Pretty good for a "newer" Columbo. One thing that stood out to me was even though the professor's girlfriend lied about
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Columbo
kgk5-568-553426 — 9 years ago(September 21, 2016 10:57 AM)
Pretty good for a "newer" Columbo. One thing that stood out to me was even though the professor's girlfriend lied about being home alone that night, it didn't matter or wasn't brought up again when the wife said they were together commiserating. Why even have that scene especially since the girlfriend came clean anyway about having the affair ealrier but it was long over?
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Karl Aksel — 9 years ago(September 21, 2016 01:47 PM)
That's actually my least favourite of all Columbo episodes, because of the ending. What I love about Columbo is that the villain always underestimates him at first, but realises - either gradually or suddenly, at the end - that Columbo had been on to them all along, and that he is much more intelligent than they first gave him credit for. This realisation is very satisfying. In Columbo Goes to College, however, this never happens. The villains in this episode start out thinking Columbo a bumbling idiot, and that is precisely what they think of him as they are arrested at the end as well: he didn't get them because he was smart, he got them because he got
lucky
. That's what they believe, that's what they'll
always
believe, and it annoys the hell out of me. It is deeply unsatisfying. -
lanceus — 9 years ago(September 21, 2016 04:25 PM)
I don't remember the episode in great detail, but I know I didn't have a car alarm at the timeand I was surprised by the range on the boys' alarm, seemingly able to go from a classroom into underground parking!
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dave_buffalo — 6 years ago(April 05, 2019 07:44 PM)
You have to suspend disbelief a bit on this one, but just assume that the boys had tested out the range beforehand. Maybe this particular classroom was right above the garage, and that's why they chose to do it from this lecture hall.
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ronnoco28 — 6 years ago(July 31, 2019 05:19 PM)
At the beginning of the episode, as Columbo was teaching the class, one of the students asked him if he'd ever 'invented' evidence to help solve a case. Columbo tried to evade the question, but the student was persistent, so eventually Columbo chuckled and said that he'd be willing to do almost anything to solve a case. I think that that was relevant to this case, and he actually contrived up some evidence in order to test Justin and Cooper's reaction. Justin and Cooper were arrogant young punks, considered themselves superior to everyone else, and considered Columbo to be a bumbling hick….. (Justin to Cooper:
Do you think Detective
Columbo's parents were related ?
They both laugh their heads off.) It was fun seeing Columbo deliberately fool them into underestimating his abilities as a detective, and they fell right into his trap.
Incidentally, there was clearly some sort of downlow homo relationship going on between Justin and Cooper. They were just a bit too chummy with each other, and obviously enjoyed physically horsing around with each other. They were always in each other's company, and confided their private personal secrets and thoughts to each other. Ordinary college room-mates either have their beds parallel to each other on opposite sides of the room, or else have bunkbeds. But Cooper and Justin had their beds kitty-corner at right angles, and were so close that they could reach out and touch each other.
Cooper and Justin, like all frat boys, evidently got laid with girls (Cooper got 3 of them pregnant) but neither of them appeared to have any long-range relationship with a girlfriend, and they were definitely far more emotionally involved with each other. I imagine that after they got convicted and sent to prison, they were probably cellmates, and lived happily ever after. -
davebuffalo — 4 years ago(February 09, 2022 09:35 PM)
Yes it was pretty good range, and I agree with the post above, you have to suspend disbelief a bit.
But imagine that the classroom is directly above the parking garage, and that they sat right above their truck. The position of the classroom could have led them to concoct this plan in the first place.
And it wasn't a car alarm, it was the key-FOB for unlocking the door.