I see the similarities with Castle, Moonlighting and heck more so, Remington Steele... but I see a lot of major differences.
Castle was murder of the week procedural which left them pretty much stuck in a rut. Granted I LOVED the character of Castle, but he was mainly just a writer. Even his PI place in the last season was mainly a front to get ideas for his books (because even the character was getting bored). The main comparison is the dynamic of a strong female and minor celebrity team up. Still the same can be said for Moonlighting as Maddie was a minor celebrity in her own right when she took over the firm after finding her accountant cleaned her out.
Moonlighting was mostly camp. They didn't really do any real detective work for most of the series as it was mainly witty (and fantastic) banter and slamming doors between the main characters. It was more pure comedy gold. Sort of like how the fantastic Galavant was camp to the whole fairy tale midevil casles and knights stuff. Moonlighting isn't meant to be taken seriously as a PI show... though again, it is a fantastic show and it had a nice diverse number of cases (when they even worked cases). Still the comparison comes in to play that Maddie was a minor celebrity who, like Shade, had been cleaned out. The difference is Maddie was desperate to survive where as Shade has already gotten past that and is surviving.
Remington Steele sort of comes into more of a comparison as the PI Firm is the woman's but Remington Steele (which is of course not his name) is more of a thief or conman. He takes on the role as a PI so she can be taken seriously as a female PI. The main comparison is the diversity of cases rather than being a procedural like Castle ended up.
In Private Eyes, the main Female is a PI and has been for a while. The former hockey player turned sports agent is a minor celebrity like Castle & Maddie... but unlike Castle & Remington Steele, he actually goes for a PI license to actually be a legit PI. He isn't falling back on something else or has some other motive (writing for Castle, theft for Steele, or even being a student like Veronica Mars). Which I find refreshing. For once we have two legal, legit, dedicated PI's working cases together... and it's not all solving murders. The cases have been pretty interesting and distinct.
We should probably throw in Magnum PI in here somewhere, but outside of it being a PI show with diverse cases... and Magnum driving a cool car (not his) and Shade driving a cool car (which is his)... it's still completely different because unlike Magnum PI, the PI's in this show act legit by driving non-descript rentals and stuff when following people. I mean, there's more smart actual P.I. work going on here than most of these other shows combined. Even Remington Steele did the thing for a while with a big flashy car.
So all in all... there are a lot of comparisons, but I think after 9 episodes now, Private Eyes stands out as something slightly different and unique. I'm really glad someone had the guts to make this as it's easily one of my favorite genre which is pretty much ruined in modern times by everything being procedural murder mysteries.
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