The thing about T.V. nowadays is that everybody tries to be different. Everybody wants the next big thing. When I was a kid most television was so formulaic that sometimes the only way to tell the difference between them was the actor, character, or location, not much originality. In dramas, there was a crime, a criminal, and a resolution. In comedy, there was uncomfortable or misinterpreted situation that was always resolved by the last laugh. The emergence of cable has forced many producers to take every idea above and beyond. Shows like Lost, 24, The Shield, The Sopranos, and Battlestar Galactica reinterpreted what television can be, but it is nice to get back to that old formula every once and while. The show that brings me back to what I consider to be my golden age of television (late 70’s, early 80’s) is Castle.
The premise is simple. Rick Castle is a crime novelist that gets to ride around with the NYPD as they solve murders so that he can do research for his next series of novels. Nathan Fillion plays his role perfectly and is a whole lot of fun. He is an enjoyable man child that is great on screen, and his chemistry with his partner in crime is even better. Stana Katic plays Detective Kate Beckett, and is the perfect straight woman to his sarcastic attitude and adolescent like joy with each case they solve.
Castle is down-to-earth TV like most of fun shows that were on before the nineties. Shows like Riptide, The Rockford Files, Jake and the Fatman, Starsky and Hutch, Hunter, and so many more kept it simple, yet still brought the fans back for more. It just goes to show that you don’t have to have a series long mystery to make riveting television, or keep the viewers coming back. You can watch any one of the stand alone episodes of Castle to hit the ground running with the rest of the fans.
Last night’s episode was the season finale, but it is completely worth discovering some of the past episodes online, and then you can be just as excited for the third season Castle as I am. It’s just some good fun T.V……simple.
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