Hey I was just curious to what your thoughts were on this castle mess since I know you tended to be a bit more neutral regarding the whole Nathan v stana thing over the years.
Oops I wrote a very long answer and to sum it up: There is just no logical reason for ABC’s move, money wise or creatively. It just doesn’t make any sense. More details following:
Kate is one of my favorite female characters (after Olivia Dunham and Leslie Knope) and I LOVE Rick as well (I had a Rick Castle related url for a long time so that’s how much). But thinking that the show could actually work without her or the Castle/Beckett dynamic is idiotic.It is just impossible, IMPOSSIBLE, for the show to work without Beckett.
I proudly call Castle my “second fav show ever” even though yes, it is just a procedural. And the fact that it is a procedural is THE MAIN REASON WHY it can’t workwithout her. SHE IS THE COP, NOT HIM. It’s HER precinct, Ryan and Espo are HER detectives, Lanie is HER M.E. She is what makes the show what it is: a crime procedural. Beckett’s gone then what happens ??? A procedural but about what ??? Explain to me ABC because I don’t know ????. Castle might have a P.I. business now but he never does any of the actual work (that’s more Hayley and Alexis) so it’s not like we can move from the 12th to the P.I. thing. So what do we watch ???
The show can’t work without Castle/Beckett because their relationship is the core of the show: writer is inspired by muse. Remove the muse and you get an unsuccessful writer (remember the alternate universe in The Time of Our Lives?). Remove the writer and Beckett would have never grown and battled her demons the way she does now. He was really important in that, he helped her do that until she could do it herself. She evolved a lot thanks to him (once again remember the alternate universe in The Time of Our Lives?) Remove one or the other and the show can’t work. Well it could work a bit without him which brings us to 3.
The show could actually work without Rick Castle (even if it would break my heart). I love Stana she is a truly talented actress and even though the show is name after Nathan’s character she is the one who holds the show together, she is the one portraying the main character (just look at the season finale, all of them ended with either a Castle/Beckett cliffhanger or something related to only Beckett. Never just Castle). And that’s why the show could work if you keep Beckett and remove Castle. Her backstory and plotlines have been the most explored in the show compared to Castle (we had to wait 5 years before having a shred of backstory about him whereas Beckett’s backstory as been explored since the very first episode). If you decide to kill off Beckett, seeing Castle recover from that will be interesting (and painful af) but if you do the opposite it would actually be far more interesting because we know Beckett much more. Do ABC watch their own shows? If so, they would know that if they needed to save money they would have to fire the unecessary characters and that would mean anyone BUT Kate Beckett. Stana Katic is the most talented of the crew and she potrays the most loved characterby the fanbase and she has the most interesting and developed character. That’s just fact. It’s just not even the smart move to make money wise. So WTF?!
You have budgetary difficulties, what about getting rid of everyone but Castle and Beckett and have her run for Senator like the s7 finale suggested?
You have budgetary difficulties,end the show and give me a spin-off show about Hayley and Alexis and call it Castle P.I., bring back Summer Glau’s character for that too and I’ll watch the hell out of it, even you don’t give me any Castle or Beckett in it.
But Castle without Beckett, not so much. And what truly pisses me off is that story wise, the only way to not have Beckett is to have her killed off and I don’t want her to join the other dead character this season. She deserves much better. And I can’t imagine watching the show without her. there’s nothing worse that a show being dragged out too long and not only do they want to do that, but they want to do so without the main character. And it breaks my heart that my much beloved show is gonna have that for legacy.
There is just no logical reason for this move, money wise or creatively. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Lastly, i don’t know about all the off screen stuff because I don’t have time to follow that kind of info but Nathan Fillion’s “statement” is so impersonal and distant that everytime I read “Nathan says what he thinks” on an article I just roll my eyes. It kinda disappointed me since I’ve never really had anything against him and I think he isn’t that bad of an actor either (I guess that’s what you meant by “neutral regarding the whole Nathan v Stana”).
I hope the show will end after this season and that the damage done won’t be any worse.
