Back in the day, when I lived in a house with only one TV and three channels, I was subjected to a lot of episodes of NBC's "Sunday Mystery Movie" series, which my parents loved (probably payback for them turning over the TV to me & my sister every Friday to catch "The Brady Bunch" & "The Partridge Family"). The "Sunday Mystery Movie" consisted of feature-length episodes with a rotating line-up of detectives. One week we'd see a 'McCloud' episode, another week it might be 'Banacek' or 'MacMillan & Wife' or 'Cool Million' (I would later go out of my way to catch a'Snoop Sisters' episode that featured Alice Cooper, who was the latest rock star to piss off my parents) . Against my will, I was subjected to a lot of "Mystery Movie" episodes (and it's maddeningly catchy theme song), and eventually grew to like the show. My favorites were the 'Columbo' episodes. The character, immortalized by Peter Falk, has become a pop icon, and this boxed set of the second season will have 'Columbo' fans and '70s TV nostalgics in hog heaven, as long as they aren't seeking out any additional extras.

If one is to interpret the term, mystery, in the purest sense of the word, 'Columbo' should never have been part of the "Sunday Mystery Movie" line-up, since it's made clear in every episode in the first 15 minutes who the killer is, but that's probably just nitpicking. It doesn't make these episodes any less fun. Nearly every 'Columbo' episode follows the exact same formula...a highly intelligent villain (usually a popular TV or screen star of the era) kills someone, does everything possible to cover his/her tracks, then is hounded by a slovenly, seemingly idiotic, cop in a trenchcoat who seems to lost in his own world until he puts the pieces together in the last few minutes. Columbo himself, one of the greatest characters ever to grace our TVs, generally doesn't appear until we are 20 minutes into the show, and spends the rest of the running time convincing the overconfident killer (and us) that he's a complete moron, when he's actually f**king with him the whole time until he's ready to break the case. The 'Columbo' episodes were always the most clever and character-driven episodes of the "Mystery Movie" line-up, and as the title character, Peter Falk completely embodies the role for which he'll always be associated (and his glass eye still freaks me out). While these episodes may look a bit dated at times, there's no mystery why this particular show became part of our pop culture, thanks largely to good writing and Falk's performance, which is almost always deceptively smart and amusing. Episodes in this set include appearances by numerous TV & screen stars, including John Cassavetes, Ray Milland & Leonard Nimoy (playing way-against-type as a villain).

These episodes are presented in their original fullscreen format, and while there are a lot of noticeable scratches and artifacts, the overall picture is pretty good for a 30-year-old show. The soundtrack is render in 2.0 Dolby Mono, and probably rendered as good as needed, though there's some noticeable distortion present in numerous episodes.

No extras are included in this set. Too bad, because I still can't get the Henry Mancini's "NBC Sunday Mystery Movie" theme out of my head. I wish they'd throw the tune in and be done with it.

The eight episodes included in this show's second season offer a lot of stick-it-to-the-cocky-bad-guy fun, made all the better with Falk in the role he was obviously born to play. I'm not sure if the individual episodes warrant repeated viewings to anyone who didn't grow up with the show, but all of them are definitely worth visiting at least once. Only the total lack of extras keep this set from being an indispensable souvenir from TV's second golden age.