Last season's 10 episodes did a great job of setting up the strange scenario that makes up this series, as well as make all of the characters instantly likable and intriguing. It also introduced the seeds of the sexual tension between Castle and Beckett that start to take hold in Season Two, as well as the mystery of Beckett's mother's death that drove her to become a cop.
Season Two contains some very interesting cases. Not only does it have a couple that touch on Beckett's mother's death, but a majority of the shows are one-off episodes that will make it easy for non-hardcore followers and newcomers alike to jump into the middle of the series.
One of the season's more intriguing cases guest stared Marc Blucas, who did a stint on a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In this episode, "The Fifth Bullet," Marc plays the only witness to a murder. The only problem is the fact that he has amnesia and worse yet, he may even be the killer.
Another episode guest stars both Tom Bergeron and Fred Willard as late night talk show hosts, while a third puts Michael Ironside at the top of an organized crime ring that everyone thinks has gone legit. This particular episode, "Den of Thieves," also reveals a bit of history for one of the show's supporting characters, Detective Esposito (Jon Huertas) since it looks like his old partner from another precinct might be involved in the episode's murder... too bad he has been dead for several years now.
The guest stars don't end there though. Alyssa Milano (Charmed) plays the role of one of Castle's old flames when a murder occurs at her wedding and Castle finds himself in an awkward situation, especially considering his growing feelings towards Beckett.
One of my favorite stand-alone episodes though was "Vampire Weekend." Not only does this episode give a nod to Filllion's role in Firefly and Serenity, but it's all about exploring the vampire sub-culture, and imagine their surprise when one of their suspects appears to be a real vamp. That isn't the only episode to explore an odd sub-culture in our society. In the episode "The Mistress Always Spanks Twice," a murdered grad student leads Beckett, Castle and the rest of the crew to explore the victim's research topic, bondage and fetish clubs.
While there are a ton of good one-off episodes, the few that advance the series' overall plot are exceptional. Last season, Castle started uncovering some odd details about Beckett's mother's death, but this season, we not only find out who killed her, but we see the man face-to-face. Also occurring this season is episode pair "Tick, Tick, Tick..." and "Boom!" where a serial killer seems to think Beckett is Castle's new character, Nikki Heat, and is trying to get her to stop him. When word gets out, the F.B.I. come to town and are lead by famed agent Jordan Shaw (Dana Delany). Not only does the female agent bring in tons of new gadgets to help solve the case, but she seems to have gotten Castle's attention as well ... not in a romantic way, but he seems to be clicking with her professionally a lot more than Beckett, much to her chagrin.
Actually, the release of Castle's book, "Heat Wave" is a topic that comes up frequently this season. Not only is it a hit in the show's world, but since a real book of the same name was released under Richard Castle's name, it actually became a bit of a hit in the real-world as well. Oddly enough, there were many times this season when the show felt like it was doing some pretty heavy product placement on the book, even at one point, giving a summary that stops just before the killer is revealed. The funny thing is, it feels completely natural. Unlike shows that awkwardly mention the name of the car they are driving or some other product, the fact that Castle keeps pushing his own book just seems right. I have to hand it to ABC Studios on this one, they did a great job of tying this book to the show. In fact, Castle's second Nikki Heat novel, "Naked Heat," is due to hit stands a week after Season Three premieres.
Castle: The Complete Second Season comes with a few amusing extra features. This season contains three deleted scenes and an amusing gag reel, but it also contains three solid featurettes. One is a tour of the sets by Huertas and Seamus Dever (who plays Esposito's partner, Kevin Ryan), and another is hosted by Fillion and introduces a lot of the crew members who work when the cast is on location. The one I found the most interesting though was called "Manhattan's Most Unusual Murders" and talks about devising the strange murders that the characters face, as well as the stunt people who not only perform the deaths, but also have to act dead during long scenes.
The Complete Second Season also contains two music videos that were made for the episode "Famous Last Words." Here, a rock star that Castle's daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) follows, is killed and posed in a manner seen in one of the music videos.
Castle continues to be one of my favorite currently-running series, and this season has done nothing to bring down my view of it. The Complete Second Season contains more than twice the number of episodes found in the first one, and none of them feel stale or old. What's great is that even if you didn't catch the First Season, Season Two is a good place to jump in. The show does a pretty good job of giving you what data you might need to get caught up when you need it, but most of the shows are self-contained and can be picked up and watched very easily. I highly recommend both this show, and this season.
