This is what I’m thinking:

* Killer “Castle” season finale episode Monday, with a big
Western New York angle. I’ll address it further down the blog, giving readers who don’t want to know time to hit the exit button.

The best thing about the new schedule that NBC announced
Sunday was that Maria Bello (see above) is back full-time on prime time. Bello left “ER”
prematurely for a movie career. She didn’t hit it big and now apparently realizes
that TV stars can get better movie roles.

Bello is back on NBC’s Americanized version of “Prime
Suspect,” based on the British series that PBS carried (and still carries) that
starred Helen Mirren. I know of at least one failed pilot that previously tried
to do Mirren’s version justice.

* Channel 7 spent a good deal of Monday’s 11 p.m. newscast
dealing with the Republican video shot of Congressional candidate Jack Davis
taking a swipe at a cameraman who works for Republican candidate Jane Corwin. Channel
2 also played it big again Monday. (I didn’t watch Channel 4).

Corwin’s right to say that that story – which surfaced six
days ago — has had enough air time. The extended coverage is bordering on absurd.

But it is no more absurd than the latest round of Corwin’s
ads. In one ad, her campaign uses a clip from last week’s Channel 2 debate to
claim that Democrat Kathy Hochul is the one who is putting Medicare and Social
Security in jeopardy. Corwin ends the ad saying “I’ll never let career
politicians cut Social Security. You can count on that.”

Anyone who saw the entire Channel 2 debate would know that
Hochul is the one who vowed to protect Medicare and seniors against a
Republican agenda supported by Corwin. Corwin apparently has gotten the message.
When candidates realize they have a losing argument, you can count on their ad
campaigns to help them confuse the electorate.

Of course, many more voters watch the ads than watched the debate. Thursday’s debate had a 1.2 rating on WGRZ-TV, meaning 1 percent of households (or about 6,000 households) watched it. It also was carried on WGRZ.com., which may mean several hundred more people watched it in Buffalo.

The low debate viewership is one reason the local news channels should stop
worrying about that Davis video and devote more time to analyzing all the lies
and distortions in all the candidates’ ad campaigns.

* Leave now if you don’t want to know about Monday’s “Castle.”
In the final 10 minutes, Captain Roy Montgomery (played by Lackawanna’s Ruben Santiago-Hudson) was killed protecting Det. Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) after viewers learned he
had a shady side decades earlier. And then Kate was shot while giving Montgomery’s eulogy at
the burial site. As novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) told Kate he loved
her, Kate looked to be dead. But next fall don’t be surprised if we learn that Kate
was wearing a bullet-proof vest and was just in shock.

* Early deadlines can be killer in the newspaper world. This morning,
the Buffalo News carried a lengthy, day-old story about NBC’s fall schedule.
Being a day late wasn’t the worst part. That can happen. But the story also speculated that “Celebrity Apprentice” would continue even if Donald Trump decides to run for president.
Of course, Trump announced Monday that he wasn’t going to run, making that
speculation very, very old news.

NBC Entertainment Chairman Rob Greenblatt had said the
network was planning to go with a new host if Trump had run. But that was
bogus. There is no “Apprentice” without The Donald just like there is no “Castle” without Katic.  I mean Ashton Kutcher can’t replace everybody.

* Fox billed Monday’s episode of “The Chicago Code” as the
first part of the season finale. That’s an interesting choice of words since Fox
hasn’t renewed the Jennifer Beals series. Maybe that’s a hint that “Code” could
come back on another network. How about FX, where creator Shawn Ryan had
success with “The Shield” with a smaller budget? Just guessing.

pergament@msn.com

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