Tag Archives: Castle

Castle: A Questionable End

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(I wrote this a while back, when it was timely but never posted it. I felt I needed more time to digest the series finale before publishing it, but in the end, I still feel the same. So, here it is at long last.)

Last night, the final episode of one of my all time favorite shows aired, and I came away disappointed. I understand that there were cast problems, or at least rumors of such, in the last weeks of filming, but the whole episode was something of a mess.
The thing that bothered me most about the episode is that both Castle and Beckett not only looked a bit odd but behaved that way too. There was just something about their individual appearances that just didn’t look right, and I suppose it could be traced back to the rumors, whether true or not, of the fights Fillion and Katic had been having. Or maybe it was a deliberate action on the parts of the makeup department in an attempt to show the stress the two characters were experiencing. I can’t say. Hell, I can’t even say what it is about their appearances that didn’t look right. But the characters’ appearances were wrong and there was something about both the script and performances that didn’t gel well either.
The whole episode felt forced, which I suppose it was. The ending was especially bad; while they triumphed over yet another bad guy, both were shot and, in my opinion, appeared to be mortally wounded. Yet, seconds after they clasped hands while bleeding out on the floor, we got an ellipsis, passage of seven years, and little children running about the happy couple’s home.
I don’t know whether to consider that trite, a stab at a choose your own ending storytelling, or an indication that the narrator is unreliable. In any case, the explanations fall short for me.
Though I would have loved to have Castle and Beckett live out their lives with children, everything after them bleeding on the floor rang even more hollow than the rest of the episode.
Frankly, this was not the ending I expected or feel the fans of the show deserved, whether or not the couple lived or died. This was a very u n-Castle episode, and I can only be happy there will be no follow-up to explain what really happened there. Like a novel, the book of Castle is closed for me and I’ll remember the many chapters with great fondness, though I’ll forevermore wish I’d never read the ending.

Something Wicked Yadda Yadda Yadda…

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(Disclaimer: It’s late, I’m tired, and I’m hungry for success and a good Philly cheesesteak.)

April 28, 2012. That was the official date of my graduation from Oakland University. It was the date that I officially received my Bachelors of Arts in Cinema Studies (Criticism). It was and is a far cry from where I thought I’d be twenty three years ago. On this date precisely twenty two years ago, I was attending — flunking out of, really — Michigan State University, addicted to CNN’s coverage of the [first] Gulf War, eating Gumby’s Pizza, while trying to figure out how I could recover from the mess I was making of my life. I’d abandoned the Air Force R.O.T.C. as I felt the detachment never had its act together. I abandoned my major, because electrical engineering simply wasn’t what I wanted to do but there was no computer science program at MSU dedicated to churning out programmers, at least as far as I was able to discover at that time. In reality, while I was — and am — fascinated by programming, it ultimately wasn’t and isn’t what I really wanted to do with my life. As I told a friend recently, I only really got to be good with programming because when I was a kid with my Atari 800XL computer, I didn’t have a word processor nor did I know what one was for several years, and so I took to trying to create something that would just let me write.

Writing… In all honesty, it’s the only thing I’m truly good at. I personally don’t think that I have the vision of some of the greats; I don’t think I could write thirty or forty novels with the same characters like some authors have. I tend to think that my stories are simplistic and often immature, that there needs to be a moral that I’m failing to add.When I read my stories, I find them entertaining, but I often feel they’re missing something… Something to move them from good to great.

So when I finally gave up on the tech industry after it abandoned me yet again, I decided to shift gears and move from my logical, technical side to my more creative side, and hope to build a career in writing. When the film industry started picking up and all the stars aligned and the Cinema Studies program became available at Oakland University, to which my mother is an alumnus, I enrolled thinking about screenwriting as a potential career.

During my three years at Oakland University, I’ve had some truly great teachers, and I’m going to name names here for all of you out there. If you’re lucky, you’ll be fortunate enough to have one or all of them as your teacher one day. Dr. Kyle Edwards, head of the Cinema Studies program, accepted me in with open arms despite my technical background, and taught one hell of a class on Sound Era Films. Dr. Ross Melnick was only there for a single year, but I was fortunate enough to have him for three classes, and I’m astonished at how much film and theater history there is to learn courtesy of that man. I’ll never look at or think about a Roxy theater without thinking about the man behind the name now. Dr. Doris Plantus-Runey is an eccentric genius and I looked forward to every damned minute of her screenwriting and adaptations classes. Hunter Vaughan is not quite as eccentric but no less a genius, though I must confess that film theory beyond montage is not my forte. I must also thank him for exposing his students to Last Year at Marienbad and a few other esoteric films that really make you think, and don’t just entertain. Expect the unexpected! Dr. Heidi Kenaga is another slightly eccentric professor, but I don’t think there’s anyone that knows more about films. Name a film and she can discuss it in detail, and I was very fortunate to be taught by her in each of my three years at OU. There are others as well, including some outside the Cinema Studies program such as my Japanese teacher, Masae Yasuda — who moved on to the University of Michigan — that are more than worth noting. They’re worth thanking and appreciating. To all those I’ve left unmentioned, thank you!

I seem to have left the rails of my original train of thought… Or have I? Without these people, these classes I’ve taken, and the opportunity to sit and stew on all that I’ve learned, I don’t think that it would be remotely possible for me to embark upon a writing career, let alone do it successfully. Not that I’ve gotten there yet, mind you, but I needed to be shaped and honed. I certainly look at every television show and film with a more critical eye, identifying the things I like and dislike the most about them. I can now spot themes I never would’ve consciously noticed before, and I can question and appreciate the choices made in the writing phase more than I ever could before. I may have earned at BA of Cinema Studies, but what I really did is build a set of tools to help me achieve my goals. They can’t be given, they have to be developed. When combined with the skills I already possessed, I have no excuse for not succeeding. My stories may still lack something of a moral character, in my eyes, but that doesn’t mean they’re unacceptable. The point of many stories, like mine, is to entertain, and so that’s what I’ll do.

I have the tools, I just have to use them.

To that end, I’ll bore you for another few moments with a brief discussion of some of the things I’ve watched recently, and what drew me to them. First and foremost are the shows that I love because they simply make writers look cool, Castle and Californication. I watch both of these shows because of the writer connection, the fact that I’m living vicariously through each of the central writer characters which are wildly successful compared to myself, the humor, the writing, and the actors playing the writers in question: Nathan Fillion and David Duchovny. Perhaps I read too much into it when I draw a parallel between the two actors as both were on wildly popular if not successful sci-fi shows at some point before they took on these authorial personae, but given the “mundaneness” of their current characters’ career choices, I like to think there’s some hope for myself. Similarly, I watched Midnight in Paris earlier this evening, starring Owen Wilson as a screenwriter aspiring to be an author. Besides the obvious parallel to my own life, or desired life, this film was intriguing from many different points of view, even if you don’t like Owen. Frankly, it seems that Woody Allen might make me a fan if he keeps this up! Then there’s House of Lies starring Don Cheadle. There’s no good excuse for watching it other than I enjoy it, but there’s something that was done often in the first season that is so far largely missing from the second, and I hope it returns before they lose my viewership: breaking the fourth wall. Marty, Cheadle’s character, would regularly talk to the viewer, hold up cue cards, and do bizarre things that none of the other characters would notice during every episode, and I loved every single moment of it because he was an acknowledgment of the absurdity of his character’s situation. It’s been used sparingly so far this season, but I hope that’s because they’re saving it for something really good. The final thing I want to mention is House of Cards, a Netflix produced series available exclusively (for now at least) on their service. Like the other House I mentioned here, the main character — Francis Underwood played by Kevin Spacey (another one of my favorite actors, by the way) — frequently breaks the fourth wall, bringing a bit of levity and insight to the otherwise deep and heavy political angling and pressure of the show. I’m not saying I’m a fan after watching the first two episodes this evening, but I love what I see, and I have to admit that I am beyond fascinated with Underwood’s relationship with his wife. He may have the political power and ability to scheme like no one else, but he appears to be as deadly loyal to his wife as she is to him, though it is clear that she holds some measure of power over him. I think the thing that caught my attention in the first episode was when she said to him in no uncertain terms “My husband doesn’t apologize to anyone, not even me” which forced him to reevaluate his reactions to a political snub. There’s an oddness to their relationship that I can’t quite define yet, but it’s going to have me coming back episode after episode.

So I’ve rambled on for almost exactly fifteen hundred words. (Well, exactly that at “words.”) Why? Because I’m not where I thought I would be more than two decades ago. Because I have developed the tools to put me where I want to be two decades from now. Because I know what I like, what I want to capture, and what I’m going to give you. It’s time to stop delaying and panicking and start writing and crafting. I may not get there this year, but I will get there. I’m now putting forth the effort to get there, and if I fail, well, that’s fine too. But I’m not going out without trying. Clancy Brown, in his role as Kurgan in The Highlander, said “it’s better to burn out than to fade away.” I get that now. It’s better to give it my all and fail than to have never tried at all. Perhaps I’ll have a brief but brilliant career. Perhaps I’ll have a long and amazing career. Perhaps not. But if there’s no effort, I’ll never know. If I can’t put a moral in my stories, then I’m going to put sin in. Just know that something wicked this way comes!

“The Look” or Another Fine Episode of Castle!

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I think we already established the fact that I’m a Castle fan. I watch the show religiously. I follow both Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic on Twitter. I’ve gotten friends hooked on the show! I’ll confess that my heart has a special place for television shows and movies that make writers look far more interesting than I think we probably really are: that means I love Castle, and I love Californication. (Yeah, Duchovny, if you’re listening, I’m still a fan of yours after all these years!) So, it’s not unexpected that I saw tonight’s episode.

Out of respect for the West Coast, I’ll invalidate my normal truth, the whole truth, and damn the spoiler warnings and actually not reveal anything about the episode. Except one detail.

There was a moment, one single intensified moment when everything that needed to be said by Beckett and Castle was said, and neither of them uttered a word. It was as plain as day on Beckett’s face, and while their lover’s dance has not yet reached its end, Castle would be a fool indeed if he didn’t get the message.

Westies… You’ll know the moment when you see it… Trust me…!

X-Filing Supernatural

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As I told some of my fellow Cinema Studies students last week, I don’t normally recommend watching Supernatural. The reasons are many and varied, but usually boil down to my viewpoint that the show’s themes aren’t terribly original. That’s changed, over the years, but I’m usually quite bored when I watch it, and the usual reason I do watch it is because it comes on right after Smallville.

Every now and then, however, they have a really well written episode, a seriously funny episode, or one that’s fortunate enough to be both. Such an episode was “Clap Your Hands If You Believe” which carried hilarious subtitle of “Fight The Fairies!” (or at least should have), and then there was last week’s episode, “The French Mistake”, the main characters were transported to an alternate reality where they were actors playing their characters. In the soon to be immortalized words of Castle from an episode a few weeks back, “it was too meta…” Jensen Ackles playing Dean Winchester discovering that Dean Winchester was a character being played by the actor Jensen Ackles… The only way to unfuck that is to realize that Ackles was ultimately playing a unsteady version of himself. Nonetheless, it was a funny and well written episode that undoubtedly made a lot of other cinephiles like myself laugh whole heartedly… Assuming I wasn’t the only one that watched it…

So, being in my usual state, I decided to watch tonight to see if they might do anything interesting. Ultimately, it wasn’t the plot that caught my attention, though it was very X-Files-ish, but it was the fact that it actually had two X-Files alumni appearing. “And Then There Were None” starred Mitch Pileggi, known to X-Files fans as Assistant Director Walter Skinner, and Steven Williams, the legendary Mr. X himself! While I always recognize Pileggi, and knew that he’d been playing the role of Samuel Winchester, the primary character’s previously deceased grandfather, Steven Williams has only appeared in 4 episodes according to IMDB, and I didn’t recognize him right off the bat. As the episode went on, his face and voice began to ring some bells, and I looked him up discovering that it was indeed Mr. X.

It took me a full hour after the show went off to make the connection and realize that everything about tonight’s episode was in essence an X-Files tribute. Mr. Kripke, you’re slowly turning me into a fan!

A Distant Rumble…

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Storms are interesting. First they start as a distant rumble, nothing more than faint noises on the wind, too distant to be concerned about. Slowly and mostly unseen, they start gathering strength, and the world changes, subtly at first, but with ever growing magnitude. Eventually, you’re caught in a raging storm beyond control of any but God himself!

Sometimes, Hollywood and the television industries operate in the same way. Whispered dreams turn into quiet conversations. Those, in turn, turn into wishful thinking among increasingly large groups of people. The quiet demand becomes a conscious thought in the heads of studio executives, and aides and personal assistants are put into a frenzy. Negotiations take place, money gets allocated, and then finally, the perfect storm of film-making begins.

Today, I heard a distant but welcome rumble. It seems that the Science Channel has taken a strong interest in Firefly. The Science Channel, if you’re unaware, isn’t exactly known for running science fiction television and movies like Siffie, the channel formerly known and loved as The Sci-Fi Channel. No, the Science Channel is owned and run by Discovery, the same as The Discovery Channel, which means its focus is primarily on science fact instead of science fiction. So this matching of Firefly and the Science Channel is unusual to say the least. But it’s a distant rumble nonetheless.

What this means is that there are powers at work, high in the ranks of television executives, that are fond enough of Firefly to negotiate for the rights to air it in its entirety, pay Dr. Michio Kaku a lot of money to do his segments, and of course advertise and promote the airings. This is a lot of money and a lot of effort to put into a television show that was last actively produced (not counting the film Serenity) nearly a decade ago! This rumbling isn’t in your imagination, it’s real thunder.

But it is still at a distance…

As the follow up article at Entertainment Weekly states, there are a lot of hurdles to actually reviving the series and putting in back into production. It would still take quite a large sum of money to buy the rights, bring back Joss Whedon and cast members such as Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite and others that are now working on other projects, and actually get to making episodes, but this is a rumble. Maybe nothing will come of it. Maybe fans like myself are just dreaming. Maybe this storm will disperse before it ever gathers critical mass.

But maybe this is the beginning.

Years ago, Fox canceled yet another television series I dearly loved, Futurama. Well, despite Fox’s efforts, the show never really went away. It was dormant for a few years, but now there are new episodes being produced with the original cast. And of course, we are all too painfully aware that a lot of classic television series from prior decades have been revived and respawned as new franchises. So I would say, yes, there is hope that Firefly may return. The storm may yet gather critical mass. If the sale of the rights may be out of the question, it’s possible that a brewing storm of support and interest could spur Fox into bringing it back.

At this point anything is possible.

The question on my mind, is would the actors willingly leave their current projects to return to Firefly? Nathan Fillion seems like he might, though I’d absolutely hate to see Castle end. Would Morena Baccarin leave V? Would Gina Torres leave Huge? How about Summer Glau with The Cape? And what about the actors for characters that were killed off in Serenity, like Ron Glass’ Shepherd Book and Alan Tudyk’s Wash? If this storm is to gather the hurricane strength winds it’ll need, these questions will need to be resolved.

Still, we’ve been in the desert a good while now, and I think we could use a little rain. This distant rumble is good news to me…

THE Kiss a.k.a. Castle “Knockdown”

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Before I go any further, I want to make this epically clear: I am highly biased in favor and support of Nathan Fillion. I love the guy. There, I said it, and I’m not ashamed. I loved his character and acting in Firefly and Serenity. He was awesome as Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I would’ve paid to see him playing Nathan Drake in the upcoming film adaptation of the PS3 game Uncharted. Multiple times even. I follow him (@NathanFillion) on Twitter. If I weren’t heterosexual, I’d probably be stalking him right now. So obviously, I watch Castle. There, that’s out of the way.

Being a [wannabe] writer myself, I connected with Castle, character and television series, right off the bat. Although I can’t write dialogue any better than George Lucas can (sorry Mr. Lucas!!), I’ve always loved witty repartee in movies and television, and there’s loads to be found in every single episode of Castle. Furthermore, I’m also a fan of good police/crime dramas. Add a little humor, romance, and top it off with strong familial connections, and I’m a sucker for a show. Castle has delivered all of this since day one, and I’m incredibly addicted to it. Hell, I even got one of my best friends hooked on it, then got her hooked on Firefly…!

This being the third season of the show, we the audience, and I in particular, have been waiting for the romantic & sexual tension to break between Richard Castle and Kate Beckett, played by the gorgeous Stana Katic. (If you’re reading this Stana, and you have a position open for a stalker, please let me know!:-) ) I think we all knew it was going to happen eventually. We’ve seen the missed opportunities and the longing from both Castle and Beckett. We even know the supporting characters are all pulling for it as well! Until now, things just haven’t worked out… As a writer, especially one being trained to be a screenwriter, I know this couldn’t be dragged out for another season without this sweet release, and tonight we finally got it!

I’ll admit, I haven’t seen the whole episode yet, so I don’t know what leads up to it, but the kiss was amazing! I’m not one for romance movies, but I was cheering nonstop when Castle and Beckett finally kissed! Hell, I’m burning that episode to DVD from my computer (where I recorded it) right now so I can watch that over and over for the next 10 years…! I have never enjoyed watching on-screen kisses before now because they always looked so fake to me, but Nathan and Stana — excuse my French — just fucking went for it! Maybe I was seeing it through rose colored glasses, but that was the best kiss I’ve ever seen in any television show or movie! Hell, I don’t think my ex-wife and I ever kissed that passionately!

In MY book, this kiss should be immortalized forever simply as “THE Kiss”! There’s a line in The Princess Bride that talks about a kiss to which all others are compared, well, the ante just got raised!

This is probably my first and last post ever raving about a kiss or even romance, but THAT is how it’s done, people! Bravo to Nathan, Stana, the cast and crew of Castle!

Sponsors Bailing on Skins

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I know that I’m not responsible for it, because I have zero influence, but it’s interesting to find out that sponsors are not at all impressed with MTV’s version of Skins. So far, they’ve lost at least four sponsors,  because the show is too controversial. Now, I still haven’t watched the MTV version, and I’m not likely to since it conflicts with my school schedule and a far superior show — Castle; more on that in a few minutes — but I find it hard to believe that a company that’s as big and active as MTV would go out and make child porn (as some people are calling it). Nor do I think they would stray too terribly far from the basic formula of the BBC version of the show, which I think would fit in perfectly with my skewed impression of MTV’s programming.

Nonetheless, I’ve been wrong before. As I’ve watched over the years, MTV’s programming has become significantly more “edgy” and risky as they try to capture the attention of the generations they’ve molded over the last thirty years. (Thankfully, they had little influence over me since I didn’t have cable television in any way, shape, or form for most of my life.) The drawback of always pushing the envelope is that you start to lose sight of when the envelope has reached its limits, and though the BBC version of Skins might have once been perfectly at home on the MTV I stereotype, it’s entirely possible that MTV sees it as a “good start” and have taken it to an extreme that it never should have approached.

Even if they’ve only taken it as far as the BBC did, and no further, it’s also entirely possible that the verisimilitude of the series was too much for mainstream America to digest on such a major television network. (One day, I promise you, I shall unleash my wrath on American censorship and conservative restrictions.) In any event, MTV is reaping what it has sown, and I do not foresee a long life for the American series. At least not on MTV.