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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 285536" data-attributes="member: 23">Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous To Your HealthcontinuedThe “skin flick” original sin of Anders was a nice touch (Holly Does Houston being a sledgehammer nod to Debbie Does Dallas). When the actual film was played, I was disappointed to see some very poor ageing effects applied to a film clearly shot at the same time as the episode using a younger actor to play Anders. It would have been a nice touch if they’d incorporated genuine old film of George Hamilton in the same way they had Janet Leigh. Columbo’s flasher mac finally got an appropriate environment when he went into the adult video shop. It was a nice touch that he found himself standing alongside a patron wearing exactly the same coat, however I don’t think the dialogue from the other man was needed. Just the visual of the two side by side was plenty. Another scene where the “less is more” approach might have been of benefit was the slightly bizarre scene with the standoff between Columbo and Anders as they pulled onto a forecourt drive from opposite directions. It’s completely in character for Columbo to drive poorly, but I had to question why, after ordering Columbo to reverse, Anders himself also reversed only for them both to drive back into the same position. It was funny, but it went on a bit too long and in the moment it felt that the situational comedy overrode character. In other words, the episode could almost have done without it. And I say almost, because it afforded Columbo a close look at the paintwork of the Mercedes which came back to surprise in the Gotcha. The Gotcha itself was great. As with all great Columbos, a series of clues led up to it, beginning with Columbo noticing the different ways the cigarettes had been extinguished (twisted versus stubbed) and, from this, that many of the cigarettes hadn’t been smoked as there were no nicotine stains on the filters (following on from these,). The surveillance tape clue was great. I’m assuming this was something the extremely observant viewer (or one informed with the facts) might have noticed, but - as with the similar Playback Gotcha - it showed Columbo as having an incredible eye for detail. George Hamilton is a brilliant Columbo antagonist, with a 100% success rate of great episodes. His agelessness greatly helps this feel like a classic Columbo episode. I feel I want to say that this is at least as good as his previous episode, A Deadly State Of Mind. However, context is everything so it’s difficult to say how they’d compare back-to-back. What I can say without doubt is that this is episode makes it onto the Top Two of episodes from the revival series to date. And given that it didn’t telegraph its Gotcha in the way the nibbled cheese did in Agenda For Murder, it’s quite feasible that Murder Can Be Hazardous… might end up as my #1 episode of New Columbo. Not too shabby. </blockquote>

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