The Greatest Detective Series Of All Time Is Finally Getting Released For Fans
The entire Columbo series is being released in a Blu-Ray box set.
One of the strange and delightful things about internet memes is that they can give new life to movies and TV shows that first came out many decades ago. A great example of this is Columbo, where Peter Falk played the titular detective who always let out a casual “just one more thing” before blowing the case wide open (a charming bit that has become fodder for countless internet memes, our favorite being ones where he investigates deaths in Star Trek). And while Poker Face has served as a wonderful spiritual successor to Columbo, fans will soon get to experience the real deal like never before: Columbo is getting two Blu-Ray box sets that will collect the entire television series as well as the various TV movies.
Why does Columbo need two different box sets, though? The simple answer is that there is just that much content. According to IMDb, the show ran for 10 seasons for a total of 69 episodes and a whopping 24 television movies.
In other words, the sheer runtime of all these episodes and movies would require Columbo to be released across two different Blu-Ray sets. On top of that, though, the franchise is getting some serious love: each episode is going to have a commentary track, and the sets will include some archival interviews that help to contextualize this iconic series. And speaking of context, two of the biggest authorities on Columbo, Mark Dawidziak and Amanda Reyes, will be creating so much extra content that even the most hardcore fans won’t have to beg for “just one more thing” to be added to these sets.
These sets are designed to appeal to both lifelong Columbo fans and those who are exploring the character and series for the very first time. And newcomers to the series will likely be blown away by how different the show is from modern criminal procedurals such as NCIS. Instead of spending an episode wondering “who done it,” we actually watch the murder go down in the first act, and the pleasure of watching comes from seeing Columbo pop up in the second act to figure everything out (a formula Rian Johnson shamelessly and joyfully copied for Poker Face).
If nothing else, these Columbo Blu-Rays will offer a fascinating glimpse into a screen legend that audiences just weren’t willing to let go of. For example, the original show ran from 1971-1978, but audiences kept asking for just one more thing, resulting in dozens of television revival movies that ran from 1989-2003. These revivals helped create new generations of Columbo fans, and everything from the popularity of Poker Face to these upcoming Blu-Ray sets serves to keep creating new fans of the world’s quirkiest detective.
While an exact release date has not yet been revealed, it looks like the first Columbo Blu-Ray set will be coming out this summer, with the next set releasing either later this year or early next year. And considering that Poker Face just finished its first season and we won’t get a second season until 2024, these sets are a great way to scratch that itch you might feel from wanting to see more of an affable detective surrounded by killer guest stars who are, more often than not, the killers. And with any luck, this Blu-Ray release will prove popular enough that we finally get a proper reboot, though finding who is good enough to replace Peter Falk in that famous trenchcoat may require the services of a real-life detective.
