stvn1974

Going to call it now that

Pizza

That would be a terrible ending.

DJariya

If it got renewed then maybe since she wasn't going to be part of the 9th season. But, since it's ending, then no way in hell.

By the way, why the hell do you care anyways? I thought you dropped the show months ago?

stvn1974

I can rattle of 50 tv shows that have had terrible endings without giving it much thought. Never underestimate the stupidity of studios.

Deftones

Shit. I still enjoy the show. Please give us a spin-off called 12th Precinct with Espo and Ryan. Make it so ABC!

onebyone

They shot an alternate ending in case it was cancelled, so hopefully it will end happy.

Of course, many shows just out of the blue end horribly, so you can never be sure.

JimRochester

Maybe they'll give her amnesia so she doesn't remember Castle.

Maybe it will all be a dream. Fillion will wake up on Firefly with Morrena Boccarin next to him and he can tell her about this wild dream he had. When Baldwin, Torres and Staite run in he can say they were all in it too just like Wizard of Oz.

Cellar Door

Kinda glad to hear it's ending. I've been a loyal viewer since the beginning (I've even read a few of the novels), but this season I've let the last several episodes pile up without watching them yet, because it feels like a chore.

I look forward to seeing Fillion in something different now. I'm glad he had a long-running hit with Castle, but the show has been a lot less fun over the past few seasons than when it started.

WallyOPD

Isn't it much more likely that those are two entirely different subsets of Castle fans, rather than one hypocritical group? I'm in the disappointed camp. Even without Beckett, and even though the show isn't nearly as good as it once was, I still wish it had continued.

stopgap

Sadly it became a chore for me too (my female counterpart still loves it, she is not happy). A little too long in the tooth.

I always felt this was a modern version of Moonlighting and ironically it seemed to be doomed a similar fate (i.e. hooking up).

B5Erik

I'm glad it's ending rather than tearing apart what the heart of the show was (Caskett). Without Beckett it wouldn't have been the same show.

I still enjoy the show, even though it hasn't been consistently great since about the 5th season. (It's been inconsistently great, and occasionally just OK.) I would have been in for another season WITH Beckett, but without her? No way.

Hopefully they wrap things up and let them enjoy the rest of their lives. No need to get artsy and/or overly dramatic to end the series. Let the show end happily and make the majority of the fans happy.

It's been a great run.

JimRochester

At this point, even with Beckett, the show has a very weird dynamic. I enjoy the extra screen time for Javy and Ryan, it's so weird to see what is in essence a romantic dramedy with little romance. They've had maybe 5 minutes of screen time together in the episodes this season?

Reminds me of Starsky and Hutch and Mr. and Mrs. Kotter. Other TV partners that didn't get along. Always juicy gossip in the rags.

Cellar Door

I didn't know about the rumors that Fillion and Katic were not getting along. If true, then the awful storylines that have kept them separate for much of the last couple of seasons suddenly make sense.

Double_Oh_7

And the lead actors hating each other.

B5Erik

I don't think that was the problem. Moonlighting's producers and writers handled the situation VERY poorly.

With Castle it worked well until last season, and reading about a rift between Fillion and Katic it makes sense that the chemistry on screen was lost too, so the writers kept them apart as much as possible.

It wasn't getting them together that ruined the show. It would have been stupid to keep them apart given the obvious chemistry between them. People wouldn't avoid a relationship in a situation like that, so watching people avoid a relationship when it was so obvious that they should get together would have made for a frustrating show to watch. No, what brought the show down a peg was the discomfort that the lead actors were trying to hide while playing their romantic scenes. Earlier on there was no discomfort, and the two of them (Fillion and Katic) were clearly having a good time, but as time passed something changed between the two actors and it changed the chemistry on screen (and not for the better).

Still, even at it's worst Castle has been entertaining and more fun to watch than 90% of what's on TV these days.

And it has pretty good rewatchability. (I've re-watched the first 5 seasons on DVD twice and it's still enjoyable.)

B5Erik

It will certainly be interesting to see how they close this out tonight. This is the episode where they filmed two endings, so they did get a chance to wrap it all up.

How well they wrap it up is what will be interesting to see. Hopefully we get a satisfying ending.

B.A.

Aw man. I forgot about "Forever". That was a good one.

B.A.

I'd rather see one involving Alexis and Hayley and their private investigations.

JimRochester

Not a bad idea.

I stopped collecting the DVD's a couple seasons ago but I'd love to see if they include the alternate ending and provide insight as to what the direction would have been without Beckett

stingermck

Wow. You can tell that was a season cliffhanger with a quick series finale tacked on it.

stvn1974

Agreed about it feeling like the ending was tacked on but I am happy with what we got.

Double_Oh_7

That last five minutes was a hot mess.

B5Erik

I certainly didn't see the identity of LokSat coming. Although, I have to wonder if that was their plan all along - it sure seemed awfully convenient. Without Marlowe there guiding this season I think they were kind of making it up as they went along rather than having the season well planned out like Marlowe would have.

Still, it was a good episode. Not great, but good. That ending was obviously tacked on to resolve a shocking turn of events that was meant to be a cliffhanger. Clearly, the producers thought they were getting a ninth season, but just hedged their bets with that last bit.

They crammed a ton of stuff into one episode, and maybe it was a little too much. This didn't meet the standards of previous Castle, "Event," episodes, but it was still pretty good. I just think the whole season would have been better with Marlowe running the show. Or they could have tacked that ending on to the finale from last season (which felt a lot more like a series finale than this one did).

Castle had a great run, but it was time to go. Season 8 was clearly the weakest of the series. I still enjoyed the show (it was still entertaining and one of the more enjoyable shows on TV), but only on rare occasions did it come close to meeting the standards of the first 5 seasons.

davidh777

Yeah, that was a dumb, tacked-on ending. Last season's finale would've been a better series closer.

I've just been watching the show occasionally the last couple seasons so I'm ok with its ending. Didn't hear about the actors' rift, though.

TheKing

I now understand why they said they hoped that ending would never air.

You could see the staples there. So clearly was that last scene attached. But hell, even the cliffhanger would have been useless considering we knew who was coming back and who wasn't.

That being said, they were kind of stuck with doing what they did.