When I saw an episode of this show on YouTube (I only clicked on it because the title looked interesting - it said Kate Loves a Mystery, which I later found out was not the original title. If someone who had never heard of this show was seeing it for the first time, they wouldn't associate it with Columbo), and realized it was about Columbo's wife, it's not like my expectations were all that high. I'm just not a fan of spin-offs. I think a lot of them were silly and unneeded. I have yet to find a spin-off, even if it originated from a TV show I enjoy, that has any semblance of continuity or logic. I love Columbo. I don't know about other fans, but I didn't care that his wife was never shown. He would often talk about her, mostly whenever he went off-topic during his questioning of the murderer in the process of his detective work. I liked that she remained invisible throughout the series, because it allowed the audience to visualize her appearance. I actually found that to be kind of fun, imagining what she looked like. Well, apparently, what the writers of this show visualized, and what I did, are two completely different things. Kate Mulgrew was miscast, and I'm sure most fans will agree with me. Columbo did not look like the type of man who would marry a woman young enough to be his daughter. As if that's not ridiculous enough, they have a child who looks to be about 8- or 9-years-old. Peter Falk was 52 in 1979, so he could've had a child (well, men can produce children at any age really). Okay, I guess that's not the point. I don't remember him mentioning he had kids. He said something about having a nephew, but he wasn't a father. So you have two major things ruining the show: a young wife, and a child. The overall storyline, of her being a detective, makes no sense. Just because her husband has the skillset to solve murders doesn't mean she does. I won't even get into how bad the acting is. This show is just dumb. It was nothing but Hollywood greed. Peter Falk didn't even give the show his endorsement, and the ratings turned out to be low... As if that was a surprise. I don't see how true fans can actually like this. So cringe and unnecessary.
Review of Mrs. Columbo
