I'd say that Firefly would be ok without Inara - I'm not saying she's insignificant, just that the show could continue on well enough without her. In truth, Inara's time is completely overtaken by her "relationship" with Mal; that reduces her importance to plot and character development, though I like her role.

I think it would be the best, from an acting perspective, for Firefly to come back with its great cast. They could retcon back in those dead characters, especially the incredibly dumb and needless death they gave to Tudyk.

I agree with a lot of what you say about "Castle" - charisma is great, but they really don't use Fillion's acting chops very much at all. Also, he has a "love thing" with a woman who pretty much only ever berates and insults him - to such a strong degree that it seems more like she hates him or has no respect for him at all. That's just crappy.

Still, they might get the whole cast back - "The Cape" and "V" are not doing very well. Both shows are frequently described in reviews as "stupid," "senseless," and "going nowhere." I don't bother watching them because the criticisms laid on them mean that I'd be wasting my limited time, and I wouldn't even have much fun doing it.

Casey is the best character on "Chuck", a show I used to like a lot, but it doesn't use Baldwin enough. And, "Chuck," sadly, is going the route of "The Cape" and "V," with stupidity, senselessness, and directionlessness. The first season showed a strong promise, and iirc the 2nd season did a pretty decent job, too. It seems, tho, that the show has gotten unbelievably mired in a few tropes that are just killing the series.

For one thing, you can't have our "hero/nerd" act so constantly panicky. I mean, really, I can't imagine how Chuck ever had sex with any woman ever. It goes from "he's a sweet guy" to "he's too much of a spaz to handle anything." Not even the best bodyguards can protect someone who freaks out at the idea of inviting a woman up to a hotel room in order to save the country.

For another, "Chuck" has gotten mired in so much relationship junk that it's no longer a decent comedy or action show anymore. It's like they think they're "Grey's Anatomy" or something. It's annoying enough from a viewer's perspective, but it has a devastating effect on the characters.

By which I mean that the lead is apparently an extremely unconfident 12-year-old girl when it comes to relationships. His constant babbling and "are we breaking up?" worry make him so freakishly unmanly and needy that it would drive anyone away. Hell, I was just a viewer and it drove me away. Instead of using those sorts of devices on occasion, maybe getting some character progression from it, "Chuck" goes back to that well over and over.

Worse still, these changes for the worse (it might even have started partway through S2, iirc) add on to a problem the show always had: impatience/instant gratification. Each season's major bad guy plot might drag like molasses for the whole run, but every other storyline is resolved before it can actually build tension - rather than making the audience feel anything, the audience just gets to watch stuff happen.

An example: I dimly recall that Chuck once saw Sarah "murder" a bad guy in cold blood. The viewers were in on it the whole time, because they see Chuck watching from a distance, but also get to hear the conversation where Sarah is pushed to commit murder. Even letting the audience understand the whole matter, the show could've run with this new problem for a while - Chuck could be extremely mistrustful of the woman he adores and who protects him.

Nope! They resolved that storyline either 2 minutes later before the episode ended, or about minutes in to the next ep. So why did they use up so much screen-time with these moments if they just dissolve away right quick?

The writers on "Chuck" seem like they have ADD, but for their own storylines. These various shows should either use their characters better or give them the chance to move on to better things. Though I am happy each of them (Fillion, Baldwin, Morena, Glau) are getting paychecks and high-profile jobs.