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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 282340" data-attributes="member: 23">Murder Under Glass <img src="https://i2.wp.com/columbophile.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Glass-opening-titles.jpg?w=867&ssl=1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 540px" /><img src="https://iv1.lisimg.com/image/9248616/608full-columbo%3A-murder-under-glass-screenshot.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 558px" />An episode with great potential, with a clever kill, a fun backdrop and a good cast. I was looking forward to seeing what Jonathan Demme would do with a Columbo episode and wondered if he’d manage to include some of his signature POV shots with the actors looking straight to camera. And he did just this, quite late in the episode (between Columbo and killer, naturally). An episode featuring famous chefs is going to draw only unfavourable comparisons with Double Shock. This one sensibly took a different tone, and featured a very different relationship between Columbo and the antagonist. I enjoyed the running gag with friends of the victim producing a dish for Columbo wherever he went. In fact he seems to end up revered wherever he goes - including the victim’s funeral. The exception - and it’s a big one - is killer Paul Gerard. At episode’s end, Gerard tells Columbo he doesn’t care for him, and the Lieutenant replies that the feeling is mutual. It’s highly unusual to see such open contempt from Columbo and while that moment is almost refreshing, the strained relationship between the two does feel like it’s present all the way through, meaning it lacks warmth and humanity. It makes it very difficult to invest in Paul’s scheme, and it also means Columbo himself feels less layered, less interesting and less likeable.In fact, I’d say this is one of Peter Falk’s broader episodes and there are times when he feels almost out of character. I’m still trying to work out, for example, what all the shouting at the victim’s timid, grieving young nephew was all about. France Nuyen is familiar to me for several TV roles of the Seventies and Eighties. Perhaps best remembered to me emerging from the Pacific onto the Hawaiian sand in Angels In Paradise: Cheryl Ladd’s first Charlie’s Angels episode. I only recently discovered that France is also Mrs Robert Culp. I wonder how different this episode would have been had he been coaxed into performing with his wife. As it is, the episode feels like it didn’t quite live up to its potential. The Gotcha was clever enough. Columbo worked really had to deduce where the pressure cartridge and hollow needle for the bottle opener fitted in. Once again, he went to an extreme and it’s worth mentioning that with my out of order viewing, this is the second consecutive episode in which the killer has tried to dispose of Columbo using the same method as their original kill. 1978 is apparently a very dangerous year to be a homicide detective. </blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?