Castle, "The Fifth Bullet": Face doesn't ring a bell

"Castle" is one of those shows I watch from time to time but rarely write about, in part because it usually takes me a few days to get all the way through an episode. (It's something I tend to put on for a few minutes in between other things.) But I watched all of last night's episode - which paired Nathan Fillion with fellow strapping Whedon alum Marc Blucas, and threw in Anne Dudek and the ambiguous ethnicity of Carlo Rota for good measure, as the show has become quite good at guest casting - and thought I'd take the temperature of the room on the state of the series.

The ratings have been better this season, thanks in part to Jay Leno, and it seems to me that the chemistry between Fillion and Stana Katic is stronger and less forced than at the start of the series. (Or perhaps I've just gotten used to them.) I still don't love the mysteries, but they've gotten better at coming up with the sort of hooks that would intrigue a guy like Castle - what mystery writer wouldn't want to work a case involving amnesia? - and the plotting is mostly an excuse to let Castle annoy Beckett for an hour.

If you're watching, what do you think? Any areas where you feel the show could improve itself? Or do you just like Fillion enough that the rest is window dressing? Click here to read the full post

Castle, "Nanny McDead": To protect and serve, and to participate and annoy

Quick spoilers for last night's "Castle" coming up just as soon as I find my recap for the "NYPD Blue" episode guest-starring Castle's mom...

This is the other episode I saw in advance, and I still don't have a lot to say about this show beyond my liking Nathan Fillion a lot, and to a lesser extent liking his interaction with Stana Katic.

The mystery wasn't as predictable as I assumed it would be (it seemed so obvious that the first husband was having an affair with the nanny, and that either he or his wife would be the killer, that I was relieved when they were eliminated as suspects 10 minutes later), but nor was the resolution that interesting. I was almost hoping that Castle's fantasy scenario of the stalker neighbor would turn out to be exactly right, but instead it was just the other nanny having an affair with her boss. Meh.

Speaking of Castle's loner fantasy, that scene, and the brief glimpse of the book he's writing based on Kate Beckett (aka Nikki Heat... sigh...) could threaten to create the "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" problem, where what we see of the great writer's work doesn't seem so great. But the advantage "Castle" has is that it really doesn't matter if Castle is a brilliant prose stylist; all that matters is that we believe he's a best-selling author. And there are plenty of mystery authors who are successful without being especially good. We have to believe that Castle has some level of insight into how crime works, or else what's the point of the show? But the fact that he names his new character Nikki Heat isn't a deal-breaker.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

'Castle' review - Sepinwall on TV

In today's column, I review ABC's new mystery series "Castle":

"Are you here to annoy me?" NYPD cop Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) wearily asks her unofficial new partner, mystery novelist Rick Castle.

"I'm here for the story," Castle (Nathan Fillion) tells her.

Castle first hooks up with Beckett to solve a trio of murders based on his books, then decides to use her as inspiration for a new series of novels. As a man in his profession might be, he's obsessed with finding a good story. Time and time again through the two episodes of ABC's new mystery series "Castle" that I've seen, Castle complains that Kate's latest theory of the crime doesn't make for an interesting story, or is pleased when a new development makes the story more interesting for him.

Yet "Castle" the show doesn't seem all that interested in finding the most interesting, or unique, ways to tell its stories. It's an amalgamation of a half-dozen other crime shows (at a minimum) and, at times, is so packed with cliches that my wife (watching the pilot alongside me) began reciting Stana Katic's dialogue five seconds in advance with uncanny accuracy. At one point, after Castle complained that a solution came too easily, my wife and Katic were in stereo as they declared, "This isn't one of your books, Castle!"

(A TV critic's marriage occasionally leads to scenes like this, I suppose.)

Not that we were exactly unhappy watching it. "Castle," for all its predictability -- and its unfortunately timed resemblance to hits like "The Mentalist" -- isn't without its charms, chief among them Nathan Fillion.

To read the full thing, click here. I don't think I'm going to do a separate review of the pilot, so feel free to comment here after you've watched it. Click here to read the full post