Just One More Thing

After careful consideration, and around thirty episodes later, I think I don’t like the original 70s era of Columbo all that much. My mind keeps comparing it to The Sweeney, broadcast on ITV roughly around the same time…and, okay, maybe it’s not a fair comparison, but Columbo is slow, plodding, and not much fun. Even a cruise ship episode guest-starring Robert Vaughn, Patrick Macnee, and Dean Stockwell (with amazing bushy eyebrows) involving a comedy routine where Mrs. Columbo was just out of view every five minutes struggled to rise above ‘interesting’. Falk is good, obviously, but removing the structure of ‘whodunnit’ means that instead of suspense and a guessing game, you get to watch Columbo irritate the murderer for an hour.

I’m guessing it played better in weekly episodes.

Look, I’m still not entirely well, and the nights are long.