HAVE YOU SEEN COLUMBO (TV SERIES)? | hguy.blogspot.com

 

A suspense thriller usually goes this way. A murder is committed. We, the public, the police, and everybody else are absolutely unaware of the killer. Many are suspected and cleared one by one. And then the climax. Bang. The killer is revealed and most often, it’s the least suspected person.

 

We are used to this format. But there was one TV series that defied this and went the other way. The killer is shown doing the deed in the first few minutes. The rest of the hour is devoted to seeing how a short, disheveled bumbling detective with a trademark crumpled overcoat catches the killer.

 

 

The series is called Columbo.

 

It ran from 1971 to 2003. And apart from top-class writing, it was the actor who played Columbo who made the series watchable from the get-go. He was a perfect fit for the role of a 'dog that won’t let go. He was Peter Falk.

 

One of the early episodes was directed by the then-unknown Steven Spielberg.

 

A must-see.