4
votes
TV Tuesdays Free Talk
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
I actually and non-ironically watched the first two TV movies/episodes of Columbo, 1968's Prescription: Murder and 1971's Ransom for a Dead Man. I did that because I was semi-obsessed with Monk, and wanted to see the origins of the quirk detective trope.
Oh, I was in for a treat! Columbo is one of TV's first "inverted detective" or "howcatchem" show, where you know the culprit before the detective, and the joy is in following their path to "catch them".
Columbo is endearing in a low-key way. He is not a genius like Monk or Sherlock Holmes, plays down his intelligence, and, like a bloodhound, never leaves a trail. Columbo's relentlessness is stronger than his smarts.
In the first movie, it takes half an hour for Columbo to show up. In the second, it is fifteen minutes. The story is told from the point of view of the criminal, so the detective's appearances are somewhat brief when compared to modern narratives. This makes for an interesting dynamic because there's nothing I wanna see more than Peter Falk owning every scene with his dirty unlit cigar, lazy eye, and disheveled trench coat a number larger than his. Behind every dull or outright stupid statement, there is always something brooding inside, dots being connected, pieces slowly put together until he blurts out a conclusion that sounds completely mundane, and also completely logical. You will fall in love with him. It's irresistible.
Columbo doesn't feel contempt for his adversaries; at the most, he pities them. There's an overwhelming sense of compassion and heartbreak. Columbo does not act out of a hatred of criminals, but rather as a show of compassion for their victims. That is not something you'll see in contemporary crime dramas, and maybe we should.