actionsub Reviews

A Matter of Faith (2014)

Two hours I'll never get back...

[5/10 · 1 February 2024]

This was an incredibly hackneyed piece of propaganda.

It begins with some weird scene about a little girl finding a coin or something and a bigger boy separates her from her money, after which the girl runs crying to Daddy.

It immediately jumps to a scene where the father is throwing a reception for his daughter because she's going to college. I've never heard such a thing happen. Most real parents give their college-bound kid a set of car keys and see them off.

Then on to the main event: Daddy's little girl gets face-to-face with a college professor with an alternative point of view, along with some fairly sketchy friends.

Daddy gets wind that his little princess is having her young earth creation worldview challenged, and goes to confront the professor...and ends up challenged to a public debate. Something else that never happens, as most professors would in reality just give the angry parent some non-committal answer and then have them ejected.

Enter the white knight, the perfectly coiffed white boy with a neatly trimmed bit of perfunctory facial hair. Somehow, as a journalism student, he gets to interview Daddy and then reveals he and Daddy are on the same team. Meanwhile, he meets the girl and finds her cute, while she's pissed that he's aiding and abetting her public embarrassment by helping her dad.

Fast forward to the debate. In all honesty the 2016 debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton were better moderated. The judge from "Night Court" and Daddy spout talking points at each other...THEN Trivette from "Walker Texas Ranger" arrives in the guise of a former colleague of the evolutionist who comes in and layeth down a creationist smacketh-down and follows up by asking the guy that had him fired to forgive him for holding bitterness.

The end scene? The "white knight" student takes Daddy's little girl to a scenic spot by a stream...at which point the opening scene is finally explained. This was the spot where the little girl finds the coin and has it stolen...and the "white knight" just happened to be the boy who stole the coin. Somehow this was also the catalyst for his religious conversion, and the white knight leaves with the princess for what will be apparently the first of many dates.

TL; DR: Bad script, sorry acting, cardboard characters delivering propaganda.

Space: Above and Beyond (1995–1996)

"12 O'Clock High": TNG

[10/10 · 22 January 2024]

One of my favorite WW2 shows was the drama "12 O'Clock High" about a bomber wing and the personal issues faced by the senior officers and plane crews in between making bombing runs on targets in German-occupied territory.

30 years later, this series came along, focusing on a small group of Space Marines pressed into service straight out of basic training due to an attack by an alien race on a deep space colony.

Like "12 O'Clock High", the plots not only concern themselves with battles, but also with interpersonal issues between members of the fighter group, one of whom comes from a group born by in-vitro fertilization--who are considered inferior by those born by traditional means.

The psychological and interpersonal themes are what make "Space: Above and Beyond" the legitimate successor to "12 O'Clock High". Had it gone beyond one season before cancellation, it might be remembered more widely and fondly.

The Day After (1983 TV Movie)

Overall, a bleak but realistic view

[10/10 · 1 August 2023]

When "The Day After" was released, I had recently mustered out of the Air Force, having been stationed at the unnamed missile base depicted in the film. (The base itself is an hour east of Kansas City; the missiles are no longer there, decommissioned as the result of subsequent SALT talks.) The scenes on the part of the missile officers were fairly true to life, although I doubt if that airman working maintenance (I was a missile maintenance supervisor) probably wouldn't have made it home alive as someone would likely have shot him for deserting.

That said, if they really wanted to show it from the perspective of a college town, there was one in real life 10 miles away from the base in Warrensburg, MO which would have taken more of a hit than Lawrence, KS.

I could nitpick it for some time, but the effect of a nuclear attack like that would have been every bit as catastrophic as depicted. Despite its faults, it was a good wake-up call to the general public.

Tales of Wells Fargo (1957–1962)

One of the classics

[10/10 · 26 July 2023]

First off, as others have suggested, it is necessary to think of the half-hour shows and the hour-long episodes as two separate shows.

There's a number of reasons why they went to an hour, but it wasn't that NBC suddenly acquired the series in 1961. The show had aired on NBC since its debut in 1957. By the third season, the declining quality of the show forced a change in executive producers. Dale Robertson, who owned half interest in the show, brought in Earle Lyon in 1960. The studio and network quickly saw a rise in positive fan mail praising the improvements in the show. The trend in dramas (including Westerns) was moving to hour-long formats, and NBC felt "Wells Fargo" should follow suit.

With the enlarged time slot, they decided to move Hardie from a traveling road agent and started a format where he was semi-retired and owning a ranch in California. The result was a Western that was neither fish nor fowl, with Hardie spending half his time reacting to things happening in town and the other half doing occasional jobs for Wells Fargo.

This happened at the same time that Revue was merging with Universal Studios, who weren't happy with production costs. Universal made the call to cancel the show.

Now that the "inside baseball" explanation's made, the original half-hour shows were just right. Much like Jim Davis on "Stories of the Century", Dale Robertson seemed to be in the right place at the right time to apprehend every bad guy in the wild West, and the half-hour format resulted in tight scripts and good performances.

The hour-long color shows were OK, but they'd have been better off sticking with what brought them as far as they did.

Tales of Wells Fargo: Luke Frazer (1959) Season 3, Episode 18

Hardie has both hands full here

[10/10 · 19 July 2023]

This one had an interesting premise: a gunslinger named Luke Frazer is putting his brother through college in hopes that the younger one won't become a gunman, too. Luke's unaware the young man has left college and is headed back to join forces with Luke. The brother finds Hardie outside of town and tries to impress him with his quick draw. The unimpressed Hardie tries to dissuade the young man from going into town to find his brother.

It seems that everyone wants this gunslinger, including the family of a man Frazer shot down in a duel. Hardie's looking for Luke Frazer for the killing of a Wells Fargo agent.

NOTE: Contra the other rewiewer, this is not the pilot for the series despite the date shown in the opening credits. The pilot aired in 1956 as part of "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars".

Babylon 5: The Long Night (1997) Season 4, Episode 5

Centauri crisis comes to a head

[23 April 2023]

Finally, the question of "just how far will crazy Cartagia try to go?" has been answered. Londo's plan to murder Cartagia has more than a few moving parts, one of which is his nemesis G'Kar, whose future and that of the Narn homeworld is dependent on Londo's complicated scheme working.

Let's just say things get very chaotic as the scheme unfolds. Londo, however, is placed (literally) in a position where he cannot finish the job he started. The responsibility falls to the happy-go-lucky Vir who seizes the moment and delivers a literal "kill shot".

And this is the point where Stephen Furst will make you forget he was ever in "Animal House". The next scene shows Vir trying to drink himself into a stupor so he can calm his conscience. The lighting, etc. Is totally on point here, as the "moon-faced assassin of joy" (as Londo first called him) is replaced by a hardened fellow who realizes that he's forever changed by this incident...and doesn't like it one bit.

Londo's fatherly reaction to Vir's distress makes for an exquisite piece of acting from both Stephen Furst and Peter Jurasik.

That '90s Show (2023– )

Not quite what I expected

[9/10 · 20 January 2023]

It's more of a departure from the original 70s Show than one would expect. The initial intent was apparently to re-create the chemistry of the kids, which they did quite adequately. Leia Forman manages to be a good mix of Eric and Donna's respective quirks.

What was unexpected is how much of the heavy lifting was done by the adult characters, including the new next-door neighbor Sheri...an oversexed single mom who embodies the cliche "hot mess".

Her daughter Gwen serves as kind of a mentor to Leia.

Part of the fun is the cameos by the original gang and seeing how they've changed while keeping their personalities. Except maybe Fez.

Bottom line: it's NOT That 70s Show, but it is fun.

Wednesday: Friend or Woe (2022) Season 1, Episode 3

The fingerprints of Gough and Millar...

[9/10 · 3 January 2023]

...are all over this. While people are criticizing this show as Tim Burton not working to potential, Burton's not the only one with input into this series.

The slow tease of Wednesday's story is reminiscent of another Gough/Millar-created show: "Smallville" in which they spent years with this nod nod, wink wink look at the coming of age of Superman.

And for those who don't like Luis Guzman as Gomez (not seen here), there can be only one John Astin. Even Raul Julia in the 90s films was a poor substitute. Let's not be too harsh.

While we've only ever known Wednesday as a child until now and this is terra nova, it seems as if they're trying to create a backstory for Gomez and Morticia as well.

The Roaring 20's (1960–1962)

A mix of a number of 20s based shows

[8/10 · 24 December 2022]

As the Western genre began to decline, the main beneficiary was the private eye genre. Warner Bros. Already spawned a hit with "77 Sunset Strip" which premiered in 1958. That success led to Warner Bros. Taking that template, putting together a similar ensemble cast, and setting the new shows in places like Miami, Hawaii, and New Orleans...much like recent shows like CSI and NCIS did with their respective franchises.

In 1959, two new series premiered, with a theme of law enforcement taking action against Depression-era gangsters. NBC's little-known "The Lawless Years", which lasted for a season and a half, was based on the memoirs of New York police detective Barney Ruditsky. Over on ABC, the memoirs of Eliot Ness became "The Untouchables".

So Warner Bros. Took the setting of these two gangster shows and applied their formula of two or three male leads and a singer, with the result being "The Roaring 20s". Unlike WB's other private-eye shows which had one character for comic relief, popular trends from the era provided a break from the crimefighting. (A 1961 ABC show from 20th Century Fox, "Margie", was a sitcom about an adolescent girl in the 20s.)

But I give that history to set up the review. The strength of "The Roaring 20s" was jointly in the writing and the characters, but also in its ability to capture the fun spirit of that era to avoid the noirish feel of "The Untouchables". We will probably not see it on DVD due to the weekly musical numbers provided by Dorothy Provine, another strength of the show.

Stranger Things: Chapter Seven: The Bite (2019) Season 3, Episode 7

People forget it's set in the 1980s

[9/10 · 19 December 2022]

So much of what is being criticized by others here is simply the Duffers attempt to be authentically '80s: -Dustin and Erica watching "Back to the Future" at the theater -the whole "New Coke" shtick -Russians: Red Dawn? Glasnost? Perestroika

These were all big trends in the mid-80s.

The ONLY 80s ball they dropped was Robin's coming out. Robin and Steve had been smacked around by the Russians for the prior episode and a half, and this was a period when the fear of contracting AIDS from LGBT people was just slightly more insane than the early days of the COVID pandemic. Steve took the whole thing awfully calmly, which may be more a reflection of current attitudes than anything.

The "meta" was a little stronger in this episode than usual, but it made a good cliffhanger for the next episode.

Combat! (1962–1967)

A landmark series in the military genre

[10/10 · 7 November 2022]

I was not a fan of the show in its original run as a kid, though my father never missed it. I came to discover it on cable TV after my father passed away, and I quickly grew to appreciate it, along with "12 O'Clock High" (which as an Air Force vet I liked better...).

Like many others, I preferred the episodes in which Vic Morrow had the lead role, as I got to know Sgt. Saunders and the individuals who composed his squad: Kirby, the constantly complaining goldbrick; Littlejohn, the gentle giant; the tough Caje whose fluency in French helped build bridges with Maquis resistance fighters in the French villages where they fought; and Doc the sanguine medic.

But there was a piece of trivia that added more realism to the show's portrayals of both the American and German fighters that I recently learned: Selig Seligman, creator and executive producer, was an Army lawyer who moved into television production in the early days of TV. In his final Army days, he served as an attorney for the prosecution...at the Nuremburg war trials!

Wagon Train (1957–1965)

A tribute to Charlie Wooster

[10/10 · 7 August 2022]

I never cared much for "Wagon Train" when I was younger, because the only ones that were shown were from the 90-minute season. (A 90 minute episode does not sit well with a boy with a short attention span...) There was a show on called "Trailmaster" that I never bothered watching because it usually conflicted with something else I wanted to see.

As an adult, though, reruns of the hour-long episodes on RTN and Encore Westerns grew on me fast. So imagine my surprise in adulthood to discover that "Trailmaster" WAS the original "Wagon Train" shows in rerun!

That said, I enjoyed all the hour-long shows no matter who was in them because of one constant. Watching one today, it grew on me just how important Frank McGrath's portrayal of beleaguered cook Charlie Wooster was to the overall chemistry. Seth Adams could be replaced by Chris Hale as the brains, Robert Horton could (sort of) be replaced by Robert Fuller as the brawn...but Charlie Wooster was the heart of the train! As Charlie Wooster, McGrath brought a warmth to the show in his acceptance of almost everyone as well as his habit of championing people who had been wronged. (Not to mention Wooster wasn't a bad guy to have on your side if things got physical; he could brawl with the best of them!)

Wagon Train: The Heather and Hamish Story (1963) Season 6, Episode 29

An interesting courtship

[10/10 · 11 June 2022]

This was one of the more unusual episodes of this fine series. The plot concerns a father's efforts to arrange a marriage for his daughter. However, Heather McIntosh is far more interested in talking to animals than to other people.

The groom? Hamish Browne would just as soon attend to his livestock. At any rate, he is convinced to sign the marriage contract and collect a dowry...before even meeting Heather!

What makes this particular episode unusual is that you'll see these two again in the following season's finale "The Last Circle-up", though the next time they will be played by Tom Skerritt and Karen Greene. Other than the regular crew of the wagon train, I think that was the only time any of the passengers carried over from one season to the next!

The Yank (1960 TV Movie)

Could have made a great companion series

[1/10 · 11 May 2022]

The success of "The Rebel" in its first season inspired producer Andrew Fenady to look at the post-war adjustments faced by "Rebel" Johnny Yuma through the eyes of a counterpart: a former Yankee soldier turned doctor.

Matthew Dorn (James Drury) wandered through the wrecked Southern states, trying to use his medical skills as a means of penance for the carnage he committed as a Union officer during the Civil War.

Stoney Burke: The Journey (1963) Season 1, Episode 32

One of two final episodes that capped off a fine series

[10/10 · 1 May 2022]

The synopsis paints this episode as a "morality play". I would disagree; it seems to be more of an allegory. After an injury that knocks Stoney out of competition for the remainder of the season, a sinister man in black (Mark Richman) named Redmond offers Stoney, now in need of income to help his folks back in South Dakota, a job taking horses to slaughter, one of which is Megaton, the horse that injured him. Redmond's offer, coming at Stoney's lowest point emotionally, is something Burke finds hard to resist.

To a man who loves the horses that often injure him, this job offer is a Faustian deal. You can see Stoney struggling with his own conscience through the whole episode. It's almost like one of those cartoons where the main character has an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. In this case, Ves and the boys serve as the "angel", the "devil" is represented by Redmond and his boss Longworth. A toll bridge serves to separate Stoney from his moral support, leaving him to face the demons alone. In an odd twist, Stoney sees in Megaton something of the independent spirit that kept him persevering through everything he has endured the rest of the season. That epiphany gives Stoney the courage to reject Redmond and fight to get back into competition next year.

Putting this episode back to back with the previous episode "The Test", seems more like a double-header. Our hero has had to face down two major risks to his goals: one physical "The Test", and one a bit more existential, as represented in this episode. It would be interesting to see how this would have played out if the show had been renewed for another season. But as is, these final two episodes stand as a tremendous finale to an underrated piece of work for Jack Lord.

Naked City: Tombstone for a Derelict (1961) Season 2, Episode 21

One of the weaker episodes of a classic series

[5/10 · 20 March 2022]

Four young men decide to perform a series of murders to send a message to a world they believe to be callous and unfeeling. As things proceed, it becomes clear that the leader of this group wants people to feel his pain. Meanwhile, they call attention to themselves by wearing Nazi uniforms, leaving swastikas at the scene of their killings, and finally hanging a Nazi flag on a fence in the neighborhood and saluting it where the disgusted residents of the tenement can see them.

This could be a gripping episode, were it not for the wooden performance of Robert Redford, who plays Larne, the group's leader. For someone who wants the world to feel his pain, his lack of affect and emotion communicates nothing.

Had Larne been played by Dennis Hopper or Keir Dullea, it would have been far more credible. Both Hopper and Dullea had a string of successful performance in this time frame playing such characters. The emotionally dead Redford, however, wasted his time and ours in this performance.

Bronk (1975–1976)

Jack Palance strikes out again

[8/10 · 29 April 2021]

Contra rcj5365's review, this was Palance's SECOND weekly TV series. His first was another one-season wonder, "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1963-64). In that one, Palance was the manager of a traveling circus.

The role of "Bronk" seems to be a much better fit for Palance, allowing him to appear both sensitive and badass simultaneously. Alex Bronkov is a pipe-smoking cop who is called into action by the mayor of Ocean City to clean up the town of corrupt officials, scumbuckets, and the type of people Palance played for most of his career.

An interesting connection here is that Carroll O'Connor, in the middle of his run as Archie Bunker on "All in the Family", found the time and energy to be the creator and showrunner for this particular series. He definitely put a quality touch on what might otherwise be a paint-by-numbers police procedural.

Somehow, though, the combination of O'Connor's behind-the-camera touch and Palance's tremendous acting skills wasn't quite enough to keep this quality show going. While the viewing public gave it high marks, CBS decided to yank it after one season.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Emissary (1993) Season 1, Episode 1

You rarely get a second chance to make a first impression

[3/10 · 27 April 2021]

The initial episode of Deep Space Nine introduces us to the cast and the premise of the show, that of Ben Sisko, a space captain with more than a little PTSD after surviving an attack of the Borg that killed his wife and nearly killed him...led by Jean-Luc Picard who was under Borg control at the time.

The PTSD has Sisko ready to resign his commission and quit Starfleet. He has to deliver that decision, though, to the one whom he holds responsible for the death of his wife, Captain Picard. After a tense confrontation, Picard offers him (or exiles him, depending on your perspective) to a remote space station, the property of the Bajorans who had recently thrown off their occupation by Cardassian forces, and in so doing threw the Cardassians off Deep Space 9. Naturally, the Cardassians trashed the place like a drunken rock band on their way out.

So now it's Sisko's job to try to maintain diplomatic relations, even amidst his own staff. He arrives on the station with his teenage son, creating a dynamic similar to that between Lucas and Mark McCain on the classic western "The Rifleman", a good comparison since the station is as "final frontier" as anything in the ST franchise. We are introduced to the residents of the station including a casino manager, a grouchy lawman, a Bajoran first officer who resents Starfleet coming in and taking over, a female science officer whose body holds a symbiote with the memories of all its previous hosts including a former male friend of Sisko. (The latter would have made shipping these two characters AWKWARD...) But wait, there's more! Just outside the station is a stable wormhole that passes to the Gamma Quadrant. When Sisko enters the wormhole, this is where this whole episode goes straight down the tubes. There's a very long sequence where alien beings (the Prophets of the Bajoran Temple) assume the forms of people from Sisko's past; it is very confusing and can only be summed up in two words often repeated through the scene: not linear. The point being that Sisko's memories keep him from moving forward, while at the same time proving to the Prophets that he understands the consequences of decisions he has made. This is important because Bajoran leader Kai Opaka has identified him as the emissary to the Prophets, an important figure in Bajor's religion.

Anyway, they so lost me with that "not linear" business that it took me a couple of years to return to the show. Thankfully, the characters and plots became far more compelling by this time. Thus my lousy review is limited solely to the pilot, not the series as a whole.

Stargate: Atlantis: Missing (2007) Season 4, Episode 7

Interesting

[10/10 · 29 December 2020]

Ironically with Jewel Staite (Dr. Keller)in this episode, the plot is eerily similar to the "Firefly" episode in which Wash complains that while his wife Zoe has lots of war stories when she served with Mal, he really hasn't had any real stories to tell. So Mal takes him along on a heist in which they are captured by Mal's enemy Niska and tortured.

In this one, Teyla and Dr. Keller (Kaylee in "Firefly") go to Teyla's planet where they are captured by an enemy race seeking information.

The Road to Edmond (2018)

Interesting faith-based movie

[9/10 · 16 May 2020]

Tripp Fuller (Larry) in real life is an author, podcaster, and spokesperson for a progressive expression of Christianity. As such, the average evangelical is not going to warm to the Christianity presented in The Road to Edmond. Cleo (who names a guy that?) is a youth pastor who is suspended from his position for his acceptance of a young girl in his group who comes out as a lesbian. While trying to take a bike trip to process this, his bike is damaged when Larry runs it over with his van. From there, it becomes somewhat of a buddy/journey film. Larry continues to go Socratic on Cleo in the course of the movie, and both Cleo and Larry reveal more about each other as the story continues. This would be a good movie for a college-aged group to watch and I'd recommend it highly.

The Third Man: Dark Island (1959) Season 1, Episode 9

Dark Island

[9/10 · 21 March 2020]

Except for the absence of Jonathan Harris as the comic sidekick, "Dark Island" contains all the elements that made the series a hidden gem: noirish atmosphere, beautiful women, unusual situations. Abraham Sofaer plays a general, who is trying to launch a coup from a small island off the coast of Turkey. He calls on Harry Lime to conduct his diplomatic missions. Lime wants no part of this and tries to decline the offer, but is threatened with death. As the plot proceeds, things get as complicated as things can get in a half-hour TV drama. Lime encounters the obligatory beautiful woman, Patricia Medina, whom the general would like to have as his first lady. She doesn't want to be the first lady any more than Lime wants to be the secretary of state. Michael Rennie, as Harry Lime, handles everything with his usual savior-faire, leading to an enjoyable half-hour as he unravels all this intrigue.

The Untouchables: Little Egypt (1960) Season 1, Episode 18

"Ripped from the headlines"?

[6/10 · 11 February 2020]

There is some historical context for this particular episode, like many of the shows in the first season.

The southern third of the state of Illinois is known as Little Egypt because it is bordered by two major rivers. This episode, more than likely, was inspired by the "Bloody Williamson" gang wars in the 20s between Charlie Birger's gang and the Shelton Brothers' gang. In real life, the mayor of a small town called West City, near Marion, had ties to the Sheltons. Charlie Birger sent his men first to bomb the mayor's house, and later shoot him dead.

However, the city of Moraine depicted in the episode is nowhere near the real "Little Egypt". In real life, Moraine is a Chicago suburb. On the show, it was 100 miles away according to the dialogue. In reality, the events where the episode took place were about 400 miles from Chicago. The "carrier pigeons" that Allison used to communicate with Ness would have taken a couple of days to fly from Williamson County to Chicago. Just an instance where creative license and a lack of knowledge of geography would spoil an otherwise good episode.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 1: The Mandalorian (2019) Season 1, Episode 1

For those who still miss Firefly...

[10/10 · 9 December 2019]

What an addition to the SW universe! Favreau & co. are to be congratulated for creating that mix of Western and SF that Joss Whedon tried to capture with "Firefly". Pedro Pascal as the title character seems to be a mashup of three different Western icons: Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) from "Wanted Dead or Alive", Clint Eastwood's spaghetti western hero, and The Virginian. For an old Western fan, this is epic! And then placing him in this particular context is a promise waiting to happen. The first episode itself was a bit hard to follow, as if you wandered in after a commercial break and had to try to figure out the story. Once it got going though, it was a good introduction to the characters.

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952–1966)

The original "show about nothing"

[10/10 · 28 October 2019]

So many people make such a hubbub over Seinfeld's "groundbreaking" concept of being a show about nothing, but bear in mind that by the time Jerry Seinfeld was BORN, this show had already been on TV for two seasons. After a number of years on radio, Ozzie Nelson brought his family's show to television. Unlike other family sitcoms like "Life of Riley" which put the characters in unbelievably farcical situations to create humor, Ozzie & Harriet would begin with a rather everyday problem (ex. Ozzie comes across a bolt while housecleaning and tries to figure out where it belongs, or Ozzie gets a craving for tutti-frutti ice cream) and then ends up involving the whole family along with the next door neighbors in finding a solution. Ozzie's moderately laid-back reactions to the inevitable chaos that results from his simple solutions add to the fun. In spite of it being a period piece, the humor does translate well to the present day, the earlier seasons when the boys were young even more so.

Naked City: A Very Cautious Boy (1961) Season 2, Episode 24

A very interesting episode

[9/10 · 19 October 2019]

There are two aspects that make this particular episode unique in the Naked City canon.

The first is the absence of Adam Flint. He shows up in the beginning while Lt. Parker attempts to stall him out of his vacation by getting him to answer one phone call after another. This goes on for a couple of minutes before Flint hightails it out the door. This was a good call as the script didn't call for Adam's kneejerk instincts toward making the crime of the week a social justice matter. The interplay between the grouchy Lt. Parker and the easygoing veteran Det. Arcaro as they solve the crime add another layer to this episode that makes it even more appealing.

The second is the performance of Peter Falk as a quirky hitman who prefers to do his job without firearms and has a crush on a French singer who works at a restaurant whose owners hire him to take care of a mobster who is shaking them down for protection money. There is a scene where the hitman has a realtor take him to a property that overlooks his target's home. The dialogue between Falk and the realtor gives hints of his later signature role as Lt. Columbo.