Castle

My favorite show on TV these days is Castle. Mostly because Nathan Fillion is dreamy (and an amazing actor), but also because the writing and the acting are all excellent.

But sadly, I couldn't help feeling a little cheated by the conclusion of the two part "Target/Hunt" story arc. (If haven't seen it, and intend to and want to be surprised, stop here.) The Target part of the story, I loved. Nathan totally sold "Dad willing to do anything to get his daughter back" without over-acting it and I totally bought Molly Quinn as "scrappy, smart, and scared." Pretty much everything about this episode was great.

Which is why I was a little disappointed with the "Hunt" part. The whole things had done such a great job of building tension, selling character reactions, and just crafting a generally superb narrative only to ruin it with "Missing Dad is Missing Because He's a Secret Agent" trope. Gag me. The season had started to touch on the "missing dad" theme a little, so I'm not surprised that it came up, but Come on? A secret agent who loves his son but can never actually be a part of his life?" Maybe that happens. But... I'm not buying it. Plus, I feel like it weakens everything that will follow with Castle exploring the implications of "who Dad really is."

And I wasn't sold on "revenge kidnapping" either. The back story wasn't built up enough for me to believe that a guy who's so powerful that even the bad guys are in his power, was going to expend so much time, energy, and thought to kidnapping the granddaughter of Guy Who Killed His Wife even though there's really nothing to suggest that Guy Who Killed His Wife is vested in the relationship at all. There are other, better reasons Alexis could have been a target.

That said, I do give A-pluses to the cast, all of whom took this terrible plot point and at least made character reactions to it believable and wonderful. And Nathan as "determined dad" was exceptionally dreamy.