Natasha Lyonne is by far the best thing about this show, aside from the premise of the Columbo-esque format. But that's a curse as well as a blessing. As could be said about Peter Falk, to have such a well-defined, likable and charismatic character held off screen for as much as a quarter to a third of the start of an episode, is a gamble. Columbo could get by usually with great guests and writing. Poker Face can get by with some great guests, but the writing, not as much. But when Natasha Lyonne comes on, it's well worth the wait.
As a Columbo aficionado, it's fun to see the 'borrowing' of plot points and murder schemes (often multiple times in an episode) that are employed. Though not always as skillfully executed (a 70-something Judith Light, supposedly paraplegic, climbing an ivy trestle two stories ventures into cartoonish. Particularly compared with the 40-something, well fit Janet Leigh performing a similar maneuver in the original Columbo). But it is fun, any Columbo fan will enjoy the, let's call it 'homage'. But there is also an element of The Fugitive, with the character as a traveler being chased, and the human lie detector conceit of something like Tim Roth's Lie to Me. The last skill becomes slightly, and conveniently, deus ex machina at times, but thankfully refrains from being too mystically oriented. It's just hypersensitivity to BS.
I'm not sure if it was Lyonne's choice of characterization, or it was Rian Johnson's original intent to emulate Columbo, but it mostly works. Almost entirely owing to Lyonne's performance. Beyond that, there are a bit too many trop-ish or 'too cute' inside jokes, and very formulaic foreshadowing and callbacks. The achronological presentation is clever (though I'm not sure the nod to Pulp Fiction in the first episode was absolutely necessary), and the contraction of time may be a concession to shorter attention spans than in the 70s. Enjoyable show, impossible not to fall in love with Natasha Lyonne, if you weren't already.
As a Columbo aficionado, it's fun to see the 'borrowing' of plot points and murder schemes (often multiple times in an episode) that are employed. Though not always as skillfully executed (a 70-something Judith Light, supposedly paraplegic, climbing an ivy trestle two stories ventures into cartoonish. Particularly compared with the 40-something, well fit Janet Leigh performing a similar maneuver in the original Columbo). But it is fun, any Columbo fan will enjoy the, let's call it 'homage'. But there is also an element of The Fugitive, with the character as a traveler being chased, and the human lie detector conceit of something like Tim Roth's Lie to Me. The last skill becomes slightly, and conveniently, deus ex machina at times, but thankfully refrains from being too mystically oriented. It's just hypersensitivity to BS.
I'm not sure if it was Lyonne's choice of characterization, or it was Rian Johnson's original intent to emulate Columbo, but it mostly works. Almost entirely owing to Lyonne's performance. Beyond that, there are a bit too many trop-ish or 'too cute' inside jokes, and very formulaic foreshadowing and callbacks. The achronological presentation is clever (though I'm not sure the nod to Pulp Fiction in the first episode was absolutely necessary), and the contraction of time may be a concession to shorter attention spans than in the 70s. Enjoyable show, impossible not to fall in love with Natasha Lyonne, if you weren't already.
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