"Castle" season 4 begins tonight

It's pretty much an occupational hazard, and I imagine the same applies to movie and TV writers.

"Would you mind looking at my screenplay?"

Oh, not quite the same thing, but a funny story: a few years ago, I was having dinner with friends when our waiter (a struggling actor, of course) picked up on the fact that we all wrote for Star Trek. He insisted on giving us copies of his head shots ("I'm really not supposed to do this, but . . . "), even though we kept trying to explain that we just wrote the novels and had nothing to do with the casting on the tv shows.

Now imagine how often this must happen to somebody as famous as Rick Castle . . . .

 

And playwrights.

 

I really enjoyed "47 Seconds." I'm pissed at Castle for jumping to the worst possible conclusions about Becket's reasons for lying to him, though--I mean, the woman was shot, and and apparently by someone related to the people who murdered her mother. She has issues. I understand being angry with her--she's not treating Castle well by hiding this from him--but he shouldn't have assumed that it's because she's embarrassed by him or considers his feelings a joke or the other nonsense he assumed.

I thought the depiction of the Occupy Wall Street was a bit oblivious. It wasn't negative, per se, but it was definitely unsophisticated. Even the name--"Occupy Wall Street" is a pun on the idea of just occupying physical space vs. a military occupation. "Take Over Wall Street" is far more aggressive. And the costumes were just silly, and so were its descriptions of what the protestors were upset about. But, by the same token, it depicted the protestors as mostly decent human beings, and the people against the protestors as assholes. So I'll take it.

Overall, I'm glad they're finally moving on Casket instead of having Castle and Becket stuck in this never-ending limbo.

 

I'm not at all surprised with Rick's reaction to the lie...since he has harboured this concern about Kate's feelings towards him for a long time now, instead of thinking of more rationale reasons. Remember he was there for her all that time during her stay in the hospital, and he stayed away when she wanted him to. Normal reaction for something like that in my estimation. Basically he was hurt. Pretty much how I expected him to react. Rick thinks of himself as nothing more than a writer, and admires and respects Kate as a cop and has put her on a pedestal of sorts , and was reacting as such. Kate obviously does not feel like that towards Castle, and has come to respect and admire him equally (one assumes) and her feelings have obviously grown. This is just step one towards Caskett as I said it would be and a way to have a little bit of drama between them still. Will be interesting to see Kate's reaction when she figures it out. From the looks of next week's episode...this is going to continue and Castle is going to do the "moving on by making her jealous" plot device. Sigh. LOL

The episode overall was pretty enjoyable. I think we're going to be in for a great final few episodes of the season.

 

I've not commented all thread, but I've definitely been enjoying this season.

But... I'm not really sure how I feel about 47 Seconds. Crime plot, Occupy pastiche, whatever. That stuff is never what makes this show good (though it was well done, and I was glad to see Captain Gates get a larger role). I'm going to have to trust the Castle writers to move on with the Beckett/Castle plot pretty quickly because... I was really frustrated for the last half hour. I mean, I get why he was upset, and he has the right to be upset, and it was well-executed, but... blech. I'm soooo tired of will they/won't they.

Did Castle have to jump to the worst possible conclusion, not ask her about it or confront her? Sure, of course he did, that's how he'd react, people get emotional and jump to conclusions when they're feeling scorned... but godsdammit Castle, she was recovering from being shot when she told you that. Also... Castle, you're a genre-savvy writer who makes a habit of studying people, are you seriously telling me you're reading Beckett's reactions to you this season as somebody that's embarrassed of you? Gah!

I'm sure once the plot does actually advance things will be fine and like Sci I'm glad they're finally moving on it, but right now it's just frustrating. Which is weird, because one of my favorite TV romances is Chrichton and Aeryn, and Beckett and Castle have nothing on their craziness.

 

One last thing about Rick's reaction...we also know that he can be incredibly immature and selfish at times. I'm not saying that his reaction was the correct one, but it was the one based on his personality and his feelings towards Kate, that I expected him to have. Really the only times on the series that we've seen wisdom and maturity from Rick is when dealing with Alexis or at work.

Actually Rick and Kate's romance remind me a little of Mal and Inara from "Firefly" except in this case it would appear that Castle and Beckett are actually getting together, although we're still a way off from this being a reality.

 

Shit has hit the fan.. and i love it!

This is just brilliant.. it couldn't happen any other way in this TV show (or any other fictional story). Castle tried to do the real life thing by asking her out on a proper date but the two biggest cockblockers of all time prevented that (and i was so close to yelling at Ryan to GTFO! ).

So Castle is pissed.. and i was a bit scared because Fillion does a great pissed off look. This was Malcolm Reynolds in war mode all over again only that it was double fearsome because Castle is not a violent or resentful man. I've only seen him this angry on Castle when he was fighting to save Beckett.. against Hal Lockwood when he trained a gun on Beckett during a shootout and was a moment away from killing her or against that stalker killer who wanted to match wits against Nikki Heat.
Castle has every right to be angry.. i think it's understandable that Beckett can't come clean immediately after being shot and during recovery.. she states her case and side of things pretty well in the season 4 opener but nearly a year has passed and there were ample opportunities to come clean.. one way or the other (and we, the viewers, know she loves him too so she wouldn't turn down his feelings) so when Castle learns she's been lying to him the whole time he snaps. He's angry, hurt and feels betrayed by one of the most important people in his life and you can't get over that anytime soon, especially not in such a short time frame.

So i'm happy and giddy as hell.. finally there's the payoff every Caskett fan is dreaming of. Being realistic and knowledgeable in the ways of TV stories we know it will end well (and if dug a bit deeper and seen interviews and some recent Castle panels know this for a fact because the cast, especially Stana, can barely contain their glee themselves at the developments ).
I'm happy they chose to let this develop while still in season 4 with some episodes to spare until the finale.. it could have been a season finale cliffhanger but i guess the real finale will be even bigger.. remember that Castle harbors an equally large, if not larger, secret of his own which gives him a pretty weak leg to stand on in regards to keeping secrets and lying to each other.

 

Too many shows have done the will-they-won't-they thing with continual contrivances to keep the couple apart. It's been going on since Moonlighting and Cheers. I'm frankly tired of it. BEEN tired of it for at least a decade. I love the show, but this part of it is getting annoying.

 

I had the same problem with the fake name -- it was an unfortunate choice that played right into the worst fears and stereotypes about the movement. I guess they had to use a phony name, because the story entailed an organizer of the movement being partly responsible for the crime, so that would've been libelous if they'd used the real name. But I wish they'd come up with a better synonym. How about "Monopolize Wall Street"?

The flashback approach was an interesting departure for this show, but it made some of the clues a little too easy to spot. At first, I thought the drummer would turn out to be the bomber, given that he was noticeably present in two scenes yet not called attention to at the time. Turns out he was just a witness. But I did notice the guy who bumped into Tim Guinee in his flashback and knew he'd be the bomber -- although I thought he was the guy who'd lifted Guinee's phone, and it turned out that was somebody else. But I did see the stolen-phone bit coming a mile away. (And what a creepy bit of Person of Interest sleuthing they did with the cell-phone tracking. Although I'm not sure real-life cell-phone GPS is precise down to that resolution.) And I started suspecting the reporter a few minutes before the reveal.

As for the romance stuff, I'm not really interested in that. I've long felt Castle & Beckett work best as friends and professional partners. For me, the most interesting character thread here was Alexis dealing with the tragedy and telling Castle that this ME job is the first time she's felt she was doing something genuinely important. Which is probably a way of setting her up in that job on a continuing basis, which strikes me as a little contrived, but is fine with me if it gets her more screen time.

 

I agree it's a bit contrived -- but this entire series is a bit contrived, so who am I to start complaining about it now? Especially since Molly Quinn is wonderful.

 

Sooo... Beckett WASN'T lying to the pickpocket to get his true story? And cops NEVER lie to suspects to intimidate the truth out of them?

I dunno, it seems like too easy an out for me. I suspect that she will say as much when Castle confronts her with this, but then her true feelings will surface regardless.

Mark

 

I was just on Michael Ausiello's Ask Ausiello page and according to him we can expect to see someone return whom we haven't seen all season long. The only person I can think of is possibly Josh (Kate's ex) but otherwise I'm drawing a blank on who it could be. He also posted a tid bit from an interview with Joe Huetas (Espo) who said that the audience is going to be surprised about what happens between Castle and Beckett, more surprised than they've ever been. This comment has me both intrigued and a little worried lol.

EDIT: It can't be Josh...I forgot...we saw him in the season premier, he saved Kate's life! LOL. I really don't know who this could be now.

 

Captain Montgomery.

 

^

It could be one of Castle's ex wives.

 

Or Worf...

And how did you not suspect the reporter sooner? Like with most episodes of this show, she was the actress I recognized from other shows, so the flag was up on her.

 

I didn't recognize her at all. The actor I recognized was Tim Guinee (whom I've always felt bore a strong resemblance to Nathan Fillion), so if I'd gone by that logic, I would've suspected him.

 

I think they'll build in the last few episodes of the season and then have it all come together in the season finale one way or the other and while they're at it blow Castle's own secret to really get some drama going.

 

Oh, wait, that was Christine Woods? I did know her from FlashForward, but I didn't recognize her. I'm not always good with faces.