Sunday, October 28, 2012

Fictional characters: Martha Rodgers

The character
Martha Rodgers is Richard Castle's (from detective series Castle) mother. This acclaimed best-seller writer, took his mother back after a really bad divorce: her husband absconded with all her money. She has returned home to fulfill, somewhat loosely, the role of mother to an adult and grandmother to a teenage girl. She is supported by her son: it is mentioned she receives and allowance. In a sense, the pyramid of responsibility in that household is reversed: the youngest is the most responsible and the oldest the lightest-headed.
Ms. Sullivan is very good at her job of creating actress Martha Rodgers utterly believable. She is certainly not a doting mother: she is quite prone to point out Castle's mistakes but she is supportive and gives seasoned advice to her son when needed, without being a prude or judgemental.
It is great to see a character that is a woman over 65 that does not fit easily into a cliché. Not only life is not over for her, there is true enjoyment in it: she wants to have fun and she is getting it (she has romantic entanglements, so we must assume she is having sex too, so good for her!). She is hip and modern. I want more characters like these on TV.

The lines
(After being called "Mother" by his son, novelist Richard Castle)
Sush! Sush! Not so loud! I'm still hoping to get lucky!
And then...
Hang on sweetie, I just got a hit on my radar... Bingo! No ring! Stand back, kids, mamma's going fishing!

No comments:

Post a Comment