Far Above Expectations
Posted on March 2, 2009 | No Comments
…Nathan Fillion plays the outwardly roguish, cocky, couldn’t-care-less Richard Castle with an ease unlike anyone else. His attitude and mannerisms almost make you want to hate him at first, but you can’t help but smile at the same time. In the opening scene, Castle is introduced to the stage while autographing a female fan’s breast. As he’s walking away from her he slyly says, “Call me when you’re ready to wash that.† Though we quickly learn, through several scenes with his teenage daughter, that Richard Castle does care, and you start to peel back the layers that separate the public persona that Castle exhibits to his fans, with the real Castle that he keeps safely hidden below the tough exterior.
To play the other side of Castle’s easy going, break the rules type, is Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), the street smart, straight-shooting detective. Beckett is somewhat of a closet Castle fan, though she attempts to never fall for his charm (she often fails miserably at this, however). Overall I enjoyed Katic’s portrayal of Kate Beckett, however I do have some concerns about the character being too one dimensional and flat as the series continues. In the pilot, it’s a bit difficult in a few scenes to see her as anything but a plot device used to allow us to focus more on Castle’s overall charm and wit. In fact, there is only one scene where her street-smart ways beat out Castle’s book-smart knowledge. If they want this show to stand the test of time, we really need to see a more rounded Kate Beckett character. If they can succeed in having her one-up Castle a little more often, and maybe even teach him a thing or two about real life crime solving, they’d have something even more amazing on the air.
What makes Castle really different from previous mystery shows, however, is the metafictional device they employ. You see, Richard Castle himself is a mystery writer, creating fake murder mysteries for his novels. He knows ever murder plot clichà © out there, and makes these weak points and clichà ©s known during the case they’re working on, which is also inadvertently pointing out the same weak points and clichà ©s out to the audience about the show itself. It’s an interesting balancing act that makes the show amusingly self aware and entertaining to watch at the same time.
Overall I found the pilot episode of Castle to be fantastic and far above my expectations.  If you’re a fan of the procedural mystery series with a little fun, you’ll definitely want to tune in for this show. I certainly didn’t think the show was flawless, and there is room for more improvement, but for a mid midseason replacement, it more than exceeds the expectations that I had for the show. I’ll be setting my DVR so that I don’t miss this one at all…
Full Review: www.tvovermind.com
Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 7:27 pm in category News. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.