Harmless Fluff, starring Nathan Fillion

Yeah, so there's no big mystery as to why I watched the Castle premiere last night... All I (or countless other Whedon fans) needed to know about the show was that Cap'n Mal/Hammer was at the helm.

I'm not going to spend much time on this review because frankly, the show was neither fantastic nor unwatchable, so it eliminates all the fun and satisfaction of ranting or raving about a show. But, where Nathan Fillion is smarming or cheesing it up, I'll probably be there, so here are my thoughts.

First off, I appreciate a show that is billed accurately. From what little I heard/read about this show prior to its premiere, I went into this show expecting a "romantic dramedy," and true to its word, that's exactly what I got. There's nothing more irksome than being told to expect one thing and then being presented with something else. When the show puts it's premise out there and is honest with itself from the beginning, it makes the cliches much more bearable and much less corny. The show's writers/producers set out to make a light-hearted procedural with a central love-hate romance, so when that's what shows up on the screen, it comes off as intentional and not quite so eye-rollingly trite.

So yeah, Mal plays a mystery novelist (Rick Castle, which I have to assume is a bad pen name--either that or he's Johnny's cousin (heh)) who gets pulled into a murder investigation when a seeming serial killer begins mimicking the death scenes in his books. The serious, straight-laced, and unrealistically attractive detective working the case will be playing the central love interest for the show. Again, insanely cliche (hard-nosed, earnest cop gets a fun-loving, slightly bumbling free spirit as a partner--I know, right? Wacky!), but at least they're upfront about it. I got the feeling throughout that the writers absolutely intended to make this kind of show with this kind of dynamic and this kind of tone, and that made all three much more palatable. After I accepted that this was the concept and this was the intent, I just decided to go with it.

Anyway, Nathan Fillion was his usual cheesy, smarmy, charming self and the woman playing the detective, actress Stana Katic, was enjoyable enough, so for what it was, it all worked pretty well. The detective's hard-nosed "I don't want this hooligan messing things up" shtick was pretty heavy-handed, but again, that's kind of the point. I'm not familiar with the Katic's past work, but she did a good job with what she was given and even gave it a bit more charm and humanity than you'd usually get from such a character (at least at first). I'm sure as the series progresses, Castle's charms will wear her down to reveal a much more layered, sensitive creature (as is standard for this kind of arrangement), but I did appreciate that they didn't make her totally cold to begin with. Case in point, she's a fan of Castle's work, and there were moments where her inner fangirl showed itself, and I think that sets up a more interesting dynamic than one would usually expect. Castle is apparently tight with the mayor, so when he decides his new character will be a tough, savvy female detective, our female lead has no choice but to let Castle tag along while he does "research" for the character. It's a cornball concept and a hackneyed conceit, but that doesn't mean it's awful and doesn't mean it can't be successful.

The supporting cast leaves much to be desired at this point (the floozie mother character seems particularly pointless and yet alarmingly common lately), but I'm hopeful the writers will recognize this fact and either eliminate them or give them something substantive to do. I actually didn't mind the daughter too much, which is really saying something these days. She at least serves a purpose. The mother was just a gimmick... and not even a good gimmick. They seemed to be aiming for Lucille Bluth, but totally missed the mark.

For what it was, Castle wasn't half bad. That Castle helps out with investigations because he's creative enough to think of crime scenarios that aren't at all straight-forward was kind of fun to watch and different than the totally cornball "I have some unique ability to {insert law enforcement-related skill here} so I can solve crimes better than anyone else" conceit that's all over the air right now, so that was refreshing. Castle has no preternatural ability or sixth sense, he just has an active imagination, and when that imagination is wielded by Nathan Fillion, it's enjoyable to watch.

Long story short, it wasn't anything spectacular, but it was kinda fun. Harmless fluff through and through, but at least it recognizes this fact and doesn't try to pawn itself off as something it's not. It knows it's fluff and doesn't take itself too seriously, so neither does the audience, and that's totally fine.

Given that it's in an uncrowded timeslot, I'll keep up with this one for a while and see if it turns into anything more. For now, it's just something mindless to entertain my work-addled brain at the end of a long Monday, and that's just fine with me.