Thought it was excellent. Like the way the Castle/Beckett relationship is going and the way some of that was dealt with in this episode. Kinda wish the duct tape gag at the beginning had somehow involved Beckett or the wedding party, instead of being a mostly-viewer thing.
Yeah, the duct-tape thing. That was stupid. It's insanely dangerous to leave a person tied up and alone. What if there's a fire? What if he falls down and cracks his head open? You'd think a playboy like Castle would be aware of the basic safety rules of bondage play. Alexis should've stayed with him and made sure he was safe.
Yeah. Poorly thought out on everyone's parts, especially the writers.'
...but romantic-tension premises do generally lose something once the romance is consummated.
And this little nugget just annoys the crap out of me, because it suggests that the only thing interesting about a romantic relationship is the chase, and that once it's been consummated it loses it's luster or becomes boring somehow. Bollocks. It changes, yes, but it doesn't have to "lose something." That's fratboy (or sorority-girl?) thinking.
Hey, I resent that. There's no excuse for making this a personal attack on me. Especially since I specifically said I wasn't comfortable repeating that bit of conventional wisdom. I don't personally believe that's the way it
should be, so don't you dare accuse me of that. I absolutely DO NOT believe that's a principle that applies in real life. We're not talking about real life here, we're talking about a particular genre of television, an artificial construct. So you have no goddamn right to question my values or beliefs about real relationships, and I demand an apology.
... err, I wasn't implying that you believe that fiction has to be that way, and I certainly would never suggest you think real life has to work that way. I've spent enough time in the TrekLit forum to know better, and think you're far too respectable as a writer and a person to hold those views yourself. That was directed towards the "common wisdom" itself, and anybody here who might hold those views, and especially at the (grantedly absent) writers who can't think of anything more creative to do with characters than have them chase each other, not towards you. Hence leaving the ellipsis and "but" in there.
As you apparently agree (yes?), I think showing a healthy romantic relationship between two adults after the "pursuit" has ended would be good for television and, honestly, as a counter to a bad cultural message.
ETA: But okay. Since you demanded, and I didn't mean anything against you personally, I apologize for not being completely clear that I wasn't directing my frustration with that line of reasoning at your own value system, and recognize that editing out your explicit line about being hesitant to repeat that may have been a mistake.
My point is that, like it or not, history seems to support the cliche that television shows that are built around unconsummated romantic tension tend to suffer when that tension is consummated. That's got nothing to do with how real relationships should unfold; it's just that when a work of FICTION is built around one particular premise, then it may have trouble surviving a change in that premise. For instance, what would happen to a quest series if the object of the quest were achieved? Once Richard Kimble finds the one-armed man, once Dr. Banner finds a cure for the Hulk, once Galactica discovers Earth, what do you do next? Usually the series ends. A TV series is a question: Will they or won't they? Will the heroes achieve their goals? Once you answer the question that defines a show, it changes things fundamentally. And it isn't always easy to find a new question to sustain the series beyond that point.
Well, but I don't know that the unconsummated romantic tension between Beckett and Castle is the basic premise. It's a very heavy part of the mix, definitely, but built around it? I think the basic premise is a fairly offbeat buddy cop show with a heart, and the twist of a mystery author working with a cop to help catch the bad guys. So the basic mechanic of "murder victim found, Castle and Beckett solve murder" doesn't have to change, but the overarching character threads and relationships that make Castle a different show from a CSI or Law & Order may change over time without changing the fundamental structure of the show.
And if I'm wrong, and it would change the show fundamentally (and not just the characters I mean), then let it change, creators! Trust your audience to accept a fundamental shift in the characters' relationship, because that's what people do.
Of course, this might also be just my wishing it to be, because the basic mechanic bores me while the growing relationship between Castle and Beckett (and Castlle's family) are what keep me watching, and if I knew that the creators had no intention of going anywhere with it I'd care a whole lot less.
; if you know where you're going with the characters, go there).
