Seven from the list of the dead A large number of series leaves its mark and if here and now none of the TV writers is not worried about the fact that the story in the series is repeated over and over again and only the scenery changes, then the old series really worked and tried to demonstrate something unusual to the viewer. So "Colombo" time and time again tried to present something new and somehow surprise the sophisticated viewer. And this series is no exception, as it departs from the standard concept of the series, but unlike such series as "One Time to Die" and "Race with Death" does not forget who the main character of the story and what he is famous for. Enough of the empty debate and it’s time to get to the point.
So we have a double murder. One jerk killed another jerk, seemingly for no reason. It doesn't look like a robbery, because the man who broke into the victim's apartment was dressed in an elegant suit. It was not blood feud either - the dead did not know each other. The only clue is a fragment of the photo in the hands of the deceased. But the lead is weak and seems to lead nowhere. I guess. But then a man from the insurance company looks at the police station with a predatory look and an insincere smile. Call this comrade Irwin Krutz and he knows what kind of photo fell into the hands of the guardians of the law.
A few years ago, a group of four desperate criminals stole four million dollars from the bank. Even though the criminals themselves were later killed, there was no money with them. Where are the four million? This is the question that a piece of the photo should answer... if you find the missing seven parts that were left in the custody of loved ones of the deceased criminals. The easiest solution is to go and find out where the parts of the photo are, but at the same time the decision is fundamentally wrong. After all, most of the relatives and friends of the deceased criminals themselves are somehow connected with crime, and therefore will not cooperate with the authorities. What do we do? One thing is someone has to pretend to be a criminal, trust the relatives of the deceased robbers and find out where they are hiding the pieces of the photo. It is natural for Colombo to become that person.
It's an unexpected turn, isn't it? Lieutenant Colombo, who used to lead a criminal by the nose in the image of a policeman, must lead criminals by the nose in the image of a notorious thief, and later the godfather of the Italian mafia. All right, well, the plot twist is quite expected, but nevertheless pleasant. After all, the hero of Peter Falk, in addition to his natural absent-mindedness and cunning squint, demonstrates the skill of reincarnation. Of course, this is how the story with the investigation suffers, since the hero of Peter Falk does not need to look for evidence, compare facts and drive suspects to hysterics. The plot itself moves forward with leaps and bounds and the best thing Colombo can do, and with it the viewer, is to try to keep up. This will appeal to not everyone, hence such a modest rating of the series on IMDb, but at the same time this series has kept the atmosphere of the series, the secondary characters are well spelled out, and they play more than well, and the humor has not gone anywhere. Unless you could work a little better on dialogue, but it's a matter of taste.
Outcome? Interesting, but rather unusual series, where instead of the usual investigation will be a treasure hunt. Deadly hunt and not all its participants will live to the final, but the hunt is fascinating, there is no arguing. So if you are looking for something unusual, you can safely take on the “Masquerade” and most likely you will like it.
7 out of 10