What Fascinates You?

So it's another day wherein I have abandoned my normal routine for an afternoon out and a marathon session of Castle.  Look, we've got just over two seasons to catch up on, all right?  And I only get to see it Mondays. 

The weather outside was frightful, so we accomplished our long-postponed tour of Evergreen Hospital, which I shall be writing up tomorrow.  If your local hospital gives tours, take advantage, my darlings: it's impressive.  At least if your facility is as cool as Evergreen is. 

Then we came home, made obscene amounts of food, and plunked ourselves down for hours and hours of Castle, which plan my cat heartily approved.  I love this show.  I still love it, even though I was slightly afraid they'd hit a second-season slump.  There's no other show quite so good at taking lines that coulda shoulda woulda been cliched and making them not just relevant, but hilarious.  Warps expectations, turns tired tropes 45 degrees and has fun with them, nice sexual tension going - what's not to love, right?

But I'm still trying to figure out why I love it so much.  And the conclusion I've come to is that every regular character is eminently likable.  They're just fun to hang out with.  They're interesting, they're sympathetic, they surprise just enough to stay interesting and not enough to dismay.  It's a delicate balance that's very hard to strike.  And, bonus, even when the show could go there, it doesn't reach for the supernatural.  Seems like every fucking show has thrown in gratuitous supernatural shit since Lost.  Now, I do enjoy the supernatural shit - I'm a die-hard Buffy fan, for fuck's sake - but when it's thrown in willy-nilly, it just irritates me.

So that's now got me curious.  What does it for you, my darlings?  What hooks you on a show?  What keeps you hooked?  And what should I become obsessed with next (aside from House, which is already in my collection)?