1.03 Hedge Fund Homeboys

Summary and spoilers

Donny, a rich private school senior, is found dead in a park rowboat. Richard and Kate, now working more as a synchronous team, discover quickly that Donny’s parent’s recently had an economic downturn that ostracized Donny from his circle of friends and pushed him toward using and dealing drugs. Initially, his circle claims that Donny is the only drug user, but other witnesses prove that Donny was shot and killed in the park and his friends were witnesses. But were they more than witnesses? Each time more information is unearthed, the circle modifies their story, and each time, they become increasingly implicated in the crime.

Comments

I like the murder mystery elements used in Castle – like Richard deciphering that Donny’s family recently moved by noticing the out of place oversized oriental screen in their current apartment.

The father/daughter relationship between Richard and Alexis, although undeniably stagey, is also kind of sweet (and would be sweeter if the show’s director and editor would PLEASE tone down the overbearing background music).

The weakest link in successfully creating and then solving a murder mystery within the time constraints of a 42 minute television episode is structuring how to find incriminating evidence and then get the guilty party to confess. Considering how ‘light’ Castle is trying to be, a commendable job is done here of using actual points of law to gain a supposedly binding confession from the murderer.

Quotable Quotes

Richard: Morning, mother. You’re dressed early.
Martha: I have class -
Richard: I believe that’s a matter of some debate.
Martha: - at the New School – funny man.

Alexis: Trying to figure out how to murder someone in their sleep again?
Richard: Not this time. Do you know when you were little, I used to watch you sleep every night before I went to bed – just for a few minutes. It was ridiculous how adorable you were. Who’d a thought all these years later you’re still adorable.

"You know, actually having to prove things is really tedious."
- Richard

1.02 Nanny McDead

Summary and spoilers

An apartment building nanny named Sarah is found dead in the basement clothes dryer of the building where she worked. With no standout suspects, Richard directs the police to investigate her neighbors. A late-night autopsy reveals that the victim had sex – most likely consensually with someone she knew – not long before she was murdered. Sarah broke up with her boyfriend about a month before the murder, and phone messages indicate he was quite angry about that, but he also has a water-tight alibi.

Sarah’s girlfriend reveals another possible suspect: it appears Sarah was having an affair with Mr. Peterson, the (married) father of the boy she was nannying. But this is a red herring; Peterson was having an affair, but not with Sarah – with a woman from his office – that’s why Sarah had to stay late on the nights he was supposed to be home.

Eventually, Kate and Richard solve the case, and Kate shows, with her sensitive negotiation skills, that she’s more than just your average detective.

Comments

The first moments of each television episode are extremely important for luring viewers into the show before they turn away (especially when the show doing the leading is the highly rated Dancing With the Stars, as is the case here). Castle has a slick opening segment: a fly-through from an upper floor to the basement of an apartment building, where a bloody body slowly comes to rest as seen through the glass door of a front-loading dryer.

My first thought about the mystery was: it’s the boy – he was close to the nanny, and, in true TV fashion, they show the boy early on, so as to supposedly fool us longer. I won’t say anything else about it, but let’s just say I’m pleased.

Detective Beckett is finding out that Richard Castle is more than just a flirtatious, extroverted, misogynistic braggart – he’s also a loving, caring, single dad. Go figure. On that subject, the episode ends with Richard reflecting back on the early days of his life as a father, when he cared for Alexis as a little girl. It really is quite touching.

It looks like the characters are already feeling much more comfortable with each other – in particular, the relationship between Richard and Martha (his mother) no longer feels showy as it did in episode one – there’s some depth of feeling there, and a more natural way of playing off each other.

Memorable Moments

• Richard revealing Sarah’s boyfriend by surreptitiously dialing her missing mobile phone while in the guy’s apartment

Quotable Quotes

Police rep: Mr. Castle, be advised: if you get injured following Detective Beckett to research your next novel, you cannot sue the city. If you get shot, you cannot sue the city. If you get killed -
Richard: …my lifeless remains cannot sue the city?

Kate: Mrs. Peterson? Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about Sarah Manning.
Mrs. Peterson: Of course – please come in.
Kate: Thank you.
Richard: Richard Castle – just…N.Y.

Martha: I did an NYPD Blue once, remember.
Alexis: You were the crazy homeless woman.
Richard: And some might say still are.

"Don’t leave town?"
- Richard, trying his hand at giving the standard police proviso

Beckett: We’re running a test on the condoms we found in your medicine cabinet.
Richard: Whoa! There’s somethin’ you never want to hear.

1.01 Flowers For Your Grave

Summary and spoilers

Richard Castle is a successful and popular mystery writer, and a recent playboy, having just divorced his stunning literary agent / ex-wife Gina. His newest book is selling wildly, but he is not without his troubles. He is weeks behind on his next book, and his ex has heard rumors that he hasn’t written anything in months. What’s worse, he is about to get involved in a real-life murder mystery – a copycat killer has murdered a young woman and left the body in the same state as in Castle’s book Flowers For Your Grave.

Castle’s wisecracking free-wheeling approach to life is in direct contrast to the female detective he is paired with: Kate Beckett, a no-nonsense, hard-nosed woman – beautiful but almost anorexic; a hard exterior but with a troubled past that Castle expertly reveals. He may be a politically incorrect womanizer, but he knows people, and he knows murder. With his help, Beckett tracks down the killer, but it all seems too easy to both Beckett and Castle, and soon, they are back on the trail of the real culprit.

Comments

Series creator Andrew W. Marlowe is listed in IMDB as the writer of End of Days. I’m not so sure you’d want that to be on your resume!

There are some nice in-jokes about writers here; hopefully, these will continue throughout the series.

I’m watching and supporting this series purely because I am a huge fan of Nathan Fillion (who plays Richard Castle) from his work on Firefly and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. And even as I become aware that ‘Castle’ is little more than TV filler, I am also realizing that Fillion has enough style, charm, and talent to elevate this material and make it entertaining and palatable. The writing isn’t horrible, although it does go for that annoying Gilmore Girls speedy patter that I dislike. What is horrible is the annoying light-hearted music and the overbearing funky percussion that permeate almost every scene.

Memorable Moments

The producers must be applauded for assembling one of the largest collections of stunning female Castle groupies, all immaculately dressed.

Quotable Quotes

"You know, I already returned that advance – I spent it divorcing you."
- Richard Castle to ex-wife Gina

Richard: I’m working on this thing. It starts with a famous author. Some psycho starts staging murders like the way he does in his books.
Stephen: That’s pretty self-aggrandizing, isn’t it?
Other Author: This is Castle we’re talkin’ about.

"Bondage! My safe word is ‘Apples.’"
- Richard