This month, Peacock is running the second season of Poker Face, a mystery show that owes a lot to Columbo, the hit series that ran from 1971 to 1978.
Columbo has had a big resurgence of popularity in the last few years, with the disheveled detective winning over a new generation of fans.
Since the entire seven-season run is now available to stream, Columbo is the one Amazon Prime Video show you should watch in May.
Unfortunately, Prime Video doesn’t have the revival Columbo TV movies that began in 1989. But the 45 episodes that are on Prime Video should be more than enough to get you through May.
The late Peter Falk would probably be amused that Columbo remains famous 22 years after the last time he played the character and nearly 14 years after his death. He is unquestionably the reason why people keep rediscovering the show. Falk’s take on Detective Columbo presents him as an uneducated blue-collar guy, which is also exactly how Columbo wants everyone to see him. Murder suspects take one glimpse at Columbo, and they’re sure he won’t solve the crime.
Except he does, every single time. The joy of Columbo is watching the title character slowly lure his prey into incriminating themselves. Columbo is clearly a lot smarter than he lets on, and he always outwits the people who assume they’re superior to him. Watching Columbo give these killers fits with his folksy charm and intuitive deductions is always a joy. It would be nearly impossible to replace Falk as Columbo, and thankfully, no one has really tried. This was a one-of-a-kind performance from a one-of-a-kind actor.
It’s One of the Best Inverted Mystery Shows EverLike Poker Face, Columbo utilizes inverted mysteries. That means the identity of the killer and the victim is revealed to the audience right away. The suspense and the mystery come from Columbo himself, and whether he’ll crack the case in time to keep the murderers from escaping justice.
Almost all of the series’ done-in-one mysteries have the same ending, and yet fans never seem to get tired of it. It’s the comfort food of mystery shows, and even Columbo’s catchphrase, “just one more thing,” is a brilliant running gag before finding new life as a popular meme.
The Series Is Loaded With Prominent Guest StarsThe world of network television in the ’70s is a far cry from the modern era, when TV and movie stars can cross from one medium to another. Back then, it was unusual for film stars to appear on TV, but Columbo still managed to attract guest stars who had established themselves in movies or other TV shows.
Current TV fans will probably recognize Star Trek‘s William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, Dick Van Dyke, horror legend Vincent Price, Faye Dunaway, The Naked Gun’s Leslie Nielsen, Roddy McDowall, The Avengers‘ Patrick McGoohan, Martin Landau, Johnny Cash and more.
A handful of guest stars even came back on multiple occasions as different characters. McGoohan holds the record for playing the murderer four times on the show. He directed three of those episodes and even went on to helm two episodes that he didn’t appear in.
This is a footnote in TV history, but “Murder by the Book,” the first episode of Columbo as a regular television series, was written by NYPD Blue creator Steven Bochco and directed by Steven Spielberg. Bochco remained with the series through three seasons, and he returned for one of the TV movies as well.
Other prominent Columbo directors and writers that fans may recognize include Robert Butler, Jonathan Demme and Stephen J. Cannell contributed to the series as well. Series co-creators Richard Levinson and William Link assembled a great team behind the cameras, and they co-wrote several episodes as well. The strength of their efforts paid off as Columbo is still popular enough in 2025 to inspire another hit detective show. Falk’s groundbreaking detective walked so Natasha Lyonne‘s Charlie Cale could run, but Columbo is entertaining enough to still be watchable and relevant after all these years.
Columbo is streaming on Prime Video.
