Murder Under Glass

Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yet another Colombo podcast. I'm your host. Mike White joined me, of course, is mister Chris Dashu. I wish you had been a chef, Mike Waite. This month we are talking about Murder under Glass.

It is the second episode of the seventh season, directed by Jonathan Demi. Inside of course, are you are you? Are you trying to be uh father Cariss's mother from the Exorcist? Jonathan de me do let me die? Try to be one of these very out of touch podcasters that I've never actually heard of.

Some the people they talk about, Yeah. You mean like most most like them? Yeah. So It's directed by Jonathan Demi, written by Robert van Squoik, and stars Louis Jordan as Paul Gerard, a very famous television food critic. It came out January thirtieth, nineteen seventy eight.

It is a blissful seventy three minutes long. And Chris, I am so curious, what did you think of Murder Underglass? I think it was interesting. However, I will say kind of a strange episode because in a lot of ways, this is one of the I mean and again we've we've talked about this before, and we talked about Columbo. We talk about the idea of like, well, we don't talk about as much as we kind of ask ourselves collectively, you and I the question of when did Colombo know that the person that he's pursuing is in fact the committer of the crime?

I mean, this time around, I'm not even sure how it could have been anybody else. Like it's one of those things where, yes, it's a locked room, kind of like the last episode where you know, we have you know, well who knows how it happened there was you know, he wasn't even there this time. How this he did it? Somehow Colombo knows it. He just has to figure out how.

There's no question it wasn't an accident. That's determined almost immediately into the episode. For me, I enjoyed it. However, there were very low stakes because there was no red herrings. Really, there was no side tangents.

Really, Colombo is just on Luis Jordan's ass from the moment go, and in a lot of ways, like Luis or Dawn is not doing anything to dissuade Colombo from pursuing him. I mean, at the end of the episode, we get what I find to be a really interesting moment of Columbus just being like fuck you, essentially, like we've never seen Colombo act that way towards someone, where he's like, I respect you, but kindly go fuck yourself. Contrast that with the Miguel Farrare episode where they're sharing a cigar together at the end and there's like a mutual respect and understanding, and this one it's like, I mean, maybe they respect each other in terms of being professionals, but Colombo with Louise or Don is just like fuck this guy.

I'm sure after he was done, Columbo's like, good riddance, my hands are clean. And I think that that is kind of earned because Louise or Don, I think does a good job in this episode. I just don't think the episode was writing in terms of the plot machinations. I don't think they ever really rise to the occasion that Louise or Don and Peter Folk kind of they both raise each other's ships, but the plot does not. The plot's kind of meanders, and then you have Mako in there for like a moment which he kind of like almost just steals the entire show.

Frankly, I enjoyed it, but it definitely has some issues. So Mike, I'm curious your thoughts because you're you're the Colombo expert here, I am the Columbo neo fight. We have a real soft spot for this episode. I can see why it's not necessarily the best episode in the world. I can fully cop to that, no problem.

For God's sake, this old man montage that they have with the music and everything, that is a real pain in the ass, and it just does nothing to endear me. We always talk when does Colombo know this? This time we actually get that question from the killer? When did you know my news? Soon as you showed up at the crime scene and you didn't get your stomach pumped, you just came right in there.

What's he say? Like, that's the most damnedest bit of. Civic civic duty yeallix I have ever seen. Yeah, He's like, you're a real piece of shit, dude. It's like that that was a dead giveaway.

I don't know if you've ever seen that clib of dead giveaway, dead giveaway. It's weird how much he really goes out of his way to implicate himself health when that's like would have been so easy, like so unbelievably easy, just go, get your stomach pumped, like even if it's just for effect, which it effectively would have been like, but yet no, you knew like man Luis Jordan not a smart villain. No. And the whole thing of how he was running to the airport afterwards to pick up Mako and that, well, first off, when somebody comes in and their flight arrives at eight fifty five, I don't show up at the airport at eight fifty five. What are you doing?

I mean, there's got to be time to disembark, to go get your luggage, all that kind of stuff. Maybe in the seventies it was a lot faster, but these days it's like, Honey, text me when you're playing Lands, and I'll drive down to the airport and I'll probably be pulling up right around the time you come out with your back. That's how it is these days. But anyway, so, yes, eight fifty five, he's supposed to pick up Mako, and he has an eight o'clock dinner appointment with the chef. I love that the chef is played by the same guy who's from Godfather Too, who slits his wrists in the tub, you know, talks to Tom Hagen for a little while, has that sudden case of amnesia on the stand.

Probably one of my favorite parts of Godfather Too. Yeah, I think we actually when we recently talked about Godfather for our What No Fucking ZD podcast, I mean that was I think that was maybe one of the only positives we had about the things we missed out on on Godfather Too, was was that the Frank DeAngelis all because that's him, right, It's all of that, it's all of the all of that because yeah, yeah, yeah. That is Yeah, that's Michael V. Goatso yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, he's got that great hoarse voice and everything.

And I mean this episode is an embarrassment of riches as far as all of these actors. I mean, having Richard dice herd in here as one of the other chefs, having gotso in here as the one who gets murdered, even half brother of Alan Alda as Mario here. I'll let you in our little secret, he actually can't speak English. Yeah, shocking. I'm sure Shara de NAIs is in this episode.

You know, Peter Folk's wife is in this episode as well. By the time this episode came out they were married. For me, this episode maybe goes down as the funniest thing Colombo has worn so far in this show. The chef outfit at the end of the episode, which is just I don't know that. Seems very fitting for him.

I don't know it is, but it's just wild, like this is not someone who we've seen wearing anything other than a trench coat for the most part, or a suit and trench coat, and here he is, sleeves halfway rolled up, with a chef's hat on and looking convincing. He's no Timothy Carey, but who is. So he's not making chili. He's making you know, chicken scallapini or chicken pacata or whatever fuck he's making, making it rather well according to Luis or Don as well, which maybe he had I read a twoy moment with the food, which you know, couldn't have prevented what happened, but you know, would have been nice, I guess. As in, there's a rat underneath his hat controlling him.

The compliments of the chef he pulls out of it. There's just a small rat that looks like Peter Falk underneath the hat. Yeah, yeah, it's got one glass eye, wearing good little trench coat. It starts whistling this old man. It has a dog and a bowl of chili with it.

We saw Peter Falk in the kitchen, or we saw Colombo in the kitchen back with Martin Landau, and he's seemed to be having a great time. And this episode kind of calls that episode to mind. Again. This episode calls other episodes to mind, like the idea of the wine. Of course, I'm thinking of, you know, any old boat in the storm.

I can't beat that drum loud enough. But you know what I kind of miss is I kind of miss when Colombo had to learn things and when he would be thrust into worlds that he was unfamiliar with and then having this kind of discomfort and have to figure out the crime a little bit more than oh he was slamming drawers and there's this drawer and it's got this check. Okay, I'll show it around at the funeral and see who reacts. Some big reactions coming from dysart. And I can't remember the actress's name, that Madame CHOI I mean it is.

You guys really don't know how to hide your guilt very well do. Yeah, And that's what I mean when I say like the writing of this episode feels kind of lazy, because that scene in particular was just like they're standing ten feet from Colombo. If they were paying attention, they would have seen him hand the check. The check had to start somewhere, and someone started passing it around. I would love to know why they didn't realize what was going on.

They even mentioned the guy who's investigating the murder is here with us today and he's probably the one person nobody recognizes, the one who kind of, you know, looks like a fucking cop so and he's the one handing things around it and you're reacting. That's that to me is just very lazy, convenience bound writing. I don't like it because this show is not that lazy, Like this is a show that almost feels intentionally unlazy. Sometimes it's so unlazy it kind of gets itself into trouble by working itself into kind of like you know, spiraling in on itself, coiling in on itself. Like this episode on the other hand, just I don't know like it.

There's not enough, there's not enough avenue like we always talk about these avenues that Colombo goes down, these like dead ends, there aren't any here. Every single thing he figures out essentially factors into the into the finale, Like even Luis g Ordn is like, well, well, I'm trying to remember. One of the things is like how long he waited or something? Oh, it was he left dinner early. He knew he was gonna leave dinner early.

Like, yes, he knew because he was poisoning him. But Luis g Ordn had a really interesting answer that doesn't really hold water like at all, and so it's it's like, okay, so that actually is a path you could have gone down for the entire direction, you just choose not to here, like there are no dead ends. This episode goes down, it almost shuts them off, like immediately in the scene that it brings them up, which is wild because it's made pretty clear early on. I feel like how this is going to resolve. Maybe it's just me like it felt pretty obvious when they keep focusing on the the very obvious, more more than likely new fangled way of opening up bottles.

Cause mind you, this is nineteen seventy eight. Most people are expecting a bottle opener a corkscrew to be used, which would not allow them to do the twist. This has to have a specific kind of thing to have a specific kind of twist. I don't know if you've ever used one of the things that they use in this episode to open a bottle of wine. This must have seemed like genuine again a technological fad in nineteen seventy eight.

You know, a CO two container to bop pop the cork out. And I guess that's as close to using technology to figure something out as we've quite a long time, even in the last episode. I mean, it's just the way that the stuff is scratched onto those boxes. We really haven't used any sort of technology for figuring out the murder in a while. It feels like since really, I don't know the one the last time we used like video or phone technology.

We're going to get that when we move into the ABC years with a few occasions. But yeah, other than the wine thing, and I'm guessing what goes on is when you pump that in there, it releases a little bit of either CO two or nitrous or whatever. I guess the CO two nitrous would be too much fun. And then that must dislodge cork because you're adding too much pressure inside the bottle makes it easier to pull out right right. Because there's that little bit of headspace at the top, so it pops the cork out the other direction.

I've never seen a thing like that. Then again, I only drink wine that has screw chops on it or. Comes out of a box. I only drink the finest Robert Mundavi jugwine. Don't you want to smell the bottle cap?

It was invented in the late seventies, early eighties. Okay, so this is new fangled technology. I mean again, like we've talked about that with Colombo, of the technological leanings of Colombo. But and this feels similarly like again, you know, seeing this in nineteen seventy eight must have felt like kind of a new thing, like it was. It was experimentally patented in the late seventies, so this is a early eighties you were able to get one of these, So this may have even felt like what is this?

I've never ever seen this? Because yeah, I mean again, we had the answering machine, We had all kinds of stuff with that Robert Colp episode twice with Robert Colp we had technology playing a factor like cct was that CCTVs like close circuit TVs? Right, that was a whole thing like and now we have a bottle opener, like it doesn't not work. It works here because of the world that we're in. But to your point, this could have been a port in any storm like this could have been the way that episode resolved, really, and it wouldn't have felt any less of like a It wouldn't have felt like a reach there either.

It doesn't feel like a reach here. The way this episode ends doesn't feel like a reach. The issue with the episode is a different one. There's not really any stakes because you know, Columbo's got Louis or Don from the jump, and Luis jor Don almost like relishes it. He never really tries to deny it, which is also strange.

Yeah, he doesn't really pint it on anybody else. I thought for sure he was going to try to pin it on Mario because here's this or immigrant kid coming over. You know, he works, he's the nephew of the guy that Louis or Dan just murdered. Feels like, oh yeah, natural thing, because you know, if you don't take care of that kid is going to come back for revenge, and that's the Sicilian way. And I think they are doing a Godfather thing.

When the cop comes in to tell Colombo that Louis Jordan is there, and the top come over and sits down next to Columbo like crouches down and starts whispering in his ear, and you keep getting Columbo looking over as sure Dan and then looks back at the guy and they talk for some more and then they looks back at shore Dan, just like, is this some sort of mob thing that they're doing. I think it kind of has to be, I would assume. So, I mean again, not only is it the world of food, but to your point, we also get the world of like the Italian food world specifically, because, like you said, Michael Vigazzo as Vittorio Rossi clearly Italian. And so when you have Paul, you know, Paul Gerard, the Luis or Dawn character, who's you know, a restaurant critic who's blackmailing people.

Pretty shitty thing to do. But you know, if you're black mailing the Italian restaurant to lean into the like mobster possibility of it all is interesting. It doesn't go anywhere though. Yeah, it seems very slimsy that they would pay him thousands of dollars every single month just so that he wouldn't try as their restaurant. I'm like, how much are they making in order to do that?

And is he just the only restaurant critic in town. I mean, this feels almost like the sweet smell of success or something like he's like Hansucker, who's just going to trash somebody in his column unless they play ball with him. It feels very flimsy when it comes to that. And we've seen Colombo with food before. We saw him cook an omelet for a murder victim's wife, before, we saw him, like I said, in the kitchen with Martin Landau.

But we've also seen him obviously up Berts getting some chili. We've seen how low rent his tastes are. We've seen him in the kitchen of the embassy in a matter of immunity, and how he was kind of sketched out by some of the more exotic food. I would almost like it if he I don't know either was really getting I mean, he's into the food as it's getting presented to him, but at the same time, he doesn't seem to be, I don't know, afraid of the food, or he doesn't seem to really relish it that much. I guess he's enjoying those, and I was enjoying looking at those crab stuffed mushrooms.

Those. Yeah, oh my god, he just had a couple. I'm not hungry anymore. Yeah, we'll share with the rest of the class, Colombo. And that was a running bit that I liked a lot, and I don't know if it was a little bridge too far when Larry Man at the funeral is like, as long as you're investigating this case, you'll never go hungry.

Maybe not, don't say that. There seems to be no respect for the dead in this episode whatsoever, because Colombo's doing all these effectively shenanigans at the funeral, and then yeah, you have people just kind of acting like assholes also at the funeral. It's bizarre. This is a bizarre episode, Like it's for me. It does check a lot of the boxes of like a good villain, a good interesting world that the thing is taking place, but the trappings just seem so like muddle headed, like they don't they don't.

I almost wanted a falk Ism scene in this episode, like give me something, like, give me something weird. Not to say that this episode's not kind of strange in its own right, but it feels like a very small episode. It doesn't even feel like there's really anybody in it but Louise or Don and Peter Falk. I mean, I know we've mentioned all these other people, but they're really like most of the people in this are only in it for like one scene. It's Colombo and Louise Jordan just like all over each other all episode and not you know, not like that.

You know, they're just like Colombo just won't leave them alone because there's no one else, Like, there's nobody else. So it's just like they're they're just at odds with each other, and it it never really runs a foul. It just would have been nice if there had been some other thing going on, like some complexity to it, or Luise Jordan trying to poison someone else to make it seem like, you know, just something somehow. It feels like he could have twisted the whole idea of the other two people that were paying him off were threatening something, you know, like there is he doesn't have a leg to stand on once. The whole idea of this the restaurant tour association, and it's so bizarre that it's like, oh, yeah, we only have one hundred and seventy four dollars in our savings account.

And then they find out, oh, there's a second account and it's like yeah, uh, checking account, Like why is that so hard? And it's such a big revelation at the bank, like oh my gosh. And there's another scene where he's having that coffee cake and giving it to the woman that works at the bank and she's trying to act and chew at the same time. And then his whole thing where he just happens to call eve Flum by the wrong name and then she responds and it's just like ah, you know, like I'm surprised there wasn't like a freeze frame bought up up up kind of thing. You know, Like that was pretty easy the way you got her to admit to this other name, the name of the person that is actually running the checking account for this restaurant Tourist association.

And yes, lose jor Dana is trying to get you to liquidate your account and send you out of the country again. I was kind of hoping that he was going to have her liquidate the account and then try to murder her, so then she would have to go to Colombo and say, listen, this is what's going on. Something there. There needed to be another big twist to this episode, whether it was Richard Diishart looks Guilty, whether it was Mario looks guilty, whether it was uh the uh Jordana is going to kill the secretary, something to set it off and say, look at something else that's going on instead of just being so laser focused on shor Dan. And yes, he would still be laser focused, but it would just give him more to bury jor Dan with rather than Oh, I have this glass of poisoned wine.

And of course at the end of this, when you've got a glass of wine, you've got a glass of poison wine. I'm thinking of Wallace, Sean and the Princess Bride. Thank you, you beat me to it. Inconceivable, Mike that you would think of that. The thing is that Colombo in just a small amount of blowfish poison every single day, so now he has an immunity to it.

I love how when Colombo comes to dinner with Mako and Luis Ordan. Luis or Dan is doing everything he can to not have Colombo understand what it is they're eating, which is the thing he used the poison for to kill Michael Vigazo, which is a known thing. Like it's not like you know, Like all it does is just further confirm to Colombo that this guys a fucking moron who did everything out in the open and above board, to the point where he's like, where does he get his fish from? Like they are watching a rerun of Luijor Dan's food program where he's talking about fugu. So while the episode's running, I'm like, what's going to happen?

Is he going to be watching television and a rerun is going to show and that's how he's going to put the whole thing together. We've seen that before. We've seen where it's just like, oh the rerun, ah, you. Know, well, it wasn't that. The wasn't that the Vincent the Cassavetti's episode wasn't something.

So yeah, here's the here's the boot near before. Oh it's not there anymore? What happened to it? Again? In this episode, it just felt kind of convenient.

There's a lot of just like convenient stuff in this episode, and I wish they had gone in a different direction with the way that this wrapped up, I wish they had gone in a different direction. I wish, like you said, I wish that there was some kind of like mystery to you know, Oh, there were multiple people vying for him or something, or someone was trying to like I don't know, like maybe someone was trying to kill Luise or Don as well, Like I don't know, like he has Louise or not has more enemies than he does friends, Like there's nobody in this town who likes this guy. So the fact that people weren't out to kill him is a little bit more surprising. But yeah, I'm surprised that there wasn't any more intrigue to the things that were going on, more so than we got, I will say to the Jonathan Demi of it all competently directed.

Yeah, very well directed. I think I thought the stuff with the Geishas was a little much. I mean, of course, it was very like, hey, we hired these ladies for the evening to add to our ambiance. It just felt a little privileged kind of stuff when it came to that though. While I'm watching it, I'm just like, Colombo must have been in the war, right, he must have served at some point.

He might even talk about that in an episode. Doesn't he talk about that too in the episode at the Boys Academy where they're all in the military academy. I'm ago an episode, right, I think so? And he mentioned something yeah. Yeah, it feels like he was a navy man, and it feels like he probably was stationed over seas in the Pacific Arena.

That's just I don't know what it is about. Even though he's like a nice Brooklyn boy and everything, it just feels like he probably served over over in Japan. Well, he's right age as well, so I don't know. I just have this whole head canon for Colombo. Well, Missus Columbo.

She's not a very good cook, according to Colombo, and. Uh, apparently she's going to night school for accounting. Missus Colombo does not exist. Missus Columbo is but a figment of this man's imagination. I love I love when he trots her out, like I love when he trots her out, like Missus Columbo.

This Missus Columbo. That like that's a very interesting tactic, that externalization thing where it's like, oh, somebody else told me, and it's like, oh, that's a very clever tactic to use, like it really is, especially when it's like his wife, which no one's gonna question that, like, you know, they don't know him well enough to question it. Well. I was hoping that he would say, you know, again, with having Mario, I was hoping they'd be like, oh, well, you know, I can have my nephew come by and talk with this kid or something. I was almost hoping.

I was almost hoping that Colombo couldn't speak Italian very well, that it comes out that he, you know, like his folks never spoke it around him or something, and he has to get somebody else in to translate for him. But instead he just jumps into it. And then they start screaming at Mario and I'm just like, whoa, whoa, what is going on here? What? And then it's just like yeah, he's okay, Yeah, don't worry about it's all right.

Yeah. I love that. I actually really love that about Columbo, where he's just screaming at him in Italian. It's like, Columbo, what is what is going on? Man?

Like you, You've been pretty even keeled up unto this point, Columbo. It takes a lot to rattle Columbo. But here he is just like with some of the most rat I think I've seen the character being so angry with this, like guy who can't really speak English very well if he can speak English at all. So yeah, and that he has to use Columbo as his translator. At the Big Award show, I'm where that guy breaks in and he starts talking about how a Devla McGregor fixed the files.

That was very strange. I'm like, next ballroom, sir, you. Changed the samples, didn't you. Hunt You switched the samples after Lens died. You were the only one who had the access.

You switched the. Samples and the pathology. Of course, did you kill Lents too? Huh? We get some security in here, please get you.

He falsified his research. The one thing too, when they're going grocery shopping, him and Louis or Dan, I mean again, like you said, they are stuck together throughout this whole thing, Like, why are they going shopping together? Why is he you know, taking advice on whether mangoes are ripe or not or it might might not have been a mango, might have been the what's the other one that's kind of it's got black seeds in it, green on the outside, orange on the inside. Oh, papaya, guava papaya. Yeah, it looked like a papaya that he was like, is this squishy enough?

Sir? And he's got that green grocer like following behind him. I'm like, what the hell is this? Weird setup? It?

Just like I said, it's not a bad episode. I do like a lot of things about it. I do like the idea of the blowfish poison. I find that to be interesting, and especially that, like you said, it's kind of a locked room mystery where it's how did the poison get into the bottle kind of thing? Was it the bottle?

Was it the wine? You know? Was it the glass? They don't even talk about the glass. I'm surprised.

I didn't like, what is it that poison this wine? How did it get inside the sky system? And of course whenever you talk about blowfish poison, I have to think about the sim since as well, and that was like one of the I think there's like season two that that episode. Was in, you mean, the one with George t K. Fugu, he's a blue that I should warn you that one one.

And the one where that's the one where Homer is like, I'm dying in a day, so I have to make you know, you know, bucket list make amends with everybody. It's like season two, thirty five years later, this is Christy. How many times is Homer made amends with people? Now? God?

Good God? Yeah? I always that is what I always think about as well, is you know fu gu is the Simpsons. I always picture the fish, which I haven't seen that episode forever, but I always picture the fish looking a lot like Blinky, the three eyed fish, the three. Eyed fish from the radiation runoff.

Yeah, that's I mean. What's funny is like fugu is really one of those things that isn't explored in a lot of stuff, but the things that explore it, like they stick out to me, like the Simpsons obviously, like that's that's the big that's the big, big, big, big, big one. And also I think it's in Johnny English, she's eating fugu as well. At some point he's eating blowfish. I think on like a sushi line, which is like not real.

It's either that or they're eating urchin or something. It's they're eating something and he's freaking out. So yeah, blowfish doesn't get mentioned a lot like it's you know, but when it does get mentioned, it's often being used for nefarious things, like the poison I just came from the lab. I told them what to test for, and sure enough, Declan Harker was poisoned with pufferfish toxin. It says here it's more potent than cyanide.

One drop causes hallucination, vomiting, paralysis, death. Declan wasn't gone or even without that car gambeling. People pay to eat that f It's safe. Would you try it? Would you try blowfish?

Oh? Yeah, absolutely? Same first thing. I get off the airplane in Tokyo and I just go right up to the gas station and I go get me some fugu. You go to the gas station, well that's where you get your sushi, right.

Go to the convene. I mean, the convenience stores in Japan are pretty dope. I can tell you that much. They're not gonna have fugu at the gas station convenience store, but they will have pretty good ton katsu sandwiches, maybe some eggs. Salad sandwich is no fugu, though I didn't have fugu when I went to Japan.

I would like to have. But again, it's also one of those things where it can kill you, Like it's not a joke obviously, so I don't think it kills you immediately though, which I think is the other thing. Like I think Michael Vgazo dies very quickly in this episode. It's not instantaneous obviously, that's just for comedic effect, because given that we're talking about the Simpsons, and the Simpsons he ingests it too, and it's like he has a day. This is like he drops dead like this is you know, I don't even know, like a kill switch, like there's a poison pill.

I don't know how else to describe it. But he dies immediately, which I do kind of have a problem with because that's not how fugu poison works, Like that's how other poisons work. That's how I believe, uh, like cyanide works that quickly. But at the same time, if it was cyanide, his mouth would be foaming and it would be obvious that he was poisoned, versus this where it's like, oh, it might have been an. Accident, and then do you get that cyanosis where like your lips turned blue and everything as well, you.

Know, speaking of that. In the upcoming James Bond movie, we're going to talk about the guy Javier Bardem's character had a poisoned tooth in his mouth and that whole thing. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's I guess, it's not even a guarantee, so it's I don't know, Like I like that Fugu was the vehicle through which the kill happened, but it is so obvious what's going on from the jump that, Yeah, it's kind of a bummer. Colombo doesn't have that scene of him watching the video of this guy going and this is fu gu Like where else would anybody else have gotten that from? Like who even has access to it?

I don't know. This is one of those things where the episode is okay, but then the vehicle through which the poisoning happens, it gives away who it is immediately, Like who else, who else would have access to this other than this like well known chef and restaurant critic. But again, like he's still talking about food, like he knows what he's talking about, so he must have some cooking capabilities obviously, But who else was gonna have access to like something to that effect. I mean, it so could have been like rat poison, something else that's found inside of a kitchen, some other mechanism, rather than this very very exotic poison that. If they do any sort of talk screening on which if they believe he's been poisoned, we'll come back immediately.

It's to troto tox and like it's that's not something that like comes up in just daily life, Like that's it. It's like you gave yourself away immediately. And I don't I don't know, I'm not I'm not a big fan of that with this show because this show is normally not that I wouldn't say lazy. I would just say this show is not normally this conventional with the way it tells the story. I mean, that's kind of the thing about this show for me is that it's very unconventional in the way that it tells the narrative.

And this episode feels shockingly conventional. You mentioned Jonathan Demi, and this was kind of a thing to tide him over. He had just done citizens Band, which I think did we cover that on the Culture cast or was that wake up heavy. No, we've covered that. We covered that back in the day.

That was a film that Mark Begley picked. Actually that's right because Ed Begley Junior was in it, and it's right. I love that movie. Not a lot of other people love that movie, but it did not do very well at the box office. Demi was kind of hurting at it at this time in his career.

And yeah, he got this offer to do this Colombo and was very pleasantly surprised that it was not a bad experience whatsoever, which is nice because we know our star can get a little testy at times. So yeah, apparently I had a good time working on this, and then he would come back right afterwards with Last Embrace, I think, which I think I finally saw that one. I might be mixing that one up with Obsession the Di Palma, because there's like two mystery thrillers right around the same time, and I always mix those up in my head for whatever reason. So if I haven't seen it, I should probably go. Check it out.

I mean, I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Demi. I like a lot of Jonathan Demi. I just his weird confessional close up thing that he does. I thought it worked really well in Silence of the Lambs. I didn't think it worked well in Philadelphia, and he kind of lost me with Philadelphia.

Philadelphia is a movie I've seen once, you know, like I don't. I don't really need to see it a second time now. Well, and you know, for me, Jonathan Demi as great of a director as he is with certain things. Like the thing that I love that he did was stop making Sense. I mean, obviously we've talked about Silence of the Lambs ad nauseum.

It's a perfect film. His direction is a huge part of what makes that film great. But Sam woul stop making Sense. I mean, yes, the Talking Heads are my favorite band, but he can't pretend like the direction in that movie isn't one of the reasons. It's so fucking like engaging and enthralling, like mesmerizing his cause, Demi just understands how to shoot the band in a way that's compelling, and that is a testament to him as a director.

You know, here it's just I'm not gonna say this is workman like, but it's not being given much to do, like this is television, Like you said, he's just biding the time. He wants to be directing, he wants to be working. Like he brings a steady, even hand to this. He doesn't need to bring any more than that, really, like, and this is early on in his career, so this is his first TV thing, so he's already showing he's a pretty capable director early on with this, you know, with with this episode, like and obviously he would go on to direct so many other things, but it's I think, I think he does a great job, and with this episode, I guess just there's not much to do. This is not like when Spielberg directed that episode where it's kind of like there are some flourishes of Spielberg, Like, there's none of that here, like, which is fine, doesn't have to be.

Well, we've kind of lost from the flourishes along the way as well. I mean, I think to that episode with Robert Kolp where you see the murder and the cleanup and his his glasses. I love that kind of stuff. And it's like nobody's really taking any chances these days, and. I don't know why.

I wonder if it's just the imperative has changed in terms of what the expectations were from the show. It's kind of what it feels like. I mean, the focus now just seems to be like Colombo is becoming almost a caricature of the character we had seen. And you know, that, in my mind is something that we've already like discussed a lot, which is, you know, like the kind of stereotyping or parodization or parodying of the Columbo character. And Peter Falk is part of that.

He's part and parcel in it. Some of the stuff here just doesn't it just doesn't feel necessary because I'm just like, where we we don't need these all these like pointing out of the Columbo things all the time. He says just one more thing like three times in this episode. You don't have to say it so much, like just stop beating me over the head with it. It seems like the focus went away from telling engaging, interesting, compelling stories to just let's just watch Columbo be Colombo.

And it's like, you know, that's fine for some people, but that's not what is engaging with me in this show. That's not what's bringing me to this show. The show holistically is what's bringing me through the door, not just Peter Falk's performance, which I know, for a lot of people, is the thing you're here for. Yeah, he's doing a lot of the big hand motions in this one, especially with the holding his hands straight up, like just one more thing thing that he's doing. It's like, all right, yeah, he's playing it very broadly.

I think we're going to get that probably for the entire risk season. And it's kind of a shame, you know. I really think that the show and runner is encouraging this kind of stuff, and it feels like Fulk is going right along with them, and yeah, we're going to get a lot more of that as we move into the future with this show. If this is the direction the rest of the season is going, that is immensely disappointing, only because this show did work well when it was practice nuance and subtlety and restraint. And you know, I know that we're knocking on the door at this point of the reboot seasons or the remake seasons, or the reimagining or the return of Columbo, what however you want to talk about it, which we will get to it when we get to it.

But this is seemingly where this is starting, like it's beginning here, It's already part of the show's DNA at this junction in time, which is, you know, the seventh season of the show. And look, I know, this show's seasons have not necessarily been consistent in length. There has been no consistency in length with this show. So I got to give it a pass in that regard, because if it had been a consistent show, maybe things would have happened differently. But this show, the way it is, like, if this is where we're headed with Colombo as a character, I'm a little disappointed because I was really expecting it to just be this way when we got to the return of Colombo.

I wasn't expecting it to be part of the kind of original run of the show. So this, this episode's fine. I think, you know, the end of the season. May we may just kind of limp along here to the end of the season. I don't know.

At least we get some good back and forth with Luise or Don and Colombo, but everything else just kind of seems like treading water. Really, just like genuinely just treading water, which the show doesn't do at all. No, there are so many times where you just go, oh, remember this episode, in this episode, in this episode, and everything has a hook where you can say, oh, yeah, yeah, that was the one where this happens. Even in this one, you could say, oh yeah, this is the blowfish poison. Okay, great when it comes to the next one, right now, I haven't gone ahead and rewatched the next episode, make Me a Perfect Murder, which sounds like an episode title that we've already had before.

Sure to see what the other one was, But I don't have any memory of that episode right now, so I'm very curious because normally I can be like, oh, well, Chris, you're going to really enjoy the next episode or you're gonna fucking hate it. But I don't remember looking ahead. It's a ninety seven minute one, which usually is not a good sign for us. Hopefully there's not a lot of slap and tickle along the way where Columbo's I don't know, waiting for things to be printed out in a civil servant's office or something. But I guess we'll find out when we come back next month to talk about make Me a Perfect Murder.

In the meantime, I want to thank John Walker for our opening theme and Colin Gallagher for our closing theme. I do want to thank you, Chris, Can you tell all the folks at home what you have been working on lately? Sir? Everything that I work on is over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com, which is where this podcast and so many other fantastic podcasts by your friends over at Weirdingway Media can be found, from my show to the Culture Cast, to Mike's show, The Projection Booth, to Father Malone's show Midnight Viewing, to Susan Lambert and Sharon Johnson's show eighty TV Ladies and everything in between. You're gonna want to go over to Weirdingway Media and check them out.

Stop listening to me describe them, and go listen to them. What about you, Mike? Pretty much the same thing. The only thing I think you might have missed was the show that we do for our patreons. That's patreon dot com slash Culture Cast and patreon dot com slash Projection Booth, which is called Ranking on Bond, which we're still cranking through.

We're cranking on Bond or cranking on something else, and we've got just a few more episodes to talk about Daniel Craig racing towards the Bottom and the Inevitable death of James Bond. So spoilers, Mike, how could you? Gosh, I'm sure nobody, well hopefully not a lot of people saw that last movie, but. Well, I don't know if that spoiler is going to cause anyone else to go see it, So maybe you did some people of favor Bingers crossed the cree bow a bow, A