There are inherent weaknesses that are wearing on the show.
The daughter and his mother are useless characters. They are just “there”. (Quick: what are their names?) The writers haven’t figured out anything interesting to do with them. Sure, you can have someone kidnap one of them, but we’re bored of that from all the other shows that did it and so even once was sad.
Beckett has never reached her full potential as a character. The mother murder back story really didn’t fit well with the mood of the series.
The “will they or won’t they” also reached it’s inevitable boring conclusion.
Going back to “fun”, literary Castle would help a little, but the basic problems are still there.
They have several uses. One is that Castle kvetches about his overbearing mother for comedy. The other is the device (used often, more so in earlier seasons) that Castle realizes something about the case through conversations with one of them. Usually the daughter (Alexis. I know her name because she is a hot redhead )
I am a total fanboy for Nathan Fillion and Castle, but I agree that the show is suffering some “procedural fatigue” (great term, BTW). Since I’m pretty sure who is behind Castle’s disappearance, I’m hoping they wrap up the show this season with arcs that deal with all dangling plot threads and go out strong.
Alexis (as noted: hot redhead) doesn’t have to be a useless character. But bogging down the show with the usual lame-assed plot devices such as kidnapping, or boyfriend conflict (seriously, Alexis would never date anyone as useless as Pie. I don’t even think he rises to the level of stereotype.) damages the show. I thought they did a good job of avoiding the “child is the real grownup in the family” cliche with her, for the most part.
Martha (not as hot redhead), on the other hand, really should get her own place. The slapstick silly subplots such as running an acting class in the apartment are just stupid.
Ah yes.
Thanks all for the hints about what happened. I’ve been DVRing the Castles for a while, but I’m going to delete them tonight.
I did like the mother and daughter characters, btw. And appreciated that up to the point I stopped they didn’t have a stupid kid in danger plot.
ahh same ole same ole.
The underlying plot line of the shadowy figure and some type of conspiracy theory has been in the series since it began. They ran it full out with Beckett; now it’s Castle’s turn. The show is still light hearted fun, the conspiracy episodes just aren’t as much fun. I’m not giving up on it yet.
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