Castle

Channel: Seven
Day and time*: Sunday 9:30pm

(*as at July 2009)

To catch a crim

Remember the old days? Those halcyon times when the cops actually solved crimes by themselves, without the need for a raft of consultants and assorted hangers-on? Yes, it seems like quite some time ago doesn't it - at least in TV land. I wonder if today's teenagers were made to watch a show like Hill Street Blues whether they'd even understand what was going on.

You see, in the currrent milieu of television police shows, the cops are apparently entirely incapable of doing their job without the assistance of an external character. This external person may be a psychic (Medium), a body language analyst (Lie to Me) or even someone who's just perceptive (The Mentalist). Castle however takes the notion to a rather ludicrous new level by pairing a cop with a crime writer.

I'm sure police officers around the world are rolling their eyes at the mere suggestion that a fiction author could be an effective weapon in the war on crime; but this is television, so anything's possible. The thing about Castle though is once you get past the rather far-fetched scenario, it's a pretty entertaining show.

Castle is actually the surname of Richard "Rick" Castle (Nathan Fillion), a successful crime writer. In the pilot, Rick is at the height of his success but has run into something of a brick wall - he's killed off his most popular character in his last book. The combination of his popularity and the "loss" of the character has set Castle into a kind of writing funk, unable to get going on any new work. As luck would have it, someone has decided to start killing people in the same manner as that used in Castle's books. That injects the writer into the real-life murder investigation led by the tough Det. Kate Beckett (Stana Katic). And before you can say "contract consultant", Castle is helping out with all manner of crimes - and getting the creative juices flowing again.

The show bears more than a passing resemblance to Seven's Bones, the show that precedes it in the Sunday night line-up. Certainly, it seems to utilise the same kind of sexual tension that is a hallmark of Bones; although the gender roles are reversed (here the female is the cop). Still it trades on the tough-woman-sparks-off-handsome-but-slightly-goofy-guy thing from Bones. There's also a sub-plot involving Castle's role as single dad to a teenage daughter Alexis (Molly C. Quinn).

Nathan Fillion is probably best known for his roles in shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. Here he strays from the supernatural to give a muscular performance as the title character. He's well matched with the stunning Stana Katic who exudes a cool steely determination as Beckett.As I mentioned, the show is built on the sexual tension between the two leads and the actors do a good job of it. With the focus very much on Fillion and Katic, the other actors get little opportunity; although Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Molly C. Quinn put in decent efforts to be noticed.

Castle may take some getting used to. This is one of those cop shows that's more about the characters than the crime. If you can get over the central idea - which, let's face it, is pretty silly - there's a lot to enjoy here.

Phil James

Send us your feedback on this review