By Michael Seese
This will be a slightly discombobulated review, because my viewing "experience" was a bit off. At the conclusion of "The Fast And The Furriest," the previews for the coming week indicated a tense episode in which Beckett has stepped on a bomb trigger. "The Squab And The Quail" begins with an unseen hand spraying some liquid onto a plate of food, and moves quickly to some rich guy keeling over in his haute cuisine. The team starts interviewing the victim's associates, to see if he had any enemies. Then Castle hears that the poison had been sprayed on the mushrooms (poisoned mushrooms...nice touch), and realizes that the tainted food was meant for the OTHER rich guy at the table, the wealthy (and handsome) Eric Vaughn. So the gang has to begin again, probing to see if he had any enemies. They find the killer, and then find him killed. (I thought it was pretty cool when Esposito looked down, saw feathers blowing out from underneath the killer's apartment door, and knew something was up.) So now the team has to race to find the real killer. Of course, they were racing primarily because Castle led the charge, since Beckett had been ordered to serve as Vaughn's personal bodyguard, and they were holed up in a posh hotel. (I mentioned that Vaughn was wealthy and handsome...right?)
The point to all that (other than offering you, dear readers, a summary) is that I kept wondering, "OK, when is Beckett going to step on the trigger?" I later learned, through the Internet, that the show's producers opted to delay that episode in deference to the victims of the Boston Marathon attack. Perfectly understandable. But as I said, I felt somewhat confused throughout the whole episode.
Overall, there were a lot of funny lines.
When Castle, thoroughly engrossed in an online combat game, ignored Beckett's proposition, she lamented, "Oh my god! You actually have to think about this!"
And then he had to tell his gaming partner (via phone), "No, it's not my mom."
Also:
Castle: "I was in the zone, like Gretzky."
Beckett: "At least Gretzky knew how to score."
Castle: "Ouch."
Castle: "It's poetic, diabolically speaking."
Castle: "The guy won a MacArthur Genius Award. Do you know who they give those to? Geniuses!"
Castle: "I can't believe that the department is forcing her to hang out with some womanizing rich guy against her will."
Ryan: "Unbelievable."
Esposito: "Yeah, she's never done that."
After that exchange, Ryan and Espo shared "the look."
So Monday brings us "Still." (Of course, for me, it will be on Tuesday, or Wednesday.) Also, I found it telling that the previews downplayed the bomb, and played up that "Still" will be one of those "I'm going to die, so let's look back and recall the good times" episodes.
Feel free to share your thoughts on "The Squab And The Quail."
Does anyone know what a squab actually is? Castle does. Click to tweet.
By Michael Seese
While surfing the Web, I came across this ad:
On April 16!
Some people take partying way too seriously.
Better late than never! Click to tweet.
By Michael Seese
This won't be a gushing review. (And no, Hell did NOT freeze over.) "The Fast And The Furriest" didn't do a whole lot for me. Perhaps they went to the "Scooby well" once too often. And too recently. Although, what other show could work the Smurfs and Avatar into the same cultural reference?
So back to the "well" analogy. Like "Scared To Death" and "Undead Again," you knew that:
1. Castle would be absolutely convinced that a supernatural force was at work.
2. Beckett would be absolutely convinced that a supernatural force was not at work.
3. There would be a moment where she sees something which makes her think, "Could Castle be right?"
4. Then the balloon would pop.
In my review of one of those episodes, I probably recited the same basic "you knew..." litany. But it didn't bother me then. Perhaps this time, it was just old. Or perhaps, I assumed that, if nothing else, it was a guy in a Bigfoot suit; in contrast, "Scared To Death" offered no immediately apparent alternate explanations. Also, I thought the ending fell flat. In many episodes, the killer turns out to be a non-suspect. But at least, they offered a credible and clever explanation for the motive. In this case, they took the easy way out: "It turns out, you're a known stalker." Deus ex machina.
Oh well.
On the positive side, I did enjoy the scene where Castle and Beckett were sitting in bed, and he was trying to explain his love of the unknown: "There are no new continents to explore. There's no more deepest, darkest Africa."
I did think it was funny that, in this episode, Ryan was totally on board with Castle's hypothesis. I give extra credit for the exchange:
Beckett & Esposito: "Who's Darrel Meeks?"
Castle & Ryan "Who's Darrel Meeks?"
Which segues nicely to lines.
Castle: "I've never sleep aten... Sleep ate... Sleep eaten."
Castle: "You're saying someone framed Bigfoot?"
Esposito: "Gentlemen, I hate to rain on your parade."
Castle: "Do you?"
Esposito: "No."
Castle: "Are you scared of my work?"
Beckett: "No, I'm scared that I might murder you, and then I'll have two crime scenes."
And looks:
The entire scene with Castle and "Moonshine."
Castle's smirk when the Aussie Bigfoot hunter told Beckett, "You're squatting in the wrong bush."
Castle's look of subtle realization when Alexis said she was afraid he would have given her "the speech," and he replies, "Oh..that speech, yeah."
Next week's episode, "The Squab And The Quail," looks to be (if I may re-use a favorite word) intense. I'm going to make a bold prediction, though, and say they won't kill Beckett.
Feel free to share your thoughts. And something new...
Get someone else's fur flying. Click to tweet.
By Michael Seese
"Well, duh!" you're saying.
OK, some days, it frustrates the h3ll out of me. And then...
When I last mentioned my current WIP, The Secret World Of Gustave Eiffel, I was working through the second revision. It's a much slower go, since I now need to get the right words--rather than any words--down on the page.
My daily word counts from the past few weeks bear this out.
3/19/13 248
3/20/13 471
3/21/13 85
3/22/13 422
3/23/13 0
3/24/13 191
3/25/13 0
3/26/13 647
3/27/13 705
3/28/13 397
3/29/13 1,275
3/30/13 398
3/31/13 160
Bear in mind, I've also been working on my taxes.
In real life, before the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel designed the railway terminal at Budapest. He is a pic.
According to the Wikipedia article (on Eiffel), one of the things that made it unique was the fact that you could see the "skeleton" through the glass walls.
An Eiffel structure with the iron visible...hmmm, where else do we see that?
The Budapest chapter was one that, on the first pass, had been really scant on the details. I had literally two or three paragraphs. So, during my revision effort, I got to this part and thought, What to write, what to write.
Then it hit me.
Between Vienna and Budapest (more or less) is Prague. (A wonderful city, by the way.) When my wife and I visited Prague a dozen years ago, an attraction we had considered visiting, but did not, is the the Kostnice v Sedlci, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints. You may have heard of it as the "bone church."
Per Wikipedia (again):
The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have in many cases been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
Bones...skeleton...structure...
Suddenly, I had this whole side story where the train to Budapest breaks down near Brno (south of Prague, about 55 km from the church), and Eiffel meets a stranger who offers to show him the ossuary, thereby providing the inspiration for both the Budapest station and the Eiffel Tower. (I also got to throw in some history as to why the noon bells in Brno chime at 11:00.)
Bingo!
Here is a little snippet.
“So you were going to tell me of your people, your history,” Eiffel opened.
“There is so much to say,” Rint said, “I hope four hours provides enough time.”
Eiffel soon learned that to say much of the history of the region revolved around repelling hostile armies would be a gross understatement.
Brno withstood two sieges by the Kališníci, the “Chalice People,” whose 15th century crusade later came be to called the Hussite Wars. Two hundred years later the city survived the aforementioned Swedish attack. In 1742, the Prussian army of Frederick the Great failed in its attempt at conquest.
“Such was our reputation as a city of staunch defenders, that your Napoleon Bonaparte chose to leave us alone after he marched into Austerlitz.”
“Fascinating!”
“And understand, the tales I tell of Brno represent a small sample of the adversity our entire region has had to face. Though this may be exaggeration, it seems as though as battle raged somewhere, always, within the Kingdom of Bohemia.”
“Believe it or not, my friend, I could say the same for France.”
“War!” Rint said, literally spitting to one side. The poets and minstrels strive to make war glorious. Even beautiful. War is neither. Let me tell you about war.”
Rint’s war stories were not like those of Alexandre Eiffel. They did not tell of heroics, nor make war sound romantic. They sung of struggles, sacrifices, and suffering, so much so that that Eiffel breathed a sigh of relief when Rint announced, “We are here.”
The outside, Eiffel thought, is nothing spectacular. Not even out of the ordinary. Smooth granite block walls. Gothic arch windows. Three spires, topped with iron hexagonal cupolas. It could be any church, anywhere.
“Shall we go in?” Rint asked.
“Certainly.”
Inside, Eiffel’s opinion changed the moment he looked up. The first feature which caught his eye was the chandelier. Spanning perhaps eight feet, it faintly glowed a pale, dull white, as it appeared to be carved from ivory or...
In that instant, his adjectival catalog inverted. Spectacular became spectral. Ordinary, otherworldly. Had his initial assessment included mediocre, he might now have thought macabre.
“What...what is this?” he asked.
“The locals call it ‘The Bone Church.’ I imagine you ascertain why.”
Everywhere Eiffel looked, he saw bones. Human bones. Thousands of human bones.
Feel free to share an opinion.
By Michael Seese
They got me. Twice. Which is another way of saying this blog has LOTS of spoilers. Don't even think of reading it unless you've seen it.
OK, admission time: I've never seen "Rear Window." (Hey, cut me some slack; I barely have time for Castle.) But I looked it up in Wikipedia, and expected that "The Lives of Others" would be more of a straight-up homage. It wasn't. But that's OK. It was a fun episode.
I especially loved Castle's play-by-play as he spied on his neighbors for the first time. "That better be for a sick child," to the maid stealing cash. And, "Oh, to be young an underemployed" to the paramours.
The murder he "witnessed" was well staged. You see the woman leave the room with the open blinds. You see the husband / boyfriend (we're not sure which) pick up the knife, look at it, then storm to the other room, where the blinds are closed. The shadows indicate some form of struggle. Then something is pushed against the Venetian blinds, and creates a ripple as it slips down. Bravo!
One unique twist: as I commented aloud while watching it, this was the first episode that I could recall which featured two completely distinct murders. So I just knew they were going to somehow tie them together. Then the writers pulled the rug out from under us, which I would call the first "gotcha."
The opening segment was one huge line-fest.
Castle: "I won't think it's because you've forgotten. I'll think it's because you made other plans." (Accompanied by a great "look.")
Martha: "It is a spa trip, darling. Not a guilt trip."
Ryan: "You must be bored. You've actually gone Rear Window."
Beckett: "Unless the body you're looking at is dead, I suggest you drop those binoculars."
And then it all ended with a great homage, courtesy of Castle: "Hey what if I consult by phone? We could pretend I'm Charlie, and you're my angels."
A few other odds-and-ends looks and lines:
Ryan: "Staring at the phone won't make it ring. I learned that in junior high."
Alexis's eye roll after Beckket said, "Or, maybe his girlfriend asked him to keep it in storage until she's ready to pick it up."
Castle: "When you do it, it's an illegal search. When I do it, it's just illegal."
Beckett: "You didn't have to kick down the door."
Esposito: "I was in the moment."
Ryan: "We wanted to be convincing."
Castle: "Where is Captain Gates?"
Esposito: "She couldn't make it."
Castle: "Good."
Wrapping it all up was the second "got me." I really thought Castle was going to blow up over the joke, especially since he would have spent an agonizing X minutes thinking Beckett had been murdered. And the way his face changed from grim to glee when he said, "This is without a doubt...the greatest birthday present of my life!" Spectacular.
And then Beckett solved the real murder. I thought it was a bit of a stretch, but what they hey.
One picky thing. Beckett said that Captain Gates was in on the joke. Perhaps Beckett sold it to her as a birthday prank for "my friend and professional partner" Castle. Still, it should have raised an eyebrow. (Something Captain Gates does exceedingly well.)
Next week (actually, two weeks) looks to be another "Scooby" episode in the vein of UFOs, zombies, and deadly DVDs.
Feel free to share your thoughts.
Have YOU been staring in a "Rear Window" with Castle? Click to tweet.
By Michael Seese
I have to say, this is one of the best SPAMs I've received in a long time.
With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "How do I love this SPAM? Let me count the ways..."
You will notice that the "From" is service@paypal.com, a.k.a. palermo056@gwoelb.at
FYI, the .at top-level domain is Austria.
paypal / palermo056 ... what's 6 or 7 letters and numbers among friends?
Also, if you hover over any of the links:
- Transaction ID: PX6RN812D6SK1BRA0
- TAG Heuer Men's WAU8415.BA5338 Formula 1 White Dial Stainless Steel Watch
- Questions? Go to the Help Center at: www.paypal.com/help.
it will take you to: http://mohsindesigns.com/clients/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/akismet/wps.php?HZOHR7I248Y
Yeah, I've heard that PayPal runs its business operations out of a blogging site.
At least they were thoughtful enough to actually log into your PayPal account for assistance.
By Michael Seese
WARNING! Lots of spoilers...
As I have said here and there, I really appreciate the episodes which focus on someone other than Castle or Beckett, since it allows the writers to develop the other characters. "The Wild Rover" may have been the best of the bunch.
Esposito may be the one with Special Ops experience. But Ryan showed a real toughness in this one, a toughness that even his friends may not have appreciated. In fact, when Agent Walker sung Ryan's praises, Esposito positively beamed.
We got our eyebrow-raising moment, when Siobhan walked over and kissed Ryan, then he quietly said to his friends -- and his WIFE -- "I can explain." (Cue the commercial break!)
Ryan's brash, brazen alter-ego served up a nice contrast to the soft-spoken, buttoned-down detective we all know and love. And I thought his whole "I can do this" psych-up was a great scene.
Then the end...
In my review of "Hunt," I called the rescue scene the best two minutes of the show's history. The last ten minutes of "The Wild Rover" is a close second. When Liam confronts Ryan and tells him that they're going for a ride, both my wife's and my heart were pounding. It didn't get any less tense when Bobby S. asked Ryan to put a bullet in Siobhan, a woman who obviously, though never explicitly stated, he had loved. (My wife called the part about blanks in the gun.) Then that scene wraps up with the cavalry arriving, following a plausible explanation as to how Ryan got word to them.
But wait...there's more.
Then we got the satisfaction of seeing the murderer -- a non-suspect, up to that point -- brought in. (Remember? This all started with a murder.)
Next, we had Castle confessing to Beckett about his embarrassment at his college dalliance in plagiarism, which pushed him into his writing career.
Finally, we got to end the show on Ryan's and Jenny's happy note.
Despite the intensity of this episode, humor abounded.
Beckett: "I happen to be an expert on nothing, and this is not nothing."
Castle: "Most of what I say is meaningless. Why would it be any different when I'm asleep?"
Beckett: "Looks like he's not the only one keeping secrets."
Castle: "I'm going to ignore that."
Castle: "Did you see the way Siobhan gave him that flying lip-lock?" In fact, I think "flying lip-lock" is a keeper.
And the looks...
Castle's discomfort at being upbraided for eating the dead guy's cupcakes. "It was free samples," he pleaded.
Castle's anticipation when Ryan said, "It's complicated." "I love complicated," he said, sitting down like a 15-year-old about to hear an older boy describe what sex is like.
And in one big, huge, line- and look-fest...
Esposito gave us a great look when Castle asked, "Where's Ryan." Then, cut to the apartment, where Ryan and Jenny are preparing for their doctor's appointment, and she sends him off to do his duty. Followed immediately by Castle saying, "So master baker Jimmy Whelan..." Gut-splitting stuff.
I'm really looking forward to tonight's episode. As I watched the previews -- which promise an obvious homage to "Rear Window" -- I said, "Is Castle actually in a wheelchair?" Per the pictures on IMDB, he is.
Feel free to share your thoughts.
It wasn't Castle, but Ryan, who was the "Wild Rover." Click to tweet.
This will be a slightly discombobulated review, because my viewing "experience" was a bit off. At the conclusion of "The Fast And The Furriest," the previews for the coming week indicated a tense episode in which Beckett has stepped on a bomb trigger. "The Squab And The Quail" begins with an unseen hand spraying some liquid onto a plate of food, and moves quickly to some rich guy keeling over in his haute cuisine. The team starts interviewing the victim's associates, to see if he had any enemies. Then Castle hears that the poison had been sprayed on the mushrooms (poisoned mushrooms...nice touch), and realizes that the tainted food was meant for the OTHER rich guy at the table, the wealthy (and handsome) Eric Vaughn. So the gang has to begin again, probing to see if he had any enemies. They find the killer, and then find him killed. (I thought it was pretty cool when Esposito looked down, saw feathers blowing out from underneath the killer's apartment door, and knew something was up.) So now the team has to race to find the real killer. Of course, they were racing primarily because Castle led the charge, since Beckett had been ordered to serve as Vaughn's personal bodyguard, and they were holed up in a posh hotel. (I mentioned that Vaughn was wealthy and handsome...right?)
