Castle Season 8 (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Premiered tonight.


This is a show that in the early seasons, though Season 6 or so, I really enjoyed.

But last season was a slog, and this season begins with what seems like a storyline lifted from Alias... we're now trending into Alias late season ground unless this recovers.

 

[Nelson Au]

I liked how Alexis is more involved now. True the Beckett mystery is a head scratcher.

 

[Dheiner]

Marrying them was a mistake. Castle is WAY out of her league. He should be bringing real eye candy into this show on a semi-regular basis.

 

[Matt Hough]

Wasn't Alexis absolutely stunning all dolled up and having her way (detective-wise) with the EMT guy! She has grown into a very beautiful woman.


The show was OK (irritating to start the season with a two-part episode), and I see we get the story from Beckett's POV next week, but in trying to reinvent the show, it seems to be losing some of the core working relationships that made it special in the first place.


I really do think this will be the last year, and it finished last in its time slot last night which might also spell the end being in sight.

 

[Nelson Au]

So in reading up a little, it wasn't clear if Martha is still in the cast, but Penny Johnson was surprised to learn she won't return as Captain Gates. Too bad for Penny. So that might mean the lure to keep Stana on the show must have been this new role as Captain and part-time spy.

 

[Walter Kittel]

They finally made 'Sir' likable the past few seasons and now she's gone. I was wondering about her absence in the premiere episode, but hadn't searched online.


I kind of agree with the Alias comparisons by Matt (CR). I'm okay with another mysterious plot line, but it needs a better resolution that 'missing Castle' from last year which was completely mis-handled. Having said that, I do think that whenever the show abandons the lighter episodes it goes away from its strengths and is weaker because of that choice. (Pretty sure I said that in last season's thread.)


I'm pretty adverse to spiders so that interrogation kind of freaked me out.


I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last season of the show.


Alexis looked pretty damn terrific, BTW.


I noticed that Sunday's Fear the Walking Dead and Monday's Gotham featured Lou Reed's Perfect Day in their opening montages. Spotted another duplication with both Minority Report and Castle using room number 1313 in their premiere episodes.


- Walter.

 

[KevinGress]

Wasn't Alexis absolutely stunning all dolled up and having her way (detective-wise) with the EMT guy! She has grown into a very beautiful woman.


The show was OK (irritating to start the season with a two-part episode), and I see we get the story from Beckett's POV next week, but in trying to reinvent the show, it seems to be losing some of the core working relationships that made it special in the first place.


I really do think this will be the last year, and it finished last in its time slot last night which might also spell the end being in sight.

Yes, I noticed Alexis wearing her black dress and had to validate Molly's birthdate to make sure I wasn't being pervy.


I suppose the writers thought they had to introduce a mystery to have Beckett 'out in the field' now that she's a captain, but I think they could have made it work without it, as long as Ryan and Espo (and Castle) kept coming back to her with information and she still worked out the clues. Or they could focus more on Castle being a P.I. and Beckett helping him - allowing her to 'get out in the field' that way. Either way, making her a captain makes it a challenge, but I don't think going about it the right way.


I'll still watch, but like others, wouldn't be surprised if this is the last season (didn't they just sign new contracts? If so, was it only for one year?)


Oh, and I didn't realize that Hayley is a new regular; figured she was just around for the first 2 episodes.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Has it really been 7 seasons already? The mysterious Kate angle is played out for me at this stage of the show.

 

[Alf S]

We've been watching since he beginning, but last season I really started losing interest in their storylines and usual banter. Not sure how this season will play out with Kate's new role, but I hope it picks up the pace because I'm close to giving up on these folks.

 

[Nelson Au]

This is what they had to do to keep Stana on board? Make her go off and find this shadowy Locksat person?

The second episode was a briskly paced episode which explained a lot. But put us back into the obsessed Kate mode again. The self stitching scene was almost as hard to watch as the one in Ronin with DeNiro. I liked this new character, Rick's stepmom. Too bad Beckett didn't take her advise.

I see both Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion are producers. Let's see how this season goes, the marriage looks like it's off to a rocky start.

 

[Alf S]

I love how Kate has that HUGE gross rip in her flesh that she SELF stitches back together, but not once did she act like she was in pain and by the end of the episode acted like it never happened..no hospital visit, but passing out from pain or loss of blood that would happen to a normal person.

 

[Walter Kittel]

I did not like how the episode ended, nor am I a fan of obsessed Kate. Having said that, the preview for next week gave me some hope for the season with a persistent Castle finding ways to horn in on the investigation(s) as a potential gold mine of comedy. I guess with Brolin busy on Life in Pieces the stepmom is another character that the show can use to insert some familial assistance. I liked the character as well and hope we'll see more of her as the hunt for Locksat progresses.


Yeah, the whole 'nothing to see here' routine with Beckett's wound was a real weakness in the episode. I have differing standards of reality that I apply to shows based on their genre and tone and while I would expect 'self treatment' on something like Arrow or Supernatural, it was a bit disappointing on Castle to see Beckett show no ill effects from a pretty nasty wound.


- Walter.

 

[Stan]

Haven't watched the new episodes yet, prefer to store up these two part shows and watch them straight through, rather than wait a week.

Their "banter" was really getting old last season, time to step it up. The only thing that seems to change is Kate's hair gets a little longer each season.

 

[Matt Hough]

This one had some good moments, and on the whole, the Beckett side of this story was more interesting than the Castle side last week. Overall, I wasn't all that pleased with the new trajectory, but I've stuck with the show this long and, like others, the previews seemed to suggest we haven't lost the comic flavor of the show, so I'll stay on board.

 

[Greg_S_H]

She shouldn't show any effects from her wound. After all, she was shot in the chest and underwent major surgery and is completly unscarred, so it's established she has magic skin.


I'm not liking this storyline. If they wanted to figure out what to do with a married couple, how about having the Castles become more social with the Ryans, and Espo feels left out. That could spin into him reconnecting with Lanie, though that can never happen just because. I don't say this should be the focus, but it could be b-story material. Better than a contrived separation.

 

[Nelson Au]

Ok, I was totally misunderstanding the ending of last week's episode. I thought Beckett was going off to play spy and go underground, thus leaving the precinct and Castle. But she just left Castle so she could focus on finding the Locksat by night and be captain by day. That makes more sense so she continues her outward appearance of staying normal and not chasing Locksat.

At some point as they eluded to in the dialogue there's going to be another serious episode where they have the showdown.

They are doing a good thing by having Alexis more involved now as Castle's partner in the PI business.

I guess that thing Castle got from the mail is an Amazon Echo like device. It was pretty snarky!

 

[MikeEn]

Hmm, so Alexis went from having Pi as a partner to being the partner of a PI. And we all know from middle school what 2 Pi R – the circumference. Proving that what goes around, comes around.

 

[Matt Hough]

The whole separation seems so contrived that it's soured me a lot on the show. If I didn't have such a huge fondness for these characters, I'd be bidding the show goodbye. It's going to get VERY tiresome if Rick doesn't back away and trust that Beckett will come back to him once the impediment to her happiness is removed.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Oh, I still enjoy the characters but I agree with Matt that it feels very contrived. I guess I understand the need to insert a season long story arc into the series, but separating the characters doesn't seem like the right way to accomplish that task.


- Walter.

 

[Greg_S_H]

It's kind of a lame separation at this point. She needs to tell him what's going on and say she has to act like she despises him, because I don't think anyone who wants to hurt her at this point is going to say, "Hey, she's no longer living with her husband even though they're still very friendly, so let's not use him in any way against her."