TV Underdogs: Can ‘Castle’ season 8 gives us more of Seamus Dever’s Ryan?

Can you consider this article to be your latest “Castle” Ryan Report? We wish… It’s more of a report of how we want to see more Ryan on the eighth season of the show.

The Ryan Report is one of many reasons why this character is so beloved. Whether it be coming up with choreographed dances with Esposito or doing undercover work, he is often a great source of humor and entertainment. He also has some of the more tender, heartfelt moments on the series; “Under Fire” to us remains one of our favorites episodes, largely because of the work that Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas put into it. He’s a jack-of-all-trades for the show, and it goes without saying that he is an integral part of why we enjoy watching the show over the course of a season.

Why he’s an underdog – We’ve already explained some of this, but it largely comes back to just who he is as a character within the “Castle” universe. He’s rarely ever the focal point of the story, and even within the ranks of the force he’s typically serving under someone. Castle and Beckett get to make many of the flashier case discoveries, and sometimes the great work that Ryan and Espo do gets a little lost in the shuffle. You root for him because you want the best for him, even if at the same time you don’t want him to become so successful that he gets transferred to another precinct and is no longer on the show. Shall we say it’s complicated?

Why you don’t see more of him – It all comes down to where he stands within the cast. While you tend to get a little bit of Ryan and Espo almost every episodes, typically they each get one or two chances a season to have a story be told more from their perspective. If “Castle” aired more episodes or if they somehow lasted longer than an hour, maybe that’d change … but we don’t see any of that happening in the eighth season.

Ways to use him more – For one, how about seeing more of Jenny Ryan and the children? It’s something that we imagine Dever would like given that his real-life wife Juliana plays the character, and the show has told some heartfelt stories with the two so far. We know that he has been searching for more ways to make money and be a source of support, so seeing him be even more proactive about this outside of the precinct could be a great way to flesh-out what he is fighting for.

Also, we love some of the cases that allow Ryan and Espo to work more directly with Castle, so how about an instance where they find themselves struggling with a case that could benefit from a certain writer-turned-private investigator’s expertise? We’ve already seen Castle this season utilize Ryan and Espo, so turning the tables more could be fun.

Of course, another idea we’ll never tire of is simply getting to see more of his past, and why he feels so passionate about working for the police.

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