Castle

None of the episodes is likely to keep you up at night puzzling out the intricacies of the mystery, but they won't bore you or insult your intelligence. Castle exists to exploit the appeal of its stars and the amusing byplay between their characters, and it does that with admirable efficiency.

Fillion and Katic occasionally seem a little too self-conscious--a little smirk goes a long way--but ultimately the characters are too appealing to resist.

Given that the love-hate scenario between Beckett and Castle is fairly predictable, Castle’s success may ride on the quality of its murder mysteries, and it’s encouraging that the show’s second episode is better than the first.

Yes, it is all kind of dopey and has that "been there/ done that" feel. But Fillion is so right for the part and carries the show so well that he makes the show more fun than it deserves for an otherwise by-the-book procedural.

Staying largely on track as a dramedy rather than a sober drama with light laughs, Castle's plot holes can be forgiven more easily when they're at the expense of a good gag.

There's nothing in ABC's Castle viewers haven't seen a million times before, but the cast elevates the pedestrian material.

If you watch the CBS show more for Baker's sunny smile than for the way he always seems to know when people are lying, ABC's Castle might be more your style.

Katic has the more thankless role, as the actress in this scenario inevitably does, but the necessary sparks fly when she and Fillion are on screen together swapping barbs, and hopefully as time goes on, she'll get more to do than play kindergarten teacher to Castle. How much you like the series will depend almost entirely on how you enjoy watching these two spar; for me, that was enough.

The series is primarily goofy formulaic fun, and so far, Katic is no Deschanel, but like its twin, the series uses that shockingly durable Remington Steele DNA--peacock dude, furrowed-brow femme--to build neat puzzles out of human suffering.

The pilot and second installment are fun but utterly implausible, and the chemistry between the leads is passable but mostly forced.

I know this is going to come as a shock, but when the scene is designed around Kate, the show sags. By contrast, when Rick strolls into the room, the show perks up.

Days after announcing the cancellation of the brilliant "Life on Mars," ABC premieres Castle, dumping an original concept, beautifully achieved, with genius casting, and picking up the most averagely entertaining series in a long time.

If ABC's new cop drama, Castle, can slightly tweak its title character, it could turn into a very nice little show. In Monday night's premiere episode, it's just not quite there.

The problem is that in the pilot and an early episode, the crimes are nowhere as compelling as the characters. For a show like "Castle" that dares to launch a more classic version into an already saturated and tarted-up market, the murders have to be as complicated and compelling as the push-me-pull-you glances between the main characters, and so far, they just aren't.

This sort of banter takes up a good portion of the Castle premiere episode, each instance of it reinforcing the always-already familiar premise.

It's going for a screwball comedy/mystery mash-up, but Castle is just an implausible muddle.

I'd like to fall for Castle, but ultimately there's not that much there to love.

Sullivan's theatrics notwithstanding, Castle's home environment also proves relatively bland (does primetime really need another precocious teenager?), which means the two episodes previewed pivot largely on the strength of the cases, whose twists certainly don't break new ground (though it is nice to see Keir Dullea in a guest role).

Viewers who stumble into this misbegotten "Moonlighting" imitation will likely be bored, too, but not because of too much success.

The show tries to get by on charm, hoping that we'll enjoy Fillion as a bad boy enough to overlook the half-baked plots and thin characters.