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Yeah that's the weird thing about this which is that it relates to the extras specifically rather than the whole set. I guess I don't follow how rights would be an issue in that case. I'm probably not going to bother picking up the set now. I'm happy to see we got the new transfers but I also don't hate the current versions we have so it all seems a bit pointless now.
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Aug 26, 2023 12:19
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They should just use all those the commentary and interviews with Falk from the DVDs. Oh wait, they don't exist, because when Falk went to them and offered to do them, Universal said "Nah", and turned him away.
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Aug 26, 2023 13:31
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Davros1 posted:Oh wait, they don't exist, because when Falk went to them and offered to do them, Universal said "Nah", and turned him away. Beginning to think these Universal boys might be a few pecks short of a bushel 
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Aug 26, 2023 16:03
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Gildiss posted:I understood the baffling defense of Commodore in this thread once I reached the Ed McBain episodes. Then I knew how they could say it wasn't the worst. Aright, starting McBain #1 No Time to Die, how bad can it be?
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Sep 1, 2023 03:34
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Davros1 posted:They should just use all those the commentary and interviews with Falk from the DVDs. I would give a major organ to hear an in-character Peter Falk episode commentary. In fact I've decided to become a devout Christian based solely on the possibility of such a thing existing in Heaven.
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Sep 1, 2023 04:56
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Takes No Damage posted:Aright, starting McBain #1 No Time to Die, how bad can it be? OK right away, what the gently caress are these computer font timestamps that keep coming up ?? Yep there's just some fatty in a steam bath that knows every criminal in LA by name. What is this, Neverwinter Nights?  they lock a kidnapping victim in a room where the door hinges are on the inside.OK my bad, she does go after the hinges, color me impressed. Could do without her constantly explaining her every action out loud to the audience though. And feel free to turn off that loving music... They really did a Zoom, Enhance on a class ring shot on 35mm film from 20ft away  Extremely unprofessional to let this cop participate in kicking in doors looking for his own wife  They showed Columbo with a gun, hosed UP  Overall this wasn't a terrible episode of a generic police procedural, but a right poo poo episode of Columbo.
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Sep 1, 2023 05:18
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Might be a controversial take but I think the Ed McBain episodes are fine. .....Except No Time To Die, that one is bad. Hard to judge it, because its as you said, not really a Columbo episode. It's an episode of a show called Columbo, but the main driving point of the action is Columbo's spontaneously invented Nephew. The plot is driven by constant tension in the form of a bride being captured and held at extreme risk of violence. There's no levity that you get in other episodes of Columbo, the plot doesn't have any capacity for it. Undercover is a lot better because it's such a low-stakes plot that the humour can come through, not just with Falk, but with Ed Begly Jr. and the assorted members of Mafia too. It's a fun little mystery plot with a great opening scene, delivered in the safety of the situation that the rest of Columbo provides, while still setting you forward to the resolution of it by way of revealing the mystery. And now I'm realizing there's only two Ed McBain episodes of Columbo, always figured there were more. In either case, .500 isn't a bad batting average in my eyes.
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Sep 1, 2023 06:01
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piratepilates posted:It's an episode of a show called Columbo, but the main driving point of the action is Columbo's spontaneously invented Nephew. All of Columbo's nephews are spontaneously invented, as with his wife's hobbies and fandoms. That's one thing that's always missing from the Columbo tributes/parodies, come to think of it. Everyone goes all in on the mannerisms, but never the self-invention. "My nephew, he's a real wizard at geo-location" "I have to say, sir, my wife will never believe this, she has every volume of your manga" those are some of my favorite bits of the episodes.
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Sep 1, 2023 09:50
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Yeah, it's clear that a good 80-90% of anything Columbo says about his private life is horseshit to sell the bumbling befuddled good cop routine.
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Sep 1, 2023 11:29
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piratepilates posted:The plot is driven by constant tension in the form of a bride being captured and held at extreme risk of violence. There's no levity that you get in other episodes of Columbo, the plot doesn't have any capacity for it.  Columbo episodes have always been about solving a crime that has already taken place, irritating the criminal into making a mistake or otherwise giving something away. There's very rarely ever been any kind of ticking clock. Seeing his lovely little car go screeching around corners as they all rush to collect clues just feels wrong, and makes them shoehorning in tropes like him doing One More Thing a few times feel out of place, like hang on I gotta stop trying to save this girl's life for a minute so I can do a Columbo bit e: Columbo's lit, ACAB: https://i.imgur.com/u2T9Q9V.mp4 Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Sep 20, 2023 |
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Sep 1, 2023 17:47
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My hands down favourite ending to an episode has to be "Suitable for Framing", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPkMyCdkrn8 Just the way he pulls out those hands, that pose of them, his expression. Cut to that guy absolutely making GBS threads his pants. Freeze frame, show credits, we're done. No need to let it play out, we got the moneyshot and we're done. Takes No Damage posted:
Very well said.
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Oct 1, 2023 02:31
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Takes No Damage posted:
In like half the episodes that mistake is them just killing the person whose figured it out (more sloppily) instead of letting them be blackmailed though
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Oct 1, 2023 03:40
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BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:In like half the episodes that mistake is them just killing the person whose figured it out (more sloppily) instead of letting them be blackmailed though I like how in Any Port in a Storm the guy is slightly relived to be caught because it means at least he won't have to marry his psycho secretary. If you want to see the blackmailer more or less get theirs (before their whale get's got) watch Murder of a Rock Star. e: Also watched the 2nd McBain episode, Undercover. Again a decent general CopTV episode but completely wrong for Columbo. Probably still worth watching at least once for a young Ed Begley Jr. but watching Columbo roughing up perps, threatening them with a gun and using retarded as a pejorative is all pretty *oof* At least all of that is contained in a single scene, aside from that and the ridiculous premise it's not a bad hour+ of TV. Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 06:06
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piratepilates posted:My hands down favourite ending to an episode has to be "Suitable for Framing", This and Negative Reaction are the best endings.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:30
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fart blood posted:This and Negative Reaction are the best endings. Did you see that? Did you see what he just did? Did you see that? Because he had a reaction to a film negative, get it 
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Oct 2, 2023 04:37
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Takes No Damage posted:Did you see that? this also happens with In Dawn's early light and any old port in a storm
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Oct 2, 2023 12:50
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god drat, i think it's time for a columbo rewatch
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Oct 3, 2023 02:16
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Always is.
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Oct 3, 2023 02:32
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Just watched A Trace of Murder, only 3 more episodes to go and I'll never be able to watch a Columbo for the first time  But Trace was one of the better post-renewal episodes, fun characters and the 'twist' with one of the murderers was pretty great. But holy poo poo do they have 0 respect for the viewer anymore. The last 5 minutes of the episode is just Columbo physically recreating the 'gotcha' moment with his friends from the bar, spelling each thing out explicitly so that there can be no possible confusion about how he figured things out. Why show don't tell, when you can show and tell, then show and tell again 
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Oct 5, 2023 07:09
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Oct 9, 2023 15:54
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Absolutely, happy Columbo day! We give a Falk
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Oct 9, 2023 22:34
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Moonlighting is on Hulu now by the way, after many years in limbo. Highly recommend!
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Oct 12, 2023 03:30
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Some still keeping the old fires burning  
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Oct 14, 2023 09:19
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Heavy Metal posted:Moonlighting is on Hulu now by the way, after many years in limbo. Highly recommend! A truly awesome series that was even good after a clear shark jump moment too.
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Oct 15, 2023 16:47
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Patrick McGoohan and Leslie Nielsen? Then Ricardo Montalban? Season 5 is delivering the guest star goods.
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Nov 9, 2023 21:41
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McGoohan is pretty good as a guest, maybe just behind Cult and Cassidy, but his direction is hit or miss and unfortunately goes he out on a real stinker with the truly unfortunate Too Many Notes: There shouldn't be 5 quarter notes in one measure if it's in 4/4! That's literally what time signatures mean!!  Dumb murder plot, weak reveal/'gotcha', multiple annoying musical interludes and a contender for all-time worst Columbo scene with that drive home  So far I've been pretty surprised at the continuing quality of revival '80s Columbo, not as good as the '70s run but easily worth watching, even into the sporadic specials of the '90s. But this penultimate episode sucked and I'm not hearing great things about Nightlife either  The real bummer is the previous episode, 1998's Ashes to Ashes, was McGoohan's final on-screen appearance and was a pretty good episode, would have been a fine time to end it. Hell it even would have been thematic, laying the series to rest in a funeral home. The 00s were just one decade too far to stretch this show it seems.Welp, one more episode to go and I'll never watch another Columbo for the first time, real end of an era for me
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Nov 13, 2023 10:56
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Patrick McGoohan directing you say? Well we reached Last Salute of the Commodore last night and only as the title card flashed did I recall it's famed reputation. Surely my personal bias towards outliers and strange ducks is enough to embrace this episode? T'isnt. Woof, what a stinker. McGoohan's love of indulgent character quirks suit the context of Portmeirion's heightened theatrical surreality, but they don't fit not here. And definitely not at this episode and scene length. Then Columbo's personality is so off-kilter that's he's frankly annoying. Not one to revisit.
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Nov 17, 2023 12:31
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Now you see him is maybe the best episode of the series and it’s crazy it’s right next to the undisputed worst
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Nov 20, 2023 16:23
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I dispute it. A lot of the revival episodes aren't very good at all.
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Nov 20, 2023 17:50
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Last Salute does a lot of what it's trying to do. The problem is that most of what it's trying to do is a really bad idea. Murder with Too Many Notes is just plain butchered--one of the main clues gets edited out of the story, leading to a whole bunch of moments that make no sense, but there's still enough time for an extended scene showing Columbo doesn't know movie themes. (Same director, so I'm not letting McGoohan off the hook. He does several episodes that are good and several that are terrible.) Last Salute's bad choices fail so badly that the good ones (like having a howcatchem turn into a whodunnit) get completely overwhelmed. But they really did decide they wanted Columbo to start physically doing what he's always done to people verbally, and to play around with the idea that Falk was done with the series, and to make almost every single character profoundly unpleasant. (That last one is a common mystery trope that Columbo usually refuses to engage in.) It plays like an episode of Columbo that wants the cast to be having a good time and doesn't much care about the audience.
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Nov 20, 2023 20:06
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Narsham posted:Last Salute's bad choices fail so badly that the good ones (like having a howcatchem turn into a whodunnit) get completely overwhelmed. But they really did decide they wanted Columbo to start physically doing what he's always done to people verbally, and to play around with the idea that Falk was done with the series, and to make almost every single character profoundly unpleasant. (That last one is a common mystery trope that Columbo usually refuses to engage in.) It plays like an episode of Columbo that wants the cast to be having a good time and doesn't much care about the audience.
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Nov 20, 2023 20:34
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Don't go out on a low note when you can go out high in a row boat?
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Nov 20, 2023 21:19
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Narsham posted:Last Salute does a lot of what it's trying to do. The problem is that most of what it's trying to do is a really bad idea
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Nov 20, 2023 22:11
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BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:Now you see him is maybe the best episode of the series and it’s crazy it’s right next to the undisputed worst I was unreasonably proud of myself for "figuring out" how he did the number trick before they explained it. egon_beeblebrox posted:I dispute it. A lot of the revival episodes aren't very good at all. They're uneven sure, but IMO there's enough good stuff in there to justify bringing the show back, or at least reviving it didn't damage the perception of the original run the way it could have. Stuff like Columbo Cries Wolf and Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo play with the established formula with pretty good results, especially when stacked up against the McB  Wiggly Wayne DDS posted:i've mentioned this before but faulk is clearly high the entire episode and everyone is trying their best to get something out of the scenes in the time they have. that we're approaching 50 years since it was released and no one wants to officially acknowledge it, and there's an endless parade of fans saying it's bad and not picking up on this basic clue no matter how often they rewatch it is hilarious to me tbh I had heard that before my latest rewatch, and while it does explain a lot of things it didn't make it any easier to sit through for me. Watching Falk squirm into people's personal spaces like the couch and car scenes were legit funny though. ynohtna posted:Don't go out on a low note when you can go out high in a row boat? Columbo Likes the High Life 
Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Nov 21, 2023 |
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Nov 21, 2023 06:25
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Using a time machine to just stop the McBain episodes from ever being filmed
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Nov 21, 2023 06:31
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Worst is they're both decent cop stories, just absolutely wrong for the Columbo character.
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Nov 21, 2023 06:37
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i don't like procedurals so i can't weigh in on that, but yeah that form of sexual menace should never be part of a columbo story
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Nov 21, 2023 06:38
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Takes No Damage posted:I had heard that before my latest rewatch, and while it does explain a lot of things it didn't make it any easier to sit through for me. Watching Falk squirm into people's personal spaces like the couch and car scenes were legit funny though. My favorite is the scene where Columbo is having a conversation with loud work happening in the foreground that makes communication nearly impossible. Neither he nor the character he's talking to can really hear, and that's true for us as the audience as well. I was laughing at what was going on and the degree to which it was a literalization of Columbo's technique of irritating the suspect until he gets a breakthrough of some sort. But it's also a profoundly uncomfortable viewing experience. McGoohan is clearly interested in absurdist theater, alienation, and other techniques current during his creation of The Prisoner, and he's deploying these techniques in a Columbo episode. It's the most absurdist the show gets if you ignore the chess dream at the beginning of The Most Dangerous Match. I'm just not sure that what he's trying to do actually produces any coherent insights. The "howcatchem" format of Columbo and the character of Columbo himself are already a substantive deconstruction of the traditional mystery format, so trying to deconstruct Columbo the show is naturally going to create a mess. At the same time, you can see why Falk--bored with the format and thinking of quitting despite his huge paychecks--and McGoohan thought it was a great idea.
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Nov 22, 2023 19:59
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Narsham posted:It's the most absurdist the show gets if you ignore the chess dream at the beginning of The Most Dangerous Match. I see you've blocked out the dream reenactments from the therapy tapes in Murder, a Self Portrait. Good idea. My uncle... in French mon oncle... mon oncle... mononcle... monocle! The person in her dream was wearing a monocle  Just... loving,
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Nov 23, 2023 06:18
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"This ain't no suicide. But there's some guy out there wants me to think it is. And that's the dude I'm gonna be lookin' for." Wanted to get things finished up before the end of the year so I just watched my final unviewed episode, Columbo Likes the Nightlife. Actually....... kind of OK. Too Many Notes poo poo the bed with one of the dumbest murder cover-ups and two of the worst padding scenes of the entire series, but Nightlife neatly avoids those problems by having the initial body immediately disappear and having our antagonists be more or less reasonable people. Instead Columbo spends the episode investigating the murder of the most expendable of all individuals, that of the blackmailer. They tone down a lot of the more eccentric tropes of the last few years and run things pretty much like a standard 2000s police procedural, with just a hint of Columbo flavor. A little bumbling absentmindedness here, a few One More Things there, etc. Certainly wouldn't call it a stand out episode, even compared to the rest of the '90s specials, but neither does it stick out as a disappointment like Too Many Notes or the McBain episodes. Worth a watch IMO. Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 06:34
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