Pretty good for a "newer" Columbo. One thing that stood out to me was even though the professor's girlfriend lied about being home alone that night, it didn't matter or wasn't brought up again when the wife said they were together commiserating. Why even have that scene especially since the girlfriend came clean anyway about having the affair ealrier but it was long over?
shareThat's actually my least favourite of all Columbo episodes, because of the ending. What I love about Columbo is that the villain always underestimates him at first, but realises - either gradually or suddenly, at the end - that Columbo had been on to them all along, and that he is much more intelligent than they first gave him credit for. This realisation is very satisfying. In Columbo Goes to College, however, this never happens. The villains in this episode start out thinking Columbo a bumbling idiot, and that is precisely what they think of him as they are arrested at the end as well: he didn't get them because he was smart, he got them because he got lucky. That's what they believe, that's what they'll always believe, and it annoys the hell out of me. It is deeply unsatisfying.
shareI think they actually do realise that Columbo has outsmarted them, that cry of 'you got lucky' is angry and resentful, because they know really that Columbo is smarter than them.
shareI don't remember the episode in great detail, but I know I didn't have a car alarm at the time...and I was surprised by the range on the boys' alarm, seemingly able to go from a classroom into underground parking!
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