I’d like to talk for a minute about what the heck happened on Castle last night. I like procedurals, and I like Castle, but something about that show makes me go back and forth on whether it is the most conventional, cheerful, laid back of procedurals on the air now or whether it’s performing some much deeper wackiness.

The issue with last night’s episode in particular is one not of type but of quantity. Like most procedurals, Castle likes to capitalize on an audience appreciation for the weirdness quotient by exploring alternate cultures and underground human behaviors. A few weeks ago there was a steampunk episode, and there have also been porn and dominatrix episodes, garden-variety serial killers and crazed Wall Street bankers, murders at weddings, murders at book parties, etc. etc. etc. Last night was no different, and started out with what looked like a dead police officer but was revealed to be a dead man dressed in a tear-away cop uniform. “Oh sure,” I thought, “a male stripper episode. Gotcha.”

Except, last night’s episode also went on to be a Sons of Anarchy-esque biker gang episode, a Jersey Shore episode with one character doing a nice Snooki impression, and a cougar episode, and in the end, it all tied together with a classic the-butler-did-it type ending as the lawyer was revealed to be the one responsible for it all. I give you -

The victim stripper, performing at his final bachelorette party:

His co-worker at The Package Store:

His cougar girlfriend, in her oddly monochrome, sterile, backlit room:

His biker gang rival, who appears to be out for revenge:

And not-quite-Snooki, who was a victim of male stripper’s cougar girlfriend’s evil lawyer’s real estate fraud:

So what’s going on here? Is Castle just particularly schizophrenic in this episode, or is there some underlying consciousness about the bizarre procedural fetish-ization of obscure, frequently sexual subcultures? I doubt it’s the case, but a stripper name as silly as Hans von Mannschaft does make one wonder.

• Halloween is this weekend! There will be many Halloween themed episodes on TV tonight, including Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, The Mentalist, FlashForward (okay, not positive the episode actually has any Halloween in it, but the title is “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps” – that totally counts!), and of course, The Vampire Diaries. If you’re into that sort of thing. (I could include Supernatural, but every week is Halloween on that show.)

• Although most of the themed programming will be on tonight, Monday night’s episode of Castle took advantage of the holiday as well as Nathan Fillion’s rabid Firefly fan base by dressing him up as Captain Mal Reynolds for the show’s opening. The scene was riddled with ridiculous call-outs – “What are you supposed to be?” “Space cowboy!” (cue Firefly banjo twang) and also “Didn’t you used to wear that, like, five years ago?” Firefly fans everywhere lost their minds with excitement. And also wept, because, you know…they’re Firefly fans.

Space cowboy, complete with suspenders and period firearm

• There will also be Halloween themed episodes of Ghost Whisperer and Medium on Friday night. I don’t really care, and you probably don’t either, and now’s when I’m forced to admit that I wrote this entire bullet point so that I could mention the title of Friday night’s new episode of Law and Order. “Human Flesh Search Engine.”

• In news unrelated to the holiday, NBC has ordered another six episodes of Chuck, much to my delight.

• Levis has been airing an ad for their new campaign that features what some consider to be a recording of Walt Whitman’s voice. It’s a beautiful short film, but I agree that its aesthetics are undermined when at the end you realize it’s just trying to sell you a pair of pants.

I love mystery novels. My preference is for mysteries of the British 1930s and 40s variety, but I’ve been known to sit down with Maisie Dobbs, or Adam Dalgliesh, or even a few contemporary Americans. There’s obviously a great deal of television that’s derivative of the detective novel – everything from CSI to Law and Order to House follows the same basic format, whether you’re investigating medical or criminal clues. This is not to say that the shows are all the same or that some aren’t significantly better than others. I will always prefer to watch Bones than I will ABC’s new crime procedural show the forgotten. (The show is about a group of concerned citizens investigating cold cases, and I suppose the ridiculous lower case title is supposed to emphasize how sad and abandoned the victims are, but really it just looks like ABC forgotten the Shift key.) For all their similarities, these shows also come in many flavors, running the gamut from serious, heartfelt crime solving (CSI, Cold Case) to out and out silliness (Psych).

Rick Castle and Kate Beckett on Castle

One of my favorite newer iterations of the TV crime genre is ABC’s Castle. It stars Nathan Fillion, which, let’s just get it out of the way, is a big part of why I first watched the show. Fillion plays Rick Castle, uber-famous mystery novelist who has just killed off his money-making franchise detective and is now seeking new inspiration for his main character. After a killer stages murder victims like victims from Castle’s novels in the pilot episode, Castle meets and becomes intrigued by Detective Kate Beckett, who eventually becomes the model for his newest character, Nikki Heat. In order to better write his novels and continue to inspire Nikki Heat novels, Castle hangs out with Detective Beckett and lends his useful novelist eye in the aide of solving real crime. The whole premise is utterly, entirely preposterous.

The absurdity of the set-up is part of the pleasure. Without even trying, the tone of the show instantly shifts from something falsely solemn and is instead more campy, more light-hearted, and funnier. For me, the nature of the show’s built in self-commentary device, a mystery writer who solves crimes, immediately adds to the whole appeal and reminds me of some of my favorite mystery novels, those by Dorothy Sayers. Rick Castle is a light-hearted combination of Sayers’ two main characters, Harriet Vane, who works as a mystery novelist, and Lord Peter Wimsey, whose status as a man of leisure allows him to pursue detection as a hobby. Castle is a cheerful, intelligent, confident, goofy guy with ample resources and a wackadoo but happy home life, who walks onto every crime scene because for him, it’s fun. No sad apartment with sagging mattress and pizza boxes on the floor, no clichéd alcoholism, not even the standard tortured back story that makes him outwardly cynical and inwardly sentimental. Castle’s just a smart, silly guy with attention to detail and a love of campy mystery plot taglines. “I can already see the blurb on my next book jacket. ‘It’s Fashion Week in New York City. And the clothes are…to die for.’”

This post is thanks in large part to my sister, whose love of great mystery novels and television shows has always inspired mine, and who reminds me that not all good television has to be depressing, or force us to confront our own inadequacies, or even make a great deal of sense. Some good television is just Castle – well-made, entertaining, and goofy. Thank goodness for that.