A New Find in the Form of Castle

As a self confessed Joss Whedon fan, I was hugely looking forward to his latest offering - Fox's Dollhouse. I was however, left disappointed with the show, and eventually gave it up all together. The thought to return has occurred to me from time to time, especially after hearing just how much the show improved from midway through onwards, and I have viewed mere minutes of later episodes, which didn't leave me with much of a feeling that this show was worth sticking with. Now, that does sound slightly harsh, but in all fairness, I did give it half of its run, perhaps even a litte more than that. But, I just couldn't get over my initial disappointment that this was actually a show from Joss Whedon. He's a complete genius, and leagues above any other writer on TV. But Dollhouse just didn't sit well with me.

Which brings me to ABC's crime drama Castle. Starring Nathan Fillion, of course from Whedon's axed "space western" Firefly. I turned to Castle after, aside from being a pretty big murder mystery fan, to see just what one of Joss' alumnis was up to. And I liked what I saw. After loving Alyson Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother, eagerly anticipating anything with Sarah Michelle Gellar, relishing Felicia Day's The Guild, loving Tom Lenk's Pepsi add(!) and keeping a close eye on Amber Benson's flourishing career as a novelist, I was hoping to be equally entertained by another recognisable face. But getting back to the actual show for a moment, I was pleasantly surprised by Castle.

Going into it, I expected it to be the usual, run of the mill, US cop show. But it was actually a fun mix of comedy, drama, mystery, and crime. However, what really made the show for me, was Fillion's fun and adventurous turn as bored crime novelist Richard Castle, who is called in by the police, after murders mirroring those in his books being to spring up, to help them in their investigations. He was arrogant but charming, funny and immature but also smart and resoruceful, and it makes for such a refreshing to change to see a crime show which doesn't take itself so seriously! Apart from perhaps Psych and Monk, I can't really think of any other crime drams on TV which take a more light-hearted approach, and isn't made up of people walking around for forty minutes, in suits, testing DNA. As we all know, crime is a serious matter, but this is TV, we want an escape every now and then, and Castle makes for perfect escapist TV and more. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the more serious TV from time to time, and when with a slightly different angle, the crime show genre can be successful. Medium, for one springs to mind as an example which does something different to other crime shows.

Now, I have no idea how well it will fair post-pilot. Of course I understand it to be fairly formulaic, but I hope (and expect) as with Psych, the lead will really own the show. I hope to watch the second episode soon, but for now, Castle's pilot gets two thumbs up from me.

And sorry for the sligh anto-Dollhouse ramble at the start! Hopefully, I will get around to watching those final episodes soon, and maybe my opinion will change?