ABC’s Castle Incorporates ARG Into Season Finale Alex Gerage, May 23, 2010May 24, 2010 While everyone’s attention is seemingly focused on the upcoming series finale of LOST, another ABC show keenly incorporated an alternate reality game into the plot of their season finale. Over at her Giant Mice blog, ARG pro Brooke Thompson pointed out that the recent season two finale of ABC’s Castle dealt with ARGs. Hit the jump to find out just what it was about. For those that don’t follow the show, Richard Castle (played by geek-god Nathan Fillion) is a big time mystery novelist who works with the NYPD to help solve homicides. In the show’s finale, Castle and Detective Kate Beckett believe they are working on a case involving the murder of a spy. In reality though, the individual is no spy, but rather the player in an elaborate ARG game. Rather than spoil the remaining twists of the episode (they are quite good), I suggest you watch it for yourself below or over at Hulu. Thompson also notes that of the few instances where ARGs have been used in television shows (she references episodes of CSI: NY and Numb3rs, though an early episode of CSI should also be included), all of them have in some way been connected to murder and crime. Is this a coincidence? Are ARGs deliberately being stereotyped and given a negative connotation? Nobody can know for sure, but I expect that as the presence of ARGs become more established in today’s media culture, their role in film and television storylines will be much more diverse than they are now. Just give it time. While I am not a devoted follower of Castle, the few episodes I have seen throughout this season have been quite entertaining. Season three of Castle will return to ABC next fall. Viral Marketing ABCARGCastle
Alice in Wonderland Facebook Viral November 12, 2009November 12, 2009I’m not a big fan of Tim Burton’s, but whenever he has a project coming out, it certainly gets a lot of buzz. His latest film, Alice in Wonderland, is no different. Burton’s unique visual style always draws attention and with Alice, Disney is using it to their advantage. In… Read More
“Wonder Twins” Movie Poster Mystery Solved January 17, 2014Back in November, a poster featuring artwork for a possible Wonder Twins movie showed up at Midtown Comics in New York City. At the time, we thought it was one of two things: a hoax or viral marketing for Entourage The Movie. Of course being a site that covers viral… Read More
ParkerPOV Viral Reveals Parker’s Schedule and the Hunt for The Lizard May 7, 2012May 10, 2012The Amazing Spider-Man is turning out to be the viral that we here at MovieViral have been waiting for. Like The Dark Knight viral that ran a few years back, fans of the franchise and viral enthusiasts are looking forward to the next great update for the highly anticipated movie…. Read More