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> IMHO, the main weakness of the show are how over-eager the culprits sometimes are act like they're helping Columbo. Not just answer his questions, but play detective with him.

I've watched most Columbos multiple times and I think that's by design. Columbo plays dumb, and tries to make the suspect think that Columbo can easily be misdirected or manipulated; so suspects volunteer to "help" Columbo in order to protect themselves. This overconfidence on the part of suspects' is deliberately engineered by Columbo.

It also plays in the consistent "Columbo vs. the highly educated upper-class" motif, where the "dumb" cop who earns $11k a year asks for help from millionaires who are "much smarter and more worldly" than him.

(I don't think there are any major spoilers below that would ruin the show, but I do reveal some Columbo plot.)

Okay, fine, Last Salute to the Commodore is an exceptional case; it's widely regarded, along with the two later Ed McBain ones, as way out-of-character for the show.

Usually when he confronts a character who has something to hide but isn't the murderer, he's over-the-top friendly and apologetic, like with the affair in Columbo Goes to College or the victim's bride in Double Shock. There are probably some better examples.

Yeah, the usual formula is that the culprit tries to demonstrate innocence by helping with the investigation until Columbo gets too close, and then abruptly shuts up. I think that mostly speaks to Columbo's style, though; it's realistic that a murderer would do one or the other given how they're being questioned.

I'd still maintain that the biggest weakness of the show is that Columbo almost never has the wrong suspect, and sometimes he has the correct suspect far too early (why does he read the palm in Death Lends A Hand?).

> Columbo starts by pulling on all the strings and then doggedly chasing the inconsistencies and loose ends.

Interesting quirk of English idioms here. Maybe regional?

    * Pulling strings often means to control, as a marionette
    * Pulling threads often means to inspect closely and follow a pattern

Native English speaker, would give the same rough definitions for each phrase if asked[0], but for whatever reason I read the GP and didn't think it was out of place at all. Immediately got the intended meaning. Even after having it pointed out it seems fine to me, in fact I can't really see the "control" meaning even though I know it should be there.

[0]: Though I'd use "pulling the strings" and "pulling at threads".

>> Columbo starts by pulling on all the strings and then doggedly chasing the inconsistencies and loose ends.

> Interesting quirk of English idioms here. Maybe regional?

> * Pulling strings often means to control, as a marionette

> * Pulling threads often means to inspect closely and follow a pattern

That's way too clever for me to have done intentionally. I just had my idioms scrambled.

“Pulling on the strings” has a different meaning from “pulling strings”. That may not seem reasonable, but it’s an expression that is phrasal-verb adjacent, and a single preposition can alter the meaning.