Today I decided to watch Forgotten Lady (I don't know why :P)

- reason why I like this one is setting - nice, sunny Los Angeles, villas, like most of Columbos
- reason why I don't like it is Grace Wheeler is the worst murderer ever. I hate her so much that everytime I want to cut the viewing. She represents all the negative features I know: she is selfish, egoistic, no empathy at all. Plus she has a power to rule other people, like on this trial for example. While she was making a murder she knew exactly what she is doing and what was the reason? totally egoistic willing of fame. Who cares if she was sick or not? She was just NOT A NICE PERSON. Nothing mattered for her but herself. In all the killers from Columbo, even the baddest ones, I can find some nice features, but not in here. I see literally nothing positive about Grace. She thought she is a center of world, treating everyone else like servants. And unfortunatelly this is the only case (except of It's all in the game) Columbo lets her go... I can understand Columbo in this case but my way of judgement doesn't change. This is the worst worst worst character of all Columbo episodes

Completely agree, I'm not a fan of letting this particular murderer get away with it, it's the only episode where it happens, like you said; and I'd have understood more letting Lauren Staton go in that episode, probably called "it's all in the game", where Nick Franco was cheating on Lauren's daughter Lisa and who threatened her, as in if there's a murderer who could've been let go it was in this episode, not certainly in Forgotten lady.

I never even thought of it that way. I'm pretty sure that's how they wanted her character to be. I think her sickness had something to do with how she acted, all she could remember was how great she used to be... I guess...

I've been away from here for a long time but I again disagree 1000%. Grace Wheeler's backstory as revealed in this episode is that her troubles began when Ned let her down decades ago. Ned's drinking and insecurities short-circuited what likely would have been a happy marriage for them both and continued success in their careers. Without Ned, Grace had to struggle and she ended up in a loveless marriage to a man who gave her financial security but who always knew she didn't love him and he was satisfied with the "trophy wife" arrangement. Combine that with the effects of an aneurysm, and I think what we saw was not the "real" Grace Wheeler. The real Grace is more the frightened bewildered one afterwards who has forgotten all about the murder.

That to me is why Ned's decision to take the fall for her until she dies works. It's his way of apologizing to her for being the cause of what happened to her afterwards. And it's the reason why this episode is for me the best Columbo, post-Season 1.