YMMV / Columbo S 05 E 06

• Audience-Alienating Premise: Most reviewers rate this towards the bottom, if not dead last on their rankings of episodes, due to the bizarre characterization of Columbo and the extremely weak "gotcha." While the surprise death of Charles is noted as an extremely unique plot twist, most reviewers agree it isn't enough to overcome the negatives. As an example, the Columbophile Blog reviewer, who watched all 69 episodes from the original series and revival, rated the episode 67th out of 69, and the episode was ranked dead last in his reviews of the original series episodes only.
• Bizarro Episode: This is a strong contender for the weirdest episode, due to Columbo oddly invading people's personal space, everyone acting like they're high (aside from the Lady Drunk, who has an actual excuse to act as such) and barely caring that there is a murder mystery going on, a trainee who decides to start dressing like Columbo, a baffling "gotcha" that consists of Columbo having the suspects listen to a ticking watch he says belongs to the Commodore, until the culprit eventually says "It isn't", and it all ends with Columbo rowing on a boat to join his wife at the yacht club.
• So Bad, It's Good: While plenty consider this episode to be one of, if not the worst episode of the classic era, some fans might get an ironic enjoyment of the episode for how bonkers it can get. A Highlight includes Peter Falk and Robert Vaughn sitting very close to one another with Robert having trouble holding back a smirk.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The idea of the episode becoming a regular whodunit is an interesting concept, especially for what was meant to be the series finale. Unfortunately, it's bogged down by the padding, bad humor, and extremely weak gotcha, at least.