Coming Soon to the Watchcast: A Couple of Columbos!

Greetings, Nextlanders! Alex here to give you all the lowdown on where things are currently headed for the Watchcast. As you've undoubtedly noticed by now, the Watchcast has been on a little break for the last couple of weeks, but on Monday, September 22nd, the show will return for the last couple of weeks of the month, and for that triumphant return, we've picked a pair of Television Films to serve as a bridge between our Star Trek summer and the spooky, murder-filled period of October.

The films in question are both of the Columbo variety. Specifically, we're watching the episodes featuring some of our topline Star Trek cast members in Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner. Now, if you've never seen the show before, you might be wondering if watching these out of order from the rest of the Columbo series might be weird. I am here to assure you that it will not be a problem. Every Columbo installment is simultaneously its own thing and more or less the same thing. You'll get a murder, you'll get a killer guest star, and you'll get a liberal helping of Peter Falk's delightful shtick. There isn't much else you need to worry about.

With that out of the way, here are the details for the two episodes we've got on tap.

Monday, September 22nd: Season 2, Episode 6: A Stitch in Crime

First up we've got the only one of these starring Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. In most ways, A Stitch in Crime is pretty representative of the overall vibe on Columbo, save for one key detail: Nimoy's guest murderer is a real cold blooded motherfucker, even by the show's general standards. Often times on this show, you can feel Columbo developing a bit of a grudging respect for his adversary as the episode goes along, creating a sort of mutual respect as he gradually wears them down. Nimoy's homicidal surgeon is one of the rare instances where the killer is utterly charmless. This is even a rare instance where you see Columbo get actively angry at his opponent. All that said, Nimoy gives a tremendously icy performance here, the rest of the supporting cast is great, and there are plenty of classic Falk goofs to keep things from getting too grim.

Monday, September 29th: Season 6, Episode 1: Fade Into Murder

We actually had two Shatner episodes to pick from, but I figured the right move here was to watch the first one of the two, which I think is the better episode regardless. Here, Shatner plays Ward Fowler (great name), a TV actor with a successful detective show is blackmailed by his producer, which, as you can imagine, leads to some creative murdering. There are a handful of actors I would describe as the absolute ideal of a sparring partner for Columbo: Robert Culp, Jack Cassidy, Patrick McGoohan, and Donald Pleasance, just to name a few. Shatner is 100% on that list as well. He's got that perfect blend of charm and sliminess that makes him an optimal foil for Columbo's whole deal, and he and Falk clearly have a ball playing off one another in this one. And, as a bonus, there's even another Star Trek cast cameo in this one. I won't spoil it, but I doubt you'll have much trouble spotting it.

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Ah, just one more thing. As far as where to watch, here's the link that lists where Columbo can currently be found. As of this writing, it's fully streamable on Amazon and Peacock in the US. Some of the later Columbo stuff appears to be listed separately from the main series on these services, but that doesn't matter for our purposes as we're only watching episodes from the '70s run.

And with that, I think that covers us for the rest of September. Once we get to the end of the month, we'll announce what our plans are for October. As always, thanks for listening and watching along with us. See you soon!

--A