The news of Stana Katic’s dismissal hit the CASTLE fandom hard this week. It is no secret to anyone that the show has been struggling for the past couple of years — more so after creator Andrew Marlowe left his post as showrunner. So we knew things weren’t doing great lately. Most fans doubted that there was even going to be a season 9 after such a rocky season 8, but we never, ever, expected this to happen.
When Deadline first broke the news, the fandom immediately rebelled against it. Tamala Jones was going to be let go along with Katic – while all the male actors stayed – which seemingly reinforces a pro-male/anti-female mentality. We don’t even know if there is, in fact, going to be a season 9, but ABC has made a bad decision with these “firings”. After all, there is no show without Kate Beckett, as evidenced by the ratings this past season.
In the midst of our shock and anger over this entire situation, I got a couple of writers, who are also CASTLE fans and reviewers and we came to the conclusion that Stana Katic deserved so much better than this. So these are our thoughts over this unfortunate, heartbreaking news:
Luciana Mangas: I hadn’t been watching CASTLE in a while. Ever since the show changed showrunners and started going in a different direction (with that that Castle-as-a-PI storyline), I started to lose interest until, eventually, I stopped watching altogether. However, every time there was a rerun from earlier seasons, I would stop what I was doing and catch up on an episode, because that was where the magic was — Castle and Beckett verbally sparring and Beckett being her usual kickass self.
The main reason that I was drawn to CASTLE in the first place was that they had such an amazing female lead character. Katherine Beckett was this larger-than-life force of nature, exceptionally good at her job, respected by her fellow officers and peers, but she was also human. She had flaws; she had a hard time dealing with her emotions and sometimes that got her into some serious trouble; she was tenacious and loving and caring and she was such an amazing role model for women across the world.
I think that’s why the news of Stana Katic being let go hit me so hard. Because, even though I wasn’t really watching the show as consistently as I once had, I knew Kate Beckett was still there and there was always hope that some day they would fix the mess they had made of the past couple of seasons. But now she’s not going to be there anymore, no matter what they do. I don’t know how they are going to write her off, but whatever they do it will never do this fantastic character justice, because it will always be overshadowed by the way her dismissal was handled.
Budget cuts? Really? It is old news that female actors make a lot less than males, so this makes absolutely no sense at all. To simply dismiss a performer that was the shining star of the show and (in my opinion) a big reason the majority of the fans stuck around until now is just beyond preposterous.
Of course we don’t know the particulars of whatever happened behind-the-scenes, but no matter what, Stana Katic deserved better than this. Even though the show is called CASTLE, it was her character, Kate Beckett, that drove the show for the better part of these past eight seasons. Sure, we had supporting characters that did their part, but it was Beckett who pushed the show forward; it was the mystery of her mother’s murder that drove the show for several seasons and – most importantly – it was her character that was handled in a respectful and humane manner.
Richard Castle did his part as the narrator of the story. It was mostly his point of view that we were treated to, but it didn’t matter because he was always watching her. After all, the show started with him shadowing her for a new series of books, and he did fall in love with her in the process, so it was only natural that his entire focus would be on her. No matter what, Kate Beckett was the driving force of this show, with Stana Katic basically carrying seven seasons on her shoulders.
It seems like a lot saying that she carried the show, but it’s absolutely true and she did it on talent alone. Episodes like “Knockdown”, “Knockout”, “Veritas”, and “Kill Shot” – just to mention a few – were among some of her very best work and it is such a shame that she never got an Emmy nod for her performance. Katic dedicated so much to this show, influenced so many young lives with her performance as a kickass detective, that it is truly disheartening to see what is being done to her now, after all these years of hard work.
I can speak for myself when I say that she had a major impact on my life. It was because of her performance as Detective Beckett that I started writing again, that I met so many great people and had some great opportunities, so I will forever be grateful to her for that.
So, Stana, for all your hard work, your fantastic performance, your dedication to the show and the fans and for changing my life, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. You can rest assured that wherever you go, we will follow. Anywhere.
continued on next page…
Lissete Lanuza: I remember the beginning. I remember the short hair and the spark. I remember.
My CASTLE story doesn’t begin with Stana Katic, not really. I didn’t know her when I started watching the show, and she wasn’t the reason I tuned in. Neither was Nathan Fillion. What drew me to the show was the premise: A writer and a cop! It was the perfect combination for my writer-wannabe-procedural-loving-heart. I was in. I was hooked even before I started watching.
And sure, at first, it was about the chemistry. About the shenanigans. About two different ways of seeing the same thing. But the more the show went on, the more it was about Beckett. About who she was. About who she could be. About her development. The show was always called CASTLE, but for me, Castle was the supporting player – the one making things happen for Beckett. I could relate to about 10% of the things he did, and yet I was always at least 95% on board with what she was doing.
Characters (especially well written ones) can teach you many things. From Kate Beckett I learned that it was okay to have issues, that it was fine to be a work in progress as long as you actually did something to be better. I learned that hard work and perseverance are the only ways to get ahead in life, and that if you don’t earn what you have you’ll spend your life proving that you’re good enough.
I also learned that therapy wasn’t something to be afraid of, but a tool to use in your favor, and that admitting you needed help didn’t make you any less strong. From Kate Beckett I learned that you are who you are and you don’t need to change yourself for someone else, you just need to open up your heart.
And now Kate Beckett is gone.
Or maybe she won’t be gone. Maybe they won’t kill her off, maybe they’ll ship her off somewhere with a ridiculous excuse. Either way, her journey has come to a close. My journey with her has come to a close. But, like with a few other wonderful actresses and wonderful characters, what I learned from her won’t ever truly leave me. And that’s not just because of the writing, that’s also, in great part, because of Stana Katic.
Good television is about leaving a mark in your viewers, and though CASTLE as a show was hardly ever deep enough to earn a permanent spot in my heart, Kate Beckett did. She did it by being an ideal — not of a perfect woman, no, but of a flawed, strong, determined, loving, real person. One we could all relate to.
May the television gods grant us many more characters as great as Kate Beckett, and may we all remember her for who she was, no matter the end the show has in store for her.
continued on next page…
Shana Lieberman: In September of 2013, I wrote an article about Kate Beckett, given the simple title: “5 Things You Need To Know About Kate Beckett.” In it, I professed my love for the character and my admiration for Stana Katic.
Since that article was written, a lot has changed. Too much has changed, really. The series’ eighth season has been more about Richard Castle’s P.I. exploits than about a writer and his muse fighting crime. Controversial secondary characters have received more focus than the leading lady, and the Caskett relationship, which I will maintain until the day I die was the true story of CASTLE, was destroyed.
This past fall, I wrote my angry farewell to CASTLE as a reviewer, saying the series as we knew it was over. I wish I had been wrong. In some ways, I guess I was; I had no idea it would ever come to this. With today’s news regarding the firing of lead actress Stana Katic, CASTLE is no more. The story was about Richard Castle’s muse, seen through his eyes. It was as if viewers were watching his Nikki Heat books come to life on screen. It wasn’t supposed to be about him solving crimes with someone else, while his muse (now wife) was mysteriously absent. Dead? Run off because she just can’t stop tilting at windmills, even though previous series writing proved that she’d put that behind her? Who knows?
Better yet, who cares anymore?
Until today, I thought that there might still be some hope for the series; I thought I might one day love CASTLE again — especially after the Beckett-centric “Fidelis Ad Mortem,” which did its best to return the character to her badass roots. After the sixth season finale that turned her into a joke on what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, the character took a major hit. If series creator Andrew Marlowe had this to say way back in May of 2014, I should have known that “Fidelis Ad Mortem” was a bittersweet farewell to a beloved character instead of a triumphant return: “But 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.” (Source.)
After a season of “you like being broken” and names like “Captain Hoochie Mama,” I should have known better than to think this character would ever get the respect that she deserved, ever again…But I wanted so badly to have hope. Strike that: I needed to have hope.
Katherine Houghton Beckett was, at least up to and including CASTLE 6.22, “Veritas,” one of television’s most well-written, well-rounded, and well-respected female characters. She fit the mold of the “strong female character” that everyone’s always talking about, and she did it with a certain beauty and grace that should never have been possible in this world or any other. She was physically tough, able to take down criminals at least twice her size (who could forget that smashed interrogation room glass when she interviewed Vulcan Simmons?), and she did it all without sacrificing her femininity.
Beckett’s designer wardrobe, fabulous hair, and less-than-sensible shoes have been the subject of much debate over the years (could she really afford those things, could she possibly take down criminals in those heels, and how did her hair stay that gorgeous after tackling suspects or barely escaping situations with her life, etc.), but the reasoning behind those choices was what was important: Kate Beckett taught us, after years of seeing otherwise, that you could be the top female detective in the NYPD — and one of the top detectives, period — without having to sacrifice who and what you were. It was possible to be powerful in a male-dominated world without becoming more like a man.
I guess that’s not true anymore, though.
Beyond the physical toughness, Kate’s inner strength was what made me fall for her and, as a result, become a fan of CASTLE. She turned the event that derailed her young life — her mother’s murder — into a quest for justice that, ultimately, was fulfilled. Despite the difficulty of unraveling William Bracken’s conspiracy and the danger it posed to her life, Beckett never gave up. Bullet to the chest? That’s nice. PTSD? “You think it’s a weakness? Make it a strength.” Thrown off a roof? Whatever — I’ll just hang out here.
Beckett could’ve taken the easy way out. But she didn’t. She never could.
And yeah, if someone wants to label Beckett as broken? Sure, we’ll go there. Because she was broken at one point, but she worked her designer slacks-clad butt off to repair herself. After her mother’s murder, Beckett erected walls around her heart to protect herself. Over the years, she made some foolish decisions. “But we are more than our mistakes.” Roy Montgomery may have taught Beckett that, but it was Beckett who proved it, week after week. She could be impulsive; she could run headfirst into danger if it meant that her elusive answers may be there. She might break the rules from time to time, but she was always so much more than being “broken,” and she sure as hell didn’t like that part of herself. Nobody does.
Kate Beckett taught me that it was ok to be a little bit damaged. It was ok to fall down every so often, as long as I kept pulling myself back up again. That lesson, more than any, is what women and young girls everywhere needed to hear from a fictional role model. That…and maybe it was possible to have a happy ending after scaling one’s way back off that ledge (literally in KB’s case) time and time again. Maybe after facing the darkness day in and day out, there might be some light left.
What was lost with this news was not just the unparalleled talent of Stana Katic; it wasn’t just yet another “strong female character” getting axed in this year’s abysmal season, either. It was my belief in happy endings. It was my faith in justice, and it was any respect whatsoever for anything that happens at CASTLE after this.
I can’t imagine what Stana Katic is going through right now, considering how difficult the news has been for me to take as a mere fan — a nobody. After eight seasons of long hours on set, of suffering typical injustices toward female talent, of putting her heart and soul into this character…It’s all just gone for reasons that are utterly beyond anyone’s sense of logic.
Apparently, hard work doesn’t pay off. Being the shining star of a series like CASTLE and the reason people continue to watch, despite horrible storytelling decisions, counts for nothing if you’re the female lead instead of the leading man. Because of “budget cuts,” even though everybody knows pretty well by now that women get paid less than men on pretty much every Hollywood set. So, what are the real reasons for ousting CASTLE’s undisputed queen? We may never know the full story.
But here’s what I do know: Stana Katic deserved better. Kate Beckett deserved better. We all deserved better.
I know that whatever words we may write here will never, ever fully describe what this character meant to girls everywhere or how much respect we’ve had for the actress who portrayed her for eight long seasons.
And, most importantly, I know this much to be true: Wherever Stana Katic goes next, I’ll gladly follow. Always.
continued on next page…
Christy Spratlin: Nowadays our TVs are full of badass leading ladies. It’s pretty much a must have on any new TV show coming out now. But eight years ago that wasn’t the case. Kate Beckett helped pave the way for all of these badass characters that we know and love now.
I think what attracted me to Beckett at first wasn’t just that she was badass but also that she had faults. She had strengths but she also had weaknesses. She was damaged but she managed to rise above it. She gave women watching the show a person to look up to. Look at this woman. She has faced unimaginable tragedy in her life and look at what she has managed to accomplish. She really was an excellent role model.
Yes, Kate Beckett did put up a wall around herself to get to where she was, but that wall wasn’t the be-all-end-all. It was a wall that could be broken. And it was broken, by one Richard Castle. Castle is the one who opened up her world. Piece by piece, he broke down her wall and eventually she let him in. The breaking down of that wall is what made this show magical. These two developed an amazing, incomparable on screen chemistry.
Seasons five and six were probably my favorites of all the seasons. We got to see this great team, in and out of the precinct, working together to solve interesting and often intense cases. The writing was good and the seasons were a perfect mix of funny and intense episodes. Sure, there were problems, but they could be forgiven because everything else was so great.
The season six finale is where it went downhill for me. All of the sudden this amazingly strong and poignant character was being taken for granted, mocked even. And we’re not even going to get started on that botched wedding. I mean, what a disaster. Let’s push it like crazy, get the fans all excited about it, and then throw it back in their faces.
Really, the show never worked for me again after that. Gone was the sexy banter, the great cases that you could really get invested in, the continuity throughout the seasons, and the badass Kate Beckett that we had come to love so much. All of that was replaced with confusing Castle-centric storylines, Castle constantly making a fool of himself, and awkward – even cheesy – Caskett “romantic” scenes. Beckett was left to be the one to clean up the mess that Castle left behind. None of it worked, at all.
I’m not sure why, but I kept watching. I guess I hoped it would get better. Hoped that maybe, just maybe, it could claw its way back to its former greatness. But I was wrong, so very wrong. This week it was announced that ABC, in an attempt to cut costs, decided not to renew Stana Katic’s contract. Somehow, they seem to believe that the show could continue without her.
Beckett made this show. Sure, Castle played a pretty big role in it as well, but without Beckett there would have been, and now will be, no show. Without that damaged badass female lead and the amazing chemistry and relationship that developed between her and Castle over the years, there would have been no show.
Who in their right mind would want to watch a show with just Castle in it? All there is to the show without Beckett is an immature writer, bouncing around places that he doesn’t belong. It’s not even funny anymore. It’s just silly.
All I can hope for now is that ABC decides to end the show and the writers can bring it to a proper ending. An ending with a little dignity. Because Kate Beckett deserves that. The fans deserve that.
concluded on next page…
Joy D’Angelo: I never watched FIREFLY. In fact, I’d never heard of it until I’d been watching CASTLE for a while. It was the summer of 2010 and the first CASTLE episode I saw was “The Mistress Always Spanks Twice.” I laughed, a lot. Richard Castle was a fun, charming, smart, but slightly inept, metrosexual guy, and Kate Beckett… was pretty much everything I wished I could be. She was smart, athletic, fun, sassy, sexy – yet restrained, compassionate – and she clearly had the hots for Castle, even though she wouldn’t admit it. The second episode I saw was “Suckerpunch.” Even though I’m straight, that’s when I fell for Kate Beckett. This show was different because no one was rescuing Kate Beckett. I hadn’t been so into a character since Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
I proceeded to get the first season on DVD and watched seasons one and two so that I’d be ready for season three. I still had no idea who these actors were. But then CASTLE went to Comic Con! I was all over those Comic Con interviews, because, well, like most people I was hoping someone would let something slip about Castle and Beckett.
Instead, I got quite impressed with Stana Katic. She was light, and fun, but… really smart. It came out when she’d start to talk about the construction of her character’s thoughts and how that fit into what was going on with the show.
The more I read up on Katic, the more interesting she became. Like, how many languages did she speak? Four, five…? And what was up with this “Alternative Travel Project” thing I was hearing about? I admired her for framing things in a way that would encourage people to take small steps towards cutting back on car use and seeing how those little things would make a difference. She was also doing charity work with the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. This was a woman who was talented, beautiful, and whom in every interview seemed to be intent on listening to each question and thoughtful in her answers. When she talked about working as an actress or old movies, you could tell she had a real passion for the work she did, but she also talked about things like going to India to be reminded of what really mattered in life.
I suppose I’m making these comments about Katic, because I love the work she does as Beckett on Castle, but I also admire the actress herself. Beckett’s journey was, of course, crafted by Andrew Marlowe (I won’t discuss season eight, because Marlowe had nothing to do with the total disregard for Beckett’s character arc that’s occurred) but Katic brought the character to life in a way that made Kate feel like a real person. When she breaks down in the therapist’s office, and says, “I want to be more than who I am” – you know that place she’s talking about. It’s a moment of raw vulnerability that I think everyone has felt at one time or another – but perhaps has never been able to express so clearly. Katic, as Kate Beckett, did that and drew the viewer both into Beckett’s pain – while shining a light on our own hidden thoughts.
ABC may think the show can carry on without Kate Beckett but, from where I stand, without Kate Beckett there’s no point to the show. A writer and his muse…the muse is the inspiration. Without Beckett there’s nothing inspiring about ABC’s CASTLE.