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Tag: Season Twelve

Barney, Shut Up

All In The Game_Episode

In “It’s All in the Game,” Faye Dunaway is a very wealthy woman (who throws awful-looking parties) plotting with Claudia Christian to murder the gambling Lothario who’s been two-timing them both. When Lt. Columbo is assigned to the case, Dunaway tries to distract him with gifts, smooching and cocktail dates. Wait, what? Columbo, unfaithful to Mrs. Columbo? Say it ain’t so! Well, turns out it ain’t. Who’s playing the game in the title? You might be surprised. A very patient Carolita Johnson (The New Yorker, carolita.org) returns to the show to listen to Jon and RJ jabber incessantly about Cheers robots, kink shaming, John Finnegan, lesbian signifiers and oh, so much more.

Artie Stokes. Salt Lake City.

EP17_titlecard

“Undercover” is not a typical Columbo, by any stretch of the imagination. Columbo carries a gun. The mystery (such as it is) isn’t solved until the end. There’s no one central murder. He kind of has a partner. A lot of this is due to it being based on an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel. But still, why on earth…? And the whole Tyne Daly thing? Anyway, Jon, RJ and returning guest Leonard Pierce (leonardpierce.com) try to figure out why this season 12 episode happened. It is a very, very strange thing.