Castle: Season 2

Castle is brilliant. I love it - it's a brilliant satire and farcical parody of the entire genre and I look forward to season 3. The characters, while excellent in the first season, become a lot more nuanced in season two. The stories revolve around the murders and mysteries, but Castle is, at heart, a story about people - warts and all. I'm not sure why the writers chose to change the character of Kate Beckett as they did (having her grow her hair out), because there was no need to make the character more feminine. If this show were a dead serious cop drama, scenes with Beckett stripping for a bath or changing her clothes to bail Castle out of a sticky spot with Russian gangsters would have felt like the creators were pouring the sex appeal on and weakening the character - instead, they made her more complex and interesting through the dialogue, body language, and sudden tone shifts in those kinds of scenes. Castle himself remains a fairly static character, but as he is the centerpiece, this makes a lot of sense - what's revealed about him is not new things about him, but how the character has changed from the first season to the second, and watching true, carefully crafted and subtle character growth is fascinating. The writers haven't ignored the 'secondary' characters - Alexis, Martha, Esposito and Ryan all get handled well, treated with respect, and grow with the show, but never seem like their presence is forced into the limelight in order to remind the viewers they exist - they organically and naturally are added to the story when they're needed. Despite the show being built on the concept of being a very subtle parody of an entire genre, the show still treats the people who are victimized by murder with respect, and does a good job of showing even bit characters or one-off villains as rounded, dynamic people - something I rarely get the chance to see in this kind of show. And did I mention the fantastic dialogue? Over all, a very enjoyable show. Worth the money and worth the time - especially if you have an appreciation for the finely crafted parody.

Love this show!! Huge Nathan Fillion fan. Love the loyalty he shows to his old Firefly cast! Chemistry between the actors is great! Writing is witty and fun. Stana Katic is beautiful, and Molly Quinn is utterly, stunningly, breathtaking.

I recently re-watched my season 2 DVD set and, having now followed "Castle" through six seasons, was taken with just how great this show was back in its early days. The clever whodunits, the witty, flirtatious banter, Castle's life as a mystery novelist, his poker games with real-life mystery writers, the humor and (dare I say it?) "sweetness" of the budding romance between the writer and the detective...it's all there in the show's second - and very best - season. Because the first season was short - a mid-season replacement that had only ten episodes, the writers and producers were left with plenty of real estate to develop and polish these wonderful characters in season 2. This gave the second season a warm originality and a lighthearted, lovable tone that by the middle of the third season had begun to fade. What had once been compared to "Moonlighting" or "Murder She Wrote" would later start to look more like "24" or "Criminal Minds". Season 3 brought darker stories of terrorism, high-level conspiracies, serial killers, and espionage that sent the show in a different, often far-fetched direction. And then, of course, there's the love story. Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion brought a chemistry to their unlikely couple that had chat boards and word-of mouth buzzing long before the writers began pandering to the "Caskett shippers", and when a glance or a smile or a cup of coffee was enough to win over even the most literate and cynical fans. Watch the last ten minutes of the Season 2 finale, when Beckett becomes aware - just a bit too late - of her feelings for Castle. That beautifully sad moment when Castle walks away, unaware that he has finally won her over, and the wistful look in Beckett's eyes as she realizes her missed opportunity. Hookup moments and sex scenes are a dime-a-dozen (as they were, often to the point of silliness, in seasons 5 and 6) but watching two good people gradually fall in love, and then be kept apart, is the essence of all great love stories. Season 2 captured this with a freshness and poignancy that the later seasons couldn't match. I'm not blaming the writers or producers for changing the show. Something as good as what we saw in Season 2 could not have lasted. Characters and storylines had to evolve and the cat-and-mouse relationship had to be dragged on, however unrealistically, lest the show die an early death. Every show hits a peak at some point in its life, from which the only direction is down. For Castle, the tip of that peak was Season 2.

Good if you like Castle

Entertaining, clever and interesting detective series, full of witty dialogues and meaningful endings. Each episode shows an original murder scene and the discovery of the criminal almost always comes as a surprise thus making it interesting to watch. In addition to that there is series reveals the increasing chemistry between the main characters. The witty dialogues make it amusing and captivating to watch without being cheesy. Good balance serious crime investigations on one hand and the playful nature of the communication between the NYPD detective (Stana Katic) and the best-selling novelist of crime books (Nathan Fillion). An intelligent and fun series worth checking it out.

Superbe série d'enquêtes criminelles

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Sono una fan di Castle! Una serie davvero ben fatta per chi ama il genere. Al momento non è in commercio in italiano... quindi aiuta anche ad imparare un pò di inglese nel mio caso!

The overriding feature of the Castle series is the developing relationship between Castle and Beckett. It will be extremely interesting to see if the production team can keep the relationship fresh and new while they progress from antagonistic to friendly to romantic. Beats most police procedurals hollow even though you have to suspend belief that any self respecting police department would allow a civilian to get anywhere near dangerous action. Stana Katic is absolutely stunning and would not appear at first glance to be a credible police detective (she looks more like a high class model) but somehow she does pull it off. Very competent supporting cast with back ground stories of their own round this series out entirely. For us Canadians there are a lot of overt references to look for. For Sci-Fi fans there are a lot of references to Firefly and other "space" shows. Great series that meshes well for spouses to watch together. (think of the "Thin Man" series for us old timers)