10 Aug 2025
God, y'know, I love to watch some Columbo. My wife, she's a big fan too. Absolutely can't get enough.
Ok yeah you’ve probably heard of Columbo before, but if not: it’s a series of movie-length detective stories where, right up front, you’re shown the crime and who done it. Every detail and every cover-up commited by the perpetrator is shown. Most times, you think there’s one crucial clue left behind - before the culprit comes back to retrieve it. It sets in hard early right at the start: This is a no win situation, and everything is accounted for.
Which is when Detective Columbo enters in, and encounters the same blocks we just saw set up. Aw jeez, y’know, that alibi is so perfect, I’ll just go on and get out of your hair. Sorry to bother ya’ tonight.
Oh, but I had one more thing that’s been tugging at me inside.
Sike, it’s not a detective show after all. It’s a hunting show. The second the culprit catches on that Detective Columbo is poking holes in their tale because he knows, they’re desperately trying to cover any new tracks that arise or dispose of any loose ends. It’s now an ever-present fear that Columbo might catch something else they hadn’t accounted for, and you can watch this panic build over the course of the story.
A lot of Columbo’s suspects are high class. People with expensive scenic LA homes that have never had a run-in with the cops before. Occasionally some run purely on instinct to cover their crime, while others (pictured at the top) see themselves as a Shitty Moriarty. That false confidence they project works wonderfully with Peter Falk’s portrayal of a guy who all that pomp and self-importance bounces right off of. Keeping most of the narrative focus on the actions of the culprit really solidifies Detective Columbo as that force of nature that’s always right behind them.
Steven Spielberg directs one of the first TV episodes, “Murder by the Book” (pictured above). Jack Cassidy also stars in this episode as the villain (I said pictured above!) and does such an amazing job as a smarmy dick writer who feels he’s plotted out every detail to the T as a murder novelist might. Robert Culp (also Dr. Breen from Half-Life 2) shows up in the second season episode “The Most Crucial Game” and plays his part as murderous schemer well, and Dean Stockwell’s also in it!
If you get a chance, find a collection somewhere and give ‘em a watch. Like I said, they’re about feature-movie-length so you’re going to be getting a lot from each story. I’m not sure what streaming service you can catch ‘em on since I just happened to find an Archive lying around, but if there’s DVDs or Blu-Rays then those would be a fun way to watch through them.
