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Nathan Fillion talks to TV Guide Online about Castle at the Emmys

Question: I am already going through withdrawal symptoms for my favorite summer obsession, The Middleman. I fell for this show hard. I love each and every quirky line and cheesy bad guy they throw at me. When they added the brilliant Mark Sheppard as Manservant Neville, I may have literally jumped for joy. Sad, I know. So needless to say, I am very dismayed to learn of the shortened order. It doesn’t bode well for a second-season pick-up. I have to say if ABC Family decides against the further adventures of Dubbie and The Middleman, they must be Peter Piping Weirdos. They need to sit down with a tall glass of icy milk and dismiss any notion of canceling this series. Dare we have any hope at all, or do we inhabit the alternate reality where hope must be bought with cold cash and tennis bracelets? On another front, I carefully pored over my Fall Preview issue, but in the midseason replacement section, there was no mention of Castle, the series starring Nathan Fillion. Was that just because it was announced too late, or since Nathan’s luck as a leading man has been less than stellar, TV Guide figured it was already canceled? His talents were wasted on Desperate Housewives, and I look forward to a show where he can be shiny. Yes, I’m still grieving over Firefly, I admit it. — Linda M.

Matt Roush: I feel your pain about Middleman. I was an early fan, but work, life and other distractions kept me from staying tuned, although I’ve still got a few choice episodes on my DVR for when/if I get a breather. No word yet on its future, but given that this network has given early pickups to other shows it considers breakouts, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. As for Castle, it wasn’t in our midseason roundup because ABC made its midseason series pickups too late for our deadline. Trust me, Nathan Fillion has plenty of fans in this office, even more so after his hilarious appearance as Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. We’re still grieving over Firefly, too, but at least we’ll always have Serenity.

We wont see this new series until 2009, but just knowing that the Firefly star is back on television is enough for me.

So far we know that the show revolves around a famous mystery/horror novelist who helps the NYPD homicide department solve crimes.

…Castle helps investigators solve crimes in a non-traditional way? Sounds a lot like Life to me, which is a-okay in my book. [Source]

The opening act, which cross-cuts between Nathan Fillion’s character’s book release party (he is the titular Richard Castle) - he’s just written the final book of a bestselling detective character in which the main character is gruesomely killed - and a murder scene where a Female Cop recognizes the mode of murder. Castle’s publisher is his ex-wife, and he’s months overdue for turning in his next manuscript. Oh, and he invited his (alcoholic?) mother to live with him and his daughter now that he’s divorced or something. Castle’s mother, played by Susan Sullivan, pales in comparison to Jessica Walter’s Tabitha Wilson on 90210 (she remains the only standout on the spin-off… but she’s basically playing a toned down version of Lucille Bluth, so… moving on). And just as things are getting truly boring, Castle starts complaining about how truly boring he finds the release parties and how boring he found writing those detective books to be. Why? Because he already knew what every scene was going to be. So you’ll color no one surprised when Female Cop shows up at the book release party wanting to ask Castle some questions (because the murder was done in a way that was featured in one of his novels, natch…) Really wish there hadn’t been a lampshade hung on that. As usual, Fillion oozes a kind of dirty charm and chemistry with just about every extra and inanimate object. Which is why we love him and why we haven’t stopped watching yet.

I find Stana Katic rather bland in the Mariska Hargitay Female Cop role (I believe it’s Detective Beckett)… but she’s supposed to be straightwoman to Fillion’s Castle, who is something of a loose cannon / lothario (he stole a police horse… and was naked at the time… also during the release party he signs many guest’s decolletage) so she does a serviceable job. Oh, my, I wonder if the series is going to revolve around UST… b-t-dubs, I think Cupid’s UST between Cannavale and Paulson is better. In a semi-twist, it’s actually Castle who volunteers to assist with the investigation, as opposed to him being forced to by the police. Much to Beckett’s chagrin, of course. I do like the way Katic intonates “novelist” as an insult when speaking to Castle. And I do find myself thoroughly amused that the NYPD runs into real-world roadblocks such as the length of time it takes to get, like, fingerprints analyzed and Castle can just use his “I’m a famous, rich author” connects to speed things up… and then he gets a lecture from Beckett about cutting the line (other people are waiting for prints, you know).

There’s another copycat murder, a frame job, yadda yadda yadda, and the only thing I’m really curious about is how the series is going to be set up (since I have to assume that it’s not going to be yet more copycat murders each week… and I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that it’s Castle looking for his next bestseller).

Score one zinger for the daughter when she tells Castle that if she keeps having bail him out of jail, he’s going to have to raise her allowance.

It’s hard to see Fillion in a brown coat that isn’t Malcolm Reynolds’.

The UST banter between Castle and Beckett isn’t quite up to par with Booth and Bones, television’s current reigning bantery UST crimesolving duo. Although it’s not for Fillion’s lack of trying (nice use of entendre on the work “debrief”… XD)

And why are they going to film the series in Los Angeles, when it takes place in NYC and there’s all those awesome NY state / NYC tax credits to take advantage of?

For a script that I couldn’t even manage to get through 15 pages of… a rather enjoyable foundation from which a better series could rise. The series, by the way, is set up by the fact that Castle’s next series of novels will center around a tough but savvy female detective, but Castle needs to tag along to do research (and it’s kind of helped along because Castle is friends with the Mayor… so, blah blah, political pressure, swept under the rug, just get on with the series, peeps). I would definitely say that Castle is the first pilot I’ve seen thus far that has so vastly overdelivered on my expectations. Hell, I’m even willing to see if Katic can grow into the role (a role that is a tough one, as the straightwoman… and will on be aided when the series lets us know more about her character, as the pilot was pretty much all Castle all the time).

You know… I’m actually surprised ABC picked both Castle and Cupid up. Not from a quality perspective, mind you. But they’re both NYC-based (though only Cupid will be able to take full advantage of that as it’s going to be NYC-filmed) anthological series with a UST throughline between a larger-than-life leading man and a straightwoman. It’s just that one is a murder mystery each week and the other is a romantic comedy every week. ABC has done stranger things with scheduling, and of course it totally depends on the network’s needs come January or March… but I don’t think they’d be a terrible fit together (though perhaps it’d be too much of the same). For now, I say move Brothers & Sisters to the post-DWTS Results 10pm hour, put Castle after Desperate Housewives and put Cupid after Grey’s Anatomy (I haven’t seen the new Life on Mars yet… but my hopes aren’t high).

– Submitted by: Travis Yanan

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CASTLE HAS BEEN PICKED UP BY ABC AND WILL AIR IN 2009

We’ll have more details soon so please check back. Feel free to discuss this issue on our message board .

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