I still watch, but I don’t like it. I don’t know why I don’t stop watching. Maybe because while it’s bad, it’s not offensive and I can have it drone on in the background and space out… Kind of like how I am with Bones.
I think comparing it to Bones is very reasonable, that both shows work much better on stand alone mysteries rather than ridiculous arch villain arcs. Plus both shows have a wealth of secondary characters that don’t get featured enough, and when they do nowadays, their storylines kind of suck.
I don’t care that in both shows the couples got together. The appeal of the shows for me never was the will-they? aspect. I like procedural crime dramas, and both seem to mostly leave that realm now into some grand conspiracy theory 'verse. It’s harder to follow than X-Files sometimes.
I’m agreeing with the Bones and Castle comparisons. I think at this point the only reason I watch is out of some misguided loyalty to Captain Tightpants and Angel.
If there is a comparison, is that Castle is where Bones was several years ago. I quit Bones when 1) I realized Booth is a thug bully asshole, 2) Bone’s personality got sent all over the place from episode to episode and 3) that the writers made Bone’s father, a murdering bank robber (or whatever he is) a “good guy”.
I still like Castle as a character (except for the whole being a doormat thing), right now it’s only Beckett that I can’t stand, so I’m bailing before it goes full Bones, and I still have good memories of the show.
I quit Bones because too many episodes just got annoyingly preachy. Clearly one of the writers (or more) was trying to push certain agendas. I didn’t actually quit it so much as just stopped bothering to catch episodes on OnDemand when it was on opposite other things I was actually enjoying. The arcs there were actually probably the only reason I kept watching.
On Castle, though, the arc eps are just annoying and stupid and keep the show from being as fun as it is when they’re just solving a crazy case of the week.
Yeah, I think that Castle is still a good show, when they’re not doing the ‘shadow conspiracy’ episodes. I’ve never been bothered by Kate, until this “I have to leave you to keep you safe” nonsense.
and, I might add, the episodes that focus on some horrible problem the lead characters have, as opposed to the leads doing the jobs they are good at – detecting, imagining and solving. Instead we get the “where did Castle go for 6 months”, “Beckett gets taken captive, again…”, etc. etc.
And, while I’m at it, why must every cop show have a woman running the squad room, or detective bureau, or whatever. And a female cop with pure motives while all the men around her have questionable characters… And a nerdy geeky guy or girl who can make a computer sing, faster and more productively than any 100 programmers and users put together?
So, Kate might get killed if she doesn’t “let it go.” If they keep going with this conspiracy story line again, I’m happy with that and continuing on with the Castle Detective Agency.
When she did the whole “I have to leave you to keep you safe” thing, I thought at least she was going underground to solve the case…not pick up her life at the precinct where she left off. Instead of being noble and going on the run to solve it, she looks like a jerk for leaving him.
Never really cared for this show, but watch it at times just because the rest of my family likes it. (I draw the lines at Bones, tho! Hard to believe that show was once one of my faves!) Odd, because I really like just about everything else Fillon has done. But his mugging just grates in this. Probably a stupid reason, but I always found Beckett a less convincing cop than Pepper Anderson!
But yeah, these last couple of shows seem to be a new low. Last night I realized so many things didn’t add up that I really wasn’t even trying to make sense of them. What the hell is the conspiracy? Why did Beckett leave Castle? How is she pursuing this conspiracy while still working fulltime as a police captain? And how, exactly, does her being a captain differ from what she was doing before? And the daughter is probably my least favorite character.
I’ve a sneaking suspicion that they’ve split up Beckett and Castle because after all these years, the producers are having a harder and harder time dealing with the (heavily rumored and likely true) enmity between Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion. When your actors don’t like each other, you do horrible things to the characters to keep the show going. (See also Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi on The Good Wife.)
Since we’re talking Bones here too, somehow, I have to say that it makes me wonder how well Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz are getting along these days.
Heavily rumored and likely true? I’d be interested in seeing some web links to those rumors. On a related note, the feud/no feud between Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi is kind of intersting, especially given that it came out that their last scene together was actually filmed split screen.
That’s quite common as a contractual addition after a certain number of seasons. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have any input in the direction of the show, though it can. More likely it gives them some veto power over the direction of their own characters.
I haven’t heard that Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic don’t get on. All the rumours I’ve found online seem to be sourced from the dodgiest of dodgy sites, based on isolated incidents that may not even have happened. Last renewal, Katic took a long time before signing onto a new contract, so maybe that was where the invented rumours were inspired by, but she was away shooting a film at the time of the negotiations, and wanted some input after a change in Showrunner, so didn’t want to sign sight-unseen. Source: Deadline
They seem to like to dress her up as eye-candy bait for suspects. A move I wholeheartedly appreciate. But, then again, I’m a dirty old man.
Seriously though, I’ve actually enjoyed her character growth over the years. TV writers have shown a tendency to portray every teenage girl in a drama series as a walking bag of illogical snarky overly dramatic emotions. It was refreshing to see a character who acted mostly rational throughout the shows history.
I think Molly Quinn / Alexis Castle could carry a spin-off series, even if it was a ten episode experiment. She just needs a decent premise and a strong supporting cast. I thought* she could be a trainee ME under Perlmutter, but the PI idea is a good one too.
I don’t know why I keep watching. The “new excuse to keep them apart” and ongoing conspiracy mess is the least favorite bits.
The “I need space/ researching this will put you in danger” excuse is bullshit. I guess she thinks they’ll kill her for knowing stuff instead of using Castle to find her, then kill them both. Blah.
At least they found a new way to keep Alexis around and interacting.