TV Makes You Smart

Castle - Who's The Pimp?

Castle and Beckett play a game of three-card monte as they look for the killer responsible for pushing an assistant district attorney off the roof of a parking garage.  Castle carries around what he affectionately calls a Cape Fear file of the A.D.A.'s potential enemies, amongst whom is a criminal named Jessup.  Jessup is played by J.B. Smoove and he's fantastic and hilarious and should really be made a permanent part of the team.  A hooker (who is actually a bad guy) makes Castle feel sorry for her, which gives him an opportunity to demonstrate the earnest goodness we all love to see on Nathan Fillion's face.  On the home front, Alexis and Beckett have a mysterious meeting that turns out to be nothing, but only after Castle has spent the whole episode fretting about it.  In the end, Castle and Alexis are still adorable and heart-warming and Ryan and Esposito are yet again underused.

Castle - Kill The Messenger

Beckett and Castle work a pretty interesting case this week.  Ten years earlier a girl was killed and the guy who confessed only did so because he was bribed with enough money to keep his sick kid from dying.  When the payments to his wife and sick kid stop, the guy sends proof that he didn't do it via a bike messenger, who is killed and robbed en route.  Then the guy himself is killed so he can't talk.  It turns out a scheming rich family is behind it.  This means that Beckett and Castle have to talk to several jerky rich people.  Captain Montgomery was on the 10 year-old murder case so he's heavily involved this week in between bitching about budget cuts and impossible expectations.   When he faces down one of the jerky rich guys Castle gets a chance to do his fanboy admiration thing, which is always adorable.  Next week they investigate the motivation behind Beckett's terrible haircut.  Okay they don't but they should.  Seriously, America, what is up with that haircut? 

Castle - Alexis Figures It Out

A pop singer is killed and found hanging upside down in an alley in a position similar to one she strikes in a music video.  The psycho stalking fan didn't kill her, her ex-manager didn't kill her, her ex-bandmates didn't kill her, her junkie sister didn't kill her.  Thanks to Alexis's high level of fandom and smarts, Castle figures out what happened from listening to the last song the pop princess ever wrote.  We learn that Beckett likes watching Castle and Alexis together.  We notice that Ryan and Esposito are sorely underused. 

Castle - Didn't You Wear That, Like, Five Years Ago?

Last night's episode had fake vampires, fake werewolves, underage drinking and the requisite sexually-charged moments between Castle and Beckett.  But all that was just frosting on one of the greatest geek moments in recent history:  Nathan Fillion dressed as a space cowboy who looked remarkably like Malcom Reynolds while strains of Firefly music twanged faintly in the background.  It was infuriating.  It was satisfying.  It was perfect.  Castle continued its geek courtship by using comic book panels to help solve the crime.

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Castle - Tastes Like Soap

Beckett and Castle investigate the murder of a woman who was about to discover her son had been switched at birth with another boy.  It's very sad.  Meanwhile, Castle's awesome (we know she's awesome because she's played by Debi Mazar) agent tells him he has a chance at writing three books for a certain British secret agent franchise.  If he takes the job it's the end of his partnership with Beckett.  There's a lot of Castle questioning if she wants to get rid of him and her questioning if he wants to leave.  At the book release party they bicker sexily.  At one point they very nearly say good-bye.  But then Heat Wave does so well commercially and critically that all other offers are forgotten.  Beckett is pushed into cooperation by her boss and the mayor so she gets to continue pretending Castle is a pain in her ass.  They will be together for at least three more Nikki Heat books. 

Castle - Faux Snow

In "Fool Me Once", Castle and Beckett investigate the death of a man who was shot in the middle of pretending to be an Arctic Circle explorer.  He was really just a guy in an apartment with a tent and fake snow.  They learn he's a con man in more ways than just the one.  It's a great episode with twists and turns and Castle gleefully loving the reality of a con man.  When the fiance of the deceased tells them he was in the CIA, Castle nearly buckles and immediately tells Beckett, "This is the best case ever."

In his personal life, Castle gets too involved in protecting Alexis and she storms in to the police station to yell at him with awesome articulation and effectiveness.  Love her.  On the Beckett front, we see that she makes a sexy bath time ritual out of reading the advance of "Heat Wave" while pretending to him that she hasn't started it.   After learning the book has a sex scene, she sneaks in to the bathroom at the station to read and Castle catches her with the book. 

About Last Night

Ah, Heroes.  Back to your old tricks, including plotlines that inch forward at approximately the same pace as the planet's coastlines degrade and an overestimation of our interest in the minutiae of Claire's life.  The new hero is charming and appealing, but we know you, Heroes.  You'll misuse her or kill her or she'll just disappear.  At least Sylar knows what's up.  "I wish I was a ghost.  It'd be so much better than this hell.  Being stuck in your miserable life," he said to Matt.  We feel you, Sylar.  Keep it up and we might start looking forward to watching the show.  Also, Samuel is pretty f'n cool.  Please don't ruin Sylar and Samuel for us, Heroes.  Sigh.  Never mind.  We already know you will.

Castle completely suckered us in to laughing at the wagering joke.  The show does gallows humor (and taunting) really well.  It's nice to see Beckett lighten up a little bit, even if it took most of the episode.  And the use of red herrings in the story made it better than the normal mystery.

Dancing With the Stars has heavily stacked the deck to favor Mya and Aaron Carter.  We like Mya, we're rooting for her and Dmitry but it's not fair to have someone with so much dance training competing against athletes and a politician and on top of it pairing her with someone who has his own fan base from SYTYCD.  Something about Aaron Carter makes us want to punch him in his face and then tear some spiky hair off his head and stab him in the eye with it.  We like Louie and Debi.

The Real Chance of Love episode last night was an awesome example of why we love VH1 celebreality.  The girls had to make court cases against each other.  Sounds stupid and it is stupid, but the editors brilliantly used People's Court music and style to frame the absurdity.  It's just funny to someone be accused in a mock court of "Not holding it down for her man".  It just is.  Stupid Ryan Jenkins.  He ruined it for all of us.

Castle is Back

Castle came back Monday night with a story involving a dead guy stuck in a tree.  Turns out he became a drug mule when he lost his job in the big Wall Street meltdown.  Yup.  That's what happened.  Meanwhile, Castle played poker with Russian mobsters, daughter Castle was as earnest and angelic as ever, Javier and Kevin were adorable and Beckett has a new hair style.  There were cameos by actual mystery writers, there was fun at the expense of other crime shows and Castle swinging wildly between super cool and puppy dog goofy.  And in the end, as we suspected she would, Beckett forgave him for his intrusion into her pain.  Welcome back, Castle.