DVD Review Castle: The Complete Eighth and Final Season DVD Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

matt-hough

Castle: The Complete Eighth and Final Season DVD Review

Unquestionably the most popular crime procedural ABC has fronted in many years, the final season of Castle unfortunately got too caught up in its unsatisfying on-going mystery arcs taking time away from the single episode crime stories and the always fun character interactions that have been the series’ hallmarks.

[review]
Click here to read the original article.

 

[sidburyjr]

Castle was my favorite show for a couple of years. When the series ended I looked at the shows from the last season and realized that IMHO the best episode of the season was not as good as the worst episode of Season 2 (and probably several other seasons).

I know that tv executives are aware of the Moonlighting curse, but I suspect that in recent years, TV shows that have been bitten by this curse have been bitten primarily because they were going to extraordinary lengths to not be bitten. I really think this show could have had continued success simply by going back to the tried and true formula that kept it going for the first five or six seasons -- even if there were too many episodes in which the killer was unmasked, said that the cops could never prove anything, until Becket let him/her know that the smoking gun with dna, fingerprints, etc had been found in the dumpster behind the killer's apartment.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

The first five seasons of "Castle" were outstanding.

And in Season 6 and the first half of Season 7 it appeared that the producers of the show were successfully negotiating the fine line of avoiding the "Moonlighting curse". But for some reason the show abruptly changed course at that point as artificial wedges were inserted between Castle and Kate's relationship. (undoubtedly due to contract negotiations with Stana Katic who had actually threatened to quit after the 7th season.)

It seemed to me that the entire first half of Season 8 was an experiment to see if the show could be molded into more of a private eye series focusing on Castle and his daughter. That was the real reason for the Castle and Kate LockSat imposed "separation". The experiment was a resounding failure as ratings fell like a rock. After a 4 week hiatus the series started to regain its footing as the couple "secretly" reconciled and the ratings stabilized and even started back up a bit. This really put ABC in a quandry. The ratings were borderline for a renewal, but it was obvious the fans would reject the show without Katic and the ABC execs were (evidently) unhappy with her new contract. This led to the "trial balloon" of announcing her departure before making a final decision on the fate of the series. The overwhelmingly negative public outcry sealed the show's fate.

I own the first 7 seasons of "Castle", but will not be purchasing the last season. The last five minutes of the last episode of Season 7 constituted a far better coda for the series than the whole of season 8.

 

[Matt Hough]

The first five seasons of "Castle" were outstanding.

And in Sesson 6 and the first half of Season 7 it appeared that the producers of the show were successfully negotiating the fine line of avoiding the "Moonlighting curse". But for some reason the show abruptly changed course at that point as artificial wedges were inserted between Castle and Kate's relationship. (undoubtedly due to contract negotiations with Stana Katic who had actually threatened to quit after the 7th season.)

It seemed to me that the entire first half of Season 8 was an experiment to see if the show could be molded into more of a private eye series focusing on Castle and his daughter. That was the real reason for the Castle and Kate LockSat imposed "separation". The experiment was a resounding failure as ratings fell like a rock. After a 4 week hiatus the series started to regain its footing as the couple "secretly" reconciled and the ratings stabilized and even started back up a bit. This really put ABC in a quandry. The ratings were borderline for a renewal, but it was obvious the fans would reject the show without Katic and the ABC execs were (evidently) unhappy with her new contract. This led to the "trial balloon" of announcing her departure before making a final decision on the fate of the series. The overwhelmingly negative public outcry sealed the show's fate.

I own the first 7 seasons of "Castle", but will not be purchasing the last season. The last five minutes of the last episode of Season 7 constituted a far better coda for the series than the whole of season 8.

Yours really is an excellent summarization of what went wrong with season eight and the audience's reaction to ABC's various "trial balloons" in a feverish attempt to keep the series viable.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I was a faithful fan of this show from the beginning... but I couldn't get through the final season.

 

[FanCollector]

The relationship between the lead characters was, I think, the driving force of the series. (I'm reminded of how many episodes had poorly structured or resolved mysteries and yet still came across as fun.) The last season, and to an extent the previous one, separates the characters as much as possible and the show consequently lost the one thing that made it special.

Regarding the Moonlighting curse, I was dreading what would happen after the characters consummated their relationship, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. It wasn't as good as it had been before, but they did find a year or two of different ways to look at their relationship and still being somewhat in the spirit of the show.

There are lots of rumors to the effect of the stars applying pressure to work together as little as possible, which if true, certainly gave the producers a difficult obstacle to overcome. I had hoped for the finale (even if they didn't know it was a series finale, they knew it was Ms. Katic's last show) that the separation rule would be suspended; but after a charming first scene together, they just revert to the standard 7th and 8th season "OK, I'll go this way and you go that way" plan and remain separated for virtually the entire story. Sadly missed opportunity.

 

[Virgoan]

This was one of my very favorite shows of the past several years. That said, the final two seasons went seriously off the rails in the story arcs. As if the final season and an unsatisfactory final episode weren't enough, we were treated to the news that stars Fillion and Katic hated each other.

Buzz KILL! Ruins the entire series for me.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I enjoyed the procedural shows much better than the ones concerning Becket's mother or Castle's disappearance. That's my preference for just about any police procedural I've followed. I don't get this driving need of the writers to have these long arcs that take away from the original intent of the show.

The episode where they guy keeps coming back to life was funny. I could just see Lanie thinking "Would you just stay dead, you're making me look bad."

 

[Virgoan]

Procedurals would also be more interesting if they'd stop trying to interject interpersonal relationships with people who are not recurring for their characters. When I am at work, "life at home" isn't really the hot topic of any work day. Sure, life intervenes and we get to know names of spouses, partners and children, but we don't have them thrown in our faces for an hour at a time. Most such relationships on procedurals seem forced and tenuous. It's the rare show that strikes a balance.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Have you noticed the a TV show about a group of people at work, much more often than not, shows people who are like family for each other. It is very idealized, and something I've never experienced. I've had work friends but out of all the work friends I've had, I've only kept in touch with one.

 

[jperez]

Tv drama has for years moved way over to the personal background of action show protagonists, sometimes ad nauseam, as has been related here. Did anyone really know or care about Ben Casey's, Elliott Ness', or McGarret's (Hawaii 5O) personal life? The only old time example of a police drama that delved a little into personal life was Naked City (with Adam Flint's occasional romancing his girlfriend, Livvy), and it did it in a very limited way. As I understand, the new age for police dramas began with Hill Street Blues, both in the personal life and story arc aspects.