Tag Archives: tv

Castle – Season 4 (TVR00004)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on by  

OVERVIEW

Building off Season 3, this season really starts to gel in certain areas. Which is odd, because the characters are written so they are NOT gelling…Castle finished off Season 3 with a big pronouncement, and Beckett says she doesn’t remember it. So they are at odds for most of the season. They have their moments, and then they have stumbling blocks. While a lot of Seasons 1-3 were about Castle growing up a little, finding something to care about besides being a playboy writer, this season is about Beckett growing as a person, finding something to care about other than her job.

EPISODES THAT I LIKED

The season has surprising depth in it, including Beckett adjusting to life after being shot (E01) and dealing with a sniper (E09). And they have some solid fun episodes with superheroes (E02), ghosts (E06), hostages (E07), politics (E12), and eager reporters (E19). But even beyond those 7 episodes, they have another 7 that just rock…Beckett and Castle wake up cuffed together, and there’s a tiger in the room next door?  » Read the rest

Castle – Season 3 (TVR00003)

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OVERVIEW

This is the season where Castle hits its stride. Beckett and Castle are in a good place after the first couple of episodes, they’re in their groove, and they’re even making progress on the conspiracy that claimed Beckett’s mother.

EPISODES THAT I LIKED

For me, almost every episode hits the mark this season. Sixteen of the 24 eps, I rate four stars or higher. E01 starts off solid with Castle as a potential suspect, particularly as he’s back in town and not calling. We move on to psychics (E02), steam-punk (E04), extra bodies in coffins (E05), strippers (E07), the X-Files (E09), an actress wanting to be Nikki Heat (E11), magic (E12), terrorist threats (E16 and E17), dead jurors (E19), and Beverly Hills (E22).

But the four stand out episodes are a little bit different. We have the Triple X K killer, with twists and turns galore (E06). Then a ho-hum mystery (a subway lightbulb changer gets killed) but expertly done (E08).  » Read the rest

Castle – Season 2 (TVR00002)

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OVERVIEW

Season 2 starts with Beckett and Castle on the outs, as she’s pissed at him for looking into her mother’s case at the end of season 1. By the end of Season 2, Castle is starting to give up the romantic chase, just as Beckett starts to think she likes the chase.

EPISODES THAT I LIKED

Two episodes rock the season, Sucker Punch (E13) about the Irish mob, hitmen and Beckett’s mother, and A Deadly Game (E24) involving spy games, aka a variation on Gotcha. However, there are nine other episodes that are pretty solid — E05 where Castle might get to write a Bond novel; E08 for an old case of Montgomery’s; E10 where a dead man had two near-wives, or did he; E11 as a brilliant story of a man with amnesia, and the way his life works on the softer side; E12 with a wedding murder and *gasp* the bride is Castle’s ex; E14 with a cool idea of a squatter who stays in empty homes while people are away; E17 and E18 where a serial killer is playing with Nikki Heat and the FBI; and E20 about late night talk shows.  » Read the rest

Castle – Season 1 (TVR00001)

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OVERVIEW

Richard Castle is a successful best-selling author, twice married and twice divorced, living in a spacious Manhattan condo with the single actress mother (Martha) who raised him and a bright teenage daughter (Alexis). He has money, toys, and rotating women, but he’s bored. So bored in fact that he has killed off his best-selling character, Derrick Storm, a rogue prone to danger. Castle’s looking for something new.

Enter Kate Beckett, a strong forceful female homicide detective. The fact that she’s also hot is irrelevant to her, but not to Castle. A serial killer is committing murders and staging them to look like kills from Castle’s books, so Beckett needs to interview him. He’s all play, she’s all business. She doesn’t think that he’s likely involved, but she has to interview him anyway.

Castle is hooked. He convinces the mayor to “let” him work the case as a consultant/advisor, much to Beckett’s dismay, and the game is afoot.  » Read the rest

New TV shows for 2017-18

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Every year, at the start of the TV season, I try to predict the outcome of the new shows. And I post my predictions for what they’re worth, knowing sometimes I go as low as 50% right and 50% wrong! Mostly because I don’t take into account differences between networks and other factors, I just go by quality or basic delivery on a viable show premise.

This year, I tried to improve my predictions with a bit more business model consideration:

In the end though, what I’m really interested in are the new shows. From the lineups, it’s a quirky bunch of shows. Here’s my take on what will make it:

  • ABC: The Good Doctor – Think “House” meets “Rainman”, and while I wouldn’t bet the farm on it’s renewal, it’s an in-house co-production so likely RENEWED;
  • ABC: The Mayor – rapper pulls prank to get noticed, gets elected…normally I would say cancel, but also in-house for ABC with other producers they’re already in bed with, so likely RENEWED;
  • ABC: Marvel’s Inhumans – ABC really wants to be in the superhero game, and this is what they have to work with, so RENEWED;
  • CBS: Young Sheldon – well, duh, it could die a 1000 times and it will likely get renewed just to keep tweaking it until it works, so RENEWED;
  • CBS: S.W.A.T.
  » Read the rest