Castle (TV Series)

Ideas have consequences. Every day, we consume 7:38 hours of media (average), and every movie, every song, and every TV show is selling us ideas. 

This popular TV police drama follows Richard Castle, a famous crime novelist marked by his witty, charismatic personality.  Castle frequently sees the world through a romantic lens, and he is aways willing to voice an idealistic, even supernatural possibility to any given circumstance.

In order to gather realistic ideas for his novels, Castle is given permission to tag along with NYPD homicide detective Kate Beckett, who is a practical, in-charge character who bases her investigations entirely on facts and evidence.  

Throughout the show’s seasons there is a stark contrast between Beckett’s belief in material evidence and Castle’s leaning toward immaterial, intuitive evidence.

Detective Beckett’s view seems to follow a naturalistic outlook that the physical world is all that exists, and everything can be explained using physical evidence. 

Castle openly challenges Beckett’s beliefs, and yet his musings often lean toward allowing one’s personal feelings to guide them in making major decisions.  In a recent episode Castle’s daughter, Alexis, is fighting an internal battle of choosing a University to attend. Should she move away or stay near home? Castle offers this single piece of advice: “Follow your heart, follow your heart and you can’t go wrong.”

This particular TV show offers two possible answers about reality.  When referring to situations such as investigating a crime, hard, physical evidence is the only thing that will provide a legitimate answer. However, when dealing with one’s personal life, one must look inside and rely on his or her feelings to guide them.

Here are a couple of practical questions that could be discussed regarding the show:

1. Society says “follow your heart” to find happiness. Is that what the Bible says? What about the idea that we are all born sinful? Could it actually be true that following our hearts is the most destructive thing we could do?
2. God created the physical world, but is that all there is?  How does God interact with the physical world to reveal himself?  There’s nothing wrong with relying strictly on physical evidence in a crime investigation, but the Bible teaches that God created both the spiritual and physical world to work together (consider Romans 1).

Castle is a clever, funny, and winsome show, which makes it all the more important to pay attention to the ideas it presents. Tackling these ideas within a home is essential toward teaching students to love God with their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

*picture borrowed from: http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/castle/photos