Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Castle: “Always Buy Retail”

I'm still not as much a fan of this show as most people on the Net seem to be but I'm beginning to understand why it has such a big following. Indeed, I could swear my mother's calendar had a notation for the premiere episode for the most recent season -- and my mother has not publicly admitted to being a fan of this show.

If anything else, I wish I had more money in my pocket right now because this episode really makes me want to own a flak jacket with the word “writer” on it in place of “police.” Not that I expect to ever have to use it -- especially since I'm unpublished. But, hey. You never know.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Castle: “Flowers for Your Grave”

Should I find it a bit disturbing that the creepiest part of this episode came not in the obligatory pre-credit sequence in which a young woman was killed in “colorful” fashion to amuse all the bored TV viewers out there but in the scene in which it was revealed that the victim was seen naked by one of the few people who really should not have been seeing her naked?

For that matter, should I not find it a bit disturbing that co-star Susan Sullivan went from playing a female doctor in the 1978 show Having Babies -- aka Julie Farr, M.D. -- to playing a wacky mother in this show? Granted, TV does not have a whole lot of roles for people Ms. Sullivan's age but then that is not necessarily a good thing now, is it?

Oh, well. It's tempting to see this show as a variation on Bones, only this time it is the man who is the eccentric and unrealistically rich author who helps solves crimes and it is the woman who is on the side of law enforcement.

Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame plays Rick Castle, an eccentric millionaire writer who gets involved in a murder investigation when the investigating police detective Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic) discovers parallels between two real-life murders and similar crimes in Mr. Castle's books. Ms. Beckett and Mr. Castle meet cute, have all sorts of amusing arguments and at last solve the crime.

Of course, the story doesn't end there and Mr. Castle uses his clout to bring about a sequ -- er, a gig as Ms. Beckett's constant companion in the name of “research.”

The result is not a bad series -- apart from the elements I've mentioned above -- but not a terribly exciting one, either. A lot of the appeal of the show depends upon how one feels about the chemistry between Fillion and Katic.

It is nice to see Mr. Fillion star on a TV series for more than one season. And Ms. Katic is nice to look at as well.

If nothing else, this show -- like Bones -- seems to be a throwback to those old movies in which impossibly rich writers with amazing clout threw their weight around in ways that would be more amusing to watch on screen than to experience in person. But, fortunately for all the straight women and gay men who might be watching this series, Rick Castle is a lot easier on the eyes than Sheridan Whiteside.

TV Quote of the Week

It’s my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sommbitch or another. Ain’t about you, Jayne. It’s about what they need.
--Nathan Fillion, Firefly, “Jaynestown”

Courtesy of Lynn of Violins and Starships