Remembering Peter Falk for Columbo’s Takedowns of High Functioning Sociopaths

I want to acknowledge Peter Falk’s passing this past week in light of his Columbo TV character’s being a POPULIST icon.

I celebrate him for Columbo, relentless nemesis to the Gucci’d “above the law” types who tried to use power and money to cavalierly escape responsibility for profound crimes against humankind.

I celebrate the Columbo series’ enactments of takedowns of the down and dirty high and mighties, since we are now seriously in the Season or maybe we should call it Age of the “High Functioning Sociopath” (so defiantly in your face in Bushworld and, alas, even more in your face in Obamaworld -- Dems as amoral as Repubs, duh), with our economy captured by them, our quality of life and that of our children and their children, etc., drastically diminished by them, and the massive gratuitous violence (with millions of innocent victims killed, maimed or displaced) perpetrated by them -- with NO risk to them, by the way, except their immortal souls. (I find myself praying more and more for an especially horrendous hell for this wealthy criminal ruling class.)

We desperately need populist heroes, in real life and in art! We need them, past, present and future.

In the Columbo shows those amoral murdering monsters did their best to finesse their way out of horrendous deeds, but Columbo was like the proverbial terrier with a bone. We as viewers enjoyed the ultimate justice, the comeuppance of the smug, mendacious, callous, deadly and always privileged villains. Columbo wasn’t ever dazzled and conned by the money, the power or the fame of the sociopathic gamesman or gameswoman. He would sniff out their guilt early on and hover, hover, hover, question, question, question and then, “just one more thing” ... question. What was such a kick was watching their preliminary dismissal of Columbo as a non-threatening crass, working class, in-way-over-his-head, amiable schlub change to begrudging respect and fear as the sociopaths realized their ingenious, perfect-crime blueprints were not Columbo-proof.

Falk’s character counterpointed the moral shamelessness of the guilty upscale criminal with his own shamelessness at being a non-rich, working class Joe, clunkily invading golden-gated communities to uphold justice. Columbo would at times awkwardly gush over the opulence, the fame, the power he would stumble upon, while at the same time assert pride over the satisfying symbols of his world, that clunker of a car, say, or even a good deal on a less than $20 pair of shoes. He felt comfortable and entitled to show up anywhere despite, as one character declared, “looking like an unmade bed.” He was a "substance" not style kinda guy. The ever-present and ridiculous for Southern California raincoat, the ever-nursed “would you mind not smoking that here” cigar and a never-present gun!

God bless you, Peter Falk. I can use the catharsis of still seeing your Columbo give it to the smug, mendacious rat bastards, even if it is all on the small screen. Thank God for my Columbo DVD collection.

Sometimes I think Dennis Kucinich comes close to being an answer for me to a political, IRL Columbo. He’s got the stance and appearance, plainspoken moral sense, and more of a humble life style than many Washington politicians who turn my stomach so. We shall see if he as an anti-war populist can sincerely stay separated from the crony peer pressure of that amoral and betraying, privileged Congressional pack and accomplish serious justice on behalf of the vast majority of human beings here and abroad being brutally economically and militarily violated by the rat bastard, sociopathic ruling class.

Alas, Dennis, those are BIG, less than twenty dollar Columbo shoes to fill.

[cross-posted at correntewire]