With your regular procedural patroller Alynda Wheat on vacation, it falls to me to embed this clip from last night’s vampire fetish/comic book happy Castle, or what my colleague Marc Bernardin has referred to as “officially, the geekiest hour of television ever.” It opened with Nathan Fillion trying on a familiar “space cowboy” costume for Castle’s annual Halloween party. Daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) wasn’t quite as psyched as we were for the Firefly reference:
Tag: Castle (81-90 of 93)
Oct 27
2009
11:00 AM ET
Oct 20
2009
04:34 PM ET
Alynda Wheat's Beat Cop: 'Law and Order' or high and mighty?
Law & Order is touchy. Maybe it’s age—after all the show is an admirably ancient 20 years old, which in TVworld means Willard Scott should’ve offered them congratulations about five seasons back. But this past episode had the reigning Queen Mum of procedurals wagging a bony finger in all sorts of directions, including—perhaps unwittingly—its own. READ FULL STORY »
Oct 13
2009
02:55 PM ET
Alynda Wheat's Beat Cop: Having fun storming the 'Castle'
There was a book? All this time there was an actual, buyable, readable Castle book and nobody told me? I mean sure, I could’ve read this post from Jeff, this one from Mandi, or this one here. But Jeff and Mandi are all the way across the country in the New York office! You and I are, we’re right here. All I know is, if Beckett gets to read that book, then I’m getting my hands on it too. But—and let me know if this is a step too meta—what I really want is a book about Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle (Nathan Fillion). Or maybe I mean less meta, because Heat Wave, featuring Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook, is basically Beckett and Castle, but one level deeper into the fantasy. I just want to stay on the surface, with our beloved cop and her dashing mystery-writer partner. Besides, the names Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook make me giggle. READ FULL STORY »
Oct 9
2009
05:55 PM ET
Alynda Wheat's Beat Cop: A moment of silence for 'Southland'
Let’s bow our heads for a moment of silence. As we learned last night, NBC snuffed out one of our favorite procedurals, the gritty, fantastically acted Southland. You’d think shoving Jay Leno down our throats for five hours of primetime would be injury enough, but no—they had to add insult. This, NBC. This is why TV viewers are dropping network for cable in ever-greater numbers. Viewers know cable offers the kind of risky, investment-heavy programming that’s rare on network television these days, and what’s better, cable will actually stick with it.
Take a show like Mad Men. There’s very little nudity (I can’t recall any, anyway), almost no swearing, and not much in the way of questionable content. Yet this is exactly the kind of show that would never make it on network television. It’s too involved, asks too much of its audience. It’s a think piece. In its own way, so was Southland. Performances (particularly from Regina King, C. Thomas Howell, and Michael Cudlitz) were inspired, the writing was original, and the characters themselves grew in complexity every week. As a TV journalist, I refuse to join the chorus of those who snipe that network doesn’t do good work anymore—The Big Bang Theory, Castle, and House all disprove that, and that’s just one night—but I certainly understand the frustration. All we can do to counter the networks’ shortsightedness is to continue supporting the programs we love, write a few angry columns and letters, and hope that somebody gets it before their business model runs them into the ground. So let’s at least do one of the three and get to this week’s worthy programming. READ FULL STORY »
Oct 9
2009
04:45 PM ET
'Castle' Halloween episode: Vampire fetish + costumes = promising!
ABC has released photos from the Oct. 26 episode of Castle title “Vampire Weekend.” Per the episode synopsis, “As Halloween approaches, Castle and Beckett are called to a graveyard where the body of a young man sporting vampire fangs has been discovered with a wooden stake driven through his heart. Their investigation takes them deep into the heart of New York’s underground Vampire Fetish Community, where they learn that the secret motive for the victim’s murder may be hiding within the pages of the graphic novel he was writing before his death.” I can hear Castle’s Buffy, Twilight and True Blood references now, and I like it.
What do you think of their costumes? I’m guessing Beckett is a classic femme fatale (or perhaps Nikki Heat), and Castle is Edgar Allan Poe. Then, I’m thinking we’ve got ourselves a Doogie Howser, M.D., a Cruella De Vil, a Catwoman, and the guy from The Hurt Locker?
Photo Credit: Michael Desmond/ABC
Sep 25
2009
05:32 PM ET
Alynda Wheat's Beat Cop: In which Wentworth Miller, Cromartie, and Benjamin Button crash our sets
Come on, people, you never leave the perp with Wentworth Miller! That’s Article 96, Section 242, Clause 3 of the Procedural Code! Wait, wait. Before we get too shouty about last night’s Law & Order: SVU, let’s call the meeting to order and go over some Beat Cop business.
At our last meeting, commenter Judy Woodruff (let’s just assume that’s an alias, and the PBS anchor is way busy with actual news) asked if we’re going to loop Southland (tonight at 9 on NBC) into our discussions. This brings up an excellent point, Coppers: What counts as a procedural? The matter is open to a vote, but these are the general guidelines we’ll work under:
The series is typically one hour long.
The series is on a nationally recognized TV network (e.g., ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW).
The series typically concludes with the resolution of a mystery (crime, court case, medical diagnosis, etc.).
The series is primarily focused on said mystery, rather than the personal lives of those involved.
The series is ghost-free.
What does that mean? That Southland totally counts, because it’s all about catching bad guys, just more cinematically. That Medium, Ghost Whisperer, and Supernatural all solve mysteries, but bite it on the ghost clause. That House weasels its way in because the show treats sick people more like Sudoku than soap opera. (So suck it, Grey’s Anatomy!) And that we’re going to talk about Castle, even though it’s arguably weighted as much on the charm and talents of one Nathan Fillion as it is on dead people, because Fillion is one of our many imaginary boyfriends. (Though apparently, we’ve got competition for his affection.)
Now that our Cop business is concluded, let’s get to it!
Law & Order: SVU
We begin with another man in our imaginary boyfriend stable, Wentworth Miller, late of Prison Break. I dug the episode, but here’s the quibble: You saw (nearly) all that coming, right? Once I got past the idea that there actually was someone employed by the NYPD that was ragier, jerkier, and more unstable than Stabler (Chris Meloni—and don’t you roll your eyes at me, you know it’s true!), Miller’s backstory unfolded like origami. He’s a jackass, but a tragic one! He’s terrible to women, but wonderful to kids! He believes in the law, but God forbid if you’re too stupid to realize he shouldn’t be taking a confessed rapist/murderer to the john. I admit, I thought it was going to be a “You know what? He totally slipped and smashed his head into the porcelain sink…twice,” kind of thing. But they got me on the defenestration. I imagine they got all of us on that sick little legal twist that keeps the innocent dude in prison. And will somebody please get Diane Neal’s Casey Novak back here before we do something unspeakably hinky to vicious new ADA Christine Lahti? It is SVU—we can get creative. READ FULL STORY »
Sep 22
2009
11:55 AM ET
'Castle': Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic have an arresting season 2 premiere
It’s a sign of this dramedy’s growth that we put Stana Katic’s name in the headline and not just Nathan Fillion’s. The season 2 opener was Det. Kate Beckett’s best episode yet. Even though she was cold to Castle, I wager that old (and, fingers crossed, new) Castle fans warmed to her. Could be the auburn hair, or the sweaters…something different, and I liked it.
As we quickly found out, Beckett had not forgiven Castle for going against her wishes and poking around her mother’s murder file. (He discovered that three people died the same way she did, around the same time: a former law student of hers, a documents clerk, and a lawyer for a non-profit.) But Beckett made him a deal: He could help solve one last case to look good for a magazine profile being written on him and the NYPD (pictured: the photo shoot), then he would go peacefully. The episode’s case was more intricate than we’re used to — a strangled man’s body was found in a tree, and on the way to the morgue, it was stolen from the medical examiner’s van. Turns out the guy had lost his job and gotten into serious debt playing poker in Chinatown with Russian mobsters who offed him before he could fulfill his fast-cash duty as a drug mule. But really, the murder was just a set-up for Castle being his charming self and Beckett getting to save his ass while using a fake Russian accent and looking hellahot. READ FULL STORY »
Sep 21
2009
06:02 PM ET
Beat Cop: It's a TV watch just for you, procedurals fans!
Our time has come, procedural watchers. This is Beat Cop, and it’s our TV watch. Well, it’s a mini-watch…in PopWatch…and we’ll cover lots of shows instead of getting all precious about just Lost or Fringe, but we’re doing God’s work here, ladies and gents.
No really! The hallmark of the procedural fan is that we have an overdeveloped sense of justice. We seek resolution, answers. We like our bad guys nabbed, diseases diagnosed, cases closed. It’s not that we mind continuing storylines—we like our cops, docs, investigators, and fake psychics to have personalities (even Columbo had a missus to whom he frequently referred, even if her spin-off wasn’t quite worthy of the man, himself). But there’s something about wrapping up misery and mystery in a neat little bow at the end of an hour that just feels satisfying.
So here’s what we’ll do: We’ll meet here twice a week (let’s start with Mondays and Fridays and see how that goes) and discuss our favorite procedurals. It’ll be a mix of review and preview, in that if I’ve seen an episode, I’ll tell you about it in as spoiler-free a manner as possible. Otherwise, we’ll just chat about what happened on CSI, Lie to Me, NCIS, and myriad other shows. Understand, though, this is an advocacy blog, which means I’m not even aiming for fair. I’ll talk about Castle more than I should because I adore that show (seriously, the chemistry between Nathan Fillion and Molly C. Quinn makes them cutest damned father/daughter pair on television). I’ll coo over Criminal Minds Kirsten Vangsness’s flirty banter with Shemar Moore, and make snippy comments that Richard Belzer and Ice-T don’t get nearly enough face time on Law and Order: SVU. I’ll ask you to explain–since somebody needs to tell me–why I just can’t seem to get into Cold Case even though I watch literally every other network procedural out there. We’ll talk. READ FULL STORY »
Sep 12
2009
05:20 PM ET
UPDATE: Operation 'Nathan Fillion, feel free to stop by' is working
I’ve been waging something of a one-man internet campaign to get the rakish Castle star to stop by the EW offices during his NYC visit next week. And what do I see pop up on my Twitter feed the other day? This:
He’s teasing me, I know it. Toying with my emotions. Pawing at me like a very rugged cat playing with a ball of yarn. But I think it’s working. Stay tuned.
- Prev
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- Next
