Castle (2009 - )

Beckett: CIA is a popular choice with you.
Castle: Well yes. Law of averages demands I will eventually be right
So what happens when a network goes to Nathan Fillion and say, hey we got a show where you get to be a writer who's also a detective.  Well of course that be enough to attract his attention. Add the name Rick Castle and costar Stana Katic as Kate Beckett and we have Castle.  Airing March 9, 2009, it follows Rick Castle, a big time mystery writer who just killed off his main character  Derek Storm.  When he gets called in questioning by Beckett, he learns that someone is killing by copying his books.  So of course he helps catch the bad guy and gets the hots for Beckett in the process.  With his connections with the mayor he gets to follow her around for idea's and we get a series. The 3rd season began airing Sept. 20th, 2010. The show is on Monday night at 10pm EST on ABC.

So I had doubts of getting into a new Fillion show, simply because I didn't want another show to end after the 1st season.  I still haven't seen Drive yet, simply because I didn't get a chance to see it while it was on TV, and the internet has failed to provide me with easy access to the show.   So this new one didn't make me jump until it got a second season and then I watched it.  Of course it was great, and it seemed they asked Fillion to just be himself, and also a writer detective.  The show has a basic formula of; opening on Castle doing something funny or doing something with his daughter, a murder, opening credits, then him meeting up with Beckett and solving a murder of the week.  This changes slightly episode to episode.  Like the one that mainly focused on there units cop Javier Esposito.  For a weekly murder/ detective show, it manages to get a good amount of humor into it without making it a comedy.  Overall it's a serious show that deals with a single father trying to keep up with his daughter who will soon be graduating and going off to college, and a murder detective who still has her mother's unsolved murder haunting her, and two people who just won't admit they have feelings for each other no matter what.  Ever week also brings new problems that affects the team in different ways.  Also the character's have a lot of depth to them, reveling there background at a little bit at a time.  It even stands on it's own with what, a million cop/ mystery/ detective  shows out there?  (Insert joke about 50 Law & Order's/ CSI's  here)    Though they do have breaks in the mystery with Castle's books and parties, or time with his daughter and overbearing mother.  The guest star's vary, with a few  reoccurring such as Robert Picardo, and Phil LaMarr.  They even put in real writers like James Patterson to fill Castle's poker games.   The show has a good amount of mysteries, with the real murderers surprising me from time to time.  They also love to drop in references to Fillion's past shows, mainly Firefly (like the time when Castle dressed as Mal for Halloween, leading to his daughter to say "there's no cows in space" or the aiming for his head line).

So with the 3rd season starting and the show seeming to gain a good following, now that fan's realize it might be here for awhile, my fears seem to be misplaced.  The cast is good, story sound, and Fillion aplenty.  I have to say this one's reel good and give it 5 outa 5.  Oh and Alexis, there are cows in space, leave Mal alone.

Castle on ABC