One of my favourite shows of the past season is ABC’s Castle – which I’m pleased to know has definitely been renewed for the fall. It’s funny, twisted and the mystery in each episode is anything but obvious.
So it’s no wonder that ABC has been marketing the heck out of it. For those of you who have failed to partake in its splendour, the show’s main character, Richard Castle, is a best-selling mystery writer who tags along during crime investigations for literary inspiration. This has left a lot of room for random product placement during the episodes and a lot of product branding thereafter.
Castle’s bullet-proof “Writer” vest hasn’t made the rounds just yet. But the moniker has landed on a few other clothing items. And his infamous “I really am ruggedly handsome” claim is appearing on coffee cups and T-shirts.
So it’s no wonder that ABC has been marketing the heck out of it. For those of you who have failed to partake in its splendour, the show’s main character, Richard Castle, is a best-selling mystery writer who tags along during crime investigations for literary inspiration. This has left a lot of room for random product placement during the episodes and a lot of product branding thereafter.
Castle’s bullet-proof “Writer” vest hasn’t made the rounds just yet. But the moniker has landed on a few other clothing items. And his infamous “I really am ruggedly handsome” claim is appearing on coffee cups and T-shirts.
But in a move that has me questioning reality and expecting to find a portal into John Malkovich’s brain, Richard Castle’s most recent novel has hit the bookstores. And it’s a hit!
Wait. He’s just a character in a show. Doesn’t that mean he’s not real outside one’s television set?
That was one of my first life lessons – well, that and the fact that shows keep going even after I turn off the TV. (Unless you’re a Nielsen family, in which case tuning out really does end a show.)
We all had that real/not real thing sorted out around the time we realized that Oscar the Grouch was just a hand puppet.
What happened? Did all those legs in the Disney on Ice show confuse everyone?
Perhaps, because Castle’s book sits there on the shelf, exactly as it is on television, complete with the dedication, jacket photo and even the much-discussed sex scene on page 105. So far, three of Castle’s Nikki Heat novels have inexplicably become best-sellers.
And now, Marvel Comics has announced that this fall it will publish a hard-cover graphic novel based on Castle’s previous Derrick Storm novels. How do you write a comic based on a character from a fictitious series of books written by an author who doesn’t exist?
It’s rather Salvador Dali-ish – like one of those illogical paintings of the room where the staircase goes nowhere and the inside wall is actually on the outside.
No wonder mentally disturbed individuals end up stalking and attacking actors outside their home because of what their characters have done on-screen.
We’ve blurred the line between reality and make-believe to the point where there’s little difference.
I love the Richard Castle character. But if he develops a life of his own, what’s to stop other not-so-nice characters from stepping out of your TV screen?
What will you do when NCIS’s P2P killer shows up on your doorstep? Or worse, Donald Trump?
