The past few days here at CliqueClack TV have had a couple of interesting Castle-related posts. First, writer Jen Creer came out and listed five things that sucked about the show last week, then Deb went on the defensive, listing what she loved about the show. While Deb knows I completely appreciate her points, Jen’s post took the words right out of my mouth. Sucks for me that the doghouse isn’t wired for cable.
Luckily this week’s episode took a turn in the right direction — for me, at least — albeit slightly.
What I find lacking in this show so far is more of who Castle is, beyond the lurking around Beckett and the brief interactions with his family. Castle is an author, yet he’s not writing — not even notes! Instead, he’s spending what appears to be all of his time participating (not simply witnessing!) in crime investigations. If the newly created Nikki Heat is going to be a character Castle can relate to, shouldn’t he be staying way the hell out of Beckett’s way? That is, unless Nikki Heat is going to have a partner in the form of Castle in fictional, written word.
That leads me to another point. The supporting characters, like Huertas and Ryan, are barely given anything to do. These guys are detectives, too, right? So why aren’t they leading more instead of having to take orders from Beckett? I’d much rather see more of these guys than even a minute more of Castle’s mom.
Where this episode started to redeem the series was at the very end, during the book reading. Sure, it doesn’t make for compelling television, but it definitely makes for more opportunities where the show could be funny. Let’s face it — the show could be funnier. Because we do a weekly Quotation Marks feature here, I’ll try to pick out decent lines from shows I watch for that week’s column. Something with Nathan Fillion staring in it should have plenty of lines! Tonight I couldn’t come up with one worth mentioning. Where are they?
Beckett showing up at the book reading was a good start. If the previews for next week are any indication, it looks like we’ll start to see a bit more of Castle’s professional life.
Minor point: did you catch the name of Castle’s publishing company? “Black Pawn Publishing.” Castle. Pawn. Someone digs chess.
Oh, right … the onion goggles. I had no idea these things existed, and with a little search, I find they do (with good reviews, to boot!) My eyes are like Niagra when I’m slicing onions, so I may have to put these on my wishlist.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Mar 31, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
Hm Deb since when do you talk about yourself in the third person?
Is this a guest clack?
Ah this is from Kona :-)
No, Keith stole my draft and wrote it up — we had a four-year-old crash the TV party last night and I needed to get him back to bed! Should be fixed now.
Keith, while onion goggles do work… please tell me you have at least tried chilling your onion in the fridge first before chopping. That method does wonders.
Gee, and here I thought he just had Cool Dude Sunglasses.
Well, phooey. I could barely pay attention during this episode. It was quite boring, in my opinion. I agree with Keith about the lack of quotable lines (except, “I just figured if you’re going to bother me at my work, I should bother you at yours), but I disagree about his family. His life is interesting to me. The best parts are when he’s being himself and I’m not just watching another fish out of water cop story. That can be when he’s with his daughter, his mother, or realizing how different real police work is in comparison to writing about it.
All of that said, the previews for next week look a lot better!
Where can i find the laser tag stuff from episode 5? I’ve been on the internet searching since the nite it aired!! That getup was AWESOME!!
If you found these googles you HAVE to be able to find this other stuff!!
Thanks in advance =p
Oh, I looked and looked and couldn’t find that set anywhere! I found lots of laser tag sets, but not that one — sorry!
I did some searching, and the laser tag gear was loaned from a Nexus, a professional manufacturer that usually supplies laser tag equipment for walk-in centers. It’s likely that you won’t find that gear in toy stores, but you can still play with it at several locations across the country.
nexuslazertag.com
zonelasertag.com (includes a page of screencaps)