It's always a tough pill to swallow when a television series you enjoy comes to an end. It happens every year to many series. There's many factors which can have an impact on a series' renewal prospects, from insufficient ratings, cast issues, studio politics, and even a lack of space on the primetime schedule. The list goes on, but cancellations are the risk a fan of the small screen has to live with.
That's all well and good most of the time. While it varies each year, it's typically the lower quality series which get the chop. Series that manage to get a few years under their belt become a much safer bet for fans to invest their time and energy into, and the showrunners settle into a formula that proves itself. When their time does come, the showrunners are often given the luxury of time to bring things to a close in a way that does the series proud, both for the cast and crew who have dedicated the last few years to it, and to the fans who tune in consistently year on year to enjoy it.
However, for ABC's second-longest running drama, Castle, the final few weeks of its time on the small screen couldn't have been more tumultuous. The cracks began to appear in the series' seventh season, spurred by creator and original showrunner Andrew Marlowe's decision to exit, but one of his well respected right-hand men, David Amann, was put in charge. Under Marlowe, continuity for the long term storylines was always an issue that frustrated me, but he had created a formula which allowed the talented cast to work their magic with an emphasis on humor and entertainment, but the flexibility to descend into darker, more intense themes and cases when needed. He also oversaw the beginnings of a more formal relationship between lead characters Rick and Kate.
I didn't have an issue with the news Amann would assume control of Castle at the time, but Amann and his team dealt a singular crippling blow to the series. That blow was the introduction of the LokSat storyline. After the fanbase had battled through the Johanna Beckett saga since the series began, Rick suddenly went missing for two months on his wedding day. A delayed wedding was bad enough, let alone the showrunners introducing another storyline which was clearly not as coherently constructed as its predecessor.
While fans were vocal in wanting to see Rick and Kate live happily ever after, Amann and his crew pressed on anyway, not at all helped by the devoutly procedural format which forced the LokSat storytelling to be stringed out for months, with only a handful of episodes in Seasons 7 and 8 actually progressing anything.
Amann opted to quit after just the one season in charge, leaving Terence Paul Winter & Alexi Hawley to guide what would be Castle's final season. While Hawley and Winter worked hard to increase the rate of LokSat storytelling and introduce more regular 'Caskett' moments, they were ultimately backed into a corner they couldn't escape.
The quality of the episodes began to drop off as well. Regular character Captain Victoria Gates was axed in favor of Hayley Shipton - a move which took away more than it added. Kate was promoted to Captain, which was a good move to start with, but the execution was well below the minimum required to allow the series to retain the flair it had when both Rick and Kate were on the scene working cases together. The LokSat storyline also resulted in the crime-fighting couple living more or less apart for much of the first half of the season.
The end result was a significant drop in ratings and viewership. It's commonly known that older series are generally more expensive to produce because the cast often demand higher paychecks, but Stana Katic and Tamala Jones's departure cannot excuse two years of poor storytelling decisions which saw long time fans bail in droves. Had the writing and storytelling remained at the levels we saw through Seasons 2 - 4, the chances of the series surviving the departure of two cast members would have been much, much higher.
With all that said, last night's series finale ended the LokSat storyline, and the series, for good. It was rushed, but it got the job done. "Crossfire" was written by Alexi Hawley & Terence Paul Winter and directed by Rob Bowman.
While the episode employed some beautiful cinematography and had a decent special effects budget, I found it very difficult to enjoy. In most other network dramas, the season finale is something that is being built towards in the last few episodes of the season. A rough schedule of events is reasonably easy to guess, but because Castle barely touches on its long term storylines during the season, I found myself struggling to remember what had happened with the LokSat storyline throughout the season. Playing catch-up like this isn't easy to do.
I took an oath. People that I cared about were murdered, and they deserve justice.
In a nutshell, Kate, Rick and Vikram used the phone given to them by Caleb Brown a few weeks ago to get their initial lead on LokSat. That led them to an industrial area where a ridiculously massive shootout occurred. Armed mercenaries in most television series are always downright hopeless at hitting targets, but their failure to at least clip or wound Rick or Kate was embarrassing to say the least. One thing the showrunners did get right was having Hayley drop a few of them with a sniper rifle, but that was poorly filmed and dubbed.
Keeping Ryan and Esposito distracted was a body found in a burned out car. Vikram dropped the LokSat bombshell against Kate's orders so now they were in on it too. They helped raid a LokSat connected safehouse, and they also broke Rick out of the interrogation room mere seconds before he was going to be killed. If any scene was the highlight for me in this episode, Rick revealing who knew about LokSat would be my pick not because of the content, but because of Nathan Fillion's outstanding acting here.
Last seen in what was, at the time, meant to be a comedic episode, The G.D.S., Mason Wood, played by Gerald McRaney, returned. He rescued Rick and Kate from that ridiculous shootout (even if he ordered the mercenaries to not hit Rick or Kate, the shootout was still ridiculous), then he popped up at Rick's chemically assisted interrogation. Finally, the guy captures Kate and uses an electromagnet in the roof to disarm her, and later, Rick. Why nothing else metallic - like Kate's belt - shot to the roof I'll never know. Fortunately Kate was able to subdue him with hand to hand combat, and LokSat was finally finished.
You don't have the legs, or the eyes, or the brains, or the heart.
That left the ending which would define the series for many fans. After playing no real part in the finale's happenings, Alexis and Martha reunited with Rick. The boys, including Lanie and Vikram headed out for a beer, and Rick and Kate then headed home.
It was widely advertised that two endings were filmed for the series finale, with the now confirmed cancellation being the decider as to which one would be used. A disgruntled Caleb Brown showed up unannounced and shot Rick and Kate. Fortunately Kate was able to incapacitate Brown, and she then crawled over to her husband, where they held hands as they lay bleeding out on the floor.
Had there been a ninth season, that would have been the curtain call, but because it was the series finale, a time jump to seven years later sees Kate and Rick with three young children running around the apartment.
This was exactly what I had hoped not to see. While the repetition of the famous last words in the series premiere was a welcome touch, it was such a cheap, tacky way of telling fans that they live happily ever after - which is what many, including myself, had wanted since the end of Season 6. No effort was made to change the appearance of the apartment, nor to artificially age Rick or Kate. I would have happily settled with Kate revealing she was pregnant and leaving the rest up to the imagination.
Ultimately, ABC made the right call in making last night's episode Castle's last, but this gem of a series did not deserve the long and painful downward slide it was subjected to. Dramas - particularly of the procedural format - are an endangered species on broadcast network television, and Castle could have continued for several more years had the showrunners not opted to introduce the LokSat storyline.
Sadly, that's television. It's fun while it lasts, but ultimately it's a business, and it's the business decisions which always overrule creative direction. Just as cancellation is a risk when investing time and energy into a television series as I mentioned earlier, there is always a risk that the creative direction of a series will change. That is what's happened here.
Despite the past couple of seasons being below the level we know this series can reach, Castle has given us many enjoyable moments in its eight seasons. Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic portrayed one of television's most revered relationships with amazing skill and class, right from the series premiere, where Rick was a bored mystery writer who found inspiration and adventure in a beautiful, skilled, intriguing detective. I've loved watching the baby-faced Molly Quinn grow into a fine young actress with loads of potential. Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas portrayed two detectives who were much more than just colleagues from start to finish.
Tamala Jones was always reliable as medical examiner Lanie, who knew how to stand her ground and take no prisoners when it counted. The elegant Susan Sullivan as Rick's mother, Martha Rodgers, never failed to entertain, and was always of great help to anyone who needed it. Toks Olagundoye wasn't around for long as Hayley Shipton, but the character proved useful when needed.
Gone but not forgotten, Rupert Santiago-Hudson as Captain Roy Montgomery was a rock for Kate in particular, and a calming, logical influence for everyone else. He was also the series' only regular character to die in eight seasons on air. His successor, Captain Victoria Gates, played by Penny Johnson Jerald, brought about radical change in the way the 12th Precinct operated, but I thoroughly enjoyed her tenure, even if the character was badly under-utilized.
That is the end of Castle, and this is the end of my review. To every SpoilerTV reader who has read reviews, participated in discussions, voted in polls, and kept up with the series on this site, thank you for making Castle one of SpoilerTV's most popular series. For one final time the comments below are open for you to share your thoughts on the finale. I'd love to know what you thought of it, and how you envisioned the series ending.
As any good mystery novelist would say:
THE END.
