INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Has ‘Castle’ Jumped The Shark With Season 8?

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 12:52 PST, Oct 14, 2015

Castle has been a fan favorite series for the last seven years, but Season 8 seems to be tanking. The build up of the relationship of Beckett and Castle was thwarted the first time with the kidnapping of Rick Castle (which still hasn’t really been explained) and now with the also unexplained temporary disappearance of Beckett with a random new character. It’s hard to know whether the writers are just out of material, or just don’t understand their fans.

The Inquisitr reported that the show is now in serious danger of sudden cancellation, due to a lack of viewership. Even those who have stayed along for the ride of clever banter and whimsy are bored, disinterested, and, well, sad, in the same way the characters seem (and likely the actors). Perhaps there is a bigger plan in the works, but it seems as if they have just run to the end of the line, and have thus, jumped the shark, indicating a foretelling of the end of the road, which is sad, because favorable storylines are ripe for the picking.

Den of Geek is reporting that Castle is circling the drain because they dropped an important aspect of their formula, which is levity. As long as their marriage is in shambles (definitely not light) the formula fails. If it has to survive just based on the crimes for Beckett and Castle to solve, then they are in big trouble, because those tend to be boring and stale.

“As I have repeatedly suggested, the writers seem to do their brainstorming while reading the TV Tropes page: even Castle’s best stories are usually nothing more than one overused story idea after another strung together to make a somewhat cohesive whole. And the killer is almost always the same—it’s the first person we meet (other than the victim) who has a connection to the murder.”

In other words, they are phoning it in. What saves each episode is the fun and funny way that the characters play off of one another. This has been removed as Beckett has blocked Castle from playing any role, and has asked him to stay away, and give her room to breathe, because her job is more important than her marriage. Bummer. Had she decided this before they married, the show could have been put out of its misery sooner.

Even the relationship of Ryan and Esposito has suffered as they resent that Beckett moved up, while they are going nowhere, and the Beckett and Castle break up has caused Beckett to keep the boys away from Castle. Another bummer.

And what happened to Lainie, the medical examiner? She might be able to help keep at least the relationships on life support.

Yibada believes that Stana Katic, who plays Beckett was reluctant to return, and now regrets that she did.

“Katic has always been hesitant about returning for another season, explaining that she wanted to leave while the series was on top.”

Suggestions? A true fan will be full of them. Though it might seem trite, a true baby Castle would lighten the mood on Castle, and watching Rick, with an adult child, trying to adapt again to fatherhood while still trying to keep up with Beckett solving crime, would be really funny. Beckett, who has been so serious about her career trying to balance being a mom and a police captain? Also funny, which is far better than sad and stale.

Will you continue to watch Castle? What do you think could save the series?

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Image]

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