Castle - 2015 Edition (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

I don’t think anyone has posted on the new season of Castle. I can only assume it’s because no one is watching. :slight_smile:
The last I could find was this: 2014 thread.

I went ahead and marked this with spoilers because of the 4 or 5 of us left watching it; I don’t think any of us will care!

So the season starts of immediately with a two-parter. I can only assume it’s because the first half was such a turd, they had to try anything to reel us back in for the 2nd week.

The scene in episode 2 where Beckett says “Shut up and kiss me” was the most God awful terrible line in all of tv show history. I busted out laughing when it occurred.
Also when bad guy comes in and has everybody drop their guns. HELLO!!! Ryan and Espisito both have their guns on him! Just pull the trigger! Maybe I need to re watch that scene.

God! I used to love the fun of this show; and I guess they feel they need a deep conspiracy to keep viewers interested. Hoo boy, I thought the first two episodes were dumb beyond all rational.

HOWEVER… the series is getting on in age, and so they have to let the Characters grow. I get that. To me that even opened up a few possibilities that might be fun to explore.

So based on the first two episodes here are my pros and cons. Let’s discuss.

Pros
Castle and Alexis pairing up as private eyes. That might be fun. She’s getting to old to keep jumping around different schools and bringing home stray weird boyfriends. (not to say that it won’t continue to happen).

Beckett, Espisito and Ryan together again. They have good chemistry and I’m glad they’re going to be together. I wasn’t sure since Beckett is a Captain.

Beckett is back home in her own precinct (I think). I wasn’t sure until the end of the 2nd episode. I’m sure someone will let me know if I’m wrong.

Cons
The shadowy conspiracy theories is SO FREAKING OLD, and yet they do it every year. Hopefully, like previous seasons, we’ll only have to endure one or two episodes that focus on that bullshit.

Beckett leaving Castle? Blech. The old “I love you, so I have to leave you” trope has sucked since time began. TV History is full of shows that failed once the chemistry between two characters was finally resolved. Castle did a pretty good job of keeping the show entertaining even after Castle and Beckett got married.

Stupid British Chick. Please don’t ever bring her back. Ever. Please?

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I will be tuning into Hulu Plus next week to see if the show can return to somewhat normal fun of Castle, Espisito and Ryan being the men children that they are. Alexis outsmarting her dad at every turn, while he continues to tell her “You can’t do that, it’s too dangerous” and her doing it anyway.

2

This is the moment we’ll remember - Wife and I have enjoyed this show from the S1 Ep1 - and we both looked at each other last nite and said ‘what the holy fuck are they thinking?’

I’m willing to stick a while longer - but it won’t take much to where I will shelve it and remember the good ol’ days.

I fully expect a spinnoff with the adventures of “Alexis and British CHick”

I did like the introduction of step mom - that had possiblity - and the 2 parter would have been livable if she had said (instead of the big speach we’ve heard before) “You asked me to take care of them if you found them - I did - let me know when dinner is”

3

I watch Castle, I just don’t talk about it on this message board. I post over on one of the Castle forums, primarily because, as with my love of the WNBA, there just aren’t enough interested parties to sustain conversation.

I’ll have to respectfully disagree with you about the season premiere: I thought that it was excellent, aside from them not giving Penny Johnson-Jerald an on-screen send off. And, it’s such a wonderfully refreshing change of pace to see a long-running series not end their season on a cliffhanger, and still have the next season’s premiere be interesting. Also have to disagree with you about Haley: I thought that she was fun. I’m not so attached to the regular cast (I could actually stand to see much less of Ryan and Esposito), aside from Rick and Kate, and with Beckett being promoted, somebody needs to take over the “capable chick in the field” billet.

With that said, S9E02, “XX”, that wasn’t nearly as fun. Castle’s stepmother was a laughable Deus Ex, and the ending just left me shaking my head. I don’t object to the principle of another conspiracy, but this one was just booty: a co-conspirator with Bracken, whom even Bracken was afraid of? It was like bad fan fiction. Agree that the whole notion of, “I have to leave you to keep you safe” is incredibly stupid, but I did like how Rick’s exchange with Bracken in “XY”, and the stepmom’s conversation with Kate set up the ending to “XX.” When Rick said, “Don’t tell me that son of a bitch knows you better than I do!”, my heart broke for the guy a little. I know that the writers are going to eventually get them back together, but I have no faith in them doing it in a way that makes this breakup okay.

I’m not too optimistic about the season going forward right now, but I’ll continue to watch, if only because my TV service provides me with the ability to record more than one show at the same time. If I had to choose to only watch one show per hour, I’d probably knock it out of my rotation.

4

I’d love to see an Alexis/Hot British Chick (Toks Olagundoye, from the woefully short-lived Neighbors) spinoff, for the record.

I thought the two episodes were… well, okay-ish, but I rolled my eyes so hard I risked permanent blindness at one point- when team Castle got the secret file by zooming, reversing, and enhancing the *hell *out of the surveillance video of the laptop in the bar. That was Red Dwarf level zoom-enhance shit. They even managed to un-redact a series of numbers. I mean, come on.

5

The thing about these “shadow conspiracies” is they don’t make ANY sense. Not “willing suspension of disbelief” sense, but none whatsoever. What is to be gained by killing so many people to keep a secret that could just be denied. And of course, it’s kind of counterproductive to draw attention to you so-secret-no-one-even-knows-it-exists conspiracy by publicly killing several law enforcement types! Think they’ll investigate it now?

Plus, the sheer unbelievable power these people have. Arranging a hit in prison solitary confinement on short notice. What, does this conspiracy have someone working at the prison on retainer just in case? To be available on short notice for just such assassinations, skilled enough to do it and not get caught, yet not bored being a guard the rest of the time?

Plus, their little storage locker of cool guns. I picture the killers, toiling for a week or so, bringing in crates of guns (somehow with no one seeing them), then assembling those cool shelf units, putting all the weapons so nicely in their proper rack, all without anyone noticing. Did they have a boom box for tunes, and order Jimmy johns, too?

And frankly, Beckett has some mental issues, the way she just HAS to have some conspiracy to follow. There’s no reason she couldn’t discuss this with Castle. No reason they couldn’t work together. (Like what, he’s no longer leverage against her because they don’t live together?) But no, she has to run off like El Lobo Solo. Only her, and her alone, can fight the power.

But I did like Castle’s spring loaded weapon in the desk!

6

Ooh, good one. It seems like you would have to consider it as a possibility. I like how someone on the aforementioned Castle forum described Beckett as, “inherently obsessive to the point of seeking out obsession when no natural outlet for her obsessiveness presents itself.”

7

See I always kinda figured the *storage locker of crime * is the bad guy equivalent of a hotel mini-fridge. Bad guys take guns from the locker and get a bill later for what they’ve taken with an outrageous markup, of course.

8

I gave up on Castle last year after the season opener. I’d loved the show but they’d dragged out the “when will they finally get together?” thing too long already; breaking them up by having Beckett believe that Castle abandoned her on their wedding day was just too heartbreaking. There were ways they could have moved from the original snarky flirting to a happily married team (remember Hart to Hart?), but instead we got this.

9

Yep. I love the show, premise, characters and actors, but it’s gone on too long. Time to pull the plug and go out with dignity. Maybe with a mass shooting.

10

So, Beckett leaves at the end of ep 2, but the next week preview showed her and Nathan together doing “funny” stuff…

Huh.

11

Yeah, noticed that.

As I mentioned in the “keep watching” thread, last season was not good. So far this season is even worse.

In the XX episode, people have figured out how incredibly dangerous these people are (as if the arms stash wasn’t enough) and yet they don’t take basic steps to protect themselves. (Beckett going underground in fact causes problems.) Castle is trying to warn his daughter on the phone but he starts off with secondary information instead of “Alex, you life is in immediate danger!” so she gets irked and hangs up on him.

These people deserve to die.

Family secrets (Now With Step-Mother!), big conspiracies, etc. is way, way too tiresome. Stick to crime of the week.

12

Agree all around, this is getting worn out fast. I like mysteries of the week and Castle’s zany theories. That’s what the show does well. Stick to it. Let the characters be happy, dammit.

13

I am a leaf on the wind - Watch me soar

14

Hopefully, the beginning of the third episode will be Beckett stopping as she’s leaving, turning around, and saying:
“I’m sorry, I’m being stupid. No matter what’s going on, they’ll go after both of us, so we may as well be together. Now let’s go solve crimes.”
…and then going on to the Crime of the Week.

Because really, this whole "I’m putting you in danger by being with you is blazingly stupid; anyone trying to get to Kate will work through Castle whether she’s hiding or not - in fact, they’ll go after Castle all the faster if she goes underground. Overall, a good episode ruined by that final stupid thing.

15

Thanks for starting the thread, Enright3, I almost started one myself. I knew I couldn’t be the only one watching the show.

I was fine with Ep. 1, but I was not happy with the ending of Ep. 2. My husband and I had left Ep. 1 on the DVR to watch both of them together since it was a two-parter. I think it holds up a little better that way, rather than separated by a week.

I’m really hoping they can get back to the format that works for this show; I am fine with characters growing and changing over the course of a series, but at least make them behave consistently.

16

Yep, I even shouted out loud “Come on! Really?!!” at the television during that scene. It was so stupid and SO cliché it makes me wonder if the show wasn’t trolling us a little.

I liked the foreign woman, but I kept expecting her to turn out to be a baddie.

I didn’t care for the ‘Chekov’s gun’ ending. I like Rick best when he wins by using his wits, not by being an action hero. Unfortunately the trend in this show over the last couple of seasons has been toward the latter.

I’ve been a loyal fan of this show (I’ve even read some of the novels), but I do think it has run its course. I’d be glad if this was the last season, and I’d watch Fillion and Katic in whatever they chose to do next.

17

I hate the episodes that deal with the conspiracy. The charm of Castle is the childish excitement he has for the weird cases. I don’t even mind that him and Kate are married. In fact, I was hoping that together they would have a Nick and Nora Charles vibe.

But, I don’t want to completely thread-shit. In episode 1, this season, the reveal of his secret PI lair, with all the cool gadgets, had shades of the playfulness from seasons past. I’ll also admit, the secret gun-in-a-spring trap got a chuckle out of me, as well.

18

THANK YOU! That’s been driving me nuts!

19

Coming from the show that gave us this a few seasons back, oh yeah, definite trolling.

Shows that know they’re going downhill always seem to go the route of things like massive conspiracies or super-antagonists (Pelant just about killed Bones for me), and forget what made the damn things fun in the first place.

20

Pelant did kill Bones as far as I was concerned - then when I heard they killed off a different - I quit watching altogether.