# Take Two (TV series)
**Take Two** is an American comedy-drama crime procedural that aired on ABC from June 21 to September 13, 2018, created by Andrew W. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller, the husband-and-wife team behind the network's series *[Castle](https://www.edgepedia.org/castle-tv-series)*.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) The show stars [Rachel Bilson](https://www.edgepedia.org/rachel-bilson) as Sam Swift, a former star of a television cop show who, fresh out of rehab after a public breakdown, shadows Los Angeles private investigator Eddie Valetik ([Eddie Cibrian](https://www.edgepedia.org/eddie-cibrian)) as research for a comeback role, and proves unexpectedly useful to him.[2](https://epguides.com/TakeTwo/) ABC canceled the series after its single 13-episode season.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Created by | Andrew W. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller, married collaborators from *Castle*[3](https://www.assignmentx.com/2018/take-two-creators-andrew-w-marlowe-terri-edda-miller-on-new-series-exclusive-interview/) |
| Network and run | ABC (US), June 21 to September 13, 2018, 13 episodes of 60 minutes[2](https://epguides.com/TakeTwo/) |
| Order | Straight-to-series order from ABC in November 2017[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) |
| Lead cast | Rachel Bilson as Sam Swift, Eddie Cibrian as Eddie Valetik, with Aliyah O'Brien, Alice Lee, and Xavier de Guzman[2](https://epguides.com/TakeTwo/) |
| Production companies | ABC Studios, Tandem Productions, StudioCanal, and MilMar Pictures[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) |
| International airing | ABC, Vox (Germany), and France 2[4](https://milmarpics.com/) |
| Cancellation | November 21, 2018, after averaging a 0.6 rating among adults 18-49[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) |
| Reception | 67% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (15 reviews) with a 90% audience score; a Metacritic metascore of 53[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/take_two/s01) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/take-two/critic-reviews/) |
## Premise and characters
Sam Swift is the former star of the hit cop series *Hot Suspect*, undone by a broken engagement, the cancellation of her show, and an episode of inebriated public disgrace that sent her to rehab.[7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html) Desperate to restart her career, she talks her way into shadowing the lone-wolf private investigator Eddie Valetik as research for a potential comeback role as a detective.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) Eddie resents what he views as a babysitting gig, but Sam draws on her acting skills and her 200 episodes of playing a detective, and proves herself surprisingly valuable in the field.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/)
The supporting cast includes Aliyah O'Brien as LAPD Detective Christine Rollins, Xavier de Guzman as Roberto "Berto" Vasquez, Eddie's tech-savvy right hand, and Alice Lee as Monica, Sam's ultra-deadpan assistant, a self-described cyborg in the body-hacking "grinder" subculture.[2](https://epguides.com/TakeTwo/) • [7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html) Lamont Thompson plays Zeus, a security consultant who owns a bar, and [Jordan Gavaris](https://www.edgepedia.org/jordan-gavaris) plays Mick English, the comical medical examiner and Sam's biggest fan.[7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html)
## Development and production
The project was first reported in March 2016, when *Castle* creator Andrew W. Marlowe and executive producer Terri Edda Miller signed on with Tandem Productions' Rola Bauer to develop an L.A.-based procedural about an investigator and his unlikely partner; in that early version, the TV star was named Emma Swift and was hired to appear in commercials for the detective's office.[8](https://www.tvline.com/news/castle-creator-andrew-marlowe-terri-miller-take-two-procedural-698558/) Miller later said the idea grew partly out of her and Marlowe's *Castle* experience, including conversations with actors about how playing a cop on television prepared them for real situations, and the question of what such a person would be like as a private investigator in Los Angeles.[3](https://www.assignmentx.com/2018/take-two-creators-andrew-w-marlowe-terri-edda-miller-on-new-series-exclusive-interview/) Marlowe described the show as part of a lineage running from *The Thin Man* through *Moonlighting*, and said he and Miller wanted a show that was "poppy and fun" in a television landscape with a lot of darkness.[9](https://www.givememyremote.com/remote/2018/06/28/take-two-interview-andrew-marlowe-terri-edda-miller/)
ABC gave the series a straight-to-series order in November 2017.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) The show was an international co-production: it aired on ABC in the United States, on Vox in Germany, and on [France 2](https://www.edgepedia.org/france-2), and was produced by ABC Studios, Tandem Productions, StudioCanal, and MilMar Pictures, the company Marlowe and Miller formed together.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) • [4](https://milmarpics.com/) Although set in Los Angeles, the series was shot in Vancouver, a financial decision that Miller said forced the production to be more creative and that let them draw on local Canadian casting.[7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html) • [3](https://www.assignmentx.com/2018/take-two-creators-andrew-w-marlowe-terri-edda-miller-on-new-series-exclusive-interview/)
## Relationship to Castle
Reviewers and the creators themselves framed *Take Two* against *Castle*, the ABC series Marlowe created and ran and on which Miller wrote and produced.[7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html) Both shows pair a crime-fighting professional with an enthusiastic amateur from the storytelling world, but the genders are reversed: where *Castle* concerned a male mystery writer working with a female NYPD detective, *Take Two* concerns an actress who played a cop on television working alongside an L.A. private eye.[7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html) The private-eye setting also opened up different kinds of cases than a police procedural, from missing persons to stranger matters, including an episode built around a man who believes his missing mother has been abducted by aliens.[3](https://www.assignmentx.com/2018/take-two-creators-andrew-w-marlowe-terri-edda-miller-on-new-series-exclusive-interview/)
## Broadcast and cancellation
The series premiered Thursday, June 21, 2018, at 10 p.m. on ABC as a summer series.[10](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/320931/abc-introduces-lighthearted-summer-detective-drama.html?edition=109693) Its 13 episodes ran weekly through the finale, "One to the Heart," on September 13, 2018.[2](https://epguides.com/TakeTwo/) On November 21, 2018, ABC canceled the show after one season.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/) According to Nielsen "most current" figures, which count up to a week of delayed viewing where available, the new show averaged a 0.6 rating among adults 18-49, making it one of Summer 2018's weakest performers.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/)
## Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the season holds a 67% Tomatometer from 15 reviews and a 90% audience score; the site's critics consensus says the show is more entertaining than expected, with desirable chemistry between the stars, but that the writing is too shaky to break its cookie-cutter mold.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/take_two/s01) Metacritic assigned a metascore of 53, labeled mixed or average, based on 10 critic reviews, against a user score of 7.1.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/take-two/critic-reviews/)
Robert Lloyd, television critic of the Los Angeles Times, called the show likable and "a lighter proposition than *Castle* eventually became," writing that Bilson and Cibrian are airier presences than their predecessors and that a lack of gravitas suits them.[7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html) [TV Guide](https://www.edgepedia.org/tv-guide)'s review described a light crime procedural offering attractive leads, quips, and a tidy 43-minute mystery, and judged Bilson's performance immensely likable.[11](https://www.tvguide.com/news/take-two-abc-review-rachel-bilson/) More negative reviews targeted the familiarity of the premise: [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter)'s Daniel Fienberg wrote that the show was "Castle in a blender, but not a very efficient blender," and CNN's Brian Lowry suggested the series might as well have been titled "Castle 2."[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/take-two/critic-reviews/)
## References
1. ['Take Two' Canceled by ABC After One Season, TheWrap (Jennifer Maas, November 21, 2018)](https://www.thewrap.com/take-two-canceled-abc-one-season/)
2. [Take Two (a Titles & Air Dates Guide), epguides.com](https://epguides.com/TakeTwo/)
3. [TAKE TWO: Creators Andrew W. Marlowe & Terri Edda Miller on new series, Assignment X (Abbie Bernstein, June 22, 2018)](https://www.assignmentx.com/2018/take-two-creators-andrew-w-marlowe-terri-edda-miller-on-new-series-exclusive-interview/)
4. [MilMar Pictures, official site](https://milmarpics.com/)
5. [Take Two: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/take_two/s01)
6. [Take Two critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/take-two/critic-reviews/)
7. [Is 'Take Two' just 'Castle' redux, or modern-day Nick and Nora Charles fun?, Los Angeles Times (Robert Lloyd, June 21, 2018)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-take-two-review-20180621-story.html)
8. [Castle's Andrew Marlowe, Terri Miller To Produce New 'Unlikely Partners' Drama, TVLine (Matt Webb Mitovich, March 29, 2016)](https://www.tvline.com/news/castle-creator-andrew-marlowe-terri-miller-take-two-procedural-698558/)
9. [TAKE TWO: Andrew Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller on Embracing their Strengths with the New ABC Procedural, Give Me My Remote (June 28, 2018)](https://www.givememyremote.com/remote/2018/06/28/take-two-interview-andrew-marlowe-terri-edda-miller/)
10. [ABC Introduces Lighthearted Summer Detective Drama, MediaPost (Adam Buckman, June 21, 2018)](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/320931/abc-introduces-lighthearted-summer-detective-drama.html?edition=109693)
11. [Take Two Is Just a Fun Summer Show, and That's OK, TV Guide (Liam Mathews, June 21, 2018)](https://www.tvguide.com/news/take-two-abc-review-rachel-bilson/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Genre and subject-scripted series › Crime, police, and detective series › American crime series › Private detective and mystery series*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license