This includes Castle, though I don't love it as much as the others.
The dialogue is awful. And it makes it look like writers are famous multi-gagillionaires, whose publishing houses fly them around the world in five-star hotels with famous people. Oh, and people recognize them on sight (I have a huge list of writers I fangirl over, and I'm pretty sure I'd only recognize maybe 5 of them on sight).* BUT! At least it does focus on a MC whose career is writing, and some of the issues he has resonate with me. (though I still cannot figure out how the other MC, Beckett, became his "muse." Uh she is SO boring and one-dimensional. Cliche kickass female cop with no love life who refuses to open up to love, much?)
However, sometimes you get episodes like the last one I watched. Castle and Beckett go to LA together for a case (though Castle is actually supposed to be visiting the set of his new movie -- which okay, I guess if he's supposed to be like, Stephen King or something, he might have a say in some of the movie stuff, or at least get to visit and fanboy over the set).
While they're on the movie set, one of the actors comes up to Castle and asks him to explain his character's motivation.
"Why do I do what I do?" he asks.
Castle's reply? "Uh... You're a cop. It's your job?"
what. WRITER FAIL. Even secondary characters should have more to them -- hidden motivation and backstory and wants and problems and character growth arcs. Otherwise they just become flat, two-dimensional cut-outs (much like Beckett! oh wait...). If Castle is such a famous author, he should totally know this.
I mean, if one of my very secondary characters came up to me on a movie set and asked me about HIS motivation? ... Well, first I would die of happy, because, holy shit, my book is a movie and I am standing on the set and they are actually filming it.
But then SECOND! I would give him the whole huge list of reasons why he does what he does (bad guy or not). Because I know it all, for each character. What comes out in the text of the novel itself is only the tip of the iceberg.
Anyway. This post makes it sound like I should never watch this show. Here's the main reason you should:
***Dear Nathan Fillion: Please to marry me now? kthxby.
He's not just pretty! He's also a totes awesome actor. I swear he makes even the cliche lines sound good. Mad skills, y'all.
* Although it has a slightly less unfair portrayal of writers than Bones and NCIS, which both have MCs who have super-involved day-jobs (forensic anthropologist and crime scene investigator respectively) and work overtime all the time... and then they're like "oh yeah and we like publish these bestselling novels on the side too, no big deal, and the novels are all thinly-veiled retellings of the cases we work on, starring barely-disguised imitations of our coworkers, but we deny that any of it is based on reality. because writers never invent characters who are not based almost exactly on people they know and things they have experienced, LULZ"**
** okay, that rant got a little longer than I expected...
*** and another thing. We are supposed to believe that Beckett works with THIS MAN every single day, and he follows her around like an adorable, over-eager puppy, and writes HAWT SECKS SCENES starring her, and she does NOT want to bang him? WHAT. Okay, maybe I could've bought it if the tension went on for like, a season. But now it's getting ridiculous. This is like Bones and Booth all over again.
GRAWR.
i saw one episode and i have to say... i liked it! very cute. there was some other famous actress on it -- like jesse spano or something -- who'd died her hair black and she did a good job too. that sentence made no sense. this is what prevents me from commenting.
ReplyDeleteanyhoo, who says we won't be the one out of a bazillion writers that gets flown all over the world. hop over to jay asher's blog. he got to go to a cute little town in washington. that'd work for me right about now.