124266 KO Critical Media Analysis (2021S)

The TV series Columbo-in syndication between 1968 and 2003-was a TV success story. It not only turned the ‘who-did-it’ concept on its head but confronted audiences with a rather unique male hero. Lt. Columbo was calm, soft-spoken, smart and perceptive, instead of displaying normatively masculine demeanors: acting aggressively, brandishing his gun and chasing criminal suspects down the streets of L.A. He presented a sharp contrast to other TV-detectives populating the American TV landscape at the time: from hard-boiled detectives like Mike Hammer to tough cops like Lt. Mike Stone in the TV series The Streets of San Francisco.

This course attempts a reading of the TV series in connection with masculinity studies. If the performative act of gender is, as Judith Butler clarifies, “a practice of improvisation within a scene of constraint”(Butler, 2004:1); then what are the improvisations Lt. Columbo-whose first name the series never discloses-is enacting?

Based on Michael Kimmel, John Beynon and Eric Anderson’s work on American masculinities the TV series is put to a close reading.
Students will use critical theory tools taken from gender studies, film studies and post-structural theory to discuss questions like:
What are ideas about masculinities that inform the TV show and especially its male protagonist?
If hegemonic masculinity“is naturalized in the form of the hero and presented through forms that revolve around heroes”(Donaldson, 1996:646) of which detective fiction surely is one, then how does the character of Lt. Columbo ‘re-arrange’ what it means to embody hegemonic manhood?
The Do’s and Don’ts of ‘Detective Masculinity’ and Lt. Columbo: where does he fit on the checklist?
Peter Falk’s Columbo and fan studies: Years after its premiere the series is not only still in syndication but inspires all kinds of fan cultures. What is the appeal of the show to people today, long after it has hit the TV airwaves?