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Castle 4-21: Headhunters

Once upon a time, Nathan Fillion was on a little show called Firefly. They have made references to it over the years on Castle, but as far as I remember, they have never had any of his co-stars guest on the show.

Until last night.

In case you were wondering what the big deal of Adam Baldwin guest starring on Castle was, now you know. He was one of Nathan’s co-stars on that short lived cult show. Frankly, I’d be curious to know how many people turned in just to see the two of them on screen together again. Now I’ve got to admit that I was a casual viewer of Firefly (before my boycott almost anything and everything Joss Whedon days), so I remember Adam Baldwin best from the just finished Chuck.

But I digress.

Last night opened with a homeless man walking up to a corpse. No, he wasn’t trying to figure out if he could still help the guy; he wanted to rob him. All that changed when he found three severed heads on the guy.

Cut to Castle, who’s trying to overcome a bad case of writer’s block. His muse of Beckett isn’t helping him at all, and since she is prepping for court, they won’t have a case to work on. Of course, he isn’t sure how much time he wants to spend with her, but that’s beside the point. Then he catches the breaking news of the case and decides that he needs a new muse.

This new muse is Slaughter, Adam Baldwin’s character. He’s a member of the gang task force, and he’s gotten this case because the victim was the member of a gang. (I think it was Irish.) Slaughter is a loner (just like Beckett was at the beginning of the series or so we think at the beginning). In fact, his last three partners have died, two on their first day as his partner.Read More »Castle 4-21: Headhunters

Checking in with ABC’s 2011-12 Lineup

8 months and 13 shows later, we have seen every new show ABC has to offer for this 2011-2012 season. Now we have had a few flops (I’m looking at you “Work It”), but we have had a really solid season…especially compared to last year. When your biggest show is “No Ordinary Family,” you have a problem. Anyways, I felt like now would be a wonderful time to reflect on the past season. Find out the hits, the misses and what to look forward to this summer.

THE MISSES: It’s always better to start off with the bad…right? Out of the 13, 3 have already been cancelled. Those three include the I-Take-Myself-Too-Seriously “Charlie’s Angels,” the Did-I-Actually-Have-Any-Fans “Man Up,” and finally, the piece de resistance, the Why-ABC-Just-Why “Work It”. Many people could see from a mile away that these would be cancelled within weeks of their premiere, and they were right.

There are also a few shows as of now that are on the brink of cancellation including the Started-Off-Great-But-Nosedived-Like-The-Subject-Matter “Pan-Am” and the Trying-To-Get-The-Same-Viewership-Numbers-As-Paranormal-Activity “The River”. Both ended with about 3 million viewers watching the final episode…which does not bode well with ABC execs. Don’t be too surprised to see press releases stating that they have been cancelled in the coming months. So 5 out of 13 are duds, which is not a bad percentage. Luckily, ABC could make up for those with the other, actually good, shows.

Read More »Checking in with ABC’s 2011-12 Lineup

Castle 4-20: The Limey

A couple weeks ago, I stated that the rest of this season of Castle would turn serious. Looks like I was misled. Okay, so I’ll admit that this show has some more serious moments, but there were lots of light, fun moments as well. And lots of fallout from last week’s revelation.

Speaking of which, last week, TV Guide made an excellent point. Why didn’t Castle talk to Beckett about what he overheard instead of assuming her lack of acknowledgement meant she didn’t love him back. This week, Beckett compounds the problem. Is there any hope of our favorite couple?

The episode starts with a dead body on the floor of a hotel room. A man is searching for something while a maid is trying to get into the room. He finds it just in time and walks out of the room just before the maid walks in. She doesn’t think anything of it until she finds the body and lets out a scream.Read More »Castle 4-20: The Limey

Once Upon a Time 1-18: The Stable Boy

The big question of the season for me has been, what did Snow White do to Regina to make Regina hate her so much. That was finally answered last night. (And I really did think they’d hold that until season two.) It fits with the universe they’ve created, and I can understand much of what has come since. However, it was predictable. Which is probably why they focused more on Storybrooke.

What the story lacked in, well, story, it more than made up for in makeup and casting. They did a great job of giving us a younger version of Regina. And the actress they hired to play the young Snow White was amazing in how she captured the looks and mannerisms of Ginnifer Goodwin. If I didn’t know better, I would have said they used the regular actress, but the budget wouldn’t have covered the special effects needed to create her as a child.

And let’s start in Fairy Tale.

When we first see Regina, she is riding a horse and jumping over obstacles. Her father praises her, but then her mother appears and starts to berate her for not acting like a proper young lady. When Regina starts to argue, her mother starts using magic against her, first raising her off the ground and then squeezing her until she backs down.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-18: The Stable Boy

Castle 4-19: 47 Seconds

Last night’s Castle featured two bombs and a near miss. Of course, only one of those was a literal bomb. Along the way, the episode reminded me a bit of Vantage Point as Beckett and Castle had to piece together what happened with bits and pieces of what others saw at the scene of the literal bomb.

It opens at the scene of a TakeOver Wall Street protest. This show rarely seems to draw stories from the headlines, so I was a bit surprised to see this story in the show since it was obviously a version of Occupy Wall Street completely with 99% signs. Anyway, our first shot is of a reporter and her cameraman who are ready to go live with a broadcast about the protests. They’ve just started the report when a bomb goes off. In the aftermath, 5 people are dead.

Our usual gang shows up, but they are sidelined. Since it involved a bomb, the FBI are the primaries, but they do ask the local police to help them. Helping them starts with interviewing friends and relatives of the victims to find out if one of them was a target. One was a man on vacation, another a mom with two young kids. The third we learn about was one of the founders of the movement. But that doesn’t seem to be the motive.Read More »Castle 4-19: 47 Seconds

Once Upon a Time 1-17: Hat Trick

I’ll admit, when I learned that Once Upon a Time was going to introduce The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland into the mix, I was both worried and curious. This definitely stretches the definition of a fairy tale character. A series of books I enjoy with a similar idea has included characters from that story in its fairy tale characters. And at the same time, it could be interesting. Fortunately, it turned out to be both entertaining and fit into the framework they’ve created for the show so far.

I was going to break with tradition and start with Storybrooke, but there are a couple of things we learned in Fairy Tale that came up later in Storybrooke, so we’ll keep with convention.

Our first shot of Jefferson (aka the Mad Hatter) in Fairy Tale is of him running through the forest. He’s trying to get away from…his daughter Grace. But she finds him right away. Unfortunately, Hide and Seek time is over and they need to get to the work at hand – finding mushrooms to sell in town the next day.

When they get home, they find Regina waiting for them. Jefferson sends Grace into the woods to hide before finding out what the Queen wants. She wants Jefferson’s help in retrieving something from “there.” He refuses, stating he won’t leave his daughter. “You just don’t leave family.” He’s not even tempted by her offer of making sure Grace never wants again. These two definitely have some kind of history as Regina makes some references to his past, but we have no idea what it is.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-17: Hat Trick

The River: Season 1, Episode 8 – Row, Row, Row Your Boat

We open with a sweet look back to 1988, where Lincoln sings Lena to sleep aboard the Magus. Life is but a dream.

Except on the present-day Magus, life’s sort of confusing. Looking for answers, the crew confronts Cole, who’s not talking about The Source. He mostly seems focused on rekindling relations with his wife and son.

And then, out of nowhere, Lincoln is dead. Shot. Conveniently, the power was out while Emilio fixed the generator, so on a boat that’s completely covered with cameras, there’s no footage of the murder.

For a second, it looks like an episode of Clue at sea. Was it Kurt in the galley with the long-range rifle? He says no and turns over his weapons. But I’m enchanted by the prospect—was it Jonas at the helm with a handgun? Lena from the port bow with a tactical assault rifle?

Read More »The River: Season 1, Episode 8 – Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Castle 4-18: A Dance with Death

When I found out that they were planning an episode of Castle that centered around a reality dancing competition, I was actually surprised they hadn’t done one before. Since the show has Dancing with the Stars as a lead in much of the year, it seems like a natural fit. And while last night’s show within a show looked like it took more from the dancing shows on other networks, it was still lots of fun.

The episode opens during the taping of one of the semi-finals of A Night of Dance, a hot reality show that features amateur dancers competing for an undisclosed prize. Honestly, the prize doesn’t matter because the host has barely gotten through the introductions when the female contestant for that episode misses her cue. An assistant is sent to her dressing room and she is found dead from a gunshot.

Now before we get back to the story, a quick aside. If they didn’t film that opening scene on the set of Dancing with the Stars, I’d be shocked. It looked enough like it. They tweaked some things here or there, but for the most part, it had to be the same set.Read More »Castle 4-18: A Dance with Death