Customer Reviews

Columbo - Seasons 1-7

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A quick look at the Columbo character that evolves during this set:

Season One: Great mysteries, but features a much more hard-charging Columbo than in subsequent years, sometimes showing visible rage.

Seasons Two-Seven: Cultivate the Columbo character (disheveled, rumpled raincoat, physical oddities, "just one more thing" etc.) that we know and love!

Thus, while the first season's "intense" Columbo is still entertaining television, the Columbo character that springs forth in the later years is by-and-large more interesting and entertaining.

Just thought I'd point that out in order to broaden your "Columbo" viewing experience!

I you're a big Columbo fan such as I am you will absolutely enjoy this set. It's complete except for the longer movies, which Amazon also sells as another product.

These are professionally produced discs and their quality and clarity is exceptional. The only drawback is the lack of a detailed program description. There is a small blurb on the DVD sleeve but it doesn't go into much detail. Check out www.tv.com/columbo for a full Episode Guide. It lists original air date, writer, director, co-stars etc.

A good buy for a great show.

I loved COLUMBO back in the seventies and jumped at the chance to see these shows once again. COLUMBO is old-fashioned in the best sense of the word. This series relies on character and plot rather than gore and forensics. The question is never who-done-it. Each episode begins with the murder and we know not only who did it, but how and why they did it. The pleasure comes in watching Lieutenant Columbo unravel the crime, and eventually outwit the culprit.

Sometimes the lack of attention to forensic details can be amusing. For example, a murderer shoots his victim and attempts to conceal the time of death by keeping the body warm with an electric blanket. When he removes the blanket, he simply folds it and puts it back in the linen closet, where later it goes unnoticed by the army of police officers meticulously searching the house. How a blanket could lay atop a gunshot corpse and yet remain bloodless and pristine is not an issue to be explored in Columbo-land.

This set of DVDs is nostalgic fun for those of us who grew up watching the show. I would also recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the TV detective genre. Without COLUMBO there would be no Monk, no Brenda Johnson.

Disk 5 of Season 1 is totally defective. I am now into season 3 and 1 of the 2 disks is defective. With 4 seasons to go, I wonder how many more are defective. I have had this experience with DVD's purchased throug stores and am wondering why these disks aren't checked before they're sold. I contacted the seller on season 1, disk 5 and told him it was a dud and received no response to my email. That caused me to rate him a "3" and I have a long way to go to see all those DVD's I ordered. It's disappointing to not even get a response from the seller to make it right. I may not order anymore through Amazon sellers because of the lack of response. At least when I buy locally, I can take it right back and get a refund.

We got what we ordered - lots of Columbo. The extra episodes of Columbo's wife as the main character were nice surprises. Columbo rocks! The quality is as good as on TV.

COLUMBO comprises it all for me: my all-time favorite, unquestionable and incomparable film series, television series and character. He's the world's most famous detective and don't let anyone tell you otherwise - I've been around the world and in some places they know Holmes. In some places they know Maigret. All over the globe, they know Columbo and watch him. In far-flung places where they never even heard of Albert Einstein, they know Columbo.

So here is this set and you see the price. Well I have news: Amazon offers the individual seasons, 1-7 which is the original film series, at $14.99 each except for seasons 6 and 7, sold as a set for $13.99. You'll pay a lot less if you go that route, and I'll show you how, below.

You can continue with the seasons after season 7, if you don't mind a little deception being played on you. It starts with season 8, which was shot in the mid or late 1980s and goes from there to the final season (I think it's season 11 and these later seasons cover circa 1989 through 2003). The last "season" was basically one film, COLUMBO LIKES THE NIGHT LIFE (aired February, 2003 and I think this is probably included in season 11, unless there is a season 12). NIGHT LIFE, showing an elderly, grumpy Columbo, was Falk's swan song.

In a few years, Peter Falk would be stricken with Alzheimer's. The first thing Falk forgot was that he had ever played Columbo - he had no idea who Columbo was.

A rotten, ignoble end to a brilliant master of stage and screen; a sad fading away of the greatest detective the world has ever seen. Falk was a gifted, powerful fine artist and one of my favorite images of Columbo is the one Falk himself painted, an oil on canvas. We who are his fans, who call him beloved, can keep him alive for generations - and this way is the cheaper way to get the exact same set.

Here is the original seven-season series, season-by-season. Order away and save yourself over $50 buying the individual seasons:

Columbo - The Complete First Season
Columbo - The Complete Second Season
Columbo - The Complete Third Season
Columbo - The Complete Fourth Season
Columbo - The Complete Fifth Season
Columbo - The Complete Sixth and Seventh Seasons

We love him even more today - and how we loved him when his adventures were new! Pay tribute to Peter Falk and the mighty duo Link & Levinson for creating Lieutenant Frank Columbo. Get your DVD collection the smarter way; the lieutenant would have been proud of us!

I got what I ordered all at once and it came the day they said it would. Thank you very much.

The cast is exceptional in these works. You get to see many villans in their prime like Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and Patrick Mcgoohan to name a few. The writing is top notch and if anything else, after 40 years it is amazing to see how similar our culture is between then and now.

this was on mom's christmas wish list. she's already seen them on tv years ago but now can watch anytime. she was so excited when she opened them. fast shipping!

It's only been a few days since Peter Falk has passed away. I am so thankful that I live now - when we have access to so much video/media availability. I've owned this set for a long time, but it's great to be able to pop in Columbo anytime and be entertained by such a legendary actor.

I will write this review from a theological perspective. I think that the reason so many people loved, and still love, and will continue to fall in love with Columbo is because he is so much like Jesus. There is a passage in the Bible that says that God's kindness leads us to repentance. I believe that Columbo was beloved because he is like a Christ figure in the way he simultaneously brings justice and kindness toward each person he encounters - even the murderer of each episode. He always gives the murderer an opportunity to repent - to admit their guilt and to express their confession. However, he never does so maliciously or vengefully - he does so with gentleness and kindness. The murderers usually feel relieved ultimately because the truth about them has been exposed. There is freedom in the admission of guilt - and they almost always come to respect Columbo as a persistent pursuer of justice, as well as a friend. You get the feeling that one of the first persons each murderer will make contact after prison, will be Columbo - because they know that it's their own sin that got them in prison, but Columbo's pursuit of justice is good for them, society, and for the family of the victim.

Columbo portrays Christ in his humility, kindness, gentleness, mercy, love, and justice. Look for how Christ speaks to you in each episode. "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Like Christ - Columbo always pursues justice and love simultaneously for the good of man, culture, and for the victim - just like Jesus!