A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

WHOCARESWHODUNIT? As Adam noted a few weeks back, I have a thing for a bunch of shows that I don't blog about regularly here--Castle, NCIS, Psych, Monk, White Collar, and to a much lesser degree NCIS: LA. In overall style, they're rather different, but what they boil down to is procedurals with a twist--we really don't care whodunit in most episodes, but are watching it to spend time with the characters and enjoy the chemistry--sometimes romantic (Castle), sometimes bromantic (Psych, White Collar), and sometimes a little of both (NCIS offers the McGee/Tony bromance as well as the Tony/Ziva romance). The mysteries are frequently half-thought out, usually easily solvable by applying the Law & Order principle ("most famous guest star did it," typical on Castle and Psych) or the ever popular mystery novel resolution of introducing a new character in the final minutes who's the mastermind (NCIS's staple). Some, following in the footsteps of Columbo (or, more recently, Monk and Criminal Intent), show us who did it from the outset.

Of course, your enjoyment of these shows depends largely on how much you tolerate the show's particular quirk--Nathan Fillion being snarky, James Roday tossing out 80s pop culture references like there's no tomorrow, or Matthew Bomer pulling out Blue Steel--but I can deal with all of those. These shows aren't great (though they sometimes have really good moments--the Dana Delany two-parter on Castle was pretty riveting, and last season's Psych finale was a solid homage to Hitchcock), but they're solid brain candy--and sometimes, that's all you want. (The Good Guys is looking like it may also work in that vein, which is a particularly nice thing in the summer.)