Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Looking for fellow Castle Fans (Possible Spoilers)

Jocelyn it is nice to welcome you back! Please comment and let us know what you think of this crew of writers.

Heh, I should have looked here earlier for fellow Castle fans. I knew there were a lot of FoLCs that loved the show, but I think there are even more than I suspected! It was fun to read through this thread -- I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed all the similarities between L&C and Castle. I've been trying to describe it to some FoLC friends who don't watch the show and I'm all, "they're doing their version of the argh! Thankfully without frogs ..." and "At least there was no Mike at the wedding." They get it, but of course, not completely.

Jocelyn, if you check back, I'd love to see your fanfic rec list. I'm so totally obsessed with this show, and I think in large part it's because there is SO MUCH AMAZING FANFIC. It reminds me of the heyday of L&C, when there was so much quality stuff to read. If you have a ff.net profile with a list of favorite stories/authors that you'd be willing to PM me, I'd be happy to send you mine in return. Maybe we each have some authors the other hasn't come across yet. (That goes for anyone else who has a rec list; I'd be delighted for new rec's! Please PM me!)

I came to the show through the DVDs, which I'm happy about, especially when I see all the gnashing of teeth in the fandom about the direction of various seasons, waiting through cliffhangers, etc. Brings back so many memories. I lived all that with L&C and while it really was the "time of my life", there is a lot to be said for just enjoying the heck out of a show without stressing about what's going to come next, if/when they will finally get together, etc. I'm trying really hard to stay in that happy place this season, too. Sometimes easier said than done, LOL, but so far, so good.

Kathy

It took me a very long time to come to love Castle. I'd been in serious love with Nathan since Firefly, so I was excited to view it, but for some unknown reason I took an instant dislike to the character of Kate. So, gave up after S1.

Then, in September of this year, I was idly browsing Netflix and decided since nothing else appealed to give it another go. This time around, I had no clue what it was about Kate that irked me previously. By midway through S2 I was completely hooked. Netflix only had up to S3, so I dashed over to Amazon and bought 1-5 on DVD. Actually squeed out loud at the proposal. I've bought myself S6 for Christmas and can't wait to catchup.

For me, it has all the elements I loved about LNC, but I also love it for the relationship Castle has with his Mom and daughter and the comic element they provide is hilarious. Also love all the sneaky little nods to Firefly they manage to get in. Think my favourites were Castle barking Chinese at the restaurant staff - and the Halloween costume, of course! LOL!

LabRat

Lab, what really sent me over the edge was the books. It never occurred to me at the beginning that the books would be real. Talk about a squeal-out-loud moment. I was downright giddy when they came, and I would grin so hard when I recognized things from the show -- not just the cases and settings that he wove throughout the books, but things like Rick having Alexis duct-tape him to a chair to figure out how Nikki will get out of it ... and then seeing Nikki in that very situation, or seeing Rick explore his relationship with Kate through Nikki and Rook's relationship. Brilliant promotion on the part of the show.

I'm quite late coming to this thread because of the troubles I've had with this website recognizing me on my newer computer. For some mysterious reason it seems like I'm okay for the present.

I will admit that I really like Castle and have been an avid fan of it since the beginning. Can't understand why? I mean I'm just a guy who thinks that Lois Lane is the best fictional character ever, and this show has a strong, independent, beautiful woman as one of the leads. Go figure.

I have also embraced the fanfiction on fanfic.net even if that website is a monster. I've written a couple of Castle fics but wouldn't have a clue as to how I would post on that monolith of ficdom. There is a much wider variety of quality there than here (the writing is consistently better here) and there seems to be a higher percentage of stories interested in getting the couple together sexually, than in 'procedural' storlines.

There are quite a few similarities between the two series but I think you would find that true with any two series that have the romantic growth of the leads as a driving force in the show. There are iconic moments in the evolution of a relationship that would be visited in any of these shows. I've seen moments that are similar in several shows that are currently airing let alone, from a show that is twenty years old. I'll bet you'll be able to find similar scenes if you go back even farther, like with shows like "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" or "Remington Steele".

Yes, television is famous for continually borrowing from itself. Why work too hard to come up with something new when you can fall back on a 'tried and true'. Also, in a limited time format it is a common practice to rely on the 'known' rather than try to spend the air time explaining something new or different.

Like Lois and Clark, I love the growth and evolution of the relationship between Kate and Rick and I hope that they can sustain storylines now that they are married. I do have some hope for this given that whereas Lois and Clark did the relationship very well, they didn't put as much effort into the so-called "A-plot" storylines. In that the Castle writers have shown an excellence that the L&C writers fell short of.

It could be simply the difference between doing something 20 years ago that was more fantasy based than a show grounded closer to reality (though Castle has strayed a bit afield a few times).

I also think the complimentary marketing with the books and graphic novels is brilliant. I've read them all and they have all been well written.

Having said all that, I do fear that this could be the final season for Castle mostly because Nathan's contract is up and I don't know if he doesn't want to try something else. Also, it seems like the other networks have counter programed heavily against Castle. Not only has a really good show "The Blacklist" airing opposite Castle, but now CBS has stuck one of their NCIS shows against them also.

I for one, very much would like to see another season.

Tank (who says that one thing Castle has going for it is they do very well in the three additional day surveying the ratings folks use to take into account time shifted viewing due to On Demand, Hulu, Netflix, and such)

Can you believe I spent al of this week's episode thinking I've se en that guy somewhere an it wasn't until the last scene that I figures out why. I was watching with muy sister, yelled "Deter!" And she looked at me as if I were crazy...

It took me awhile to figure out who he was, too. I just knew that I knew his face from somewhere though ...

A fun connection to the show. And K Callan was on in an episode also, right?

Laura

Haha, I recognized Deter right away and thought of this thread. Yet another Castle/L&C mind meld moment.

Re: Tanks's comments -- I agree, the amount of fanfic on ff.net is a bit overwhelming, though with nearly 7 seasons worth of material, it makes sense that there would be a lot more to wade through. I've had the best luck finding a few good authors (via recs or just good luck), then seeing who their favorite authors/stories are, and continuing on from there. That said, I've already read a ton of stories and my "to read" list is still super long. It's a great problem to have. I think that's one thing that really sucked me in, that absolute joy in having SO MUCH GOOD FANFIC to read. It's kind of like Christmas morning. (Until you exhaust the A+, A, and A- stories, that is, and find yourself rummaging through the B's and B-'s, increasingly desperate for something better to give you that high, like a junkie looking for a fix ... ahem. )

Can't say I personally mind about the romance-vs-procedural focus of many of the authors. The same was/is probably true for L&C. Granted, I do love longer, meaty stories, but with a 10 pm show that includes a lot of adult-geared dialogue, odds are you're going to get a lot of M rated stories. But as it was for L&C, it's those well done combined-focus stories (i.e., M or T rated multi-chapter romance/dramas) that are the Holy Grail for me. And if I can find an author who is still writing such stories (as opposed to ones who had fabulous material in the early/middle seasons but has since stopped updating), it's squeeing time.

As for getting an 8th season, I would certainly love it, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I got the feeling last year that Nathan was getting a bit bored in the role -- he just didn't seem to be into things as much, not putting as much into his scenes as in previous years. (Unlike Stana, who, my goodness, just gets better and better each season.) But that seems to have turned around this season so far. They've given him more of those humor-focused episodes that he seems to enjoy best, not to mention getting back to the Castle who always "knows a guy", which Nathan has said in interviews is something he wants to see more of. At least in this first half of the season, he seems to be having fun again on screen. Fingers crossed that it continues!

Kathy

Kathy, I love the romance also. As I've said in the past about L&C, so it goes for Castle. I really like stories the have the romantic angle as part of the storyline. What I don't need is a graphic telling of their sexual encounters. That is what I was referring to when I said there was more focus on the sexual aspects than on an actual story.

This has been an up and down year for the series. There have been some great episodes like Driven, and Montreal, but there have been some snoozers too (like the kiddie one).

I am afraid that after the holiday break we are going to get one of those time shifts and we won't get a chance to see how Kate, and the boys react to Castle's ouster from the precinct. The teaser made it look like they were jumping into a setting that takes place some time later.

That is one thing that I feel the writers have been missing in the last year or so. We never got to see how their friends and loved ones reacted to all those 'changes' in their relationship.
We never saw the boys' reactions to Kate leaving for D.C. nor the reactions of anyone to their engagement. We just jumped a couple of months ahead to her working in D.C. The fan base for Castle is a lot like the fan base for Lois and Clark was. They want to see the 'couple' go through their evolution and see how it affects them and those around them, yet all the while still be entertained by a fun or interesting plotline.

A few miscues here and there, but for the most part, so far so good.

Tank (who says that Stana has also gained the extra status as having been a Lois Lane, as she did a great job voicing Lois in the fairly recent animated "Superman Unbound" DVD)

*about the mid-season finale* Yikes. It's a legitimate reason to let go of Castle but still. Yikes. I do wonder if Castle being out of the loop of her cases will result in him trying to find more info about his lost memory. Maybe it plays into his "invitation" to join the family.