chat

8201 readers

335 users here now

Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.

As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.

Thank you and happy chatting!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Why is columbo so good when all other cop shows are dreck? (hexbear.net)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Is it because he's always nailing smug weirdo rich fuckbags? Is it the peter falk hard carry? Is it because despite being canonically a cop he does anything but act like a cop?

Is everything downstream of columbo an attempt to erase his legacy as the hound of wealthy sociopaths?

Is Columbo a demigod?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Part of it is that Columbo was made before Dick Wolf barged onto the scene feeling like cops didn't get sucked off enough by ~~state propaganda~~ private individuals with common interests, influence and links to the ruling regime. He also felt the need to vilify public defenders.
Brain worms were still ever present back when columbo was made, so it could still have been awful (look at one of the first cop shows: Dragnet if you doubt me). But back then there were room for more "common" people in the entertainment industry and it was made right between the red scare and the Reagan red scare, so you could get away with being a little leftists as a treat.
That's my theory anyway

[–] incogtino 12 points 3 months ago

But without Dragnet we would never have got Mathnet

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

i feel like a lot of the "detective" shows that appear in columbo's wake, including some that columbo's own stable of early writers/directors worked on, were extremely regressive revisions of what columbo was.

it didn't even take until the show was cancelled for its legacy to be a bunch of reactionary dreck