Tag: Castle

Castle: PHDead (Review)

STANA KATIC, NATHAN FILLION

PHDead follows the two-part season open of Castle with a step back to the show’s earlier formula, after a fashion. Kate is still not at home and Rick is desperately trying to win her back. The move back to its roots  is suggested by Lucy the home operating system in the opening sequence.  Martha (Susan Sullivan) make a welcome return in this episode later as she attempts to help Rick deal with Kate’s leaving.

While the episode itself feels a little redundant, in terms of heading back to the beginning of  the series,  the comedy moments were well done. For example:  Rick excitedly unwrapping the pyramid home operating system which introduces itself as “Lucy” and Castle replying that his wife has left him. The system responds:

“Yikes, sucks to be you Rick.”

Definitely worthy of a chuckle or two, as is the 22 Jump Street gag with Esposito and Ryan, where the suspect pegs them without even looking up from his tablet as “over 40” cops.

Just as funny is the whole Alexis “dressed as a dirty angel” scene in the frat house.  While this was not the whole gag, Beckett showing up to “own” Rick as he is about to lose at beer  pong against Frankenstein’s monster, is the punch line.

While the underlying thread of season eight is Beckett’s continued partnership with analyst Vikram Singh (Sunkrish Bala) as they try to smoke out the dirty CIA operative,  the other side of the Caskett coin is Rick’s misinterpretation of his wife’s decision to move out of the marital home.   

There is also the usual odd-ball murder to be solved and in this case a university student  is murdered while dressed as a convict. After discovering that the man is not an escapee from the local prison, they believe that the orange jumpsuit is a costume. As Kate says  “in university” Halloween is a month long event.

Ryan and Esposito and Rick all head to Hudson U to question suspects and classmates of the murdered student.  Castle “buys” his way on to the faculty and Kate orders Ryan and Esposito not to work with him.  Cue the 22 Jump Street approach as they try to unobtrusively question the main suspect.

As the show continues, Rick and Alexis discover a BDSM den that the dead student used with his lover.  However,  before they find the “50 Shades” lair, Castle’s P.I. partner goes undercover to question the suspect that Ryan and Avi strike out on.  She learns that he did not kill the victim and where the dead man’s “love nest” is.

Later Alexis heads to a frat house party, dressed as  (as Avi  puts it) a dirty angel,  and Rick goes in after being wound up by his two friends.  They learn about Peter’s faculty girlfriend; a Dr. Lillstrom who is head of the psych department.  Alexis and Rick head to where Lillstrom’s phone was last triangulated and they discover that the department head is conducting an illegal prison study funded by the military.

After the usual Castle-style investigations and hunches, which has Rick placing Lillstrom in cuffs and under citizen’s arrest, the real culprit is caught. The dean, who welcomed Rick with open arms as a guest lecturer was having an affair with the late Peter who was murdered by one of the other prisoners in Lillstrom’s Army funded study.

At the end of the episode, Kate hardens her resolve to keep searching, even after her informant “Michael Smith” tells her, firstly how to track the CIA operative and then finishes by saying that this will get her killed.  Rick is still confused about just why Kate has left and is still trying to “win” her back.

Perhaps the best bit of the season so far is the increased presence of Molly C. Quinn as Alexis. The grown-up daughter teaming up with her dad is funny and the two have an excellent father-daughter chemistry (These performers have always come across brilliantly as the immature dad with the parent kid.) which comes over as cute and touching.

One note of complaint is that it feels as though the show’s new runner has opted to make Vikram a “Rick Castle clone” in terms of “manliness” issues. In other words, the chap being overpowered by the stronger Kate, check out the punching bag scene and see if, in your head, you can’t see Rick in Singh’s part.

MOLLY QUINN, BRETT WYMAN, NATHAN FILLION
Alexis, Frankenstein’s monster and Rick

Still, the season is just starting and the whole thing may work out fine.  The question is whether the recipe of more Alexis and less Kate (and Martha) will please long term fans. Castle airs Mondays on ABC and is still addictive viewing for fans of Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. Tune in and enjoy.

Castle Season 8 Two Part Premiere (Review)

Stana Katic

Right off the bat, it needs to be clear that Castle is an all time favorite, the characters, the actors and the storyline (the basic one, Rick and Kate) all feel like family. Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Molly C. Quinn, Susan Sullivan, Jon Huertas, Seamus Deaver and Tamala Jones all feel like close relatives that we cannot wait to catch up with in each new episode.

It was therefore a little disappointing to see that Team Casket opted for a season opener where someone, this time Kate, goes missing. Granted, the feeling of deja vu all over again (as the late Yogi Berra used to say) does not last quite so long and Captain Beckett knows where she is but Rick did not. The other difference is that, as pointed out in part two, Kate is only gone for 36 hours and not eight weeks (in Castle time).

In many ways this was  a pretty excellent season eight open. Regardless of the “OMG one of them is missing” staleness, the show moves well. Plenty of shooting, with a couple of cheats. (Really guys?? The shootout at the theater is behind closed doors with just the sounds of gunfire? Really??) Still, the gun device in the desk gag along with Esposito and Ryan popping out of that “oh so cool” hidden office space makes up for the cheat  a little.

XX picked up where XY left off. Kate is in a safe house with Vikram and the baddies are headed straight for the two of them.

*Sidenote* Having missed last week’s season opener and those spiders (which rather interestingly seems to be theme on television this week with Gotham having a threat of “spider on face in a box” as well. What happened when these scripts were being written? Did someone in the writer’s bullpen watch repeats of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here?) that Rick endured since he had no idea where Beckett was.  It was surprising to get a lot of flashbacks this week. Overall the “what Kate got up to”  scenes had a sort of  Resident Evil 4 feel to it. For those who do not get this reference, play the game, or at least read up about it. all will become clear.

Jack Coleman was back at that nasty bit of work Senator Bracken, but not for too long. Bracken gets to snarl at Rick and freak out when he talks to Kate about “LokSat.” The disgraced politician ends up very dead in isolation to be discovered by Rick and co later in the second half of the two part premiere.

The two parter featured a storyline that had Kate’s life threatened because of Bracken and and Beckett’s temporary posting to the Attorney General’s office a couple of years back.  The suspense was nicely done  but there were so many red herrings and suspects on offer that they all began to feel like rabbits being pulled out of a hopped up magician’s hat.

Annoyingly, Kate is “saved” by Jackson Hunt’s wife, aka Rick’s stepmother. A heretofore unknown family member. Apparently James Brolin was not available to play Castle’s dad; the super-spook and CIA agent who dropped by in 2013 and 2014. Coyly, the show’s producers have opted to keep the actresses name off of IMDb who played “Mrs. Hunt.”

Toks Olagundoye
Olagundoye as Hayley

The stunning, and very capable,  actress Toks Olagundoye was back as Hayley Vargas, the security expert who aided Rick in the first half of the two part open. It has to be said, if Stana Katic is to be “apart” from her new husband for any length of time, it would be very nice if Olagundoye became a more permanent part of “Team Castle.”  She and Castle, as well as Molly C. Quinn as Alexis, have great chemistry.  Although it is doubtful that Kate will be gone for too long.

However…

The second half of the show went to great lengths to show how both Kate and Rick think alike and work as a team, even when they are apart. Is this a hint? Are the two going to have separate storylines this season?  Or…Will they break up over this. Nathan Fillion as Rick,  looked pretty angry at Kate’s decision to leave…

Leaving the plot questions alone for a moment, it was nice to see Susan Sullivan back this week as Rick’s mother Martha.  Granted, Susan was only there for a moment, but Castle without Mother Castle is like Castle without Alexis. It just feels a little…less.

It is unclear as to whether this “a woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do” plot device is merely a feint or if someone thought this would create enough conflict to keep things interesting.  A word of warning to the producers, these two are platinum together, keeping them apart is not a good thing for fans.

Castle is so much more than creating tension between the two main characters. The writers manage to allow each episode to shine with clever dialogue and moments that stand out.

Example:

Near the show’s end, Kate is forced to lay on the ground by her “assassin” (the chap who put a bag of spiders over Rick’s head last week). As the frustrated killer points his gun at Kate, he says, “Lady, I have never worked so hard to kill anyone in my entire life.” The man’s frustration is written all over his face.

This whole scene in Rick’s new office  makes the entire second half of the two parter.  Esposito and Ryan save the day by popping the would be killer with tasers and there is moment for a very short comic interlude before Hayley shows up with another assassin in tow.

Cue that ultra-cool moment where Rick’s new toy, the spring loaded gun device in his desk, saves the day.  These are the moments that define Castle, like his childish delight at how great the secret room turned out in last week’s episode for example.  Just like the increased comfort and interaction between Kate and Rick. (The fetching line at the beginning of XX for instance.)

STANA KATIC, NATHAN FILLION, JON HUERTAS, SEAMUS DEVER
The gangs all here, but not for long…

As the end credits roll, Kate is ready to leave complete with clenched jaw and a determined look in her eyes.  There cannot be many fans who were not shocked by this ending. The deja vu feeling of having been here before is annoying.  Let us not go back over old plots and just shuffle the points around to make them seem fresh.

Still, annoying plot devices aside, kudos go  to Fillion who still delivers each week and to Katic for those massive chops. Mad props  to Quinn, who also gives noteworthy performances on cue, and to guest star Toks Olagundoye.  This actress could just become this generation’s Dame Diana Rigg…Just saying.

Castle airs Mondays on ABC. Fans of the successful series will continue to tune in and for those who have not watched before, the new season can be enjoyed, but may be a little confusing  to the newest viewers. A bit of binge viewing may be required. Enjoy.

 

 

Castle Season 7 Finale and Stana Katic’s One Year Contract

Promo still for Castle with Fillion and Katic
So Castle’s season 7 finale was pretty well done in terms of allowing the viewer another little slice of Rick’s childhood and “the reason he became a writer of mysteries.” On the same day that Hollander’s Woods aired it was announced that Season 8 was fait accompli and that Stana Katic had signed a “one year” contract which would enable her to return for at least one more season.

While that little tidbit of news begs the question of just how long will Katic continue to stick with Castle if it keeps being renewed for an indefinite amount of seasons.

The season finale on May 11, had Richard facing a childhood demon, almost literally, Kate being wooed to become a Senator while she waits to see if she makes Captain, and Alexis trying to find her way to her own passion. There is also a thread where the newlywed couple show just how far, they have each other’s back.

In fact, one of the best scenes in the show has Castle’s outstretched hand shoved under the barn door; palm up, wedding ring shining, fingers outstretched. “Kate!” he says and she slaps her service revolver in his waiting paw allowing him to kill the madman who is centimeters from making Mrs. Castle a widow.

Good stuff certainly. The nice thing about the season 7 finale was that it could be watched without worrying about the rest of the season. The brilliant cameo from Lance Reddick (Fringe, Bosch) where he attacks Kate during an “interview” gives a splendid recap of the entire season. Although going back to binge watch is not a bad thing in the Castle-verse.

It is amazing that the show has survived for so long. After the first two seasons the show slowed down and lost a bit of its impetus. Season six picked things up nicely and the beginning of this season saw Rick become persona non gratis at the precinct which put a completely different slant on things. This was, of course, after his vanishing act which was a two part cliff hanger started last season.

Stana Katic continues to look more glamorous in each new season and Nathan Fillion looks to have lost a substantial amount of weight. As the show keeps being renewed it is all too easy to picture an older glam couple who each use a zimmer to chase down suspects and Alexis having the unenviable task of picking out a home for the aging crime-fighting duo.

While Castle may not go on quite that long, it is an alarming thought that all the stars of the show could end up pretty long in the tooth before the network finally decides enough is enough. Until then, the idea of another season will please all existing fans. Although the news that Katic only signed a one year contract seems to indicate that if the show goes on past season 8 it may well do so without “Kate.”

Season eight should be interesting. Rick’s “killing a villain” count has gone up by one, (and it is interesting to note that he pumped the mask wearing nut job with what seemed like the entire clip from Kate’s gun) Martha may be moving out and Alexis may also become a “long distance” regular, since she is searching for her passion. A change of showrunner will obviously keep things moving forward and it remains to be seen where Rick and Kate will be heading in the new season.

Castle: Bad Santa You Cannot Keep a Good Castle Down (Review)

Castle: Bad Santa You Cannot Keep a Good Castle Down (Review)

So this week’s Castle episode, which is apparently a combination mid season finale and Christmas show, ends on a downer but it seems that you cannot keep a good Castle down. This statement could be confusing but if fans of the series hang on to see the previews of the next episode, Rick manages to get around the latest bad news to hit season 7. This latest season has been one of those years where it seems a lot of negative events have plagued the newlyweds, and before their marriage, the engaged couple. Season 6 ended with the possible death of the writer and 7 opened with him missing and Kate fretting and searching.

Castle: Last Action Hero Worship

Castle: Last Action Hero Worship

After last week’s fairly intense episode where Javi’s life was in danger, this week on Castle, was a bit more laid back and Last Action Hero felt that bit more light hearted with Rick suffering from hero worship when he gets to meet his favorite stars from 1980s action films. One of these actors is found murdered at the start of the show and Castle and Kate have to question a whole group of older performers who are working on a film set in New York. The dead man is Lance DeLorca “the star of all the Hard Kill movies.”

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