Jack Cassidy, Protagonist of “Columbo”

Depending on how you reckon it, the first episode of “Columbo” was “Murder by the Book”, directed by a young Steven Spielberg and starring Jack Cassidy.

Cassidy is a master of convincing us that he is unconvincing. He can be seen to lie on screen in a way that is both obvious and plausible. It is a magic trick.

The star of a good Columbo episode is the murderer. Columbo himself is a natural force, God’s truth standing there as the walls close in. Nobody was better at showing you those walls closing in than Cassidy. He is the perfect Columbo villain.

Cassidy starred in three episodes and they’re all wonderful. “Murder by the Book” has Spielberg (and is inventing the language as it goes, “Diagnosis Murder” works in a fundamentally different way), and “Now You See Him” is maybe the perfect episode of Columbo, but “Publish or Perish” is also one of the greats.

I think all of these episodes are available on Peacock.