i love this series. peter falk really found a home in the character.
it had this interesting schtick where the murder is quite obvious, often occurring during the opening credits. the guest star of the week attempting to pull of some perfect murder and then columbo seemingly stumbling around them attempting to solve it.
each episode wasnt about who did it, or how they did it.. it was all about the mistake made that would lead columbo to the truth
columbo deserves a reboot, or at least something columbo-like. are there any shows with a similar format?
Let me introduce you to a slice of Canadiana, Seeing Things about a reporter who gets psychic visions about crimes. The visions are usually pretty ambiguous and the episode is spent working out what they mean. A part of our heritage
Honestly this is one of my favorite shows ever, I think my grandma introduced it to me one day when she visited. Peter falk is just so charming. I should really watch it again if I can find it
For a while I would watch an episode before bed until I had seen everything. There's no way to really reboot Columbo, but some spiritual successor could be good.
I've been watching a lot of programs from the 60s and 70s lately, and Columbo is a great one. There's something so calming and disarming about the entire tone of the show, which Peter Falk fits perfectly into.
It's interesting, because after you've watched a few episodes, it becomes a great "background" show, with its low intensity. But if you're paying attention to it, despite the recurring themes each episode, they change things up enough that it doesn't get old like some shows from the period can be prone to do.
I'm not sure they could pull off the same vibe of a show quite as successfully today, but that's not so bad because there's so much existing material to go back and watch.
It's available on Prime video for anyone who's looking to give it a try
IMO what the latest generations are missing out on is the absolute randomness of on air TV.
TV used to be flipping through channels until something caught your attention, even if it isn't or wasn't what you were in the mood for and absolutely finding it interesting/a good watch.
We caught ourselves this last vacation chilling at our rental watching an old (late 90s) movie we haven't seen in a long time and it clicked for me: our kids curate thier own watchlists and looking at a thumbnail or reading the description isn't the same as coming across a show a quarter of the way through trying to figure out whats going on and staying until the end.
A bit of a boomer take, but it's an experience im close enough to be one to make.
My partner introduced me to Columbo and it's become a game to see when he knows who did it and what he needs to connect to make the case. It's one of the great TV shows and detectives.
I'm a big fan. Have rewatched the series a few times in recent years after only catching it randomly as a kid in the 80s. Highly recommend Shooting Columbo if you're interested. Great website too pointing out interesting aspects. https://bonaventurepress.com/SHOOTING-COLUMBO/
I dimly remember most of the episodes was just Columbo being annoying to the suspect until they gave up some clue to the motive of the crime. It was a funny, if somewhat predictable, gimmick.