Current Events > Columbo is a great show but man the episodes have really varying quality.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm gonna try and make a playlist of the best episodes or something so anyone who wants can skip the middling ones.

Just stop when you get to the 80s.

It sucks that some of the bad episodes have great guest stars.

A Johnny Cash Columbo episode sounds amazing on paper but if I ever hear that fucking church choir song that plays 40 times throughout the episode again I will fucking lose it.

King_Rial posted...

Just stop when you get to the 80s.

No u

Just one more thing, TC.

Norman_Smiley posted...

Just one more thing, TC.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/8/AAJHVqAAEafC.jpg

Irony posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/8/AAJHVqAAEafC.jpg

Dude is like a mashup between Miles Edgeworth and Dick Gumshoe

Anyone else never notice that Peter Falk has a glass eye? I just thought it was weird and crooked, whatever that condition some people have is called. I only learned because I read about it on IMDb.

BurmesePenguin posted...

Anyone else never notice that Peter Falk has a glass eye? I just thought it was weird and crooked, whatever that condition some people have is called. I only learned because I read about it on IMDb.

It's just a prosthetic eye for people who have some kind of injury. In the case of Falk his eye was removed because of cancer.

BurmesePenguin posted...

It sucks that some of the bad episodes have great guest stars.

A Johnny Cash Columbo episode sounds amazing on paper but if I ever hear that fucking church choir song that plays 40 times throughout the episode again I will fucking lose it.

Looks like you didn't see the light!!!!

The double hour long pilots are a must see, I really liked them.

I liked the murder book episode. The one with cheese, gum, teeth. The college one. And that's about as much as I can remember from decades back.

I don't get how they drink so much without getting drunk. It always bothers me character pour themselves about 4 shots of whiskey and drink it like it's nothing then proceed to go on through their day without getting thirsty/hungry/disorientated.

Irony posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/8/AAJHVqAAEafC.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/8/3/AAfNgnAAEZ9D.jpg

saspa posted...

The double hour long pilots are a must see, I really liked them.

I liked the murder book episode. The one with cheese, gum, teeth. The college one. And that's about as much as I can remember from decades back.

I was watching back then as well and I stopped mid way through the episode Make Me a Perfect Murder and never got a chance to finish that episode and never saw anything past it and it has been bugging me this whole time.

Now the whole thing is on peacock so I'm gonna watch the whole thing.

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

I don't get how they drink so much without getting drunk. It always bothers me character pour themselves about 4 shots of whiskey and drink it like it's nothing then proceed to go on through their day without getting thirsty/hungry/disorientated.

Some characters definitely get drunk. Just not Columbo or the murderer.

Is this a chance for me to post my episode rankings list?!?!

HO JEEZE IS THIS CINEMA OR WHAT
A Friend In Deed
Suitable for Framing
A Stitch in Crime
Any Old Port in a Storm
Publish or Perish
Death Lends a Hand
Double Exposure
Troubled Waters
Negative Reaction
The Most Crucial Game
Murder by the Book
Double Shock
The Bye Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case
Try and Catch Me
Candidate for the Crime
Now You See Him
Etude in Black

QUALITY TELEVISION
Forgotten Lady
Identity Crisis
Prescription: Murder
Agenda For Murder
Columbo Goes to College
Make Me a Perfect Murder
Deadly State of Mind
Lady in Waiting
An Exercise in Fatality
Death Hits the Jackpot
Swan Song
Ransom for a Dead Man
Fade in to Murder
By Dawn's Early Light
Columbo Cries Wolf
A Case of Immunity
Rest in Peace Mrs. Columbo
Blueprint for Murder
Greenhouse Jungle

MY SMILE FADES
Murder Under Glass
The Conspirators
Requiem for a Falling Star
Playback
Lovely But Lethal

I STOP HAVING FUN HERE
The Most Dangerous Match
Matter of Honor
How to Dial A Murder
Short Fuse

HOLY SHIT WHAT AM I WATCHING
Old Fashioned Murder
Dagger of the Mind
Mind Over Mayhem
Dead Weight
Last Salute to the Commodore

Which is the episode where he goes to a school and I think there's a robot and a fucking doogie houser child genius?

That one and Dagger of the Mind are the worst episodes.

Any Old Port in a Storm is the best narrative television show episode ever.

BurmesePenguin posted...

Which is the episode where he goes to a school and I think there's a robot and a fucking doogie houser child genius?

That one and Dagger of the Mind are the worst episodes.

Mind Over Mayhem

Drunk_Cobra posted...

HO JEEZE IS THIS CINEMA OR WHAT
Death Lends a Hand

Yes

Drunk_Cobra posted...

HOLY SHIT WHAT AM I WATCHING
Dead Weight

Also Yes.

These two episodes are actually consecutive so the difference in quality is pretty drastic.

Yeah it was fun over the last winter I had broken up with my girlfriend and saw they were all on Tubi so I just started from the pilots and ripped through all the classics, then a couple of the revival episodes that I thought looked good and had decent enough ratings. Was a blast honestly.

Death Lends a Hand was my favorite for a long time, I think all the Robert Culp episodes are top notch, especially love in Death Lends a Hand how they show the body dumping through the lenses of his glasses. One thing later seasons got rid of was all the experimental shots and editing that the early one's had and I think that's such a shame.

Dead Weight, terrible episode.

Some of the later ones got downright weird though. As if he had metaphysical powers of perception about the killer.

I like the ones where he finds odd or even routine pieces of evidence and just makes clever deductions from them.

brestugo posted...

Some of the later ones got downright weird though. As if he had metaphysical powers of perception about the killer.

I like the ones where he finds odd or even routine pieces of evidence and just makes clever deductions from them.

The best ones are the ones where he obviously knows who did it from the beginning and is just clowning on them the whole time.

When they're trying to cover their tracks and he just shows up exactly where they are and they're flustered. It's delicious.

That moment when he says he's looking for his own fingerprints, though.

BurmesePenguin posted...

That moment when he says he's looking for his own fingerprints, though.

Number 2 on the list baby.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/5/AAE14lAAEagF.jpg

One of my brothers favorite moments. He does this all the time.

King_Rial posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/5/AAE14lAAEagF.jpg

One of my brothers favorite moments. He does this all the time.

This is entrapment

Drunk_Cobra posted...

Yeah it was fun over the last winter I had broken up with my girlfriend and saw they were all on Tubi so I just started from the pilots and ripped through all the classics, then a couple of the revival episodes that I thought looked good and had decent enough ratings. Was a blast honestly.

Death Lends a Hand was my favorite for a long time, I think all the Robert Culp episodes are top notch, especially love in Death Lends a Hand how they show the body dumping through the lenses of his glasses. One thing later seasons got rid of was all the experimental shots and editing that the early one's had and I think that's such a shame.

Dead Weight, terrible episode.

Probably could have honestly tacked on like 30 minutes of filler to death lends a hand and released it as a 90 minute film and it would have won Oscars that shit is so good.

Tyranthraxus posted...

The best ones are the ones where he obviously knows who did it from the beginning and is just clowning on them the whole time.

That's kind of what I'm getting at. If he's narrowed it down and figured out the killer, then towards the end, clowns them until they confess, yeah I enjoy the games too.

But I can recall a show or three where like 20 minutes in he's figured it out and clowns the killer the rest of the way.

YMMV but at that point the games just seem weird in a creepy way to me. Like he's tormenting the person. They're a killer, just reel 'em in.

Great show though.

BurmesePenguin posted...

That moment when he says he's looking for his own fingerprints, though.

I like the little stuff, like always ordering a bowl of chili - even at a Chinese restaurant - the wife you never see and that dog he drove around with.

brestugo posted...

That's kind of what I'm getting at. If he's narrowed it down and figured out the killer, then towards the end, clowns them until they confess, yeah I enjoy the games too.

But I can recall a show or three where like 20 minutes in he's figured it out and clowns the killer the rest of the way.

YMMV but at that point the games just seem weird in a creepy way to me. Like he's tormenting the person. They're a killer, just reel 'em in.

Great show though.

It's not really creepy as much as it is just building a case. There's some people who, if they just never confessed or did the smart thing and refuse to speak to Columbo at all probably would have gotten away with it on account of reasonable doubt.

Tyranthraxus posted...

It's not really creepy as much as it is just building a case. There's some people who, if they just never confessed or did the smart thing and refuse to speak to Columbo at all probably would have gotten away with it on account of reasonable doubt.

Fair enough. Like I said, just my thing. I just skip those episodes. There's plenty of others.

I just finished tude in Black. I feel like Columbo probably could have closed out the case when he had the 9 mile odometer difference plus the fact that the car was parked outside which is something the mechanics never do. Overall another fantastic episode.