Last night’s episode of CASTLE left a rather bad taste in the mouths of the Lynchs.

As Gerald points out on his blog, Beckett survived the explosion of her apartment by being in a cast iron bathtub. Fun is fun, but we then see Castle (coming to her rescue) and Beckett spend time bantering and trying to find some clothes for the naked cop…while still in a just blown-up and currently burning apartment.

The lack of urgency was not only ridiculous, but it removed any impact the explosion might have had. If our heroes are really concerned, why bother blowing it up? What is the point of using what is normally a very dramatic plot device? Have them staggering out, coughing and wheezing and the tub would have been quickly forgotten.

And the dialogue of the episode was off from what I normally expect. Far more cheesy lines (You have the right to remain silent. So shut up!) and clinches than regular. Enough so that we actually disliked the episode. CASTLE is a fun, fairly light hearted show, but they do a good job of making the characters seem real, and the stories have a semblance of plausibility. The bad dialogue hurt the episode, though it was still entertaining.

I don’t know if this was written by different writers or what, but I hope it is not a sign of things to come.