TV Review - Castle: Season 5

Stana Katic (left) and
Nathan Fillion in "Castle"

There are so many cop shows where two people, a guy and a girl, investigate crimes, mostly murders. Often, there is sexual tension between that guy and girl. Often, that tension remains as tension. Typically, producers of these shows know that once the tension is gone because the guy and girl have consummated their relationship or have sex, then the show is over. Or, is it? FOX's series Bones hooked up its guy and girl detectives and are still making it work, and it works because the tone of that show can facilitate it, a tone that borders on romantic comedy. The tone of The X-Files and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit weren't so facilitating, but Bones is. This show, similarly, has a tone that borders on romantic comedy and would facilitate its main characters becoming intimate. At least, the fifth season of Castle is going to test that hypothesis.

Before that test of my hypothesis, the premiere episode had to address the on-going mythology that the show has been dealing with for the past two seasons or more. The show wrapped up the conspiracy surrounding the murder of Kate Beckett's mother as well as the attempted murder of Beckett herself. It was an extremely well done wrap up. It helps if you've been watching the show for the past two seasons, since the end of Season 3, to get the true power of it, but the series isn't like Fringe where if you haven't been watching the past two seasons or so, you'll be totally lost going into the fifth.

The writers had to resolve the cliffhanger from last season. The season going forward will mostly be murder-of-the-week, standalone episodes. Yet, the show is so much more than just the murder-of-the-week formula that is a staple of so many cop shows. It's so much more than the CBS procedurals where the cops go through the predictable motions.

The difference here is Nathan Fillion who plays Rick Castle, the mystery writer-turned-criminal investigator. Castle is a bit of a comedian. He's charming. He's caring, but he's also very smart. He's witty and snappy and sometimes full of himself. He's also the perfect lead for what could be described as an adventure series. Yes, every cop show could be described as such, but even cop shows that are closer in tone like The Mentalist don't have the Indiana Jones sense of adventure, that perilous spirit that marked the fun, Flash Gordon-like serials that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were aping.

What the Season 5 premiere does that the show has done well for the past two or three seasons is not just lead its characters along a path of bread crumbs. Castle does a good job of putting Castle and Beckett, played by Stana Katic, into dangerous situations, traps from which they have to escape. Even when it gets ridiculous, as it did last season when Castle and Beckett were locked in a room with ferocious felines, still the show handles it very well. The show is always thrilling and engaging. It never slows down or wastes time.

Its supporting cast is spectacular with Jon Huertas, Seamus Dever, Susan Sullivan, Molly C. Quinn and Tamala Jones.

Five Stars out of Five.
Rated TV-PG-DV.
Running Time: 1 hr.
Airs Mondays at 10PM on ABC.