Castle: Season 1 (2009)

basics...

Starring Nathan Fillion (the main draw for me) as Richard Castle, a novelist who helps out/tags along with detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and her team as they conduct murder investigations, ostensibly so that Castle can draw inspiration for his work. 

brilliant...

What puts Castle slightly above similar crime-dramas, since there are so many churned out by US TV networks, is the humour and chemisty of the two leads, which builds well across the short 10-episode first season after a slightly shaky start. Fillion is always so charming, he's a pleasure to watch, and Castle's will-they-won't-they flirtatious relationship with beautiful Beckett makes for some funny scenes. The murders are often gruesome, glossily filmed mysteries, and often include the odd surprise twist, although for the most part there's not much new, other than Castle's fiction-writer input to the crimes. The writer's relationship with his teenage daughter (Molly C. Quinn) provides a lot of the emotional backbone of the show, as well as sparky humour, as does Beckett's backstory concerning the murder of her mother. This latter looks set to be the 'Samantha Mulder' motivation that will burn away in the background, coming to the fore now and then as the series moves forward.

but...

As with any series, it took a few episodes for Castle to find its feet, the first couple feeling a bit too flashy and inconsequential, but once the relationships and the humour became more assured the show improved. In these first 10 episodes it was important that Beckett and Castle became characters you wanted to keep returning to, so it was perhaps inevitable that the other leads, Beckett's fellow detectives, her boss and the medical examiner, got short shrift and didn't make that much of an impression. It's also taking a while for Castle's live-in actress mother (Susan Sullivan) to grow on me too. 

briefly...
Glossy, gratuitous and greatly engaging, Castle is owned by Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic's enigmatic pairing. A better-than-average crime drama with an intriguing literary background.