Flowers for Your Grave

The pilot manages to introduce several characters and set a background for Fillion's character extremely while keeping along a first murder plot. Both lead roles show extremely good chemistry, Nathan Fillion plays once again a cool character and manages to bring to the table that quirkiness that have made his characters so good in the past. His counterpart is not only pretty to look at but also provides a strong female role and not the standard damsel in distress. The pilot is promising: the writing is good for both plot and dialog, the cast is solid and the mandatory sexual tension flows really well with the witty dialog.

A crime novelist gets involved in a criminal investigation and has some friction with the detective in charge. So Jessica Fletcher is Castle and Kate Beckett is the town sheriff so to speak. Wow this is a novel (no pun intended, well maybe) twist. At least Jessica had some personality which is more than either lead in this series has. First the networks steal the premise of Psych and turn it into the Mentalist and now Murder She Wrote has morphed into Castle. Can a Monk rip off be far behind. Even the card game between Castle, Steven Cannell, and James Patterson was a steal from Two and a Half Men. Remember the Sean Penn episode? What happened to innovation and creativity? I guess it has migrated to USA and TNT. Maybe that's why they have Burn Notice and The Closer and Saving Grace and . . . well I am sure you get where this is going. I am not sure the 10 episodes will make it through the complete season but no doubt ABC will let fan, there must be one, watch the bulk of the shows online.

More than a typical cop show! It's leads are perfectly matched, they go together like Hepburn & Tracy or Loy &Powell. The synergy is there..

I originally tried the first episode because I wanted to see Susan Sullivan again. What a pleasant surprise to find a group of actors so finely matched to their roles.. Every one is a great match.

The cases are varied and different. The timing is good. In other words, the writing and direction are a giant step above the average. And as a bonus, there's the delight in a good chuckle or pun or imaginative twist (supplied by Castle) in every episode. And why can't a police drama combine humor, a touch of romance. It can and CASTLE does. Bravo!

Until a few days ago I never really paid attention to Castle. In fact I decided to watch this episode after reading an article about its second season. I thought if a show was renewed it's because it was a good one. And it seems I was right because I really enjoyed it. First Richard Castle is a character you can easily relate to because becoming a writer is a common fantasy. He's a playboy but has a heart and is really funny. Moreover his mother and daughter really contributed to make him a more believable character. I instantly liked him and Nathan Fillion's performance was just perfect. Second Kate Beckett is definitely not the usual female sidekick. Stana Katic shares the screen with Fillion and doesn't work in his shadow like some female detectives in other shows, Life for example. Of course at first she just looks like an other babe but then you begin to understand that she's very smart, takes her job seriously and has her own story. Some scenes with Nathan really helped these characters to quickly grow on us and revealed how humans they're. You can also feel how great the chemistry is between the performers and that they really enjoy what they're doing. Moreover like if it wasn't enough the story itself is fascinating. It's definitely not just an other police story. The writers managed to brilliantly merge two worlds, fiction and reality. Castle is inspired by Beckett's work and in return she seems quite fascinated by the mind behind the novels. So they really mirror each other and reminded me of cult duos like Mulder and Scully in The X-Files.

So overall it was a really pleasant and unexpected surprise. The direction was also flawless and the ambiance was quite similar to the episode Ummey's Last Case from Nightmares & Dreamscapes, a show adapted from Stephen King's short stories. But the only problem is that once you've watched this episode you'll sure ask for more and as the first season only has ten, waiting September for the second to air seems just too far away.