Show: Columbo
Episode
Particulars: S8EP1, “Columbo Goes to the Guillotine”, original airdate
February 6th, 1989.
Standalone
Thoughts: While I’ll preface this by saying that I did enjoy the episode, I
have to admit that I’m a little surprised at the tonal shift that’s on display
here. I know I should have expected it, given that it was now the late 1980’s
and technology, fashion, and sensibilities had changed, but the shift wasn’t a
direction I had been expecting. Based on everything I’ve heard, the 1970’s
weren’t a great decade, and the 80’s brought some life and energy back to
society. But that’s not what happened with Columbo.
1970’s Columbo was both physically
and tonally light most of the time, with only a few scenes taking place at
night and everything having a very easy-going vibe, despite the subject matter
(perhaps Falk’s performance had something to do with that). This episode, by
contrast, has a lot of nighttime scenes, and the combination of the lighting
and the synth music on the soundtrack winds up giving it a mysterious,
sometimes dangerous air. Once Columbo enters the picture, things kind of revert
back to the old days, but there’s a long stretch there where it feels like
you’re watching a thriller or a horror movie. I kind of like the atmosphere on
its own, but I’m not entirely sure it fits with the Columbo mindset.
Once you wrap your head around the change, though, the
episode works pretty well. Falk is still the same Columbo we always knew, just
with more grey in his hair and the need for reading glasses. And for some
reason, I really liked Anthony
Andrews’ performance as Blake. He gave off an air of suave confidence that
could feel menacing in the right circumstances, and I enjoyed watching him
every time he was onscreen. Then again, I have a weakness for British accents
and tall dark gentlemen, so that may account for it too. Even so, I feel like
he and Falk bounced off each other well, and that sort of rapport makes for
good viewing.
This is a decent start for the new age of Columbo, and I’ll be curious to see if
the other episodes, especially the 1989 ones, have the same feel. Like I said,
a bit of dark atmosphere is fine, but it works best in small doses. Mixing it
with Columbo could eventually lead to
a tonal dissonance that doesn’t quite work for me. As a one or two-off
experiment, though, I’ll happily take it.
Number of
“Columbo-isms”: 3/6. There’s the car (honestly looking in much better
condition than the last time we saw it), several references to Mrs. Columbo,
and a “Just one more thing”. I found the “one more thing” in particular
charming because the minute he says it, Blake gets a smile on his face.
In-universe, he was probably just putting on the smile to give off an air of
being friendly and helpful. Given that this was the first time Columbo had said
those words in over a decade, though, I’d like to think that in the real world,
Anthony Andrews was taking enormous pleasure in hearing them again. I know
that’s how I would have felt if I’d been watching the episode in 1989.
Other: *I
initially found the entire premise of this episode a little shaky. Would the
CIA and the Pentagon really be
interested in psychics? Then they said that they’d heard the Soviets were doing
tests involving ESP, and all became clear. I get the impression both the US and
the USSR did some very stupid things in the name of one-upping each other, so
this felt like par for the course in that context. It still seems a little
weird, but at least not entirely implausible.
*Just to make sure I haven’t been in fandom too long;
we’re supposed to infer that there
was a romantic relationship between Dyson and Blake, right? The dialogue and
some of their interactions really make me feel like that was supposed to be
present, although I definitely wouldn’t go so far as to say it was the primary
motive for Blake wanting to murder Dyson. Like I said, though, I’d like a
second opinion just to be sure.
*Columbo gets a dramatic reveal by lighting his cigar in
a darkened car, so the light illuminates his face. I understand why, though;
after being gone for so long, the crew wanted to call attention to the fact
that he’d come back. It’s hard not to resist the temptation to do something
like that.
*I was a little disappointed that Columbo seemed to have
no memory of encountering a smaller version of the guillotine trick back in
“Now You See Him…”, because as you know by now, I like little continuity nods
like that. But then it occurred to me that, according to Wikipedia, Columbo was
on a new network (ABC as opposed to NBC, which had run all the prior episodes),
and therefore the old stuff probably couldn’t be mentioned, because it was
still under the copyright of the old network. Still, I wonder if that episode
didn’t partially inspire the writers of this episode…
*Earlier in the episode, we’re told that Blake changed
his name after he got out of the Ugandan prison. It makes sense, because he
didn’t want his criminal record following him around. But later, Columbo reads
through a dossier from the institute and notices that Blake was born in Uganda,
and wonders if there might be a connection between Blake and Dyson thanks to
that. Blake deflects it by pointing out that he left Uganda when he was six,
but all I could think was, “How stupid are to you change your name and
presumably your whole life but leave a potentially incriminating detail like
that in your profile?” Granted, I know nothing about how changing your name
works, but clearly his old name wasn’t in the dossier, so why couldn’t he have
gotten someone to fudge a birth certificate saying he was born in Wales or
something? It just seems like something you should do if you want to be better
safe than sorry and have a, shall we say, tilted moral compass.
Would This Hold Up
in Court?: Although Columbo can claim an attempted murder charge, I think
the way he obtained it would raise a few eyebrows. So I guess it depends on the
defense’s case and the sympathies of the jury, but my money’s on no.
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