Is it because he’s always nailing smug weirdo rich fuckbags? Is it the peter falk hard carry? Is it because despite being canonically a cop he does anything but act like a cop?
Is everything downstream of columbo an attempt to erase his legacy as the hound of wealthy sociopaths?
Is Columbo a demigod?
Probably helps that Peter Falk is like a real big-screen cinema actor and an absolutely fantastic one at that and that a lot of the early episodes are also directed by actual movie directors and not TV directors.