"Castle": The Return of Awesome

Nathan Fillion is the man. No, really; there have been studies and everything. I first became acquainted with him on Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place as Johnny, the boyfriend of the ‘girl’ in the title. I personally thought he was funnier than Ryan Reynolds (you know, from Blade: Trinity and Van Wilder) and thought he was about that only thing that made Sharon (the girl) interesting. Oh snap! Yeah, I said it. He stood out enough to where I remember his character even today, but at this point he wasn’t yet ‘the man’.

Fortunately, our televisions weren’t forced to suffer on without him for long. Nathan reappeared on what some call one of, if not the, greatest shows to ever come on television. Of course, by some I actually mean myself and the people in my chat room, but I digress. I assure you that there is no deceit in my heart when I say that I am a big time Firefly fan. A spawn of the mind of Joss Whedon (whose brain only spawns pure, undiluted awesomeness), Firefly brought us Nathan as Captain Malcom Reynolds, the brash leader of group of smugglers and misfits. Ok, it’s basically a Western in space but way cooler (if that’s possible). I've been told by reliable sources that this description can lead to a "yeah, I'm not going to watch that" attitude. I assure you you will be missing out. It had this cool semi-steampunk feel. If you have never seen it I can’t stress enough how bad you need to go pick it up on Blu Ray or DVD right now. A lot of what made the show melt faces was Nathan’s comedic acting (though the show is not a straight up comedy) and facial expressions. At this point, Nathan is fully “the man’. I think Nathan with Joss Whedon is a perfect fit and can only hope they work together again at some point. Oh, wait……

Nathan next appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer for part of a season. Once again, he produced a fine performance and created memorable character. I really can’t say more without spoilers and I know at least one of you is still going through Buffy right now....because I am re-watching it with you. ;) If only this hadn’t been the end of the Fillion/Whedon era. Oh, wait again…..

After a short-lived series, Driver, for Fox (it really wasn’t THAT bad), Nathan has shown up here and there. I’m told he did a story arc on Desperate Housewives but I don’t watch that mess so I can’t comment. Right about this time, however, we had the writer’s strike. While we were stuck with a lot of re-runs and weird reality shows for a while, there was a pretty cool phenom where actors and writers would get together and make internet only short films, webisodes, and just generally interesting bits. Joss Whedon put together a weblog of several episodes with Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, you knew that), Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day (who, btw, is in a cool web show called The Guild). Basically, the weblog was the video blog of Dr. Horrible, a rising evil villain struggling between wooing a girl he sees at the laundry mat and fighting off his nemesis, Captain Hammers, played by Nathan. Um, since I forgot to write it earlier, the show is called Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. You can go to the official site and watch the episodes for or buy it on DVD or in iTunes – or you can just borrow it from me if you know me. Anyway, the awesomeness was thus continued.

This entire rambling preamble was for no other purpose than to set up the real point of this blog: Nathan is back. Brace yourselves.

Monday nights at 10pm on ABC you can catch Fillion as Richard Castle, successful mystery writer turned police tag-along. I’m a little tired from all this typing (yes, I am that out of shape) so I am just going to quote tv.com:

Meet Richard Castle: he's a successful murder-mystery writer who has just killed off his main character. However, it seems one of his fans liked his books just a bit too much when a copycat murderer starts running around killing people as described in Castle's books.

After being questioned by the police Richard joins forces with Detective Kate Beckett to solve this case. The two become partners begin working together to solve other murders in New York along with other detectives Tony Esposito, Kevin Ryan and Captain Roy Montgomery. They also work with medical examiner Lanie Parish. Richard's family includes his mother Martha Rodgers, who was a Broadway diva and his daughter Alexis.

Yeah, I know it sounds a little “Huh?” but so far I like the show. It has the elements of a mystery and a cop show. The chemistry between Castle and his partner is there but not overdone - yet. Some of the best parts are when Castle just takes over and interview or starts telling an elaborate theory to a mass of enthralled detectives in the precinct. I would say that Castle’s humor is similar to Capt. Reynolds from Firefly in a good way. I have only seen the first few episodes (since, well, that is all there is) but would count myself as a fan. So, what now? Well, I would vote you go to your Tivo and erase those old episodes of Blind Date so you can make some room for Castle. If you want to get caught up you can watch free episodes at the official site, here.

If you are already watching the show (or are a Fillion or Firefly fan) I would love to hear your comments.

HT below:

ABC Official Castle Site
Castletv.net
NathanFillion.org
Tv.com

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