First things first. I’ve been a huge Tom Bergeron fan since the original fX debuted. For those of you that don’t remember those strange days of all original shows produced in “the apartment,” Bergeron hosted the morning show, Breakfast Time. It was the best morning show that ever was. Unfortunately, the fX experiment wasn’t meant to last. Since then, Bergeron has gone on to be the best reality host on TV with his run on Dancing With The Stars. Because of all that, I was thrilled to see him get a guest gig on Castle.
And, no surprise, he did that well too. I really liked him as Bobby Mann. My only complaint about the episode would simply be that Bobby died too soon, preventing us from seeing more Tom. Although, I guess that’s understandable, given the rest of the guest cast. Fred Willard, Kelly Carlson, French Stewart, Bill Bellamy, Beth Broderick, and Dan Cortese all in one shot? That’s a lot of names to spread the time around to. French Stewart, as Zach Robinson, was particularly good. I could see that character popping up again in the future.
Getting to the case, it was a fun take on all of the recent late night shenanigans. The network wants to go younger. Ratings are slipping. Contracts. Buyouts. Fooling around with the staff. A scandal would improve the numbers. The details were changed, but the talking points were the same. Perhaps it’s my general distrust for network executives showing, but I was sure it was Weisberg as soon as we met him. Right up until they found the smoking gun way too early. That made the revelation that Hank did it quite the surprise.
Of course, Weisberg still had another part to play in the other half of the episode. Castle’s whirlwind romance with Ellie Monroe was great. It brought all of those tensions right back. And as soon as Beckett planted the bug in Castle’s mind that Ellie was just after a part, I knew it was doomed. That’s exactly the kind of thing he can never let go. The Beckett followup to that, “She’s a professional actress…” just made it worse. The payoff, Weisberg’s alibi, was a fantastic LOL moment. Well done all around.
This was another example of the perfectly balanced Castle blend. A solid case to keep things moving. Fun back and forth with Beckett and Castle. Add a couple bits for Ryan and Esposito and a heart-warming moment with Alexis and you have yourself a winner. The show is running perfectly right now.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Apr 12, 2010 @ 23:00 EST5EDT
I thought the episode was a lot of fun, especially the opening. I’m very impressed with Tom Bergeron, who played Bobby Mann with just the right amount of over-the-top energy.
A lot of well-known faces too. Bobby Mann sleeping with the intern and her mother’s reaction played to the CBS late night show as well as NBC.
The only thing that I didn’t like was how easily and how completely Castle fell for Ellie who was so obviously manipulating him. I’m disappointed in Castle’s judgment for that, even more that he suggested they get together next time she’s in town. With steak like Beckett in front of him every day, how could he go for cheap hamburger?
I don’t know if I’ve just seen to much of this kind of series, which I haven’t, or read to many books (very probable) but the moment I saw the side-kick after the murder it was obvious it was him. I mean come on, the jealous friend, wanting more spotlight, he gets angry and does something stupid claiming “he was my best friend! Friends don’t do that!” (Whatever it was he had done) and that somehow justifies the murder.
That somewhat spoiled the episode for me, but I liked the talk show “mocking”, but this episode just didn’t do it for me.
Heh :-)
I knew it was Fred Willard the second I saw him. Literally, not exaggerating. That made it kind of boring for me to watch the rest of the episode but Castle is so much fun it still doesn’t disappoint.
I like it more than “The Mentalist” now, which has gotten quite stale. It’s so much better to see more and more of these great characters come to life once a week. I love them all. I know it sounds silly but this is the best “Big Brother” house there every will be. I’d tune in to this family of a writer, his daughter and his mother and what he does each day for hours and hours. Love it. All available thumgs up :-)
I know that Castle is supposed to be a ladies man, but having him bed Ellie so quickly felt wrong.
I don’t want Castle and Beckett to be pining after each other. I want them to date other people. Their current relationship with each other works for me.
I guess I just expected that Castle would have grown a bit and gotten to know a woman first before jumping into bed.
*POST AUTHOR*
That’s a fair point, but I chalked a lot of that up to Castle being somewhat starstruck. He has been a very famous author for some time, but all of the Hollywood stuff is new, and could be overwhelming. That could lead to what might be seen as irrational decisions.