Brief Castle Review

3/10/09 10:49 PM Buffy , Castle , No Disintegrations , reviews , TV 0 Comments

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I DVR'd Castle last night and finally watched it tonight. I wasn't show how this new procedural would fair, especially since it's on ABC (which I haven't watched a show on for many, many years). The premise is that a mystery writer is questioned about his books and fan mail after two murders are committed that replicate murders that take place in his novels. It definitely sounded like a one show deal or a Murder She Wrote remake from that description.



The show stars Nathan Fillion as Rick Castle (the titular author) and Stana Katic as Kate Beckett (the strong female detective). Both characters were decently fleshed out in the series premiere, which is always a good sign. The actual crime and clues that served as the plot were okay. Mystery fans would find it a little predictable, while some might have been surprised at the few twists in plot. The first episode was definitely character-driven, and I was impressed at the snappy dialogue.

Fillion's character is very similar to his previous roles as Captain Hammer (Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog), Bill Pardy (Slither), Mal Reynolds (Firefly), and even Caleb on Buffy season 7. He's smarmy, arrogant, and womanizing, but also surprisingly observant and has very interesting relationship dynamics with his daughter and his mother. Katic's character is similar to Starbuck (BSG), but only in terms of inner strength and wit, and can also be very conservative and a touch obsessive. She's also a closet Castle fan.

Overall, I was very impressed by the pilot and will tune in for at least a few more episodes to see which way this show is going. I liked its pilot better than the Dollhouse pilot (which I am currently hoping is just due to network interference). So far, it looks like they are naming the episodes after Castle's book titles which could get interesting if the series get picked up for another season.

So take a chance and tune in on Saturday, March 14 at 10:00 pm on ABC to see the pilot when it's aired again, or skip ahead to the next new episode on Monday, March 16 at 10:02 pm on ABC.