TV GUIDE: Ask Matt: How Scandal-ous, Smash's Crash, PBS Is Hot, Middle Graduation, More
Feb 11, 2013
by Matt Roush
Send your questions and comments to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow on Twitter!
... Question: There has been a lot of talk online recently about the lack of commitment the Castle writers seem to have in the Castle and Beckett relationship this season. Yes, they're together, but they're written as though they don't interact outside of work and any contact between them is incredibly chaste and brief. This is especially true in the last few episodes. The show seems to have shifted focus to periphery characters more and is giving more attention to the cases rather than the personal lives of both Castle and Beckett than ever before. Do you think this is reflecting Andrew Marlowe's fear of losing viewers? ABC's? Is there a reason for this? And now spoilers released for upcoming episodes continue to focus on Alexis and story lines that don't involve Castle and Beckett as a couple, or when they do involve them as a couple it's only in regard to a problem their relationship has. There has been no honeymoon phase to their relationship, if anything it feels like the relationship went from new to old married couple really quickly. Any thoughts on why this might be? More people each week are growing uninterested with the way the show is going, and though I'm a huge fan, I can't help but share that disappointment. Thanks. — Kate
Matt Roush: There's no way to answer this kind of question in a way to satisfy the hardcore fan, because what I see, as a casual but hardly obsessive viewer of the show, is the latest example of how there's simply no way to please everybody. The writers not committed to Castle and Beckett? Castle finally put its main two characters together romantically, which was a big win for the fans, and early on this season it leaned heavily on relationship stories and twists to capitalize on that, but now it seems the show hasn't changed enough to satisfy the most ardent "shippers" (and online griping only tends to fan those flames). It's back to a more traditional, quirky case-of-the-week format, which entails being a mystery series with a relationship at its core, rather than being a relationship series that solves mysteries on the side. Because of the need to fill a long 24-episode season, and occasionally give some of the rest of the underused ensemble something to do, it's inevitable that some episodes would veer from the personal stuff, even at the risk of being called out as ordinary or frustrating to those who'd rather this now be exclusively a Nick-and-Nora kind of show. I imagine there are more milestones ahead for this couple, and when that happens, those episodes should feel special. Which might be more difficult if every week dwelled at length on this aspect of the show. But this criticism, which I don't really disagree with, doesn't surprise me. And I bet the producers saw it coming as well...
Castle airs Monday at 10/9C on ABC. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE EPISODE TRAILER FOR 'REALITY STAR STRUCK' AIRING FEBRUARY 11, 2013.
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