BLOGS
Castle ended last season with some pretty awesome twists: the beloved Captain who always seemed like a straight arrow was involved in a major corruption ring and then sacrificed himself in order to save Kate's life. But at his funeral, a sniper shot Kate and Castle tried to get her out the way, but was too late. So he professed his love instead. For a show that usually consists of light-hearted banter with some grisly cases, this was pretty heavy stuff. So I had high expectations of the premiere... and they weren't exactly met.
The series seems to have gone further down the dark alley that it went into last season, forgetting that it needs to balance that out with humor. Instead, we saw Kate nearly dead (though, obviously, they were never actually going to kill off the lead of the show) on the operating table and then pushing Castle away, claiming that she didn't remember anything about the shooting (naturally, she lied, as we later find out during her therapy session). When she goes back to work three months later, Castle's left the building because the new Captain (Penny Johnson Jerald) is no-nonsense and has little tolerance for his quirky ways. But he's still helping Ryan and Esposito track down the shooter (and, subsequently, the person/people responsible for her mother's death). But Kate came back to the job miserable and uninterested in really doing her job or in responding to authority. She also broke up with her doctor boyfriend because she has a wall that has magically appeared, but is tied to the death of her mother from years ago.
Meanwhile, Castle is all depressed about the fact that the woman he loves is completely ignoring him. His scenes are mostly filled with his daughter suddenly hating that he works with the cops, his typically self-involved mother being more of a sounding board than anything and a mystery caller threatening Kate's safety unless the investigation is dropped. So Castle tries to dissuade her and tells her to focus on actual current cases. Finally, more than 45 minutes into the episode, she does that and solves a murder that no one else was able to crack. It almost seemed like old times.
When they lock up the bad guy, Castle asks if her it was enough and she responds "It's enough for now." It's the same response he gave Alexis when she asked if working with and protecting Kate makes him happy. But really, this show shouldn't be about two miserable people just making due. I'm okay with it for an episode or two, but I hope they get back to the easy way between them during the course of this season. Given that the trailers for next week involve a murderous superhero, there's some hope of that, but at the same time, in light of that image of Castle ignoring warnings and still investigating who shot Kate, it also seems like more jovial times may be short-lived.
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That seems a bit unfair. For one, Alexis's reluctance to have her father involved both makes sense given she just saw someone shot in front of her, making the danger much more real, and underscoring her discomfort that was manifest earlier in season three (after Castle nearly died in the freezer container).
Likewise, Martha has long been the sounding board where he gets advice he acts on - she's the one who told him at the end of season one that he had to tell Kate what he learned about her Johanna having been intentionally murdered.
Beckett also wasn't the one who solved the case last night - that honour went to Ryan, who kept wondering why the boyfriend stayed in the apartment six hours after shooting his girlfriend. He's also the one who found the fingerprints that ended up implicating the other band member.
It's completely fair to have critiques of the show, and the darker tone certainly - from the commentary in the TWoP forums alone - alienates some viewers. (And it would have been very odd to have the dark and somber tone of the season finale flipped to something chipper in the season four open, so it was tonally consistent.) That said, if you're going to critique a show, make sure you're critiquing using fair - and accurate - points.
I have to agree with Rocza about the comments pertaining to the lack of humor in the episode. I think if you have been watching the show throughout the change in tone is a real part of the story. Marlowe's writing is true to the characters' development and the story being told. I wouldn't have appreciated a story making jokes about a woman's mother being murdered or nearly dying. That's what makes Castle so cool. It has several aspects to it and isn't locked into a particular formulaic tone. Being that the premiere pulled over 14 million viewers - higher than the finale even and more than that Hawaii cop show - I'd say that the staying true to the story is appreciated over been funny for the sake of being funny. It's great to see characters allowed to grow and change in a way that's believable within the story. There are plenty of shows out there that play for laughs - and abandon the story and characters in the process. Thank God, Castle isn't one of them - at least thus far. I'm hoping they are putting more stock in the numbers and fan reactions, and not into reviews that seem annoyed that the show has jumped out of the little box it was put into.
I have to agree with Rocza about the comments pertaining to the lack of humor in the episode. I think if you have been watching the show throughout the change in tone is a real part of the story. Marlowe's writing is true to the characters' development and the story being told. I wouldn't have appreciated a story making jokes about a woman's mother being murdered or nearly dying. That's what makes Castle so cool. It has several aspects to it and isn't locked into a particular formulaic tone. Being that the premiere pulled over 14 million viewers - higher than the finale even and more than that Hawaii cop show - I'd say that the staying true to the story is appreciated over been funny for the sake of being funny. It's great to see characters allowed to grow and change in a way that's believable within the story. There are plenty of shows out there that play for laughs - and abandon the story and characters in the process. Thank God, Castle isn't one of them - at least thus far. I'm hoping they are putting more stock in the numbers and fan reactions, and not into reviews that seem annoyed that the show has jumped out of the little box it was put into.
I have to agree with Rocza about the comments pertaining to the lack of humor in the episode. I think if you have been watching the show throughout the change in tone is a real part of the story. Marlowe's writing is true to the characters' development and the story being told. I wouldn't have appreciated a story making jokes about a woman's mother being murdered or nearly dying. That's what makes Castle so cool. It has several aspects to it and isn't locked into a particular formulaic tone. Being that the premiere pulled over 14 million viewers - higher than the finale even and more than that Hawaii cop show - I'd say that the staying true to the story is appreciated over been funny for the sake of being funny. It's great to see characters allowed to grow and change in a way that's believable within the story. There are plenty of shows out there that play for laughs - and abandon the story and characters in the process. Thank God, Castle isn't one of them - at least thus far. I'm hoping they are putting more stock in the numbers and fan reactions, and not into reviews that seem annoyed that the show has jumped out of the little box it was put into.
It was a boring, horrible episode.
I thought the episode was a good one. It's ok to be a little bit dark every now and again. Being shot because of investigating your mothers unsolved murder needs to be dark.
That being said, I'll be glad to see the lighter Castle come back! Next weeks episode looked great!
@ CC - EXACTLY! I think comedy OR drama all the time makes for tedious storytelling. It's like having the same thing for dinner every night - it gets dull. A meal can be GOOD, even if it's not the favorite dish you had yesterday.
(PS - I don't know why my earlier comment posted three times. I hope this one doesn't. )
Yeah, like others I wouldn't want Castle dark all the time, since the humour is a large part of its appeal, but for the season opener, I would have been offended, both as an intelligent viewer and as a fan of Kate, if they'd been glib about her shooting.
Yeah, like others I wouldn't want Castle dark all the time, since the humour is a large part of its appeal, but for the season opener, I would have been offended, both as an intelligent viewer and as a fan of Kate, if they'd been glib about her shooting.
I agree that this episode had to be relatively dark. In tone, anyway. What was with the dark lighting? I hope they wrap up her mother's murder soon. It's too depressing a storyline to be hanging over the series forever, and I think having the main character perpetually in danger of being killed brings a darkness to the show that's far from the dramedy show that I became hooked on.
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If you're still on the fence: grab your favorite earphones, head down to a Best Buy and ask to plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which one sounds better to you, and which interface makes you smile more. Then you'll know which is right for you.
The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod's. It works well, but isn't as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that's not an issue, but if you're planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod's larger screen and better browser may be important.