television show review: castle

Castle  (2009)

Currently in Season 5 on ABC

Creator:  Andrew W. Marlowe

Starring: Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog), Stana Katic, Molly C. Quinn

Synopsis, found here:

After a serial killer imitates the plots of his novels, successful mystery novelist Richard "Rick" Castle gets permission from the Mayor of New York City to tag along with an NYPD homicide investigation team for research purposes. A "guy's guy", he proves popular with the male team members, but immediately offends the sensibilities of the team leader, Detective Kate Beckett. Though she'll never admit it, he slowly wins her over with his innovative approach to crime solving. He brings to the table skills the others don't have: contacts in Manhattan high society, free-form creative thinking, and years of developing believable fictional characters that have inadvertently molded him into a natural criminal profiler. But life is not all crime fighting adventure for this wealthy playboy: his relationship with Beckett becomes even more strained when he unveils a new series of detective novels featuring a racy character based on her, and his home life is dominated by his mother (a fading Broadway diva) and his whip-smart teen-aged daughter.

I've never been a fan of "cop shows". Actually, "never been a fan" is a euphemism for sneering disgust. It isn't pretty.  I admit I gave Castle a shot only because 1.) my husband was begging me (don't TELL me I never do anything for you!), and 2.) Nathan Fillion was in it. Since I loved Nathan in Firefly by Joss Whedon, and loved to hate him in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, also by Joss Whedon, giving Castle a small chance to impress me didn't exactly cause a brain rupture... despite my over-exaggerated, exasperated sigh as I reluctantly plopped myself down. But I was already hooked by the end of episode one. 



The story is great, the plot pacing is perfect, and the characters are really fun. While I still find the character of Beckett one-dimensional (she's all about the job, even in Season 5), Castle's life and the story are fleshed out and entertaining enough that I can shrug it off. More importantly, this is a "cop show" that, as a modern woman of reasonable self-respect, I can watch without being overcome with rage and bitterness about the way women are treated, talked about or acting. They managed to make a cop show with a convincingly tough female homicide detective as the ranking officer, without making it dirty, disgusting, sexist and all the other shitty things I have come to expect from "cop shows". What a relief.

I find that Nathan's character, Richard Castle, has the earnestness of his character Mal in Firefly, and the ego of his character Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible.It's an interesting mixture. I've also found that the producers of Castle aren't shy about milking Nathan's past successes with Joss Whedon in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion. I've laughed out loud at a couple of their ploys.

And to crown it all, I just found and downloaded the mystery novel by Richard Castle from my library. The whole mystery series by this fictional writer is available at my local library. I read the first one, Heat Wave, and despite not being a big mystery novel fan, I enjoyed it quite a bit. And not just because of the "thank you" from the "author" at the end of the book, written from Richard Castle's perspective. It was full of hilarious takes off the TV series. Well done.

carnivàle (drama review)

I didn't get a chance to watch the HBO series Carnivàle in 2003 when it came out, but I recently got my hands on a copy of this series, and let me tell you... I loved it.

Debut poster

From IMDb:

1934, America. The Dustbowl. A fugitive named Ben Hawkins finds refuge within a traveling carnival comprised of a tarot card reader and her catatonic/ telekinetic mother, a blind mentalist, a bearded lady, and conjoined twins, amongst others. The carnival is owned by the mysterious and unseen Management, who has designs on the young Hawkins, for the boy is concealing an untapped gift: he can heal the lame and raise the dead--at a price. Ben also finds himself disturbed by cryptic and prophetic dreams, which he shares with a Methodist preacher in California, Brother Justin Crowe. Brother Justin, convinced by his dreams he is following God's will, has begun to practice his own extraordinary talents, although the preacher's plans increasingly lead to disturbing and tragic consequences. In this "last great age of magic," Ben Hawkins and Justin Crowe are moving toward a great conflict between Good and Evil, although it not yet clear on which sides these men will stand.

Imagine:  a Depression-era fantasy told through a bunch of "carnies" in a traveling carnival. When I read that description, I went on a hunt to get my hands on a copy.

It was dark and bitter and slow. And it ended somewhat abruptly at the end of the second season. But it was a fantastic ride. Hauntingly beautiful, but soul-sucking and grinding at the same time.

Nick Stahl as "Ben Hawkins", and
Michael J. Anderson as "Samson"

Jonesy & the mother-daughter cootch show, Rita Sue and Libby

Lila, the Bearded Lady and Ruthie, the snake charmer

The characters were both fantastic yet real; hard times called for hard decisions and it was impossible to point out a single character and say "that's one of the good guys."

Libby & Sofie

Sofie acted as interpreter for her catatonic fortune teller mother

Iris, sister of Brother Justin

 The atmosphere of the show, spine-cinching dread mingled with Depression-era decor and 1930's music piped through a phonograph, is one I feel like I'll miss forever, now that I've had a taste. Awesomely envisioned by Daniel Knauf.

Iris and her Brother Justin

 Trailer for first season: