MovieChat Forums > Castle (2009) Discussion > Why was Castle Season 8 a TOTAL DISASTER...

Why was Castle Season 8 a TOTAL DISASTER?

posted 8 years ago by nirunavaratnam
41 replies | jump to latest

There are so many facts that contributed in making season 8 a total disaster.

1. Break up of Castle and Beckett.
2. Beckett being promotion as captain of the twelfth precinct.
3. Introduction of unwanted and unnecessary characters like Hayley Shipton who had nothing to contribute to the main story line and who were bland and totally boring.
4. Alexis working at her father's PI office. Her super detective skills seem too artificial.
So does the actress who plays her.
5. The lame Locksat story arc. The villain doesn't even seem threatening at all.

[–] marrokinhas 8 years ago

That sums it up pretty well!

[–] RightBackAtYa 8 years ago

The fault lies at the feet of the 2 new showrunners. They clearly had no idea how to run a successful show where the will they/won't they question had already been answered. Their solution was to break them apart and rewind the series to seasons 3 and 4 (that came directly from them). Not surprisingly, fans bailed when they learned that just months after marriage, they were "splitting up".

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] readerf61 8 years ago

Do showrunners have no oversight? I mean, for the most part, the network executives step in for censorship problems, and they may make a few creative suggestions, but essentially it's all on the showrunners, right? But who made the decision these two were capable? I've never seen a show taken to such depths of awfulness in one short season as Castle did last year. Even Sleepy Hollow, the horrifying second and third season had the full blessing of the network....as a matter of fact, much of the created mess was at the request of the network. But this! People on this board had suggestions for a better show, even using the stupid LocSat story.

I'm with many people in suggesting that the eighth season be wiped from history, and the season 7 finale was *the* finale. Much more satisfying.

[–] RightBackAtYa 8 years ago

I think what happened was that by season 8, no one really cared about the show. I firmly believe Stana told them she wouldn't do a season 9, which is why they booted her up to captain for season 8. I think ABC knew it was a sinking ship so ignored the showrunners because frankly, it was an 8 year old show. There's not a lot of innovation to be done on a show that old.

I get the feeling the last 2 showrunners were the only ones who volunteered to do it. Either no one else was around to do it or everyone else simply didn't want the job.

I am absolutely forgetting there was a season 8. The last episode of season 7 is the series finale to me. That episode was well written and as far as I'm concerned, they should have left well enough alone and cancelled the show right after that.

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] skip-49816 8 years ago

I liked some of the episodes in S9. Since I've come to terms with Stana leaving, I'll keep S9 for the good parts. Just making the best of what has been, for the most part, a terrific show.

[–] RightBackAtYa 8 years ago

I can't read the post you responded to at the moment so..do you mean you liked some of the episodes in season 8? You wrote season 9 but I'm not sure if we're still talking about Castle or a different show. 

Honestly, the only episode in season 8 I liked was The Nose. I absolutely loved that episode. If they did a spinoff with that character, I'd be glued to my computer monitor for every episode. 

The entirety of season 8 was ruined for me when they wrote Castle as actually believing in his crazy theories, which is something he never did before. Every time I think of the genie episode I cringe. I swear, just thinking about the genie episode makes me bleed from my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth and puts me right on the edge of experiencing a seizure. 

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] film_flam_man 8 years ago

I loved The Nose, and I got a chuckle out of Dead Again (S8E19). It wasn't highly plausible, but I thought it was funny (and there were no genies).

[–] readerf61 8 years ago

I liked the one where they all went to the Wizard and Ryan wanted courage (and dance lessons) and Espo was all, Yo, I could use a heart, and Rick kept forgetting what he wanted, oh, yeah, a brain, right? Right, a brain....I think, oooh, is that a real Wizard?? And Kate wouldn't go with them because she was the captain of LokSat or something like that...

Oh, wait, that was just a nightmare I had once.

[–] wilya7 8 years ago

Probably the tale of your wizard of oz inspired nightmare could have been fed to a speech to text converter, automatically reformatted by a script writing software and it still would have been way above season 8 average. No doubt I would have enjoyed it better than the "Genie of the Lamp" inspired episode.

That was a nightmare.

[–] skip-49816 8 years ago

Right. Mis-typed 8 as 9...

[–] runar-4 8 years ago

@RightBackAtYa: If you ever had a real seizure, or were close to someone who did, you wouldn't be so glib about seizures, especially if an injury or death was involved.

[–] RightBackAtYa 8 years ago

My daughter had a grand mal seizure right after walking down an outdoor stairway to get into my car so we could go to the movies. She sat in the car and went into it. Being the RN I was for many years, I knew immediately what it was. She'd never had one before.

I love my daughter more than life. She has no objection to my humor whatsoever because you know what? My humor has not only gotten me through some of the darkest times in my life, it's gotten her through the darkest times in her life.

I make no apologies for my humor. I suggest that if someone is offended by my humor, then they simply put me on ignore so I no longer offend them.

I joke about what I know and I have no intention of changing that.

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] grant4214 8 years ago

Season 8 was a disaster because they should not have gone beyond a wedding finale for season 6, ending the series with a satisfactory run. Instead, they left it in the hands of incompetents who would give the show a long, agonizing, even humiliating death.

How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise

[–] nirunavaratnam 8 years ago

Hayley was the most bland and boring character introduced in this series. She has nothing to contribute to the main story line and the actress who plays her is too old and unattractive and sea span boring. If they had not introduced characters like her and Vikram and made Alexis super detective the show might have survived.

[–] skip-49816 8 years ago

Part of my theory is that the Hayley character was brought aboard as a pseudo replacement to fill the vacuum left by Beckett's departure (however it would have happened). That's part of why Alexis no longer bonded with Beckett, but with Hayley. It's all pretty clear when you think about it, IMHO.

[–] wilya7 8 years ago

There are so many facts that contributed in making season 8 a total disaster.

Those are all very valid points. To look a bit more to the forest and less to the tree, what happened to season 8 was simply the unintended consequence of the bad planning of the end of season 6 and the transition to season 7.

The mess the Marlowe's made with season 6 finale and the follow up to Castle disappearance, which was also partially aborted while the focus was shifted to the 3XK story arc, was the beginning of the road to cancellation land. It triggered a massive hemorrhage of fans and possibly led to Marlowe's firing at the end of season 7 and the hiring of the "we are so exited" dynamic duo Hawley & Winter, which despite being decent writers, where terrible show runners. I hope they have learned something useful from this debacle.

To be fair, it's not only their fault. The studio and possibly the two leads had a shared responsibility on the debacle, because they likely imposed a budget cut (leading to a team of less experienced writers), they did not decided ahead of time to end the show, and also imposed some important constraint to the stories, including a reduced time of the leads working together in the same scenes. Regardless if SK and NF really hated each other, which I think it's a big exaggeration with a kernel of truth, they both negotiated a new contract with much more money, raising the cost of the show, and far more "flexibility". All that talk of having an "ensemble show", translated in english just meant that they both wanted to work less hours, control their schedule and a pile of more money. I am not judging, just stating what I think it happened.

As I said, all this has imposed some important constraints outside the control of the writing team. That doesn't excuse the poor writing, however it does explain several strategic decision we often unjustly attributed to the writers alone. Of course, even with those constraints, a better execution would have changed greatly the outcome.

[–] nirunavaratnam 8 years ago

The new characters that were introduced this season were unwanted and unnecessary. They were really bland due to bad writing.

[–] nirunavaratnam 8 years ago

The new characters were terrible. They also trashed the old characters as well. Kate turned into a lone vengeance seeking justice for people she only knew for a few months hurting everyone in the progress especially the man she loved. Rick turned into a clown who believes in fantasies like genies, super heroes. I couldn't stand him this whole season. Alexis was also very annoying. Molly Quinn's acting was artificial. Alexis's transformation from the too goody shoes daddy's girl into a highly skilled super detective within a short period is totally unrealistic. It seemed as if Molly Quinn was performing in a staged drama not a popular crime TV series. Her reliance and trust in Haley a person whom she knew for only a short while seems very unreal. Hayley is a character which I hated a lot, a character which I couldn't stand at all. It would have been better if they had written her out of the series sooner as her acting her skills seemed too unrealistic.

[–] xx_my_happy_ending_xx 8 years ago

Nailed it!

I always thought Alexis was wasted. If she was that great at everything and ambitious, why just end up working with her dad at a PI office. I get that they're close and she does enjoy it, but I saw her being a lawyer or doctor or something and getting into professional clashes with her dad, and it was that which would cause a rift, instead of a boyfriend. If you get me.

And not enough Martha :D Susan Sullivan actually made the show for me!