>>281984289
Columbo recently had a pretty big surge in popularity here in the west - enough that inspired two copycat series (that I know of), Poker Face and Elsbeth.
Poker Face is clearly the blockbuster of the two, but I have to say Rian Johnson is exactly the sort of director you don't want trying to copy Columbo. He can't help himself, he's very masturbatory, and Columbo isn't a masturbatory series. Columbo is very sincere detective fiction. Johnson just loves his references and his stylish direction and his subversions and weird gimmicks. And most of all, he loves to shit on lower class people. He LOVES to write cases where two pieces of trailer trash try and kill each other. He's the type of guy who punches down, always. The exact opposite of Columbo, who always deals with rich, white collar criminals. That's the entire appeal, of course, the contrast between the bedraggled detective and the preening killer. Johnson can't write that kind of story, he'd always make fun of the both of them.
