Holiday Buzz - Castle & Criminal Minds

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I have been pretty useless for the holidays. A good month is spent in... watching dramas and movies again and again, of course. My ass is, sadly, too lazy to move for me to actually get a part-time job - aside from the fact that I am a spoiled middle-class bastard who is too proud to admit that I obtain money by asking and whining for it.

Romance is good but I kinda feel it is sooo overrated these days. Twilight, Bicara Hati, and yeaah, the Korean dramas. All about conflict of feelings that I can't stand to watch anymore. Personal lives of fictional characters no longer interest me. Partly because I have none of my own. Oucch! And all - ALL - of them have to include romance in their plot. Boyfriends, girlfriends, gay or straight. People rarely make films about BEST FRIENDS, not-so-best friend, enemies or people connected with other kinds of relationships...

BUT if the romance is mixed up with murder cases, psychotic killers and hot investigators - whoah baby, bring it on! Romance plus blood is sexayy! [True Blood, anyone??] And hazardously addictive and exciting!

Cool! Seeing people in love sucks but seeing them in love in the midst of upholding justice for innocent victims and trying to catch the bad guy is pure awesomeness.

So, I had decided that my holidays - which are unfortunately ending, btw - were going to be spent in full-fledged blood, gore, mystery and hot HOT investigators trying to figure out why humans are so fucked up...

CASTLE

Is the first drama I got addicted to for the past few weeks. I love LOVE this friggin show! And spent weeks just finishing Season 2, 3 and 4, and reverting back to Season 1.

Castle, like other crime dramas, has a common plotline and form. Someone got killed, investigators have to solve it, they think they got it but they are ALWAYS wrong initially and in the end, discover that a totally unexpected suspect is the actual murderer.

Same old, same old. Haven't we had that before?

But Castle is different. He is different. IT is different. All thanks to the great lead actors who made the not-so-revolutionary-drama-series-with-an-unremarkable-plot so very addictive to watch and yes, enjoy to the fullest satisfaction. With Castle, we don't have two cops trying to solve murders but ONE cop and ONE busybody novelist who loves to bug in during investigations to find inspirations for his next book.

Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle - the writer - is.... CUTE!! I know there's something wrong about being 40 plus and cute but man, he pulls it off well. Rick Castle is a mystery writer who is very talented, intelligent, sharp, positive and rich. But he is also annoying, busybody, loves interfering and super-childish.

The LIVING PROOF that funny guys can be sexy as well. Ahhh, now I believe in romance... Haha

His sense of humour makes him the perfect partner for the heroine of the series, Detective Kate Beckett, an overachiever perfectionist police officer who solve murder cases with toughness and creative clarity. She gave off the vibe of a bitter woman - unemotional, distance and highly-disciplined [needed in the field, duhh] with an unresolved dark past that haunted her for years to come.

So, an overachiever woman with a guy without any care in the world. Castle always managed to crack some absurd funny jokes each time Beckett got too tense in trying to solve the cases.

Puurrrrr-fect!

Who knew crime drama can be this entertaining....

More Castle, please!

Criminal Minds

While Castle focuses more on the chemistry of the lead stars and comic timing, Criminal Minds is THE crime drama that focuses on... well, the criminals themselves.

A unique aspect to this series, compared to others, is that in every episode, the criminal is revealed from the start. Then the FBI team - whose main function is to analyze the behavioral pattern of the criminal - based on the crime scenes and evidences. So the episodes usually revolve around how the criminal is discovered at last.

The absolute addictive factor of Criminal Minds is in the crime presented itself. It does not contain any heavy romance among the casts. Instead, the horrific, disgusting and shocking aspects of the crime are given more focus. Serial killers are constantly featured. Before finding the killers, the team of FBI agents who specialize in profiling would first investigate the crime scene, background of the victim, comparisons with other victims to check if there's any pattern involved and possible motive for murder.

The personal lives of the characters - the FBI agents - are not the main focus of the series but they are included occasionally to give us a slight background to their personalities. Other than that, we see the characters mainly as profilers and their skills into determining the perpetrators of the crimes. 

Every show always has a break-out character ie the character that stands out the most among the crowd. People may agree or disagree with me on this one BUT the breakout character of Criminal Minds is undoubtedly.... the ever-so-adorable.... soooo cute that you feel like protecting him every time you see him..... Dr Spencer Reid. 

Our Spencer Reid joined the FBI team of Behavorial Analysis Unit at the age of 21. What - 21, I said? And already with a PhD? Yes, people, he is a GENIUS. Not that snobbish, overbearing arrogant genius but the totally clueless, innocent, very technical and logic thinking and romantically hopeless type of genius. He doesn't get jokes, fairy tales and silly puzzles. The best of all, he has never heard of Twilight. Good. He can also be annoying at times for being too smart and knowledgable. For example, ask him about how he spent his Halloween and he's give you a not-so-brief Wikipedia-like speech on the history of Halloween and the reasons of celebrating it. 

But still, a cute man with a brain is always irresistable.

Compared to Castle, Criminal Minds seem to have better writers. The plots of each episodes are not so repetitive and there have been a few cases that made me cried like a baby. There was one where the killer was actually a man with the mind of a child who killed a couple. There was also one where an eight years old girl was kidnapped to be kept as a lover to a man for seven years. She was raped repeatedly and committed suicide when she was fifteen after discovering that she was pregnant with her kidnapper's baby. Yup, that one was total psycho. 

You often question the type of people out there while watching the show. I know the show is meant to be fiction but hey, the crazy shits they show on air could really occur in real life. Who knows....

Also, watching the show makes you feel like learning more about criminology. It makes me interested in becoming a prosecuter all of sudden, or at least somebody who tries to solve a murder and provide justice for the victim's loved ones. Hmm... that doesn't sound like a bad idea....

MOVING ON TO DEXTER!! Which is even more gruesome and psychotic, based on my friend, Palah... Hmmm... hmmm... fucked up humanity, here I come!

Ruby Jusoh's life has been all about trips to hospitals and sending her younger siblings to school and tuitions there days. Busyness sucks but hey, at least she doesn't spend all day on bed watching countless dramas on her laptop... and gaining more unnecessary weight. She is also trying to shed some by starting her diet routine by eating oats, which happens to taste like plastics. Erghhh...