ABC’s ‘Castle’ season 8: Show bosses discuss future of Stana Katic – Nathan Fillion series
Will “Castle” have to officially say “case closed” following the end of this season? ABC’s programming head Paul Lee has been relatively optimistic on the future of the show, but on the flip side, ratings are lower than they’ve ever been and we’d say that a good 75-80% of the comments we receive on social media and the comments on this side are less-than-positive on the creative direction. Most fans seem to be mostly interested in having the show return more to its roots of Castle and Beckett solving crimes together rather than the whole LokSat mystery or the separation-turned-pretend-separation that is going on.
One bit of good news we can give you is that in the event the series does return in the fall, the showrunners seem to be interested in giving the people more of what they want from Stana Katic, Nathan Fillion, and the rest of the cast. Here is what Alexi Hawley said, per Deadline, while at the TCA Winter Press Tour this weekend:
“This season was a little bit of a transition, getting Castle into the PI office and setting that world up for him to give him that drive … We wanted to wrap up a lot of the threads of different conspiracies, Beckett’s mother’s murder, Castle’s missing time. We wanted by the end of Season 8 to have gotten through all those — hopefully in a compelling and satisfying way — so Season 9 can be more about the case of the week, going back to the fun of solving the case of the week and not have the luggage of past conspiracies.”
It’s weird for us to say this given our opinion is generally the opposite, but this is one of the few shows in which we’d argue it is better to stick to the procedural format. It’s what fans like, and we personally enjoy the show when it is more humor-based with the occasional serious story mixed in. Sometimes, TV is comfort food, and we think that there is something great that comes with watching Fillion and Katic have a little fun in their roles every week.
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marcie
January 26, 2016 @ 1:36 pm
me personnally im gonna keep watching. i think its gonna get better in the long run
Michael Goldman
January 12, 2016 @ 5:59 am
Let’s hope that the show runners figure out how to clean up this mess in the first four episodes when CASTLE returns. By the time Blindspot is ready to start in March, CASTLE has to have some kind of direction or flow. ABC should realize that CASTLE may not go higher than a 1.2 or 1.3 average for the 22 episodes. There are about 13-14 episodes left. ABC should also be asking Nathan and Stana NOW if they are interested in returning, and what it will take(in $$) for them to return.
phealy1
January 20, 2016 @ 4:51 pm
IS NO ONE POSITIVE? !!!
Michael Goldman
January 20, 2016 @ 6:55 pm
You make an excellent point. I think there’s a lot of negativity because of the way the show has been this season. Also, the ratings have been so low, and people have mentioned that the audience has been dropping for the last few seasons. I wish I could be more optimistic. if Stana and Nathan agree to come back, and they get a new show runner(and ABC renews it) I will be very happy. Thanks for writing.
Vikki
January 11, 2016 @ 7:24 pm
This whole Loksat mess was written in as a way to write Stana off Castle and spin Nathan into his own PI show. I think she came back at the last minute to give fans an end to her character. It will be brutal. All this time invested in this fabulous lovestory wasted. Thats what i see coming. I think they’ve been clueing us in on the show, but feeding us lines in interviews to keep viewership up. Not one thing Hawley has said in an interview has proven to be true yet.
Microgrey
January 11, 2016 @ 6:26 pm
Its seems ironic that showrunners introduce these contrived storylines…and then paint themselves as heroes when they save us from them. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to not introduce the story in the first place?
If the reason for Castle’s disappearance was anything other than a delay tactic for their wedding, they would have had a conclusion ready for the end of last season when they thought the show may be cancelled. Similarly, Beckett’s mom’s murder was already resolved in S6 Ep22, so why re-introduce the exact same scenario in the form of LokSat (aka Bracken 2.0)? So you can resolve it a second time? How innovative.
Both of these wildly unpopular story arcs caused major hits to the show’s ratings. Now the showrunners want to ride in on their white horse to save the day in Season 9? Really? Too bad someone didn’t come up with this epiphany prior to the Season 6 finale. It would have saved the fans a lot of grief and undoubtedly kept ratings north of 10 million viewers.
Jim_Satterfield
January 11, 2016 @ 4:27 pm
Even Castle as a PI just gets in the way of the strength of the show. The whole separation idea, whether “real” or “pretend”, destroys it.
Jim45
January 11, 2016 @ 4:38 am
Lines to end LokSat organically – Ryan to Beckett: VikRam was killed by a runaway beer truck. Hear his fingerprints came up as that LokSat guy. Separation over. My goodness that was hard.
Buddy
January 11, 2016 @ 12:57 am
There now appears that we are going to have a poorly conceived, poorly orchestrated and poorly executed rush to conclude three story lines ( Disappearance, LokSat and PI) that never should have been brought up. Unfortunarely I have extreme difficulty thinking that the remaining 14 episodes will be any better received than the first 8. All of the remaining issues should be concluded before episode 14 rather than waiting until episode 14 to begin to address them. That way there would be ample opportunity to have enough of the type of episodes that the fans loved in time to perhaps get fans coming back in sufficient numbers to justify a 9th season.
phealy1
January 20, 2016 @ 4:50 pm
Let’s wait and see what happens !!!
Charles Neale
January 10, 2016 @ 8:24 pm
So now the show writers are feeding us another line of how they want to get back to the original premise. Show owner must have finally said something because they want a season 9 .
Ira Allan Ginsburg
January 11, 2016 @ 12:51 am
Not a lot of episodes to wrap up the nonsense. Saw that filming on episode 15 is underway. Lots of rumors about spin offs etc. Sign NF and SK now!!! or plan for a satisfying series end. Cannot have Castle without Caskett.
Buddy
January 11, 2016 @ 1:53 pm
Jim45, I agree. Just forget the Castle disappearance. The very thought of even bringing it up again was poorly advised. It was forgotten by everyone that even remotely cared anyway.
LokSat should have never involved Vikram or separating Caskett but since it did your solution will give it poetic justice.
Castle as a PI is a terrible joke played on the fans. Give the PI business to Alexis. Let her hire Hayley as an assistant and let them appear twice a year along with Caskett (certainly not without them) to solve a case or two.
People have talked about spin offs. I would watch one with Stana as a detective similar to The Closer. I would not watch one with Nathan as a PI.
Charles Neale
January 11, 2016 @ 2:40 pm
Buddy I have to agree ,but I foresee neither Nathan or Stana signing for another year. To much damage done ,that is why it appears to me why there is souch talk about a spin off by show runners now.