Years ago there was a documentary series on the Discovery Channel called WINGS, which each week profiled a different famous type of airplane. Each episode began with a brief teaser where the voice-over announcer came on lavishing superlatives on that week's subject, with insightful references to performance, versatility, ruggedness, reliability, and the like. That is, until the week they covered the B-17 Flying Fortress. The announcer simply said, "The B-17 wasn't an airplane. It was a Legend."
The same thing should be said about the COLUMBO television series. It is in a class by itself. While certain aspects -- the photography, music, production values generally, and the like, were typical of high-end network television detective shows of its era, the writing and acting, particularly of the lead, Peter Falk in the title role, were simply unique and really have never been equaled. There has never been anything else like it (NBC's recent streaming effort "Poker Face", comparisons of which to this series being thoroughly overblown, included -- that show, at best, owes far more to THE BIG LEBOWSKI or even the PULP FICTION genre than to COLUMBO).
Thus, while this series was as plot-hole-ridden as anything that ever succeeded on television, you almost never noticed during its initial, pre-home video / broadcast only run. You sat down to watch (most typically, on seemingly random Sunday nights) something you always new would be special.
I suppose I could wax on rhapsodically at some length about the details of how these shows worked -- I have written as much elsewhere, before -- but it is just easier at the moment to summarize by saying that if you want what is literally some of the best fiction ever broadcast on television, you won't be disappointed by this.
The same thing should be said about the COLUMBO television series. It is in a class by itself. While certain aspects -- the photography, music, production values generally, and the like, were typical of high-end network television detective shows of its era, the writing and acting, particularly of the lead, Peter Falk in the title role, were simply unique and really have never been equaled. There has never been anything else like it (NBC's recent streaming effort "Poker Face", comparisons of which to this series being thoroughly overblown, included -- that show, at best, owes far more to THE BIG LEBOWSKI or even the PULP FICTION genre than to COLUMBO).
Thus, while this series was as plot-hole-ridden as anything that ever succeeded on television, you almost never noticed during its initial, pre-home video / broadcast only run. You sat down to watch (most typically, on seemingly random Sunday nights) something you always new would be special.
I suppose I could wax on rhapsodically at some length about the details of how these shows worked -- I have written as much elsewhere, before -- but it is just easier at the moment to summarize by saying that if you want what is literally some of the best fiction ever broadcast on television, you won't be disappointed by this.