It seems that the mistake that showrunners Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter made on at least five episodes during the first half of the current Season 8 of the American crime drama TV series “Castle” is haunting the TV series.
Despite their obvious attempt to redeem themselves from the miscue of separating show protagonists Kate Beckett, played by Stana Katic, and Rick Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, one episode after tying the knot during the Season 8 premiere, it seems that the rating decline can no longer be undone.
As such, reports now have it that the current Season 8 of “Castle” is going to be the show’s last on the ABC network.
In a recent interview, Hawley and Winter hinted that the future does not look good for “Castle” so it is very unlikely for the show to be renewed for Season 9, notes the International Business Times of UK.
As for the fallback plans of the producers in the event that ABC do cancel the show after Season 8, Hawley revealed that network executives normally do not make that decision until very late.
So rather than focusing on what could happen after the Season 8 of “Castle,” he said that they will just focus on delivering a satisfying story and try to wrap up the season in an exciting way.
Doing the same thing again
The showrunners revealed that the Season 7 finale episode of “Castle” was actually written as if it was to be the show’s last.
However, it was still greenlit for Season 8 so they are basically going to do the same thing again – come up with a Season 8 finale that shall put everything in a wrap so that the viewers would not feel shortchanged if it is to be left with a huge cliffhanger, notes the Christian Today.
Winter said that they really hope to come back for Season 9 but they have to act as if they will not be coming back anymore.
Hawley believes that the show has a lot of life with Rick and Kate’s marital woes and separation plot in the first half of Season 8 as if to defend their decision to separate the protagonists, which was met with huge criticisms and eventually glaring decline in the ratings.
He added that it is the great thing from their storytelling side in the current Season 8 because they felt energized with the marital shakeup of Rick and Kate which also allowed them to play around with the plot a lot.
February return
The second half of Season 8 of “Castle” will return to ABC on February 1, 2016 with the episode titled “Tone Death.”
Both Hawley and Winter revealed that episode 9 would be filled with a lot of giggles and chuckles. Apparently, Rick Castle and Kate Beckett would not tell their colleagues that they have already rekindled their romance as they will continue to act as estranged couple.
The arrangement would result to some hilarious situations and a lot of comical moments, cite the showrunners.
It seems that Winter and Hawley have picked up on what the fans of the show wanted for “Castle” so rather than put them into a lot of difficult situations where they become far apart, they have finally decided to capitalize on the show’s strength, which is no other than the relationship of Castle and Beckett or ‘Caskett.’
The light moments on the upcoming episode 9 of “Castle” would surely be something to look forward to.
According to the show creators, after the midseason finale that saw Kate apologizing to Rick for pushing him away from her life, Rick eventually forgave his wife.
As they return to work, they have also decided that they should not reveal about their reconciliation so that their colleagues would have the impression that the they are still unfriendly to one another.
They have come to such a decision so that they can concentrate on their work better as their personal lives would not intervene into their jobs.
I would rather have an exciting story and a satisfying final episode than the other way around. Every episode should be made to be exciting and interesting but it looks like we are getting episodes that are only barely acceptable. The show runners should have been chained to a chair in front of a TV and made to watch seasons 1 – 5 so they would have known what made the series great. I feel that they still do not know because I understand that there is to be an episode of Castle, Alexis and Hayley going to LA leaving Beckett in NY – forcing them apart again instead of keeping them together where they excel.
With regard to the publicaly apart privately together “twist”, please do not use it for more than one episode because it will quickly become tiresome and boring.
With regard to Castle’s “lengthy” disappearance it was only 2 months. And I cannot in any manner rationalize how it could be connected to LokSat (except that the source of drugs discovered in LokSat might have come from Thailand). Or connected in any way to Beckett.
FYI, they weren’t married at the start of Season 8. They were married in episode 6 of Season 7. It was a low budget CGI scene with none of their friends present.
They lost 3M viewers after the Season 6 finale, when they pulled the plug on the their planned big wedding. They then lost another 2M viewers in Season 8 when they separated them. There is a complete disconnect with the fans.
Unfortunately I understand that episode 15 (or more) has been filmed and is “in the can” so the possibility of making corrections to their screwed up story line is getting smaller with each passing week. Although episodes are being written and filmed all I can find out about the future is who will be writing (or wrote) episodes 9 – 13 and that there will be an episode (14) where LokSat and Castle’s disappearance will be linked with some mention that Beckett may be linked to Castle’s disappearance. They may be afraid to tell us any more because it certainly seems foolish to pursue these story lines and we all might give up today. It certainly seems that the show runners have given up hope of salvaging the series in this season from the way they discuss the manner in which the final episode will be written.
It looks like are two arrogant show runners finally woke up at what they caused they there bold split and separation. And now they are going to try to make it what it should they been since episode 1 of season 8. At the end of episode 9 this separation of Rick and Kate should be over. If they would take a look at the Cartermatt polldaddy survey that is what a large percentage of the few fans you have left want. But I forgot we are only fans, and we really do not know what we want. Yes Castle has been up for cancellation before but Miller and Marlowe knew what fans fans wanted and we got past that point. These two do not have a clue. The separation would have worked better when they were not married, but they are and it makes no sense to stay apart. The bad guys just are not that dumb. So what is left of the wonderful love story of Castle is in the show runners hands, now are they going to fix what they completely messed in the first half of season 8. Do they have enough talent to do that, they have already told us on 11/24/2015 they did not have enough talent to write in a pregnant Kate. Maybe they need to have Miller and Marlowe come back and help.
I do not think this article is swayed the way The two Showrunners want it to be. They want Season 8 and are planning on Season 8. They are not conceding anything. ABC wants Castle back, and they have the real say. It will be helpful if Castle, Stana and Nathan can win PCA Awards this week. Castle needs some good press and the wonderful actors deserve these awards.
If ABC really wants the show back for a season 9, they need to come out with a statement saying that even if CASTLE does a 1.2 rating average for the 22 or so episodes, they will bring it back if Stana and Nathan want to return. I don’t think it can come back without Stana, but I could be wrong. The show runners(and possibly some of the writers) have to go. The season so far has been a disaster. Starting in January was the right thing to do. It would have given the show 2 months to build up ratings before Blindspot came back. 1 month isn’t enough. Can the show runners and writers fix the show with an extra month? I don’t know.
If I can watch episodes like in seasons 1 – 5 Castle would have no competition from Blindspot or any other show but that’s just me and that is what I ( and several million other fans) like. It seems as though the show runners do not understand very basic business practices – give the customers what they want and the customer is always right. What I would like would be to get rid of Vitram and Hayley because they have served no useful purpose because Casket could have done what little they did and better. Alexis should be given the PI business and phased out. Martha should join Casket from time to time as any mother would for a visit. Casket should be given more time ( with the absence of Vitram, Hayley and Alexis creating more time for them) like they used to do and excel at. I am ready for some real news as to what is planned instead of what we have been getting since episode 8 which has only been general conjecture repeated time and time again.
These writers are so egotistical that they don’t even care what the show watchers want. If we want suspense and intrigue there are plenty of other shows we can watch. We want the mystery and comedy and camaraderie of all these wonderful characters that the original writers gave us abd yes, the hints of sex also.
I love these characters and will definitely be watching on Feb 8.
I have loved this show from day 1. I agree, these new writers haven’t a clue what the fans see in this series and aren’t giving it to us. Please step it up, bring them together and stop with the separation. If you can’t write another Excellent season, get new writers.
Some one lost the original attraction to the show! The last season stunk! How many producers would love to have the ratings you threw away. If it is not broke, don’t fix it.