Castle

[seriousfic]

Okay, is it just me, or are they cribbing rather a lot of notes from Life? You remember, Life, Charlie Crews, Dani Reese? Backstory with corrupt cops, obsessed detective hero(ine), wacky banter, and now a supporting cast member who was in on it all along despite being a mentor to the heroine. And it's a safe bet that the "mystery man" is that crime lord from one of those arc episodes a while back, the one who seemed really suave and badass and then he just walked away all "I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again." Can we just call him the black Garrett Dillahunt so I don't have to look up his name?

Nothing against Castle, but it goes down a little hard when Life was so ignominiously canceled. It makes me look at Castle a little like the generic version of Life's name-brand. Charlie Crews is kinda morally gray and weird and he's got the Zen thing and he doesn't always do things you like, while Castle is just wacky and he has the perfect life and his daughter is awesome and the ladies love him. Technically, you could argue that Charlie has as many Gary Sty qualities, but he had more issues so it didn't seem like the world was his playground so much. Maybe there's more escapism in a world-famous rock star novelist who has all his books made into movies where the lead actresses try to sleep with him, and maybe the public wants escapism instead of a wrongfully-accused cop still smarting from prison, but it's still not a favorable comparison.

Gone is the novelistic storyline, the complex characters, the complicated relationships, and in its place is a tried-and-true formula, the Moonlighting thing. Don't get me wrong, it works, but does anyone really think Beckett is dead? Life is the kinda show that would've killed her off, because that's just how it rolls.

Although to its credit, Castle's never done an episode where the team has to play Prince of Persia to expose a drug dealer, and the day is saved because girls play video games.

Comments

Is this one of your zen things?

[nonky.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I knew I was liking Castle a lot this season, but I didn't realize it was on the back of a much better, braver, slightly more gingerly show! Now I'm kind of pissed.

For what it's worth, I do agree that Castle is a much safer program and I don't see it making any bold moves. Life was bold from the beginning premise of an exonerated cop who'd lived more years in prison than in his job. It created a deep impression of unfairness and injustice in the world, which the characters took with them every episode. The leads weren't so fond of each other and initially got along like two door-stops trying to cooperate. Dani was Persian and girl! Charlie had red hair and didn't even TRY to hide it! Neither of them was Christian! They somehow neglected to fall in love like good partners do!

Honestly, the problem people had with that show was that Charlie Crews was innocent and wanted compensation for it. At a certain point it makes more sense for a society to pave over the mistakes and build a new Sunglass Hut on top. Not only did Charlie get repeatedly raped and beaten, survive, get exonerated, take a compensatory offer that can only have been a jackpot - he also wanted to go back to work and win his wife back. He wanted revenge and to see the real bad guys be put away.

In tv society, he could have taken the money and shut up, or he could have proudly snubbed the money and gone back to work like a regular Joe. The fact that he wanted money, career, wife, family and revenge was too greedy. Because he showed himself a sane, logical, compassionate human being, being rich should have solved his dozen years of being utterly hopeless.

Let me sum up; video games have never been the most important clue on Castle, but they claim detective cred for the writer by his typewriter skillZ? Even though he's barely been shown using a typewriter and is younger than 40? I miss Life and I feel like this is crap.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

So why hasn't this show been nominated for a serious Emmy yet? Because every single one of the five main characters should be getting something for their performances in this episode. That scene with Ryan and Esposito in the alley was incredible.

Oh, wait, it's because you don't get Emmy nods unless you're some highfalutin drama with an unusual premise. No shows which people actually have fun watching, under any circumstances, unless it's Modern Family.

Not that MF isn't good, but I still wonder if it would get nominated if it didn't have gay dudes in it.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

>You remember, Life, Charlie Crews, Dani Reese? Backstory with corrupt cops, obsessed detective hero(ine), wacky banter, and now a supporting cast member who was in on it all along despite being a mentor to the heroine.

It's not like any of those are particularly original. When Law and Order--all three of them--have had the same elements at some time or another, you're on a well-worn road. Criminal Intent actually had corrupt ex-cops who were now high-school security guards, and they made it work. Barely.

>Castle's never done an episode where the team has to play Prince of Persia to expose a drug dealer, and the day is saved because girls play video games.

I can just imagine some intern weeping bitter tears as he's forced to modify the game to make it more palatable to the viewing public.

Not to mention that it was the most inconvenient method of getting at the files, ever. Just put a partition on the disc that can only be accessed if someone runs a network cord from the XBox's network jack to a computer. Or just have the hacker guy manually get it off the drive. Or hide a flash drive in a hidden compartment in the XBox case. Or use Google Docs. I suspect that portion of the ep was written by people who didn't understand games, but did understand that they had 20 minutes of airtime left.