Columbo by Christyne Berzsenyi;

Author:Christyne Berzsenyi;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book Network Int'l Limited trading as NBN International (NBNi)

Sympathy for the Villain

For a majority of Columbo villains, audiences maintain identification with the Lieutenant and the deserved justice he brings unto them with substantiated arrest. However, a minority of Columbo villains earn audiences’ admiration, kinship, and sympathy. A key factor is how the audience perceives the villain to be a victim of terrible circumstances, which would correspond to the judgment that they had little to no choice but to perform the criminal act. Therefore, they deserve some clemency at the least, to be enabled to escape, and/or released with impunity. Several Columbophile blog members comment on the “Top 10 Most Sympathetic Columbo Killers” article posted by Columbophile on August 16, 2016:

“Wade Anders, from Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health. Ok the man is a touch arrogant and, in all honesty, he makes so many silly mistakes with his murder you can’t really sympathize but I just feel he was put in a dreadful position. After rising up from nowhere and becoming a major television star, he faces complete ruin just for a mistake he made when he was younger” (HARRYSBOY 17 August 2015); “It’s rare where a villain can upstage Columbo but I though [sic] Trish Van Devere did (‘Make Me a Perfect Murder’). The angst she gave while performing the murder, and the anxiety of finding the gun in the elevator and her desperateness at retrieving it were palpable” (Itsspideyman 24, Sept. 2016); and “I actually think they went a little overboard on Grace Wheeler (‘Forgotten Lady’). She’s so sympathetic that the episode becomes depressing instead of entertaining. Watching Columbo apply his tricks of the trade to a suspect with dementia is like watching Mike Tyson go a few rounds with Stephen Hawking” (Craverguy 21 Jan 2017).

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