Okay,
before all you Brown-coats go running to buckle your gun holster, let me
explain.
Just
like all the other fan-boys who had their hearts broken in 2003 when Fox
cancelled the Joss Whedon mega hit, Firefly, I too have hope for its valiant
return to TV…someday. But after the
movie Serenity—which some say closed the Firefly series, and some say it didn’t—we
haven’t really heard a peep from any TV executives, just some mumbling from
Whedon and Nathan Fillion (Captain Malcolm Reynolds), about how they’d like to
see the series come back. For now
though, we’re all stuck clinging to our Firefly DVD’s, like children holding
their favorite teddy-bear that hasn’t been cleaned in a better part of a
decade. Since we don’t have any idea of
what the future really holds for the Serenity crew, I can offer something that
might ease the pain…at least for now.
If
you missed Mal and all his antics aboard Serenity, then you don’t have to look too far.
Back in 2009 a series with Fillion as lead started burrowing its way
into more and more fans, and here’s the best part: it’s still on TV. What show am I referring too? Some of you out there already know, but for
those who don’t, I’m referring to Castle. (In fact, Castle Season 4 comes out on DVD
this Tuesday and Castle Season 5 starts the 24th of this month)
What
made me love Firefly was of course, the great writing of Joss Whedon, but also
it had a lot to do with Nathan Fillion and his over the top comedic mannerisms. His facial expressions, delivery of lines,
and his reactions to his co-stars, all played a role in me loving Mal
Reynolds. You might be asking yourself,
“What the heck does that have to do with Castle?” Well I’m here to tell you.
Nathan
Fillion stars as the middle-aged—but still acts like he’s a
teenager—best-selling author, Richard Castle.
When a copy-cat killer starts to murder people the same way as some of
the murders in his books; a sexy, strong, confident detective decides to ask
Castle for help on the case. Detective
Kate Beckett—expertly played by Stana Katic—gets more then she bargained for, because
Richard Castle decides to base his next book’s character on her.
In
reality, it’s your basic boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl; girl
loves boy, but doesn’t-want-him-to-really-know story. There’s much more to the show then what I’ve summoned
up here, as the duo work to solve a crime every episode. But not only is the show refreshing from a
comedic stand point, the murders and how they’re solved are well written and
superbly acted.
It’s
amazing what the writing crew actually squeezes into only a 42 minute episode. Sometimes you get lucky and a story arc will
spill over into the next episode, but most of the time the twists and turns and
zigzags are all present in one amazing episode, after another. And don’t think the show is all crime
drama. There have been episodes
involving ghosts, steam-punk culture, zombies, Super-heroes and on and on…it’s
really quite impressive. I for one
cannot wait for the beginning of the next season, especially with where Season
4 left off.
What
I’m really trying to say is: underneath the witty writer shell of Castle, and
underneath the rugged and tough Captain Mal, lay an individual named Nathan
Fillion. See, I believe all those funny
mannerisms and excellent performances are just Nathan Fillion, being Nathan
Fillion. And until we see the second
season of Firefly in actual production, Castle—in my mind—is the next best
thing.
So it’s perfectly fine to sport your Brown-coat
while watching episodes of Castle—don’t worry, I won’t tell. It’ll just be between us Independents.
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