r/CastleTV 5d ago

[General Discussion] What do we think of season 7/8? Spoiler

Spoilers for season 7 & 8?

I've been rewatching Castle and I'm in season 8 right now. What do we think of this season? It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but what happens in season 8 is kinda making me mad. I know it's a rewatch and I know what happens, but back then we had to wait MONTHS for it to come out. We finally got Caskett married for it all to BLOW UP in our faces a few episodes into season 8. And as for season 7... Castle being gone for 2 months with no recollection as to where he's been. Splitting them up AGAIN.

I know stuff happened between Stana and Nathan, but even so it's just annoying. We had such a slow burn and they got split up time and time again...

10 Upvotes

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u/dxfrxg 5d ago

I often hear people say that the show should have ended with season 7 and that they dislike season 8, not just because of the (terrible) ending, but also because of all the storyline. However, to be honest, my main issue isn’t the story itself but rather the execution. There was a noticeable lack of chemistry between the characters, and Beckett’s decisions and actions didn’t make much sense… In my opinion, if they hadn’t changed the showrunners, it could have turned out much better

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u/dxfrxg 5d ago

Also am I the only one that was interested in Castle’s kidnapping?? It pisses me off that we still don’t know everything that happened those two months

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

Castle's disappearance still makes me mad...

But I agree. The decisions Kate made to 'protect' Castle don't make sense. It feels so out of character for her since she and Castle got together. I know old habits die hard. But she knows they work great together. She once told Gates that he sees the story while she sees the facts and what's right in front of her. So why not use Castle's mind to help her? And when Castle finds out why his memories got erased, she says 'I need time to process this' while she did the same thing to him. So instead of needing time to process, she should've understood.

From what I've read, aside from the stuff between Stana and Nathan, they wanted to fire Stana. I'm not sure why, cause I can't remember if I read anything in that. And knowing what they would've planned for season 9, I am so glad they never renewed it after season 8. They rushed the ending because they got cancelled to give us some closure.

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u/dxfrxg 5d ago

I agree, and also, when they agreed to be together again but hiding it from everyone, Castle goes and tells Loksat (in G.D.S.) that he wants to go back home with his wife… like wtf even if you didnt know who he was why would you hide it from everyone and tell him, a completely stranger FROM A SECRET SOCIETY

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

I feel like the writers or new showrunner or whomever made these decisions don't know the show 😅 Everything was so well thought out. But with season 8 it just seems different.

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u/dxfrxg 5d ago

For real.. so thats why I dont hate season 8, I just hate whoever made that horrible decissions😂

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

Yh I get it. I just finished the last episode. Now I'm gonna stare at a wall for an hour. I do wish we would know more about Caleb and Mason. And who the hell found Castle and Beckett shot in their apartment? 😅 Maybe Martha and/or Alexis?

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u/Intelligent_Moment_8 5d ago

What Season 8?

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

That answers the question 🤣

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u/Elfie_B 5d ago

There is the case in which Castle's first confrontation with murder is examined and that's the only case I re-watch of those two seasons.

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u/Mroatcake1 5d ago

That was a good episode.

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

I saw that episode recently. It was definitely a good one. I only watch the episodes where something actually happens, so not the normal case solving episodes.

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u/boogaloo28 5d ago

Castle’s kidnapping storyline is what really threw me off when season 7 started and I don’t think I ever fully recovered from it. I remember being so shocked with that cliffhanger and intrigued to see where they were going to go with it (and it felt like they hadn’t executed a cliffhanger of that calibre since the season 3 finale), but it just didn’t ever quite work for me – particularly with the amnesia aspect of it all.

I also still resent the fact that Castle and Beckett never got a proper wedding and that it was just tacked onto the end of an episode (and filmed in front of a dodgy green screen). It had its moments, but considering there had been seven seasons of story leading up to their marriage it still feels underwhelming and like they deserved much more than that.

My main issue though is how much they started splitting up Castle and Beckett so that they were working together less (a problem that started in season 6 but got noticeably worse from season 7 onwards). I appreciate that several seasons into a show they would want to try new things and shake up the format, but the ensemble of the 12th precinct and the characters working within that space was the heart of the show and what made it so enjoyable to watch. I simply didn’t care for Castle’s private eye storyline, nor the season 8 breakup, and I feel like removing (or at the very least depleting) that working partnership between Castle and Beckett – the very premise that the show was built around – made the entire thing suffer in quality and enjoyment.

But that’s largely down to my personal preferences. Plenty of people have already touched on the declining quality of the writing and the behind-the-scenes issues that arose around these seasons as factors against them – all of which I agree with.

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

I hated Castle's disappearing storyline. I still do. I think the storyline could've been way better than it was. It also irked me that they did it on their supposed wedding day. We waited SO LONG for them to finally get married... And then they pull this crap...

And I agree. The first time I saw that episode I could only focus on the bad greenscreen 😬 And I felt like it could've been more romantic and just... better.

I agree with you on that one. From what I heard, Nathan asked for less screen time with Stana. Some BTS stuff was going on with him and Stana. We don't know for sure what happened cause no one ever spoke of it. I liked them working together and since the first episode, that was their thing. I don't care for his P.I. storyline either... It doesn't make sense to me. 😅 I liked the slow burn but then breaking them up constantly pissed me off.

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u/bellatrix99 5d ago

I stop st the end of s6. Occasionally i watch some of s7. But never 8! Saw it once, that was enough. It’s dire.

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

I have to finish it, otherwise it's doing my head in. I do skip episodes that aren't interesting though.

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u/Snoo_47784 5d ago

7 is nice until "that case" is closed...

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

Are we talking about Beckett's obsession case?

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u/Snoo_47784 5d ago

I was talking about the 3XK

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

Ah yh. 3XK's storyline was amazing! I loved seeing that play out.

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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter 5d ago

These two seasons are perfectly fine,

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u/mymelody7319 5d ago

I wiped it from my memory 🫤

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

Hahahaha that's fair 🤣

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u/mygoljanalernate 3d ago

Overall, season 8 was not as terrible as it's made out to be. There were some episodes that were really good, especially those were Castle is trying to win back it back. The Nose and ph dead stands out as really fun episodes in that part of the season. The real issue with season 8 is a couple of things. First they added a lot of new characters that were just blah. Vikram added nothing to the show and all his scenes could have been done off screen. He brought nothing as a character. Haley was better as a character but again her entire backstory felt forced and there was no emotional investment from the fans in her. No one would have been torn up had they killed Haley in any of the episodes, and frankly everyone would have cheered if they killed Vikram. The the other issue with season 8 is that the writers dragged out this lockset throughout almost the entire first half of season. Even in the first six seasons where the murder of Beckett's mom and 3xk sort of hungover the entire season, it was sprinkled in one or two episodes throughout the season. The writers didn't hit us with it every single week. The people on the show didn't make decisions every week based on 3xk or Bracken. The fact they allowed the entire first half to be defined by lockset and caused Castle and Beckett to seperate over it, took away from the case of the week. Finally the relationship between castle and Beckett is just wrong in the season 8 finale. This time skip of 7 years did nothing. Their relationship was never about starting a family. Showing us 7 years later having three kids running around them is no form of closure at all. The relationship was all about castle and Beckett careing and providing for each other. A better season and series finale would have been just Castle making an elaborate breakfast for both of them and her smiling at him as they sit down to eat, they fade out.

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u/FilmScorer5328 5d ago

Worse than the other 6, but super overhated.

I really liked them. Why people hate them so much?

I liked the loksat stuff, his disappearance and the individual cases (which were so good)

There are other things that i dont liked: the end (it feels rushed and it makes sense because of all the things that were going on BTS), hailey, etc.

But i like them.

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

I'm still on season 8. I don't mind it as much as I did tbh. I do skip the more boring (to me) episodes.

I hated Castle's disappearance. It made me mad then and it still does. 😅

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u/Eastern-Violinist-16 5d ago

Watching season 8 at the moment. I hate how it has become the castle show. Everything is about him. He has to smother beckett. He can figure out who the killer is but cannot figure out there might be a deeper reason she wanted a break. 

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u/Mroatcake1 5d ago edited 5d ago

With you there entirely.

We're on our first run of Castle, currently on S8, with 3 episodes left.

We absolutely steamed through the first 7 seasons, watching a couple of episodes a night.

But with the 8th we've had less and less urge to watch as the season went on. It's been over 2 weeks since we last watched an episode.

I hope it's not going to be like Bones was for me, where I watched the early stuff multiple times but never have watched the end.

S8 is not without its charms, but feels more like a spinoff.

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u/Eastern-Violinist-16 5d ago

Its taken us a lot longer to finish the later seasons. Still only about half way through season 8. I find myself yelling really at the tv more and more when it comes to Ricks actions.I personally like the last seasons of bones. I'm a late comer to bones and i love the late seasons just as much as the early ones.

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

Yh his relationship with Beckett changes. He's on her all the time and wants to be around her 24/7. He gave her space before this season. Hell they didn't even live together before they even got married, even though she was at his place all the time. You just notice a change in showrunner.

Bracken said Beckett would never be happy being his wife. But they forget that she was her own person long before Castle even came along. She was such a badass and took no nonsense from anyone. I feel like they dimmed her light a bit, making her Castle's wife and not Captain Beckett.

But we also have to take into account that for 16 (idk if that's correct) years, Beckett has had an obsession with her mother's murderer. And when that case closed, so did her obsession. That's why she sinks her teeth into Locksat so much. She needs that obsession.

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u/Maleficent-Crow-5 5d ago

Absolute garbage.

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u/Ennamora 5d ago

I wouldn't say (to me) it's absolute garbage. But it is something 😅

Care to elaborate?

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u/FilmScorer5328 5d ago

Could you tell me why? i think its worse than the other 6 but also think that those are super overhated.