DOUBLE ‘TAKE’
Actress tails PI to solve crimes in series by ‘Castle’ creators
Remember “Castle”? It was a breezy drama about a struggling celebrity author who decided to shadow a homicide detective and help solve crimes.
It ran for eight years on ABC.
Terri Edda Miller and Andrew W. Marlowe, the creators and executive producers of “Castle,” have made a new series called “Take Two.”
It's a breezy drama about a struggling celebrity actress who decides to shadow a private investigator and help solve crimes.
Hey, if Hollywood can make “Jurassic Park” five times over, why can't “Castle” be remade with a gender flip?
(Spoiler alert for “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”: The dinosaurs get loose. You're welcome.)
Samantha Swift (Rachel Bilson, “Hart of Dixie,” “The O.C.”) was the star of the detective show “Hot Suspect,” which ran for eight seasons. She's dumped by her fiance on the red carpet and has a boozy meltdown that goes viral and cancels her career.
No one wants to hire a reformed addict, she complains. Are we sure she's actually in Hollywood?
Some indie director is willing to take a chance on her, to play a private investigator in his film. Sam decides she has to go all method and shadow a real private investigator.
Eddie Valetik (Eddie Cibrian, “Rosewood”) is an ex-cop, bad-boy loner private investigator who balks at the idea of letting Sam follow him around.
“I'd rather swallow razor blades,” he says.
Hate at first sight? Who could have predicted that?
Before you can say “Cheers” or “Remington Steele” or even “Castle,” these two crazy kids are solving crimes and working each other's last nerves.
First up: a missing college student.
Sam's celebrity opens doors, and her instincts as an actress lead to insights that irritate Eddie but prove, more often than not, to be accurate.
“You do know you weren't a real cop,” Eddie seethes. But hey, she made 200 episodes playing one, and she picked up a few tricks.
Their search unravels a criminal conspiracy reaching into Los Angeles' halls of justice. As these things are wont to do.
That's nothing compared to next week's episode, about a man found standing with a gun over his dead mistress and stuffed with so many rotting red herrings, you could come down with mercury poisoning. This slight show skips by on the chemistry of the stars, who mount the kind of charm offensive more common to a Hallmark holiday film on speed. Will they? Won't they? Why don't they?
This might be Cibrian's best work, and that's not a backhanded compliment, promise. Bilson could make a tax audit bearable. “Orphan Black's” Jordan Gavaris guest stars in the first two episodes as the star-struck medical examiner. The show could use more of his off-kilter energy. The mysteries? Oh, nobody tunes in for those.
“Take Two” is honest advertising. It's the second grab at a winning premise, for the same network, no less. You deserve more.