Castle is one of those shows that it would be easy to miss.  In a tv landscape oversaturated with procedurals of every kind, one more little cop show airing Mondays at 10pm on ABC is certainly easy to skip right over.  It’s not the most advertised show, and it started midseason last year (well this year but we’re talking tv years here).  But there’s plenty of reasons to be watching it and skipping over some of the lamer contenders in the category.

First let’s give those of you who are unfamiliar with the show a quick rundown of the plot.  Mystery author Richard Castle lives in NYC with his teenage daughter and his actress mother.  He’s a divorcee playboy who was made famous with a series of books based on the character of Derek Storm.  But despite the series still selling very well, Castle wants more.  He kills his cash cow off and now needs a new character.  This is when he runs into one of the NYPD’s finest, Detective Kate Beckett.  It doesn’t hurt that Beckett is stunningly attractive, but she’s a no nonsense cop.  And also a closet huge Castle fan.  Castle begins helping her to solve cases using his creative thinking and decides that he’s going to use Beckett as the basis of his next character.  Being friends with the mayor, he gets full access to tag along with Beckett on all of her cases, much to her chagrin.

So in the simplest of terms it’s a writer following a cop around and helping solve cases.  But the show has so much more depth to it.  You have many little pieces that are constantly being played with.  Castle’s relationship with his daughter who while being extremely intelligent and responsible, unlike Castle, is still a teenage girl who the very male father struggles with.  His mother is used mostly for comic relief, but her character tells you a lot about why Castle is the way he is.  As for Beckett, she’s a constant mystery.  We find out that she is a cop because her mother died under mysterious circumstances.  But she has layer upon layer that the writers are constantly playing with.  This is a character you can’t nail down.

So why exactly should you watch it?  The main reason is that this show is quirky, smart, and funny.  It’s got the gravity to pull you into more serious plotlines too.  Mainly every episode is written like it could be the plot to the next novel you read.  The show is very actively marketed towards readers, with real authors appearing in the show and frequent literary references.  But it’s also actively engaging the tv watchers.  It knows what it is and doesn’t try to be more or less.  You can easily watch an episode without knowing any backstory and enjoy it.  In the most recent episode they played to the Nathan Fillion fans, whom I’m sure at least made up a lot of the initial audience for the show, by making 2 Firefly and 1 Buffy reference within the first 5 minutes of the episode.  Oh and one of those references was Fillion wearing his Firefly costume.  Check it out:

Also the 2nd Firefly nod in that scene is an easter egg, there’s a prop from the show on the bookcase behind him. Speaking of Fillion, he is one of the reasons you should tune in.  If you’re not already a fan of his work, go watch everything he’s ever done with Joss Whedon.  I’ll wait….  OK, you a fan now?  He plays the role of Castle with glee.  He embodies the gidiness of the character and you’re even going to let some plot cheats go when you know it’s going to put him in an interesting position (Too often the show relies on “Oh hey when I was writing a novel one time and doing research I met a guy who does that”).  But he’d be nothing without Stana Katic’s Kate Beckett.

Stana Katic as Det. Beckett

Katic plays her character as hard to pin down and unpredictable.  Most of the time she’s the hard boiled detective sick of Castle interfering, but you’re never quite sure of when it’s an act.  Sometimes she’ll pull a 180 and love something Castle comes up with or let her hair down.  Some of the best moments on the show are when Beckett is used for comedy, such as when she pretends not to be reading the book Castle based on her “Heat Wave” (she’s Nikki Heat in it) but then sneaks away to read it in the bathroom after Castle refers to a sex scene in it.

Oh and speaking of Heat Wave, ABC in all it’s marketing genius actually had someone write it.  It’s available now everywhere.  Written by Richard Castle himself.  In fact you can click right now and get it on Amazon

The chemistry between the characters is also a great part of the show, and even the supporting cast is wonderful. One of the other great parts of the show is watching Castle try and successfully interact with his teenage daughter. She’s not a wild girl, which is hard for him to understand, him being a terror as a teenager, but he also struggles with normal father problems like dealing with boys.

Overall this is just a really clever, fun show that is deserving of your time.

Castle airs on ABC Monday’s at 10pm Eastern