New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 284543" data-attributes="member: 23">Agenda For Murder continued Perhaps responding to Patrick McGoohan, Peter Falk’s Columbo is as endearing as he’s been in the new series. It’s a more restrained performance than I feel we’ve seen in recent episodes. There’s a welcome intensity and a balance of typically quirky Columbo moments and flashes of seriousness at times when he’s delivering warnings or on the verge of catching his prey. As Finch looks set to wriggle off the hook, there’s an air of genuine deflation and defeat to Columbo which brings meaning to the episode. The energy between the two actors is electric. They’re fun to watch and there’s a sense that each challenges the other while secretly enjoying their interactions. The broadest moment between the two comes when Columbo tells Finch one of the jokes that murder victim Frank Staplin was faxing to his wife (there’s a LOT of fax-talk in this episode with Columbo in particular marvelling at this new technology). As Columbo tells the joke, Finch glowers at him. At the end, there’s a long, silent beat as Finch continuers glaring and Columbo waits for the joke to “land”. Then Finch gives a loud, single, insincere “HA”. Then there’s another long beat before he begins (fake?) laughing hysterically.  It could be seen as overkill, but to me it wonderfully represents the balance of power shifting back and forth between them. Finch is humouring and mocking Columbo. Columbo simply waits patiently for the hysterics to stop before labouring his original point (why would a man commit suicide between two pages of jokes he was faxing to his wife?). Finch refuses to directly answer, gently taunting Columbo over what a dilemma he has before speeding off in his gorgeous 7-Series BMW.  [MEDIA=youtube]YbQQMW-AHTs[/MEDIA] continued...</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?