Am I the only one who thinks that the new blond female cop internal affairs show looks like a hot mess?

The previews for that one look awful. I'm not going near it.

That was one thing I like about Castle, Ryan and Esposito are "just" cops. But they're also subsidiary characters, despite their overall awesomeness.

I think about Castle in comparison to the Mentalist a lot, and I like that the in Mentalist, the one with the driving personal issue is the one who has inserted himself into the process while the primary cop is more or less just that. The Kate's mother stuff just seems so over the top, and kind of cheap storytelling.

Though both shows had similar "superior is secretly caught up in huge implausible conspiracy" storylines this past year so it's not like one has it so much over the other.

If Kate's mother had been a random-act-of-violence thing, without the conspiracy--and especially without the Captain being involved!--I would have been much happier. I think you could get a lot of drama out of "Bad shit happens and sometime you never know why and you have to learn how to cope." Or, heck, random junkie looking for 20 bucks for his next score. Because it doesn't always mean something--though this is Hollywood.

I think what I like best about Castle is the family dynamics between Rick, Alexis and his mum; that's what keeps bringing me back. That and I ship Castle and Beckett hard.

I don't watch the Mentalist at all, but I do watch Hawaii Five-Oh and all three of these shows sound like they're playing from the same crib sheet. Parent who is murdered by corrupt cops (Castle and 5-0) and bad supervisor (all three.) The amazing thing is that they are all different enough that most of us watch at least two of them, if not all three. So they're doing something right!

I like the Closer on the same ground. I mean the Chief has tons of issues, but they are neuroses and ordinary issues with family, not deep tragic angst.

I keep thinking I'd like the Closer, but I have an irrational bias against her voice.

Connie,

I got used to it, and the accent had changed over the years. Watch the pilot. If you don't like the pilot, bail.

I agree, Typo, but I am kind of glad to see them now acknowledging that she's basically killed two people.

Yeah, the whole rogue-cop-for-the-greater-good thing always got up my nose. But I do like that it was not deep angst or anything. She simply came up with a way to take on the bad guy, and did not even notice that she stepped over a line until the investigation not only started, but had been going on for a while. She was initially indignant at being investigated, and it eventually dawned on her that setting up the murder to be murdered himself was not the same thing as righteous bust.

BTW not a faithful viewer. Who was the other person she killed?

Kind of a similar situation. Mexican Federale who had engineered a cartel hit on someone - she had the Federale booked into gen pop under the target's name. Better and worse really - at least in that case she was arguably protecting the true target, but it was much more of a certainty that the guy would be brutally killed.

I think that was end of first or second season. It was really shocking at the time, but also they just replayed that ep in the weekend reruns.

It made me much less sympathetic this time 'round, and her protestations of - I don't know, obliviousness - ring a little hollow. I'm glad to see them grappling with it, and while I don't really expect them to take it where it should go, it is the final season so who knows?