Columbo: Due to Valentine's Day, MeTV jumped ahead to "It's All in the Game" from 1993; the regular schedule will resume next week.
This is one I don't remember well, since I didn't see reruns of the later ones as often as the earlier revival movies. It's written by Peter Falk, and I can't help noticing how, when actors write their own scripts, they frequently involve their characters getting to make out with hot actresses. In this case, Faye Dunaway plays a killer who romances Columbo to try to throw him off the scent -- although she turns out to be one of the most sympathetic and justified killers in the show's history. It's a pretty interesting variation on the formula overall, with good performances and a fun rapport from Falk and Dunaway and an effective guest turn by Claudia Christian as Dunaway's accomplice. (There's also a bonus cameo by Mary Ann herself, Dawn Wells, as a party guest in the opening. She's uncredited, but unmistakeable.)
I do feel, though, that it's a bit self-indulgent, and not only because it's a bit uncomfortable to see the happily married Columbo apparently receptive to seduction by another woman, even though we know he's just leading her on as part of his investigation, and even though we see he feels bad about doing so. I just feel it reveals a bit too much of what goes on behind the curtain, in terms of explicitly spelling out Columbo's thought process and feelings about things. It's better when there's a touch of mystery to Columbo, when we have to read between the lines to divine his true motives. As a rule, the killer is the actual protagonist of a Columbo story, the person trying to achieve a goal, and Columbo is the antagonist, the person trying to stop them. I don't mind getting the occasional glimpse into his own perspective, but this one maybe laid it a bit too bare.
Last week, I talked about how interesting the music was in the early revival episodes, with a strong motif or two memorably dominating each score. But this is from later in the series, and it doesn't have the same approach. The music is by Dick DeBenedictis, who did numerous scores for the original series, and who was pretty much the default composer for TV mystery shows in the '90s, at least those not starring Angela Lansbury (he did the Perry Mason revival, Matlock, Father Dowling Mysteries, and Diagnosis: Murder as well). And not surprisingly, the music here has a fairly generic sound.
