The spiritual meaning of Castle

We rented the first DVD for season 1 of this television series, and I find myself liking it. The title character, Richard Castle, is a crime novelist and rather a jackass at times; the detective, Kate Beckett, looks more like a model (come to think of it, so does the novelist) and does her job really well. Castle follows Beckett around on her investigations, sometimes getting in the way and sometimes actually helping to solve the murder (it's always a murder).

Of the first four episodes, two involve adultery. One adulterous husband gets a bullet in his head; another gets knifed by a mistress (she also killed the other mistress). One other adulterous husband was simply served divorce papers by his justifiably peeved wife.

I'm accustomed to cop shows teaching that crime doesn't pay; what (happily) surprises me is pop culture teaching us adultery brings major trouble.

There are other little lessons that I like; in one episode, Castle does something shabby to Beckett. Rather than apologizing, he tries to explain why his deed wasn't that bad. It doesn't fly.

Later, Castle's daughter complains about a boy. Why can't they just say “I’m sorry,” she asks.

Castle goes back to Beckett and apologizes, acknowledges that what he did was bad, says why it was bad, and ends with something like: "and if we never see each other again, I wanted you to know that."

A worthy example.