‘Castle’ is pure escapism

“Castle” is pure escapism.

First, we have Stana Katic as Kate Beckett, the top homicide detective in all of New York. Her solve rate is about perfect – maybe because she only ever has one case to focus on at any given moment. Also, she has an origin story to rival Batman’s – mother gunned down in pursuit of justice and turns out her kindly superior and mentor is implicated in the hit.

And we have Nathan Fillion as the title character, Richard Castle, a big-deal mystery novelist who is still tagging along with Kate despite the wildly successful development of the character he based on her. In all reality he could’ve hung around Kate for a month and bid her adieu, but he loves the adventure and the feeling that he’s helping solve crimes, which he is, weirdly enough, despite the presence of two other detectives on Kate’s team and the coroner and oh yeah, the New York City Police Department.

The detectives are all distracted, because one of them is getting married and the other is dating the coroner, so it’s OK that they’re distracted and kind of dim compared to Rick Castle, swashing around in a great coat and noticing things everyone else should’ve noticed first and making connections you seriously don’t need to be a crime-fiction novelist to make.

But he’s Nathan gorram Fillion. He’s taller than everyone on set. In days gone by he’s been Capt. Malcolm “Cap’n Tightpants” Reynolds at the helm of a starship. He was also an evil demon-infused priest with superpowers in Sunnydale, a contestant in an illegal transnational drag race for about eight minutes in something called “Drive,” and an obstetrician on Wisteria Lane.

Now he’s fabulously wealthy and loves making a splash, which irritates Beckett ... but not much. Over Castle’s “consulting gig” she’s grown very indulgent and extremely fond of this self-described (and no one argued the point) ruggedly handsome writer. Despite an instinct to follow procedure, Beckett is too often in personal danger, getting shot, blown up, nearly drowned and locked in trunks and freezers -- and Castle is always saving her.

In fact, despite her strict orders for him not to, he’s also been trying to solve her mother’s murder, a case she’s made some progress on but whose solution always remains just out of reach, despite how insanely brilliant she is in solving every other problem she encounters. And naturally there are shadowy figures and ne’er-do-wells floating in and out of her life providing all these threats and narrow escapes.

Lately it’s all about storytelling -- whatever story the writers feel like telling. We’ve had characters stepping in and out of a Raymond Chandler novel, we’ve had steampunk aficionados, we’ve had comic book episodes and this past week we’ve had international espionage.

That’s right. Beckett and Castle are roped in to assist with thwarting an international incident by -- spoiler alert -- the one person who would never want the case to be solved. That’s right -- Castle’s former muse, Jennifer Beals as sexy superspy and double agent Sophia Turner, his inspiration for the Clara Strike character in his Derrick Storm novels.

When searching for a Chinese girl targeted as the linchpin for starting World War III, Castle comes up with the brilliant idea to leverage the CIA’s topographic database to track a mountain in the background of the photo they somehow have of her. As plots and counterplots swirl about, Castle and Beckett solve chess problems, track leads who faked their own death and are drowned and targeted for assassination in a bizarre parking garage that looks like nothing so much as a club in L.A. – by none other than Turner herself.

Why did Turner bring them in knowing how brilliant Castle was? How did she deflect suspicion from herself at every turn? Once she got them thrown off the case, why did she approach Castle privately to make sure he kept digging? No worries. By the end of the two-part episode, all of those mysteries are lying lost on the ground, sealed with a bullet hole.

And next week? Fairy tales.

Like I said, pure escapism.

But sometimes a little escapism is exactly what we need.

“Castle” airs new episodes Mondays at 9 p.m. on ABC.