Tired of the same old crime-solving procedural? Have you figured out the Scooby-Doo-esque formula attached to every weekly whodunit on CBS and/or NBC? If you’ve been watching television for the last ten years, it would almost be impossible not to have reached that point by now. Monotonous repetition has dulled much of the crime genre’s ability to surprise audiences, so instead maybe it should shift to trying to entertain the way Castle does (okay, NCIS does a pretty good job of this). With a leading man like Nathan Fillion and a great supporting cast, Castle has lots to carry it in its second season.
Throughout the first season, Richard Castle (Fillion) acquainted his smart aleck ways with the procedural expectations of the NYPD and found his knack for understanding the criminal mind aided Officer Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) in solving a season’s worth of crime. But of all the officers in the NYPD, why was Castle paired with Kate? He was writing a new series about a hot, somewhat slutty but brilliant beat cop named Nikki Heat, based to one degree or another on Kate. That was the first season – the initial research and the writing. Now, with the second season, the book is finished and hitting stands and Castle’s future with the NYPD is in question. Will he do another book about Nikki or tackle a novel in the much-loved spy series everyone knows and loves? Considering that plot point comes about 6 episodes into the season, I think you can figure out that Castle stays on for another reason. At which point, the Kate/Castle will they-won’t they relationship continues building with a few obstacles thrown at their feet. However, what might be the show’s biggest accomplishment in its second season is the transition of former two-bit characters Detectives Esposito (Jon Huertas) and Ryan (Seamus Dever) into fleshed out players on the team. With each case the dynamic duo becomes a quartet and the show benefits immensely from it.
The second season’s big draw is the extended plotline of a serial killer with a previously hidden knack for successfully stealing other people’s lives and then killing people under the newly assumed identity. The publishing of Castle’s new Nikki Heat novel makes Kate his next target, whom he torments with a series of murders and cryptic puzzles in your typical cat and mouse setup. Can Kate and Castle use their combined knowledge of investigation and criminal psychology to get a step ahead of the killer and put an end to his reign? Take a guess. These are some of the best episodes in the season, and interestingly enough the cliffhanger ending of the first part wasn’t used as a season closer, letting the audience savor the story as an in-season whole.
Nathan Fillion earned his wings as a leading man with Joss Whedon’s Firefly, and he really hasn’t stopped being awesome ever since. Transitioning from a space adventure series into a cop dramedy didn’t happen overnight (hell, he got to play Captain Hammer in between), but Fillion has shown himself versatile enough to make his charm work in any given scenario. His onscreen counterpart in Castle, Stana Katic, seems well-practiced in the same dry comedy styling and the chemistry that fuels their sexual tension provides a few memorable moments here and there. As mentioned, Huertas and Dever become actual characters and not just comic props for throw away gags about halfway through the season, helping to even out the comedy offered up between Castle’s professional life and his time spent at home with his daughter Alexis (Molly C. Quinn) and aspiring actress mother, Martha (Susan Sullivan). The father-daughter relationship between Castle and Alexis is easily one of the best, and until the perceived future of Castle and Kate is endangered and enlivened by the introduction of rival interest Det. Tom Demmin (Michael Trucco), it might just be the funniest banter in the show.
DVD Bonus Features
Appropriately Huertas and Dever get their own extra feature as they take the camera around the set of the show, a tour repeated in another extra but with Nathan Fillion. Both are amusing and give fans a look into the research aspect the actors undergo in understanding their characters. Further along in that vein, another featurette covers the origins of the stories told in each episode. The set rounds out with the usual blooper reel and extra/deleted scenes.
"Castle: The Complete Second Season" is on sale September 21, 2010 and is not rated. Comedy, Crime, Mystery. Directed by Rob Bowman, Bryan Spicer, John Terlesky. Written by Andrew W. Marlowe, David Grae, Alexi Hawley. Starring Jon Huertas, Nathan Fillion, Seamus Dever, Stana Katic, Molly C Quinn.
