Castle Season 5 Episode 10
Castle and Beckett and the gang are back! Thoughts behind the cut because some people in other time zones haven't seen it yet.
When I saw the first preview for this episode, I was a little bit worried. I mean, sure, eventually I guess we had to see Alexis' mother's reaction to Castle being seriously involved with someone new (and someone Alexis clearly admires) but the whole "ex-wife and current girlfriend both staying at Castle's place, with his daughter and mother" concept seemed likely to devolve into camp. The Castle writers have played up the camp occasionally, but not usually where the characters' personal lives were concerned.
Thankfully, the writers tread the line carefully and let the characters' usual personalities provide the laughs instead of resorting to situational comedy. Rick's endearing (okay, most of the time) insecurity provided a lot of the humor, which is perfectly normal for this show. Ryan and Espo had their goofy moment (the bombing-whistle) and their cool moment (the take-down of suspect Noah) in perfect balance. Lanie's tirade about Beckett taking control of the situation could have easily turned ridiculous but didn't by a hair or two. And Martha's line about Rick not letting just any old freeloaders stay at his place led to Rick's perfectly phrased "Please tell me you see the irony," my second favorite line of the night. Keeping Meredith's visit to a single episode was a necessity, and using it as fodder for Beckett to continue to subtly doubt whether she and Rick are meant to be together might have been a bit ham-handed, but I think we all saw that coming.
As far as the case went, I can honestly say I didn't see the twist coming. I suppose had I been paying more direct attention to the faces, I might have made the connection sooner, but I didn't feel misled or cheated. Decent performances all around by the guest cast on the precinct side. Nice one-liner (and my other favorite of the night) by Rick: "It's The Bachelor meets Homeland." And maybe it's just me, but I didn't at all miss Captain Gates. I feel like the writers really don't know what to do with her, and more often than not in recent episodes she's been portrayed as a bit campy herself -- which to me is a distraction and a disservice to Penny Johnson Jerald. We may not have seen as much of Captain Montgomery as we'd have liked, but he was never played for a joke.
Overall, a satisfactory "relationship-centric" episode.
When I saw the first preview for this episode, I was a little bit worried. I mean, sure, eventually I guess we had to see Alexis' mother's reaction to Castle being seriously involved with someone new (and someone Alexis clearly admires) but the whole "ex-wife and current girlfriend both staying at Castle's place, with his daughter and mother" concept seemed likely to devolve into camp. The Castle writers have played up the camp occasionally, but not usually where the characters' personal lives were concerned.
Thankfully, the writers tread the line carefully and let the characters' usual personalities provide the laughs instead of resorting to situational comedy. Rick's endearing (okay, most of the time) insecurity provided a lot of the humor, which is perfectly normal for this show. Ryan and Espo had their goofy moment (the bombing-whistle) and their cool moment (the take-down of suspect Noah) in perfect balance. Lanie's tirade about Beckett taking control of the situation could have easily turned ridiculous but didn't by a hair or two. And Martha's line about Rick not letting just any old freeloaders stay at his place led to Rick's perfectly phrased "Please tell me you see the irony," my second favorite line of the night. Keeping Meredith's visit to a single episode was a necessity, and using it as fodder for Beckett to continue to subtly doubt whether she and Rick are meant to be together might have been a bit ham-handed, but I think we all saw that coming.
As far as the case went, I can honestly say I didn't see the twist coming. I suppose had I been paying more direct attention to the faces, I might have made the connection sooner, but I didn't feel misled or cheated. Decent performances all around by the guest cast on the precinct side. Nice one-liner (and my other favorite of the night) by Rick: "It's The Bachelor meets Homeland." And maybe it's just me, but I didn't at all miss Captain Gates. I feel like the writers really don't know what to do with her, and more often than not in recent episodes she's been portrayed as a bit campy herself -- which to me is a distraction and a disservice to Penny Johnson Jerald. We may not have seen as much of Captain Montgomery as we'd have liked, but he was never played for a joke.
Overall, a satisfactory "relationship-centric" episode.