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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 284862" data-attributes="member: 23">Rest In Peace, Mrs. Columbo continued Any Columbo episode worth its salt hinges on the Gotcha, and there’s a feeling that, in addition to Columbo himself, writer Peter S. Fischer has gone all out with the aim of giving us a Gotcha that will really thrill. But for me it feels like too much of a cheat. There’s the business about Mrs Columbo being killed with the poisoned marmalade. As if that’s not a stretch to begin with, it turns out Mrs Columbo isn’t dead after all. And even though I knew that was coming (did anyone not?), it couldn’t help feeling like a confirmation that much of what I’d just watched had been a waste of time. Goodness knows how I’d have felt had I bought into the idea that Mrs Columbo was dead. And that’s the point. All signs seem to point to it being a real death. It's written as though the viewer is expected to buy into this lie. We’ve watched Columbo grieving. We watched his shock as he received the news about his wife. And his surprise as he found out his wife was poisoned. And we watched him react to the poison he had supposedly just consumed himself. So apparently, in addition to being a gifted detective, we’re asked to believe that Columbo is also a gifted actor. This simple, straight-down-the-line man, who gets self-conscious when asked to do something slightly outside his comfort zone has given the performance of a lifetime. All for the sake of gaining a confession, when they already had all the evidence they needed with the jar of marmalade. Then there are practical questions. Who on earth paid for that funeral service and the grand-looking coffin? Did the LAPD really fork out thousands of dollars simply to confirm something they already knew? Why would Columbo take a mentally ill killer to the home of a subordinate? This is a woman who has nursed a grudge for years and gone all out to  get her revenge. Can you imagine the problems this knowledge could cause, if not now then when she's released from her institutionalisation? It’s obscene and completely unbelievable.Rest In Peace… is not a terrible episode. As I’ve already mentioned, its biggest crime is that it ultimately feels like a good episode of a fluffy Aaron Spelling produced crime mystery series. To a 21st Century viewer the twists can be seen from a mile away, which has the end result of making the episode feel clunky and unintelligent. I might feel very differently if the episode were structured just a little differently. Part of the reason Columbo is so timelessly good is because there’s transparency. The cards are on the table with the viewers. This one fails because it attempts to dupe and surprise the audience. And the more I've reflected on this, the more it feels like a betrayal of its viewers possibly making that final reveal, despite the episode's many good points, a jump the shark moment. </blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?