Why is it that few television shows that feature romance are able complete a series without twisting the story into one that severely lacks credibility? The recent finale of Castle season six has yet another showrunner suddenly dump the character arcs he’d built for over six years, stop the forward motion of the primary romance, and begin talking about the trajectory of his show in a manner that makes little sense given the show’s history.
Castle Season Six Finale – Blowing Up the Storyline
My first reaction to the Castle episode “For Better or Worse” was, “Great, another one bites the dust.” I was certainly furious with showrunner and creator Andrew Marlowe. How could he let Castle turn from being something unique into a story like most TV show romances, filled with sudden stops of romantic progression and character resets? Seven days later it occurs to me that Marlowe isn’t the issue.
This thing of a romance wildly hitting the brakes happens so often with couples on television. I’ve now come to think the phenomena has little to do with a particular showrunner. It occurs so consistent that there’s got to be some kind of mechanism built into doing a show that have a strong romantic focus that gets triggered and sends things haywire.
There are many shows that have made ill-timed contrived plot choices in the way Castle did. Three that come to mind immediately are Bones, Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman, The X-files and of course, the show that started it all, Moonlighting. Taking a look at the nuts and bolts of these shows makes it clear to me that there are consistent factors at work that influence what we see on screen, and why, over time, these types of shows have a tendency to get mucked up.
THE NEVER-ENDING STORY
The business side of TV likes a sure thing. Shows such as The X-files and Bones developed story issues that added black marks to the history of their time on air, but the marks don’t change that The X-files did nine years before being canceled and that Bones will be starting its tenth season. For the networks, all that matters is the time a show is commercially viable, not the quality of the show itself. It is irrelevant to the business side of things that a significant group of people still cringe when season six of Bones is mentioned – or when much of anything past season six of the X-files is brought up. Why risk doing something different with a story that only might pay off even bigger when you know the dividends of doing what’s always been done?
Case in point. In an interview with EW.com Marlowe answers a question about how long he sees Castle running for:
Do you feel like you’re playing a long game with the show still? How many more seasons are left here? Where’s your head at?
My head is in continuing the show as long as we feel good and great storytelling and we certainly know from other shows that once characters get married, it’s not the end of storytelling. There’s still complications that ensue and fun to be had as a couple and fun to be had solving cases. So I don’t really know. You look at Bones as the model and there’s a version where you go on to season 10, 11, 12. And we’ll see if our people have the appetite for that. We’ll see if our actors want to do that, and we’ll see if the viewers stand by us for that. (www.ew.com/castle-season-finale-post-mortem)
I will admit that reading Marlowe’s response made me want to throw things. Really, using Bones as a model?
Bones just finished their ninth season (congratulations!), but back in the middle of their fifth season the show set on a trajectory that could have stopped its run cold. After building up the relationship of their leads, Booth and Brennan, showrunner Hart Hanson let the relationship crash and burn. The process involved Booth dismissing their history, an introduction of new love interest, Booth becoming dismissive and mean to his supposed friend and former love, and Brennan having a short mental breakdown. It was a reset of epic proportion. By December of 2010 a host of dismissal things were occurring on air that critics across the boards, and in mainstream newspapers like USA Today, were consistently disparaging of (www.bonesspoilers.blogspot.com). Even Marlowe was critical of it! (www.tvline.com)
Hanson and executive producer Stephen Nathan were on record as not being fans of romance The big change that occurred and saved Bones is that the female lead, newly married Emily Deschanel was pregnant. This gave a good reason to cut the storyline with the new love interest and go in a different direction. Still that transition was abrupt and the response was mixed (which is better than it had been through the whole other love interest storyline.) There was some more dismissals of both Booth and Brennan’s character’s history – often for the sake of “humor” (www.givememyremote.com).
Since then the characters of Booth and Brennan have gone on and gotten married – but not before some ridiculous stalling that involved Brennan going on the run at the end of season seven and a blackmail scheme that kept them apart in season Still, the with the help of some time shifting in the second half of season six (To give the show a new audience sampling for a time Fox moved Bones to behind American Idol) and throwing Booth and Brennan into a relationship, the show is getting ready for season ten. While it’s not as popular as it was prior to the mess in the middle of it’s run, the show is stable enough to be worth keeping on. For TV producers, that’s all that counts.
Castle deciding to suddenly stall out the marriage of Castle and Beckett could very well be based on the mistaken belief that the stalling is what has kept Bones alive. It’s similar to the mistaken idea of “the Moonlighting Curse” which said that show ended up failing because of things on screen instead of the things occurring off of it. The reasons Bones is still on air is because of off-screen circumstances and smart executive programming decisions made by FOX.
Marlowe citing Bones as a story inspiration for the season six finale makes me suspect the story decisions in “For Better or Worse” have more to do with the business of entertainment, executive producers and nature of producing a television show. They want longevity, and the conventional wisdom is still that a couple should be kept apart to keep viewers interested. After all, that fits in with their status quo thinking.
THE MOONLIGHTING CURSE
For a long time the television industry cited the so-called, “Moonlighting curse” for the demise of a show featuring a “will they/won’t they” couple. The belief was that once a show’s couple got together fans would no longer be interested in the show. Castle creator and showrunner Andrew Marlowe had said countless times that he didn’t believe in the curse. However, given what happened in season six, and his statements about why he ended season six in the way that he did, it seems as though he has become a believer. (For a review of the episode itself check out Castle Season 6 Finale: Somewhere Between Fabulous and Horrible)
This is Marlowe in interview with Marisa Roffman of Give Me My Remote (GMMR) after the season four finale, “Always.”
MR: Now that Castle has consummated the relationship, how is he going to feel about Beckett?
AM: There’s some really fun stuff for us to play with and we’re looking forward to it. We don’t think this resolves anything, we think this puts them into the next set of fun, friction-y, cool, storytelling that we’re looking forward to playing with.
AM: I know how life is. And life is, when you’re in any sort of relationship, when you’re hanging out with somebody, your friends are like, “So when are you going to get together?” And then when you get together, it’s like, “When are you going to move in?” And then you move in and it’s like, “So when are you going to get married?” And then you get married and it’s like, “So when are you going to have kids?” The questions aren’t going to stop — they’re just going to become different questions. (http://www.givememyremote.com)
The writer talking after season four had no interest in stalling anything, because he saw that every stage had obstacles – so what happened? His interviews after the season six finale are completely different!
The story that we’re telling with their relationship isn’t over. It’s going to get deeper. It’s going to get more interesting, and there are still a couple of things that need to be overcome. This is not one of those things where suddenly one of them starts feeling a different way [or] one of those things where an old lover shows up. This is something else entirely, and we’re hoping people take the ride. If they continue their investment, it’ll pay off. I do know that some fans will feel robbed, they’ll feel betrayed. But hopefully they’ll stay with us to see how we’re going to resolve it. (www.tvguide.com)
Here it sounds as though Marlowe feels once married a relationship can’t: go deeper, get more interesting or have obstacles to be overcome. The thinking fits right in to the Moonlighting curse “logic” and that trajectory of Bones previously discussed.
What’s amusing is that in this interview Marlowe seems to be asking viewers to stick around because at least this stall and reset isn’t as dumb as some other shows have proceeded. His doing so tells me Marlowe knows the choices he’s made are pure stalling tactics that have been done before – and he sees how bogus it is. He’s hoping his spin on hitting the brakes will be more acceptable.
Granted, there have been some doozies in the crazy stalling department: spending 98 episodes having a character come to the place of saying she believes in love, only to have her in the 100th episode say she doesn’t (Bones), being taken away by aliens and leaving the woman you supposedly never slept with pregnant (The X-Files), doing a beautiful wedding only to find out the bride was a frog-eating clone ( Lois and Clark), and coming back after a being away from the guy you’d been crazy about, only to marry some guy you just met on a train (Moonlighting). Still, trying to convince viewers that the whole, “oops, I got married in Vegas but I didn’t know it counted” stalling move by Beckett is less ridiculous than those is a tough sell (except for the frog-eating clone. I do think that one gets top honors.) Even Brittney Spears knew a Vegas marriage counted, surely the pre-law, both parents are lawyers, Beckett would know better. Then of course, there are all those background checks, to become and NYPD officer, a federal agent…. Okay, moving on.
In that same TV Guide interview Marlowe talks about his reasoning for writing the finale story the way that he did.
The relationship has always been the engine. These two people are in a strong committed relationship that is certainly being challenged at this moment, but we’re looking to open up new mythology, to bring in some new elements that we think will give the characters plenty to talk about.
How does this play into The Moonlighting Curse? At the beginning of the interview Marlowe talks about the importance of wrapping up the Bracken storyline so that Beckett, “can move forward into her new phase of life completely unfettered.” He therefore knows the importance of giving a character, and the audience, some closure on a major arc before moving on to another major one. Had he just wanted to open up a new story mythology he could have had the wedding occur, and then have had something happen to Castle. That would have made a good cliffhanger because it would have felt like we were taking a step forward into a new phase and a new journey. Having Beckett solve her mother’s murder, only to have her wedding stopped by some black SUV apparently run her fiancee off the road doesn’t move anything forward. Its primary purpose isn’t a new mythology, it’s to stall the relationship from moving to the next level. The only reason to do that is the belief that somehow Castle and Beckett getting married will kill the viewers interest in what happens to them. In other words, belief in the Moonlighting curse.
When you compare the Marlowe of post-season four to that of post-season six, you really have to wonder what happened. Did he just suddenly change his thinking about Moonlighting or did other factors came into play? We do know that what happened in the season six finale fits the way broadcast networks like to do love and romance.
UP, UP, AND – WAIT!
If Marlowe really doesn’t believe a relationship means the end of the show, maybe he was given a directive to slow things down? That’s exactly what happened to the TV show, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman back in the 90’s (1993-97). Let’s get back to the clone issue. This story was not of an Orphan Black caliber. Lois and Clark were allowed to get together, yes. However, when it came time for an actual wedding ABC, concerned that if they really got married it would kill the show, told the writers to stall it: the writers had Clark marry what turned out to be “a frog-eating clone” ( www.kryptonsite.com). The previous season they had stopped the wedding for something else out of nowhere: Clark was betrothed to a princess from his old world. That scenario had already strained credibility, so this five episode bout of nonsense completely tanked the ratings and led to it being the show’s last season.
At the time viewers were not happy with the writers. Looking back and knowing what we know now, it obviously wasn’t all their fault. Without much notice they were told by network producers that they had to delay the real wedding when they had been planning for the wedding to be “one and done.” That was the best they could come up with. Did ABC have issues with Castle taking that final step into marriage? We know they had to be convinced to let Castle tell Beckett “I love you” at the end of season three… We may never know exactly, and if we do it will be long after the show is off the air. However, it certainly falls in the realm of possibility.
LOOK OUT FOR THAT BEE!
Sometimes the decision to stall can come from the showrunner. Hart Hanson and Bones executive producer Stephen Nathan are famous for their anti-romance stance – even after Brennan and Booth got together http://www.thetvaddict.com) However, the best example of how not allowing characters to progress romantically can lead to a series of problems for the show is The
Chris Carter, who created and ran The X-files was dead-set again having the characters of Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) get romantically involved. While FOX (this is hilarious) “vainly pressured Carter to make it more of a romantic mystery, with its leading characters reminiscent of the 1980’s TV show, Moonlighting” – Carter’s conception of Mulder and Scully was of a completely platonic pairing – ala the 1960’s TV series The Avengers (Science Fiction Television Series, 1990-2004: Histories, Casts and Credits, pg 370)
In his “Fight the Future” movie, which served as a bridge between seasons five and six, Carter did a lot of teasing hype that Mulder and Scully would finally resolve the unresolved sexual tension (UST) that had been building for five years only to have a would-be kiss famously interrupted by Scully stung by a bee.
In season six, Anderson, like everyone involved with the X-files, writers, actors, would say that it was best that Mulder and Scully didn’t get together because it “wouldn’t be the same” (www.gilliananderson.ws) Yet, both actors are on record as being bored – especially Duchovny. Keeping things the same…and bored actors – any connection? To keep himself occupied Duchovny wrote and directed an episode with some of the most directly romantic overtones ever, (www.dags.freeservers.com).
In season seven Entertainment Weekly blogger Ken Tucker noted that both Duchovny and Anderson seemed bored with their roles. (www.ew.com) Duchovny – for a number of reasons – made it clear that he wasn’t. The financial issues are well documented. Fox had undersold the syndication rights to the show, costing him a fortune, and the long shooting schedule had become exhausting. However, During his contract negotiations and after the show ended Duchovny sited more than just the money issues:
“At this point in my career, I can’t spend another 10 months this year or next year doing X-Files. I don’t want to, creatively or professionally.” (www.imdb.com)
“I was kind of a free agent after season seven, and to me, there was not much else to do in terms of the character. So it was really about me wanting to pursue other parts of my career as a writer, director, and actor.” (www.en.wikipedia.org)
Bored actors are not happy ones. They need their characters to feel real, to grow. Keeping them emotionally in the same place when the logic of your script dictates otherwise just doesn’t work.
Ultimately Duchovney settled his contract issues, and he also agreed to do 12 episodes in season eight. Now Carter had a new problem. What was he going to do without Mulder full time? Carter introduced a new character, “Agent Doggert” and embarked on a story about Scully being pregnant by Mulder, supposed due to artificial insemination. If you have any doubts about how Duchovny felt about the situation, his sarcasm in this clip makes it obvious!
By season nine the ratings were going into a free-fall and it became the show’s final season.
While there are many reasons for Duchovny’s leaving, it seems to me Carter’s insistence about his protagonists’ relationship did help burnt out the actor. As he says in the clip…”just too many damn aliens.”
WHO’S THE BOSS?
In terms things behind the camera destroying what was going on in front of it, no show epitomized it more than Moonlighting!
At the time the producers blamed the leads getting together romantically onscreen for the show’s problems, but the truth was there were production delays due to creative differences and budget overages. There were writer disagreements, including one where the writer felt there was an issue between him and star Cybill Shepherd that was so dire one of them was going to have to leave – so he left . One top of that, the actors were having a difficult relationship that got worse as the show progressed. In that instance one of the issues that may have fueled the situation is that although the show was made to star Shepherd , Bruce Willis had his own stardom rise in the middle of its run due the success of the movie Die Hard.. (www.en.wikipedia.org)
Aside from the problem of having double divas, both stars developed legitimate time and schedule issues. Shepherd got pregnant with twins, Willis had a skiing accident… The writing decisions made to deal with those factors that just were not helpful. First the characters were sent to different cities which made it easier to film Shepherd’s scenes ahead of time, but it also ended the barely started romantic involvement. However, the show’s death move was having Maddie (Shepherd’s character) marry a man she just met. The choice to do this is said to have been done in order to “rekindle sexual tension” between the leads. In retrospect, considering all that was going on with the leads, it wouldn’t be surprising if even that choice was influenced by a desire to have a buffer between Shepherd and Willis.
CASTLE PROBLEMS?
The bottom line of all of these factors is that the strange, out-of-nowhere, 180 degree turns that these different shows went through on screen were caused by a number of factors that had nothing to do with the writer. Even when the stubbornness of a showrunner is a contributing factor, the writer is rarely the only reason. Carter blocking the actors’ avenue of character growth is one thing, , but when Duchovny got fed up and left, Carter had to revision the very premise of the X-files and bring in new characters, the writing he had to in order to deal with that was never part of his original plan. The longer a show is on the air, the more possibilities there are that something will happen production-wise that affects the story the writer wants to tell.
While the commentary from the Castle camp is always chipper, things there weren’t all smooth sailing during this season. Early on during the shooting of season six, Nathan Fillion staged a no show in the desire to have a four day work week. Then, on November 7th, Celebrity Spy was first to run a story that Fillion “Threw the ultimate diva meltdown” over the show putting too much attention on co-star Stana Katic, quoting him as saying “The name of the show is ‘Castle’ not Beckett…now fix it.” At the time this was not something I paid attention to. I mean, it’s Celebrity Spy using an anonymous source. What makes me wonder now? The recent interview Marlowe gave GMMR about his reasoning for the choices made in the season finale.
MR: So, looking to the episode itself, at what point in craft the season (or series) did you know that Beckett was actually married?
AM: We started playing with the idea a third of the way to halfway through the season. A lot of it had to do with resolving some aspects of Beckett, so when Beckett and Castle move on, there can be a little more parity…. she also always occupied the moral high ground with Castle and his previous relationships. And this is a way to humanize her a little bit. To take her down a peg in a way that’s very endearing to Castle.
More endearing to Castle – or more endearing to Fillion? Marlowe conceptualized this character – he created the dynamic, and had no issue with this so-called moral high ground of Beckett’s. Suddenly, not long after Fillion’s supposed meltdown he decides there’s a need to “take her down a peg or two?” That timing certainly looks suspicious. While I’m sure Fillion didn’t say how to fix things, the situation is one that logically would lead to wanting change a core characteristic of Beckett, leading to the trashing of six seasons of Beckett’s “one and done.”
Before you start railing at me – pro or con – let me finish my point. Fillion’s walk out shows that he has – for whatever reason – a certain discontent. Regardless of whether or not a “diva fit” ever took place in that manner, there has been a definite sense of everyone involved with the production reminding viewers how important Fillion is to the existence of Castle. (Like we would ever forget!) Keeping the star happy is a time-honored Hollywood tradition. Changes to give the characters “more parity” falls right in line with that idea of putting more focus on Castle. Fans have also noticed a polite but chilly distance between Fillion and Katic, one very different from the vibe these two had off-screen in the beginning. The distance seems to coincide with the odd decisions to minimize the physical contact made with the characters onscreen. These various events make it difficult to believe that something isn’t going on behind the scenes over at Castle that has affected the story choices made in the finale, and in the way the Caskett relationship has been done in season six.
There also seems to be some kind of creative split going on, I’ve noticed some issues with the comedy/drama blend. The first three seasons of Castle had the two working together perfectly. The comedic episodes built on the dramatic ones so they all flowed together nicely. Staring in season four there started to be a few character disconnects going on with the comedic episodes of Castle.
The first major one I can think of occurred in season 4. In “Heartbreak Hotel” the character of Castle regresses into his playboy partying persona, so that he can be all hyper and excited about going to Atlantic city. This was after two serious episodes where Castle had been shown and been praised for how much he had changed and matured and had made what seemed to be a step forward with Beckett after being held hostage in a bank heist. This season there was a storyline involving Alexis Castle and new out-of-nowhere boyfriend Pi that received a generally negative reaction from viewers. His presence seemed to be for comic relief, while giving Molly Quinn (who plays Alexis) a more “grown up” angle to play with – despite it being the most immature we’d ever seen her. The relationship was perceived by most as being completely alien from the character of Alexis, and completely unrealistic in terms of how her behavior was handled. There are similar problems in the finale, like deliberately taking cannon ideas such as Beckett’s “one and done” and tossing it aside for a laugh and a reset on the character of Beckett.
Somehow the comedic shows have become almost a separate series, one where the characters don’t have to abide by the history of the characters created from the more serious episodes. I’m not sure why that is, unless there are somehow two different viewpoints about what the main focus of the show should be. ABC could have asked for them to lighten things up. Fans themselves are usually divided on whether they prefer the comic to the dramatic. Perhaps the show has been trying to be more accommodating. Whatever the reason, the split has viewers getting whiplash. How did we get from the Kate in “Belly of the Beast” and “Veritas” to someone causally breaking into a car and smearing her fingerprints everywhere? It’s like details are suddenly unimportant because it’s “funny.”
Now, here’s the truth about all this. It doesn’t really matter why these things are happening. In terms of delaying the wedding, there’s ABC itself – look at what they did to Lois and Clark. As for the reason Castle has been keeping those kisses and love scenes to almost zero ] it could have absolutely nothing to do with the stars’ personal relationship and rumors of diva meltdowns. In an earlier article I mentioned that some of the fan commentary regarding Fillion being more bulky than when he started the series could make him reluctant to do more physical scenes. It’s hard enough to be doing scenes like that without having your personal physique being considered fair game for critique. The actors also could have tamped down on outside appearances so that fans would stop trying to link them together romantically. That would explain their public personas. I’m sure the whole “Stanathan” thing gets to be annoying, especially when you’re actually involved with someone else. On-screen Marlowe may have felt having physically intimate scenes would take away from that 1940’s vibe, – much like Carter wanted Scully and Mulder to feel like The Avengers – or he could just be trying to keep things comfortable for his co-stars. The point I’m making is that knowing why isn’t important. Being aware that more goes into story choices than just the writers figuring out the story arc and telling the story.
THERE IS NO ONE TO BLAME
After going through all the possibilities of what could be going on with Castle, and looking at what’s gone on with other shows I’ve come to the conclusion that the specifics point to one thing. The problems have nothing to do with an individual person. They are an organic part of making a long-running TV series. It’s a simple reality: more time on the air means personality clashes and differences of opinion regarding the show’s direction are more likely to occur. They say a television production can become like a family. Despite the love, all families occasionally squabble. Keeping a family together usually takes compromises all around – which means everyone loses at least a little. No one gets their way all the time.
As viewers, all we see are the results. We feel angry and disappointed when a show takes a sudden shift in direction, resets a core premise, and/or shows a complete disregard for character continuity. It’s said that the opposite of love isn’t hate – it’s indifference. Saying you don’t like what’s happening and how you feel about it shows that a person actually cares. I can say for myself that with Castle the disappointment is stronger because it really did seem like it was a show that was going to break the mold and prove that a relationship really could be done successfully on television with resorting to stalling, resets and plot tropes.
While expressing those feelings is important – to relieve frustration as well as giving feedback to those making our shows – blaming any one person for what’s on the screen isn’t fair. For those of us not thrilled with how things have gone we can do is be honest. We didn’t like what happened and whatever reasons there were for those finale choices, we sincerely hope they can reversed or somehow fixed come fall. I wouldn’t mind finding out the whole thing was a pre-wedding nightmare of Beckett’s but somehow I doubt Castle will go the Dallas route
Going forward things won’t be perfect, but here’s what I can wish for. In season seven Beckett will still be smart, strong, and badass, and Castle will still be smart, sweet. and funny. Hopefully they will get married. We’ll see more Kate with Martha and Alexis – and more Esplaine, Castle and Beckett will babysit again – this time it will be the Ryan’s little girl. With any luck the intrigue of 3XK – and any other bad guys Marlowe introduces – will still allow the couple to move forward, fight them together, and give them new things to discuss. Finally, every now and again we’ll get to see some moments of sexy Caskett alone time.
Regardless, of how season seven goes down, I certainly am grateful for everyone involved for the joy Castle has brought me for nearly six seasons – the show has been fabulous. This finale may be an unfortunate glitch, or the beginning of the end – but regardless, it not all on Marlowe. We have no way of knowing what went into the decisions made, and there are too many people involved in the making of a television show to place the blame at any one person’s feet. Sometimes these things that disappoint us as viewers can’t be helped. It’s the nature of television.
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