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