I was reading this post by paperhearts, which is about the issue she takes with the female leads in series such as Castle and The Mentalist. Among her fine points, was this:

These men (who are not law enforcement officers nor have any law enforcement training) step in, and with a little hocus pocus, manage to do the woman's job better than she does. Never mind that neither of these men have gone through a police academy or received formal training, all it takes is writing crime novels or being a fake psychic to slide in and neatly out-perform a woman who has worked her way for years up the ranks. Worse yet, Lisbon and Beckett are made at times to look incompetent, uncreative, unable to think outside of a box.

And I realized, that this was in fact why I hadn't ever given these shows the time of day. I had always passed them over, for no real, conscious reason, even though, on paper, the characters of Castle and Patrick Jane sound like the kind that I just adore having on my television laptop screen.

( I think, therefore genderswap meta. )