Review of Murder Under Glass

I have conflicting views of Murder Under Glass. It's one of the most entertaining Columbo episodes. The problem is that Columbo lacks all of his regular idiosyncrasies, and his technique is far too straightforward. Columbo typically lures suspects into a false sense of security by appearing inept. In this episode, he introduces himself as shrewd, confident, and cultured. Is Columbo finally taking off his mask, or did a script for another show suddenly have Columbo inserted into it? After all, this episode was the first one written by Robert Van Scoyck, who worked on several other mystery programs and could easily have had a random script lying around. Also, the ending is entertaining but lacks plausibility-- why would anyone be stupid enough to kill two people the exact same way and in the exact same location? Sigh. It's true that this season built around showing how intelligent Columbo really is, especially the episode with the high IQ society, but this episode suffers from a severe lack of character continuity and I don't find it credible.