Except for some weak episodes found (it's a classic) towards the end with an increasingly older, scruffy, sly, and charming Columbo, it must be said that Lieutenant Columbo's episodes are clockwork mechanisms where every detail is a piece of a mosaic or a thread of a web that Columbo patiently weaves around his prey.
Columbo never gives up, so much so that if he can't solve the crime, he invents a bluff and wins the game.
Another strength? The actors. Just take a look at the cast and maybe spend some time seeing who participated and their respective curriculum.
Then there are the clichés. His trench coat, his stinky cigar that he smokes everywhere, even in hospitals where he's often scolded. His little black notebook where only the devil knows what he scribbles every time. His dog named “Dog.” His wife whom we never see.
I don't know if I've seen all 69. Probably yes. Because every time it aired (on RETE 4 on Sunday nights), I was there in the front row and noticed I had already seen it, but I watched it again… and watched it again…
These days they are selling the entire series for 50 euros, it seems. I'm not a collector and I've really seen and re-seen them all, but give it some thought.
He is by far the best of all, LIEUTENANT COLOMBO.
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