Castle: Kill Shot (S4.09)

November 22, 2011

Me have mucho mixed feelings on this week’s Castle. I loved what they did with Esposito’s character, really made him a badass. I also loved how Ryan counseled Castle on what to do and that they actually put Castle in a position where he actually didn’t know what to do. He isn’t a psychiatrist, after all.

The major issue I had was with the episode’s portrayal of PTSD. I know Stana was trying, but the way it was written and directed was patently absurd and clearly done by people whose only knowledge of PTSD is what they read on the Internet. Basically, it was the sanitized cheesy TV clean version of PTSD, conveniently leaving out the fact that PTSD sufferers often represent a danger to themselves and those close to them and are essentially suffering from a mental illness that has been forced unto them.

Let me give you a comparison. I studied a real case of cop PTSD many eons ago that was truly tragic: a white cop shot and killed an 11 year old black boy in Harlem because he believed the boy was going to shoot him and his partner with a gun because he saw a gleam in the moonlight as the boy reached for something in his pocket. The gleaming “gun” turned out to be the silver wrapper of a pack of gum. I’m not saying we should have Beckett shoot innocent young black boys but it would have been nice to see her really lose it on a criminal and unload on him. There should’ve been a point where Castle and Ryan and Esposito and even the new Captain should’ve been considering removing her from her JOB, not just this case.

And the lame-o villain was even worse. What a complete walking caricature. I lost my leg so now I go after happy people. Good Lord, that was stupid. How did they expect this to stand up when you could easily research the last sniper in the US and see what a truly twisted guy that was. Instead, they tried to make him sympathetic and tie him into Beckett’s situation which only made everything stupider. Just terrible all the way around. At least Esposito got to take him out in a cool scene.

And then, to really insult our intelligence, Beckett is all nice and good again. Geez, even Grey’s freakin’ Anatomy managed to get the portrayal of true PTSD right with Dr. Owen’s character over the course of several episodes and that was at least two years ago. Don’t the Castle writers at least watch their fellow ABC shows?