When Columbo was rebooted it came back a different show for sure. But different doesn't make it 'less than'. Just different. How could it be the same? Nearly a decade had passed. Time moves on.
Characters mature. Actors too. The reboot is darker, narratively speaking. The crimes are more bizarre and/or flamboyant.
But Falk's brilliance as the rumpled man of the hour anchors the new-boot in the nuanced and layered classicism of the Columbo's of yore. He's not different. Just more subtly textured in his powers of deduction.
RE: the reframing here. Have only watched the first four mysteries in this set, but found no egregious examples of cropped heads. The extra info in the sides is considerable. So, these episodes were likely formatted for 1.33:1 TV but shot in a wider ratio.
To those who poo-poo the loss of extras, I'll simply add this. That the industry has always considered extra features a 'necessary evil' of the DVD days when they were merely trying to get people to convert from analog to the first disc format.
And I'd rather have Uni or whoever spend their cash on remastering the features at the expense of extras. Because we've all seen the opposite, where features are just slapped to disc, but padded out with swag to mask the fact no heavy lifting was done to actually ready a master for hi-def.
