Castle

Castle is a new show on ABC, well it played in spring of 2009 and had about a 10 episode run. It was on the bubble to come back in the fall, but luckily it got renewed. The wife and I watched the first five episodes on Hulu on a recent trip and this is one fun show.

The premise is pretty simple. Richard Castle(Nathan Fillion from Firefly, Serenity, etc) is a famous mystery writer (think James Patterson, John Grisham type) who kills his main character in his last book. Now writers block has set in. He is a local celebrity in New York so the mayor allows him to follow around a female detective.

What makes this show great is Castle. He can come off as a slime ball (he gets excited at a crime scene, hits on a lot of ladies) but through scenes with his 15 year old daughter and live in mother he comes off as a pretty good guy. The banter between him and is partner is great.

The cases aren't that spectacular with one crazy twist after another. The shows this most reminds me of are Bones and Monk. Bones has the best and more realistic cases but is weaker on the humor. Monk probably has the weakest cases with the most humor, and this kind of sets in between.

I have found I really don't like a lot of the procedural shows (CSI, NCIS, etc) but if you make it more about great characters with the episode structured around a particular case, they can be a lot of fun. The characters are what sell these. Castle hasn't become a must watch for me yet, but seems well on its way to being a fun and enjoyable show