Columbo

I have never been a huge fan of the detective genre. Sure, there are many shows and films from the genre that I have enjoyed, but very few of them tend to be serious ideas. For example, I love Psych, Monk, and Castle. These shows tend to have the detective idea at heart but remove some of the more serious tones from them with the implementation of comedy. Whether it's from the characters being very much of out of place in more serious scenarios, managing to somehow wit themselves out of danger, or simply being more comedic in how it approaches the idea of crimes and their investigations. The truth is, I really dislike the crime genre for the most part. Especially when it comes to documentaries which seem to almost glamorise the horrors of reality. As someone that was born and raised in the United Kingdom, the detective genre has very much been around my upbringing despite all of this. How could I possibly escape Sherlock, or the utterly boring Agatha Christie?! As a child, to see such shows on television instead of cartoons was to bring me close to rejecting the world of television.

Here and there I do like some detective and crime oriented shows beyond their comedy elements. I am a major fan of The X Files as a result of its fantasy elements, still having more serious tones, but incredibly atmospheric. Now that I'm older, I do feel more open to giving things a chance, I care less at a glance and will consider diving out of my comfort zone in pursuit of discovering something new. Recently I realised I had not really watched many 80s and 90s television shows, and my curiosity got the best of me, sending me deep into the rabbithole of wanting to find the forgotten gems of a bygone era. The other day I began to watch Quantum Leap, which has been an absolute joy! But one show I stumbled across on Amazon Prime Video is Columbo. I threw it on our of nowhere, and I'm already hooked. Perhaps not a show from the 80s or 90s, instead being from the late 60s. Columbo seems to be a highly popular character and series that seems to have gone completely over my head throughout my life, and strangely, since I started watching these two shows, I now can't stop seeing them mentioned everywhere. Perhaps the simulation glitched a little and made some updates a little too obvious, but I'm not complaining given the discovery of great works of art.

I don't recall ever hearing of Columbo before, however. I have never seen it mentioned or airing on television. Never referenced or advertised on any services. But from my understanding so far, this show pretty much spawned a much loved character and style that followed, setting a high bar for the crime and detective genres.

When you picture a detective, chances are you imagine a gritty, heavy smoker that wears a lengthy trenchcoat and has a relatively strong Eastern American accent. Often troubled by their own minds and the experiences the face, but utterly brilliant at what they do, with a certain devotion to the job that few can match. If you are like me, and this is the general idea you came up with, there's a good chance that the Columbo character served as the inspiration for this stereotype. For the 60s, around the era of film noir and many detective and crime films, this is quite a shift from the more well-spoken, well-adjusted member of society. The design of Columbo still certainly carries from the love of the film noir detective concept, clenching a cigarette or cigar almost at all times, the density of the smoke that fills the rooms they inhabit. These characters often seem distant, in deep thought, troubled and trying to comprehend something. Columbo is a shorter, messy looking detective. His most famous feature will be one of his eyes being slightly lower than the other; this is a result of the actor himself actually having a fake, glass eye as a result of childhood cancer. A pretty tragic tale, but one that most definitely resulted in a highly important feature in the Columbo character.

The way his character is introduced us quite sudden, almost strange for a television series. Perhaps the norm for a show back then, but it seems as if he sort of just stumbles into the story with no real introduction. He's a very vague character a result, with nothing for us to go by given the lack of depth. I say this as a positive, however. It almost has us not quite realising he is to be a big character. Much of this seems to be a result of the episodes taking a different direction to the general detective story. Many throughout the decades will show a crime with few clues, to which the main characters then spend the episode trying to figure out who did what and why, all while the audience get multiple clues and misdirections to keep them along for the ride. What's different here, is that the show gives us brief context, with us already knowing who did what and why, and instead we witness how Columbo slowly pieces things together and manages to catch the culprit before they get away with it. It is a very different and interesting setup, to give the audience the main answer right away, but so far it seems to work. It's interesting watching Columbo use his mind while the culprit plays innocent. Though while I'm very early into the show, with it having many seasons, I'm not sure how long the quality can maintain itself without growing too familiar. The crimes will have to differ greatly, with tensions that rise as Columbo investigates.

Columbo is of course everything in the show. It wouldn't be as engaging with him. The acting that sums up his character makes him stand out, the hand in the pocket, the suspicious looks on his face, these mannerisms almost scream the role of a lifetime with how well they're all performed. It means that the show doesn't need to have a huge mystery to it, and the interest sits in how Columbo himself manages to piece it all together. Now, I think this might be the first television show from the 60s I have ever seen, beyond the world of animation. It's hard to compare to the comedy detective series I have seen, given the lack of similarities. In some aspects I guess the way in which each episode is a different location, set of characters, and theme is similar. Meaning there's no linear narrative structure to the show at all, you can start anywhere you like. Perhaps there is some character progression at some point, though. I haven't yet seen any.

Lastly, I want to mention the directing. It has a very film noir style to it sometimes, but for the late 60s, it's shot on colour film. Grainy, post-war America looks wonderful. Clean and colourful, but with much of the locations being around people of luxury. Crimes of the rich! Sometimes we get a glimpse of that more creative style of directing that was starting to slip through with the new era, unique styles of editing, slow camera pans despite being fixed for the most part. From a cinematography standpoint, sometimes you don't even really pay attention to it because the show is so engrossing. Then, suddenly, a quick pan or zoom has you surprised. I like it, it's effective when unexpected. I can't begin to imagine what it would've been like to witness the show airing on television at the time. Watching it now, it certainly does capture a time so different to our own. Before the technology, after the horrors of World War 2 and the economic turmoil the people faced. Whether it can maintaing the quality, I don't know. I'll be watching it to find out!