Just rewatched Negative Reaction and Swan Song one after the other and thought it was interesting the way both killers are designed in some way to evoke sympathy in us.

However, not sure what you guys think, but for me despite the true vileness of Francess Galesko I must admit tat I couldn't warm to Paul Galesko. Whereas Tommy gets my sympathy right from the start. What he did was wrong but I think that Columbo really sees the potential good in the man. It really is quite a nice scene at the end where Columbo and Tommy are in the car listening to the music. Quite touching dare I say?

You're right, I also had sympathy for Tommy Brown, if I had the same wife, I'd kill her too.He and Galesko people that judge & jury shouldn't blame on the court, they did it for the well-being of humanity.

I also had a degree of sympathy for Tommy Brown, but I don't see Galesko as a character designed for sympathy. Yes, he was a brow-beaten husband with a nagging wife and a substantial estate to lose in a divorce settlement, but I never felt much sympathy for him, especially when his plan included killing and framing an innocent man to cover the primary murder. If there was a character designed to ilicit sympathy it was Alvin Deschler.

I think it's interesting that in both episodes the murderer took the life a second (more)innocent person in order to better alibi themselves.

Speaking of innocent bystanders being sacrified for the benefit of the murderer, how about that poor slob Miss La Sanka.

steve, i second a vote for sympathy for alvin deschler. yes he was a convicted criminal, but he served his time and he was ready to begin a new life as a good and upstanding person. he didn't get out of prison and go straight back to his criminal ways. he got a what he thought was a legitimate job working for galesko, and he was trying to go on the straight and narrow path. galesko took advantage of deschler's seemingly naive nature. and then he even killed him!

Apparently it's impossible for some folks just to enjoy the show beyond flaw and inference, but all the typical nitpicking aside, I think Swan Song was Cash's finest film appearance, and Galesko didn't even blink when he fired the gun.

Funny thing about that is, you'd think Paul would have given his bounded misery a couple of good slaps before shooting her ... you know, to add a sense of stark realism to the stage he was setting in service to his own self-gratification.

karl said....
"Apparently it's impossible for some folks just to enjoy the show beyond flaw and inference..."

That's what makes this forum interesting beside usual stuff.If you can't accept the fact that viewers are different people, simply don't reply.

karl said....
"Apparently it's impossible for some folks just to enjoy the show beyond flaw and inference..."

but i thought that was why we were all here...

Adrian Carsini....anyone ?

vento!! you practically made the same post as me!!

Yea, actually I "borrowed" part of your post a bit, I was too lazy to copy Karl's quotation.

I hope you're not angry because of copyrights.

<>

Well, according the camera store owner, Al did try to rip off Galesko with a phoney, over-inflated sales receipt. Not exactly walking the straight and narrow, but certainly not deserving of being shot down in cold blood either.

I take back my original post. Miss La Sanka tried to shake down Cassidy so I guess she wasn't exactly Mother Cabrini either.

aww...come on john...it was only a little itsy bitsy piece of fraud..

Tommy does not have my sympathy, that's for sure! Didn't he have sex with a 16 year old girl?!
So I can understand why his wife acts like she does.

And not only that, but he also killed off that young girl, and that was pure murder.

Interesting how people's take can be so different. I kind of agree with Lady from Norway (I'm originally from neighboring, Sweden, BTW) that although Tommy Brown isn't one of the vilest of villains, what he does is pretty horrific. Nagging shrew that Edna Brown is, at least she dares to confront Tommy about his womanizing and what must have been statutory rape. Hardly acts warranting yours or anyone's sympathy, guys!

In a way, Edna gets more sympathy from me because although she is is a shrew, at least she also shows some guts. Frances Galesko, by contrast, comes across as just a rich, spoiled nag. However, I never felt any sympathy for the cold and calculating Paul either. Why not just divorce the shrew for heaven's sake? My impression is that as a very successful photographer with rich clients Paul must have plenty of money of his own, so I don't see that being much of an issue either.

One reason that Tommy Brown comes across as more sympthetic may be that in the final scene he admits feeling terrible about what he did, and when he says that he would have fessed up eventually, you tend to believe him.

Karl wrote: " Apparently it's impossible for some folks just to enjoy the show beyond flaw and inferenc..."

Geez Karl, there's 40-some episodes made some 30 years ago, this is a discussion forum, what the heck is wrong with discussing the small details and our opinions of them, and what else would there be to discuss without them. Geez.

hey karl!... don't you feel so special that 3 people (including me) have quoted you??!!?
come on...give us your comments. i for one, would love to here them... .......
.........sincerely..a fellow 'karl'........carleen

Hey, lots of good viewpoints floating around this topic, wish more threads were like this.

To clarify my point of view: of course i'm not condoning what either killer did, they both committed unspeakable acts, but one can feel sympathy for anothers situation and more or less understand their motivation without agreeing with the remedy they choose. I felt much more sympathy for Tommy Brown than for Paul Galesko. Frances Galesko was a domineering immasculating bit**, but Edna Brown was a self-righteous hard-hearted leach, in spite of her delusional religious beliefs, who was taking every penny Tommy Brown could earn. I have little doubt that had TB went along and seen the temple to the god of hellfire built she still wouldn't have released him from his indenture.

Sorry, Laura, I removed your post that incuded Steve's email -- there's not a way I can just edit or remove certain words from a post.

I realize you didn't include Steve's addy on purpose, that it was just part of quoting his post. The best advice for those who want to keep their email addresses secret, is to not include them in your own posts.

Fortunately, Steve, I don't think it's that big a problem here. I have posted my own Yahoo email address in this forum many, many times over the last 9 years, and it's also under the "email the authors" link, and I hardly get any spam on that account.

yay!

Thanks Ted, I really appreciate it, i'll stop putting my email in the form. Sorry Laura, I know it wasn't intentional.

Oh, and thanks again Cass, you the best.

i saw your previous post when you thanked ted and i..
i didn't really do anything...but i'm glad it is all resolved.
this is why i call ted 'the grand maestro'!

Well, you contacted Ted which got the ball rolling, so you helped a lot.

oops....i didn't realize i did that. thanks for removing it, Ted.