Castle Season 5 (including Spoilers)

[Locutus of Bored]

Jan wrote:

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They've established that she's bright and levelheaded and yet all she did in two episodes was to make a Skype call.

She picked the lock on her cell, stole a phone, escaped to the roof of the building, and made the Skype call when 911 failed, thus giving her father and the authorities the only clue they had of her and her friend's whereabouts. And she did this against a team of ex-Russian spies. Plus she remained calm and collected throughout the ordeal, waiting for a chance to escape, and helping her friend.

I'd say that's pretty damn impressive.

[Admiral_Young]

^ Agreed with LOB about Alexis's level-headedness ...besides which Alexis's kidnapping in the first place was a plot device created so that Richard and his father could finally meet. I don't think Alexis was ever going to be directly spotlighted in either of these two episodes. This whole thing was designed so that Rick could meet his father the spy for the first time.

[Mark_Nguyen]

Fandom nod, probably unintentional - the brief scene where Sara was released was filmed on the same part of the Seine where Duncan Macleod moored his barge for most of the Paris-based episodes of "Highlander". You don't see it, but on the opposite side is Notre Dame.

All of the actual scenes featuring Castle, Alexis and Grandpa (and Canadian actor Chris "Todd from Atlantis" Heyerdahl as the French spy guy) were filmed in New York or on greenscreen, but the exchange was the only thing filmed in Paris. I'm guessing they used a double for "Sara" and kept her on a fuzzy screen without dialogue to hide the fact it wasn't the same actor.

The episode was a little disappointing as it had little Caskett interaction, which is why I watch this show; it was still fun to enjoy seeing Castle pushed this far and reacting without his usual aloof sarcasm. His dad adds needed backstory to Castle, but I hope they don't play it out like other similar tropes. If dad shows up asking Rick to join the Scarlett Alliance, there better be a shark in the episode too. :P

Mark

[Kestrel]

Honestly, as good as the episode was in highlighting Castle, I felt like the whole back half was a bit rushed, like they could have easily made this a three-parter. Except for one scene Beckett didn't get to do much - was there even an acknowledgment for her that the killer was Castle's dad? - and Alexis did kind of disappear after having a really strong first episode. It wasn't that I'd take any of it out per se, but it just felt overstuffed after a really excellent Part 1.

[Admiral_Young]

Rick's father's identity is only known to Castle and Alexis I believe. Unless I totally missed something...and unless Rick actually tells Martha. I assume we'll have fallout/follow up from this when we return from hiatus.

[Christopher]

Mark_Nguyen wrote:

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All of the actual scenes featuring Castle, Alexis and Grandpa (and Canadian actor Chris "Todd from Atlantis" Heyerdahl as the French spy guy) were filmed in New York or on greenscreen, but the exchange was the only thing filmed in Paris. I'm guessing they used a double for "Sara" and kept her on a fuzzy screen without dialogue to hide the fact it wasn't the same actor.

There were some other exterior shots that seem to have been filmed in Paris, like Castle approaching the cathedral. But we couldn't see his face in those shots, so it was probably a photo double. This is a common technique for faking the presence of your actors in a distant location -- film some long-range location shots with lookalikes in the real location, then do tight or interior shots of your actors back on the soundstage. If you don't see their faces in the long shots, it's a giveaway.

The episode was a little disappointing as it had little Caskett interaction, which is why I watch this show...

Yeah, Beckett did kind of disappear after figuring out what Castle was already on the verge of discovering independently (and what many of us had no doubt figured out last week), that Alexis was the real target. So that kind of fizzled out. I would've liked to see more cooperation, with the cops contributing meaningfully somehow to the resolution despite being back in NYC.

[Forbin]

Christopher wrote:

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There were some other exterior shots that seem to have been filmed in Paris, like Castle approaching the cathedral. But we couldn't see his face in those shots, so it was probably a photo double. This is a common technique for faking the presence of your actors in a distant location -- film some long-range location shots with lookalikes in the real location, then do tight or interior shots of your actors back on the soundstage. If you don't see their faces in the long shots, it's a giveaway.

I guess we jaded ol' TV viewers come to expect that after all these decades of seeing doubles, but even at that, my first reaction to that shot was "Geez, that guy doesn't even move the same way Nathan would!" I think he was about 10 pounds thinner too.

[Christopher]

^Yeah, I had much the same reaction to the body language.

[Mark_Nguyen]

The long shot of Dad & Daughter going into the US Embassy (which was NOT the US Embassy - the real one is smaller and fenced in) is most decidedly not them either; he moves very differently indeed. The one right before it may have been them on a greenscreen (you see her face, though blurred somewhat), and if so it was a pretty good shot with good motion matching.

Mark

[Admiral_Young]

I've no problem with the lack of Caskett in these episodes, because frankly, they weren't designed to be focused on Rick or Kate. This was all about Rick finally meeting his father through somewhat grandiose means of course. We've had plenty of Caskett so far this season and it's been handled pretty well for the most part, so I can excuse a couple of episodes where they're not a huge factor. We know they will be in coming episodes, so it's not a big deal for me. I was impressed with James Brolin's performance, and hopefully we will see him a bit more.

[Skywalker]

Mark_Nguyen wrote:

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Fandom nod, probably unintentional - the brief scene where Sara was released was filmed on the same part of the Seine where Duncan Macleod moored his barge for most of the Paris-based episodes of "Highlander". You don't see it, but on the opposite side is Notre Dame.

I thought that spot looked familiar! Nice catch.

[Data Holmes]

Mark_Nguyen wrote:

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The long shot of Dad & Daughter going into the US Embassy (which was NOT the US Embassy - the real one is smaller and fenced in) is most decidedly not them either; he moves very differently indeed. The one right before it may have been them on a greenscreen (you see her face, though blurred somewhat), and if so it was a pretty good shot with good motion matching.

Mark

Molly Quinn was in Paris for five days of filming, but Nathan wasn't. It was his stunt double. That was her and him running to the fake embassy in Paris.

Admiral_Young wrote:

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I've no problem with the lack of Caskett in these episodes, because frankly, they weren't designed to be focused on Rick or Kate. This was all about Rick finally meeting his father through somewhat grandiose means of course. We've had plenty of Caskett so far this season and it's been handled pretty well for the most part, so I can excuse a couple of episodes where they're not a huge factor. We know they will be in coming episodes, so it's not a big deal for me. I was impressed with James Brolin's performance, and hopefully we will see him a bit more.

Apparently he agreed to do it at his wife's urging. She is a huge Castle fan.

[Kestrel]

So, followed Molly Quinn's Twitter during the broadcast?

[Mark_Nguyen]

Interesting factoid! So it WAS Molly Quinn on the streets of Paris for the shot running into the "Embassy" and presumably on the rooftop too.

Five days, huh? They musta taken their time doing it. Between that and the Castle double shots it shouldn't have taken that long to do it.

Mark

[FPAlpha]

I quite don't get it why the need for such bad green screen effects?

I mean how much can this really cost? An episode of Castle costs around 1.5 million dollars but this was a two parter sweeps episodes so add in some bucks to bring it to about 2 million (most shows cut back on expensive stuff for later episodes to get the budget back in line after the more elaborate sweeps episodes).

They couldn't spare 50.000 to 100.000$ to fly Nathan and Molly to Paris for a few days, alongside a small film crew (i'm no expert in filming but it can't be more than 4-5 people for the crew) and hire the equipment locally to cut down on transportation costs? Surely there are companies who provide services for local filming and take over the logistics (permits, equipment, extras etc) so you just have to fly the actors there to film some scenes.

I know that the rambling of some people about bad special effects on message boards mean little to production companies but still.. show some effort.

Anyway.. surprisingly good episode considering that the second part almost always feels worse than the initial, brilliant episode. They even managed to squeeze in some humor in an otherwise tense episode and the end was just heartwarming to see.. i hope they pick up on it from time to time and don't let it fall besides the road.

This should be huge for Castle and his mother.. a bit cliché to have his dad be an elderly version of James Bond (though i loved the Casino Royale connection) instead of a normal office schlub but this is a TV version and normal isn't sexy or interesting.