Columbo Series 10, Vol 2 Thanks in part to a furious repeating cycle on British television, Columbo has taken its place alongside Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote as the staple ingredients of the unemployed and the unemployable's daily diet of day-time television. It seems that the lazy generation simply cant get enough of that wonderful scowling little man. But, I warn you, do not be duped by the title- this is in fact a selection of the made-for-TV movies starring Peter Falk's legendary detective, and not the actual conclusion of a tenth TV series: the plus side of course is that you're far less likely to have seen them all a thousand times while pretending to be too ill to go in to work. In this CSI governed era, as flashy technique and camera angles take the place of genuine detective work and ingenuity (and even dare I say it, proper characterisation- say what you want about Horatio or them other ones, they'll never have the unbridled appeal of the originals from the 70s and 80s heyday), it is difficult to imagine that anything like Columbo will ever hit the screens again. The closest we had recently was Monk, but he was arguably merely a gateway detective to the other more gimmicky (but not unentertaining) figures like Dexter, and could never match up for the sheer experience of waiting for Columbo to mumble those infamous revellatory words. Admittedly, that was often the only appeal of certain episodes- familiarity breeding comfort and not contempt at least in these circumstances. But it isnt just the comfort that grips me- Columbo was well ahead of its time, bucking the trend of its fellows and corrupting the usually impeccable moral universe other examples of the genre usually preserved for its audience. In presenting the murderers to us in the opening sequence, Columbo took away that refuge from which we would traditionally guess along with the detective- but with Columbo we are in a position of knowledgeable privilege, and the pleasure is purely in finding out how Columbo will catch his prey. Beautiful stuff. Darker readings would have us believe that we are supposed to route for the criminal- presenting the crime to us as an act expecting sympathy, and then welcoming the uneasy empathy with the killer's attempt to outwit Columbo. A bit like watching Dexter attempt to outwit the various policing bodies he hides his double-life from. But of course that's nonsense, because of the way Columbo is presented- he is our hero, and even better he is an anti-hero. Flawed. Possibly alcoholic. He even wears a perv's coat. But we love him- he is like Monk, vulnerable but utterly utterly impenetrable. Columbo will never be suspended with pay pending an investigation into corruption, nor will be hounded by Internal Affairs, nor castigated for bending the rules and justly smacking some crack-head around for information. And like Marple and Poirot, his charisma, and his skill is all in the way he uses his wit and ingenuity to outwit the inevitably dumb criminals. Okay, so most of the crimes are petty in comparison to the newer more gruesome criminal investigation programmes, with the majority of them teaching the lesson of adultery using leading to murder in some way (morally educational as well- is there nothing this programme doesnt offer us?!). But pitting man against man in a battle of wits is far more appealing (and obviously far more appealing to daytime television schedulers) than having a forensic team with infinite resources behind them pour over a solitary pubic hair in some unfortunately slaughtered Wall Street banker's bed. These are accessible crimes, ones we could more likely believe ourselves to commit, but obviously never would knowing those infamous four words were out there somewhere... You could do worse than go out and buy this DVD, though I would strongly urge you to buy the Complete Boxset rather than the two Volumes, as Columbounfortunately follows the recent trend of splitting into pieces in the hope of cashing in slightly more from the fans. Or even better, wait until the Complete Seasons boxset comes out (it cant be long, surely). The only problem I have with these boxsets, besides the volumisation, is the lack of special features- a trend visible throughout most multi-season boxsets, but with this being the last Columbo release, it might have been nice to have some sort of mini-doc on the generation of the series, with an insight into how Falk made the character so much his own.