Throng

8:30pm Wednesday, July 14 on TV One

Castle is a new comic crime series about a famous mystery novelist, Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion, Desperate Housewives), who is bored with his own success. When a real-world copycat murderer starts staging scenes from Richard's novels, he is teamed up with NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic, The Spirit) to help solve the crime. Castle and Beckett's styles instantly clash and sparks begin to fly, leading both to danger and a hint of romance.

Canadian-born Fillion who starred in TV2's Desperate Housewives as Dr Adam Mayfair, plays down his role in the hit series, "I didn't have much to do. The pressure was very low on that show. All the women do all the heavy lifting."

Fillion says of his Castle co-star Katic's performance, "Stana can play chemistry with a wet paper bag. She has an intrinsic understanding of how to play it and just how to find the language. We have a lot of fun often."

It was TVNZ's turn to show off which series they'll be screening in 2010 at their new season launch today in Auckland.  As you'd expect, there's a fairly solid line-up.

TV One has a new goal:  to be a little edgier.  One might assume: a little less safe.  It will be interesting to see how this transcribes into ratings.

TV One should dominate Mondays with The Pacific, an HBO series from the makers of Band of Brothers.  This will be followed by the multi-Emmy award-winning series Generation Kill. However, as it aired in the US in 2008, it can be bought on DVD here for about $40.

Coming soon to ABC is a new show called Castle. It's a comedy/crime crime procedural about a famous mystery novelist, Nick Castle, who is bored with his own success.

When a real-world copycat murderer starts staging scenes from Nick's novels, Nick is teamed up with NYPD Detective Kate Beckett and the challenge gets his blood pumping as he steps in to help solve the crime.

Nick and Beckett's styles instantly clash and sparks begin to fly, leading both to danger and a hint of romance.

Nick is kept grounded by his Broadway diva mother, quick-witted teenage daughter and his long-suffering ex-wife... who happens to be his editor.

"Castle" stars Nathan Fillion as Castle, Stana Katic as Beckett, Molly Quinn as Alexis, Susan Sullivan as Martha, Monet Mazur as Gina and Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Capt. Montgomery.