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Ur Doin' It Rite
Apr. 15th, 2011 04:43 pmSo I'm catching up on Castle, since I'm about a year behind (or I was until today's marathon episode binge) and one thing has really struck me:
They do modernity really well.
That is, they're constantly referencing modern communications technology - not in the super-secret espionage sense, but they're constantly referring to blogs, Twitter, social media, in a way that makes it very clear that the writers get it. It doesn't feel forced, or hammered in in an attempt to prove they're hip to what's groovy, daddio.
I can't help but compare it with the other procedural I watch, NCIS (and NCIS: LA, but they're informed by the same principles so for arguments like this it's the same show, really) and it's so obvious that their writers don't get it. They make laboured references to things like "MyFace" and other artificial thinly-disguised real-world analogues; they run the occasional blog-related storyline that inevitably depicts all bloggers as failed, frustrated, obsessive wannabe-journalists. And social media as a dangerous, scary world that inevitably gets you killed because it's full of psychos.
And then there's Castle, where Beckett routinely instructs Ryan or Esposito to check social media for chatter on the topic du jour; where Rick Castle routinely does Twitter searches from his smartphone; where Castle mentions leveraging the power of his social media fanbase positively.
It's nice to know there are some TV writers (on shows aimed at adults) that do understand their audience, because despite its success I can't help but think NCIS really doesn't any more.
They do modernity really well.
That is, they're constantly referencing modern communications technology - not in the super-secret espionage sense, but they're constantly referring to blogs, Twitter, social media, in a way that makes it very clear that the writers get it. It doesn't feel forced, or hammered in in an attempt to prove they're hip to what's groovy, daddio.
I can't help but compare it with the other procedural I watch, NCIS (and NCIS: LA, but they're informed by the same principles so for arguments like this it's the same show, really) and it's so obvious that their writers don't get it. They make laboured references to things like "MyFace" and other artificial thinly-disguised real-world analogues; they run the occasional blog-related storyline that inevitably depicts all bloggers as failed, frustrated, obsessive wannabe-journalists. And social media as a dangerous, scary world that inevitably gets you killed because it's full of psychos.
And then there's Castle, where Beckett routinely instructs Ryan or Esposito to check social media for chatter on the topic du jour; where Rick Castle routinely does Twitter searches from his smartphone; where Castle mentions leveraging the power of his social media fanbase positively.
It's nice to know there are some TV writers (on shows aimed at adults) that do understand their audience, because despite its success I can't help but think NCIS really doesn't any more.