I totally see where my friend Jen is coming from when she writes about the flaws in Castle‘s writing; I really do. However, I’m with commenter Franklin on this one: I love it just the same. And to give the writers a little more credit than Jen did, I think I may know what they’re thinking with some of their decisions.
For instance, I get what Jen is saying about Castle being given too much leeway, asking questions of the suspects. I think, though, that the writers put in the scene with Castle being “tutored” by an officer behind the window while Beckett was interviewing a suspect so that we could see that he is still green, and that he is still being treated as a non-cop. He’s got a lot to learn and the writers — and the cops — are acknowledging this. And if Beckett was still not valuing him and being all resistant, we’d be complaining that it was time for her to just stop with the hate. You know it’s true.
I do miss the awkward Castle from the first two episodes, the one who was so green that he was excited when he got a hit in on one of the “perps.” However, there are so many good things about this show — the clever decisions that the writers do make — that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy it:
So when we break Castle down, what do we get? Pure fun, good fun, all-in-good-fun TV. We don’t get that too often and when we do, it’s something I embrace, flaws and all.
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Mar 30, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
I’m a week (soon to be two) behind, but the only part of the show that I really don’t enjoy are Castle’s daughter and mother. The daughter isn’t even a little realistic, and the mother is a bad cross between Lucille Bluth, Letitia Darling and Marilyn Truman. Too gin soaked for me.
I’m with the trend here as well. The show’s not Shakespeare, but its popcorn fun. Fillion and Katic are fun on screen together.
I could care less about the mother, but I do like the daughter, even if her characterization is a bit unrealistic.
I like the daughter, too, Dorv. I think it’s a nice change of pace to show a father and his teenage daughter actually communicating on a deeper level than the usual “Be home by midnight” exchanges too often depicted on TV. It also shows that we ancient and wise adults can still learn a thing or two from those young whippersnappers (what the hell is a whippersnapper anyway?).
Susan Sullivan deserves better, but a job is a job. I’m hoping they’ll flesh the character out more as time passes.
Again im still pissed that they made me “like” the daughter so much with her first appearance.
The scene with the turnstile jumping last episode was extremely fake. They are really jumping the gun in all possible manners – it’s not realistic to show us either her sexy side or her vulnerable side that early in the show. You have to easy into stuff like this.
And I still totally understand Jen’s objections. The whole police angle seemed absolutely fake last week. The first two episodes were great but number three just didn’t do it for me.
But I still like the two leads so much that I don’t really care. It’s better than “Standoff” even though that one got cancelled.
Again. She’s. 14.
In real life or on the show Dorv? There’s no age given on IMDb…
If you told me that elsewhere already sorry for not seeing it.
This way or the other sticking her into that red dress in the pilot was perverted. If she’s really 14 IRL some people who run the show should be given the cold water hose treatment from “First Blood” (or UHF for that matter). She totally reminded me of Alicia Witt from “Two Weeks Notice” – I love that movie and I find Alicia Witt gorgeous and playing with my mind like that – shame on you, Castle writers…
It was tough to find, but according to the Osbrink Talent Agency Molly Quinn is 16 and her birthday is October 8 (or 18. Something with an eight in it.).
Thanks, because I’d just about given up looking.
Next challenge: How old was Rachel Green (Mark’s daughter) on ER? I’ve seen a preview for this week’s finale that I think might include a little spoiler I’ve been speculating on.
Dorv, I never watched ER so I might get this wrong, but all I had to do was check IMDB and the info was there. Yvonne Zima, who played Rachel Green on ER from 1994-2000, was born on January 16, 1989. Hallee Hirsh, who played the same character from 2001-2004, was born on December 16, 1987.
Is this what you were looking for or did I miss the mark completely being unfamiliar with ER?
Yeah, in this case I was looking for character age.
ER Spoilers :)
In one of the previews clips online for the finale, Rachel orders a drink at a bar with Carter, Corday, and others. I figured she’d be old enough by now, but they made such a point of it in the scene that I wondered if it might be a little hinty hint.
You know what? There really are good, ridiculously good, kids out there. Who is to say Castle’s daughter isn’t one of them? Sometimes, the more wild and crazy your immediate family is, the more innocent you are. I don’t think that it was that she thought jumping the turnstile was so horrific, but that she lied to her dad about it. Awwww. That’s sweet!
I like it. It’s silly, but fun. And I really like when Castle puts together how incredibly easy it is to write about something horrific, rather than to live through it.
I think a lot of people missed the fact that Castle’s daughter was upset about lying to her father, not about jumping the turnstile. Sure, she was ashamed of herself for jumping, but that’s not what brought the tears. She was crying because she felt she lost her father’s trust because she lied about what was in her mind a fairly significant incident.
We had a similar “problem” with our oldest daughter back when she was 15. To be honest, I don’t even remember what she lied about, just that one evening, in tears, my daughter told us she had lied and wanted to admit to it. She wasn’t hysterical, just mildly tearing up, and wanted to make sure SHE was the one to let us know she had lied.
Some kids, like my oldest, almost police themselves (as far as we know, anyway!) while others, like my second daughter, can be several handfuls!
No no Franklin, I absolutely got that – it’s just that I don’t see that big of a bond between Castle and his daughter yet. I felt the same kind of guilt when my father brought back a gift one day, it wasn’t even that expensive, but I didn’t like it and I was absolutely upset about it because I wanted to like it but I hated it and to make a long story short I cried for about fifteen minutes. Thanks for reminding me ;-)
But it’s simply too early in the show to show us this kind of emotional problem. We have to get a feel for the relationship between the two first, maybe he makes her breakfast one episode, then they go to the park together, then he picks her up at a friends house and she starts crying because a boy was supposed to kiss her and didn’t and he comforts her – and THEN they can come up with THIS story.
Sorry but honestly I feel as if I could write all this better than they do.
I’m sorry, Sebastian, I didn’t mean for you to feel like I was singling you out, because to be honest I wasn’t even thinking about you. I was just thinking about several comments and maybe an article or two I read online about that episode and it seemed like a lot of people were confusing why Castle’s daughter was so upset.
As a father with teenagers in the house, I absolutely felt like they’ve shown a VERY strong bond between father and daughter on this show. I don’t know many teenagers who have the frequent and fairly substantive conversations with their parents that we see on Castle. The ease with which father and daughter converse, the mutual respect evident in their words and tone, and the openness they each display towards the other indicates a very strong, almost perfect bond.
No matter if we disagree on various points, as long as we’re both watching Castle, that’s enough in common. Maybe it’ll become a better show in both (all four of?) our eyes.
Well, I’m ready to acknowledge that lately I’ve been pretty down about the shows I’ve been writing about. So, I’ll watch “Castle” again.
For some reason, even though I am sure the show has similar flaws, I love “Trust Me” on TNT. That’s my popcorn entertainment.
I love both Marano sisters. And to be honest I haven’t seen last week’s episode. The whole show is totally “meh” for me and it seems everything Vanessa Marano is gets either cancelled or she’s not prominent enough in it.
I really wanted to skip EP 8 but I guess having reminded me of what I like about the show will make me go back and watch it. Even though the first three minutes already were a pain again. All that Orange crap they were talking about. Pfft.