Castle, ABC, Mondays 10pm
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Caution: spoilers.

Well, I wanted to check this out because it stars Nathan Fillion, of whom I'm a fan for various of his work, but most notably Firefly. I wasn't really expecting to like it, but I did. It's kinda quirky, and fairly amusing.

Anyway, Fillion plays a murder mystery writer named Richard "Rick" Castle. His mother, Martha Rodgers (played by Susan Sullivan, best known to me from Dharma & Greg) lives with him, as does his teenage daughter, Alexis. Oh, btw, Castle's second ex-wife, Gina, is also his publisher. So far I only remember- vaguely- seeing her in the first ep. His first ex-wife, Meredith, has also just been in one episode so far. She's a flighty actress who lives in L.A. (It's easy to see Alexis got her looks from Meredith.)

The premise of the first episode is that someone copycats a few murders from Castle's books, so he starts working with the police on the case. Mostly this means Kate Beckett. She's a fan of Castle's books, but doesn't like him, personally. He doesn't take much seriously, it seems, and has a very flirtatious personality. Which of course means he tries to flirt with her, though she doesn't seem at all interested. Or maybe I shouldn't say "at all"... Time will tell, anyway. Um, and there are some other detectives who work with Beckett, Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan. They seem both competent and friendly, and get on well enough with Beckett as well as with Castle (they have a sort of male camaraderie with Castle which may slightly irritate/amuse Beckett, while their relationship with Beckett herself is a mix of friendship and professional respect). There's also a medical examiner named Lanie Parish who provides info on cases, and is friendly with Castle, and thinks Castle and Beckett will eventually get together. We also occasionally see Capt. Roy Montgomery, Beckett's boss.

Anyway, in Castle's latest novel, he'd killed off his main character, Derek Storm, of a long-running detective series. So now, after the copycat killer was caught in the first episode, the premise of Castle continuing to work with the police was that he decided to create a new character, Nikki Heat, based on Beckett. So he'll be sticking around to work with her as "research" for his new books, much to her chagrin. Though the two do become more friendly as the series progresses, she still finds him kind of exasperating, and resists the relationship becoming more than professional. Oh, and there's another plot thread that is touched on occasionally, which is that Beckett's mother's murder, from years ago, had never been solved. She wants to leave that alone, but Castle wants to try to solve the case.

Castle is an amusing enough character to watch, and he does prove helpful in the investigations, though in spite of his insights and knowledge of criminal psychology, he's also not infallible, and can sometimes be shown up by Beckett. Meanwhile, my favorite part of the show is probably Castle's relationship with his daughter and his mother. I especially wish the show had more scenes with Alexis, who is quite smart, witty, charming, and in some ways more mature than her father (or her grandmother, for that matter). And the show has probably the best father-daughter relationship I've seen since Veronica Mars (though it's also kinda like the mother-daughter relationship from Gilmore Girls, with just a hint of Absolutely Fabulous). But throughout the series, the friendship between Castle and Beckett progresses, and it becomes clear that their feelings could go deeper than friendship, in spite of obstacles such as timing (each is usually dating someone else when the other is available), their apparent inability to tell each other how they feel, and perhaps most importantly, the emotional wall Beckett built up after her mother's murder. Nevertheless, the relationship between Castle and Beckett is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the show, for many fans. There are of course any number of reasons the show is fun. The interesting cases, the interesting characters and how they relate to one another, the humor, the sly allusions to Fillion's former "Firefly" role, and of course the fact that Beckett and Alexis are both quite easy on the eyes.

Um... what else? I feel like I should probably mention Beckett started dating a surgeon named Josh in season 2, and they didn't break up til the first episode of season 4. So he was one of the obstacles I mentioned, but for the most part we rarely saw him. And she's dated other guys who I've already forgotten, as has Castle. Meanwhile, Ryan was dating someone nammed Jenny, who mostly we're aware of because of phone calls or him talking about her. Though we do eventually see her, a few times, and they get engaged. They married about halfway into season 4. And Esposito started dating Lanie in season 3, which they thought they were doing in secret, but everyone knew about it. They broke up in season 4, though it seems like they might get back together. And Alexis started dating a boy named Ashley in season 3, but they broke up in season 4. I should also mention that while most episodes are stand-alone stories of the week (which tend to be reasonaly interesting and entertaining, as weekly murder mysteries go), there is the matter of Beckett's mother's murder occasionally providing an overarching mystery for the series (much like the murder of Trudy in the series Monk). At the end of season three, certain aspects of an old conspiracy are revealed, which leads (spoiler) to the death of Captain Montgomery. I'm not going to spoil anything about that conspiracy, however. But after the captain's death, Beckett and the others all thought the matter was over... until at the very end of the season finale, when Beckett was shot by a sniper at Montgomery's funeral.

So, season four opens with Beckett rushed to the hospital and everyone worrying about whether she'd live or die. She did live, and then the show flashes forward a few months to her returning to duty after her period of recovery. She finds there is a new captain in the precinct, Victoria Gates, who is much more "by the book" than Montgomery had been, which means Beckett, Castle, Ryan, and Esposito will have to be more careful about how they handle cases (especially Castle, who Gates doesn't want involved in police business at all). They also can't let her know if they do anything related to investigating the case of Beckett's shooting. And as I said, Beckett broke up with Josh sometime during her recovery period (during which time she didn't talk to Castle or anyone). Also, Beckett talks to a psychiatrist, Dr. Carver Burke, who I think may become a recurring character. Oh, and there's some guy who was a friend of Montgomery's, to whom the captain had sent some documents that he can use to ensure Beckett is safe as long as she doesn't investigate her shooting or her mother's murder any further. He tells this to Castle, who doesn't want Beckett to know about it. He just wants her to leave the case alone for now, though it looks like he'll continue to secretly investigate it himself. No doubt this mystery man will become important later, but I don't expect to see him again for awhile. Meanwhile, the show should mostly go back to its regular weekly cases...