Show: Columbo
Episode
Particulars: S3EP6, “Mind Over Mayhem”, original airdate February 10th,
1974.
Standalone
Thoughts: There’s no getting around this one; this is an incredibly dated Columbo episode, and that will color
your opinion of it, though not necessarily in a bad way. Most Columbo episodes are fairly timeless,
because despite the cars, fashion, and various other signs that this was made
in the 1970’s, Columbo’s methods could work in any era. Even when something
outdated like a typewriter does show
up, it’s more of an oddity than a distraction. Here, however…not only does the
whole thing revolve around a super-computer that probably has less processing
power than a modern digital alarm clock, but Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet shows up (although he’s
going under the pseudonym “Double M-7” for this story). It’s kind of hard not to look at this episode and go “My,
how things have changed!”, while also noting that some of the things have sort
of come true, like technology doing a lot of our work for us or cars running on
something other than gasoline. Plus, with Robbie and the name “Double M-7”, you
wind up getting reminded of other movies, so it can be kind of hard to focus on
the episode itself. That being said, this all adds a certain charm to
proceedings, which might not be the case for everyone and definitely wasn’t what the writers intended at the time. Still, I
don’t think these elements make it totally unwatchable today.
(I wonder what the reaction to the episode was back in
1974. Did people say it was ridiculous because it was too unrealistic? And how
many people who saw it then look back now and say “Were things really like that back then? And how the
hell did we get from there to here?”)
If you do finally manage to pay attention to the meat of
the episode, I’d say it’s a mixed bag. If the motive for Nicholson’s death was
Cahill protecting his son, then either the writers or Ferrer’s performance
didn’t do a good job in getting that across in an emotional sense. It felt more
like what Nicholson had said; that Cahill was a bit distant and more concerned
about the shame Neil’s plagiarism would bring to the family and the institute
rather than his son's feelings. This means that some of the things that happen near the
end of the episode ring false, and therefore makes the solution feel less
satisfying. Similarly, it seems odd that Cahill continues to believe that
Columbo is an idiot, when other people in the Institute can clearly see otherwise.
Maybe the writers were trying to go for “Book smart but not people smart”, but
they don’t actually sell it, which again makes things feel a little off.
Combine that with everything I mentioned in the first paragraph, and you get
something that’s interesting to watch but not always easy to understand.
I’m not entirely sure how I’d rank this episode. It’s got
more things going for it than “Lovely but Lethal”, but it didn’t have the same
entertaining quality as “Publish or Perish” either. Maybe I’ll just put it in
an “impossible to judge fairly” category and leave it at that. After all, it’s
hard to look at Columbo meeting a robot and not
acknowledge that this is out of the ordinary for the show.
Number of
“Columbo-isms”: A very varied 5/6. Columbo’s dog (who is now pretty much
officially confirmed to be just named “Dog”) hangs around but doesn’t
contribute much to the case save for a bit of misdirection; Columbo talks about
his wife (and kids); there’s a scene and discussion surrounding Columbo’s car; and
not only does Columbo literally say “Just one more thing”, it happens at least
two other times, and one time it’s said by Cahill instead. But the most
interesting one is the “fumbling” trope. Columbo asks to borrow someone’s
handkerchief and fumbles around in
his coat on a separate occasion, but more importantly, he lampshades the fact
that he was always losing pencils when he announces that he’s switched to a
tape recorder instead of his notebook. But later on in the episode…the
notebook’s back with no explanation. The tape recorder still gets used a few
times, but I have the very distinct impression that it’s not going to be
sticking around. We’ll see if I’m right or not.
Other: *I’m
honestly not sure how effective Robbie/Double M-7 would be at typing on the
keyboard. Based on what we see in the episode, his pincer hands hit several of
the keys, which in theory should cause problems. But it never comes up in the
episode, so I guess we’re supposed to just handwave it away. Eh, why not, this
is a minor point compared to the fact that there’s a robot in the episode,
after all.
*There’s a moment when Columbo, while talking to someone
else, says something along the lines of “Don’t worry, you’re not a suspect”
while glancing directly at Cahill. It’s one of those little bits that just
makes me grin, because it’s simultaneously subtle and unsubtle. I always love
it when people can pull that off.
*I know it’s probably just a massive coincidence that the
child prodigy (Lee H. Montgomery) is named Steve Spelberg, given that at this
point Steven Spielberg had only directed a handful of things post “Murder by
the Book” and was a year away from rocketing into the public eye with Jaws (although I believe Duel had been well received). Even so, I
can’t help but wonder at how similar the names are.
Would This Hold Up
in Court?: Yes, in the sense that Columbo got a confession. But the method
he used to get that confession is
actively described in the episode as a frameup, and that might not sit so well
with the lawyers. Plus, there’s not really a lot of hard evidence, so without
that confession, they’ve got nothing. Although I would be amused to see Robbie
the Robot in court…
No comments:
Post a Comment