No surprise that this was the writer's first script. It shows. The real surprise is that anyone ever hired him to write afterward. While not the worst Columbo outing (the two stories based on 87th Precinct novels vie for that title), it is a very poor one.
This was clearly an attempt to bring Columbo into the 21st century, but as always, he handles evidence without gloves, destroying fingerprints and DNA with reckless abandon, except when the script asks for it.
The big let-down is of course the villains: They're imbeciles. This is no battle of wits between geniuses. The baddies haven't been planning this for weeks and thought all the angles through--no, they're a couple of schlubs who are about as dumb as a (follower of a certain politician--take your pick, there's plenty of bad ones now, and likely to be in the future). Not only are the villains stupid, but the actors playing them have no presence or gravitas.
Pathetic. Truly a sad end to the show.
This was clearly an attempt to bring Columbo into the 21st century, but as always, he handles evidence without gloves, destroying fingerprints and DNA with reckless abandon, except when the script asks for it.
The big let-down is of course the villains: They're imbeciles. This is no battle of wits between geniuses. The baddies haven't been planning this for weeks and thought all the angles through--no, they're a couple of schlubs who are about as dumb as a (follower of a certain politician--take your pick, there's plenty of bad ones now, and likely to be in the future). Not only are the villains stupid, but the actors playing them have no presence or gravitas.
Pathetic. Truly a sad end to the show.