Castle Season 7

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

I got hooked on this show a few months ago. Kind of goofy, but still a good crime drama with romantic tension in the air. What more can you ask?

I tend to be a TV snob, watching mostly documentaries and movies that have some artistic or social quality. That doesn’t mean I’m too good for some basic, fun to watch entertainment, and this does the job. Castle’s character is a successful millionaire, but just goofy and vulnerable enough, plus ok looking but not over the top good looking to keep him from seeming somewhat believable. Beckett’s character is so good looking, confident, and successful that it’s hard to imagine her ever seeing anything in Castle, but the chemistry is undeniable and they use that to tease the viewer into coming back episode after episode and season after season.

The plots are, for the most part, original and refreshing, but far enough from reality that you have to just go along and stop reminding yourself that these things would never happen in real life and that nobody would survive the predicaments that confront the characters on each episode. I am former law enforcement and know that none of the things on this should would ever happen, but again … I don’t care. Sometimes you just need to escape reality for an hour or two.

One of the real surprises for me has been Susan Sullivan. After watching her as the uptight Kitty Montgomery on Dharma and Greg, I couldn’t have imagined her playing any other character. In Castle, she plays Martha – Castle’s whacky mother, who is an over-the-top, past her prime actress, with a multitude of character flaws, but who is nonetheless lovable.

-BKW

Character development has progressed well in season 7. Love affair between the two has finally matured beyond the teasing and petulance of early scripts. Cast harmony and balance provide much more convincing depth to the story lines, punctuated by more believable and fresher humor delivery. Castle’s behavior has out grown some of the previous sillyness. It is time for him to “man-up” a bit. Hopefully the plots will include a family development theme to build some authenticity into scripts.

-Bob Proctor

++Warning++ this contains spoilers from the previous seasons, but no major giveaways from season 7. If you have not seen the prior seasons proceed skip the first couple paragraphs.

The show continues the same formula that it has had really from the beginning, case-of-the-week, with larger storylines intertwined every so often. The season picks up right after the events that ended Season 6, with Beckett coming from the wedding seeing Castle’s car burning at the side of the road. Then jumps forward a couple months when they finally locate Castle. One of the big story lines throughout the season is the discovery of where Castle was and what he was doing. He cannot remember anything from the time he was run off the road until he is found.

The season also resolves the 3xK story line with the reveal that 3xK was not killed on the bridge when Castle shot him, and make for a great set of episodes in the two-part mid-season episodes. As for the stand-alone episodes the best ones, in my opinion, was the It’s a Wonderful Life spoof when Castle gets to see what life would have been like if he and Beckett never met, and the episode where Castle and Alexis have to solve a murder on a plane trip to London.

Given that the characters are firmly established now, there is little character development this season. Like with the past seasons almost every character is given a chance to be in the spotlight in at least one episode. The exception was probably Penny Johnson Gerald who was still the aloof captain in the background and she was really underutilized. She did a great job in the few moments her character did get a chance to have a little more of the limelight.

For those who get the discs, for extras there are deleted scenes for a handful of episodes, and a commentary track on the 3xK conclusion episode. On the final disc there is a gag-reel, a featurette on the extras who get to be the cops in the background of the show, and a music video made by Esposito and Ryan, (as it is revealed that they are the winners of the annual talent competition for 3 years running). Not a ton of material, but good for what is there.

If you are a fan of the show, this season will be much of the same. It may be getting a little stale to some, but I think the writers keep it fresh enough to keep it interesting. Unlike other shows where the main characters enter a romantic relationship there is really no tease at breaking them up or creating tension, but the writers still manage to keep the relationship fresh. It is definitely worth adding to your collection if you are a fan of the series. If you are looking to check the series out, I would not start with this because even though the episodes are mainly self-contained it relies on enough back-story that you need to have an idea of what came before to follow everything.

– Mike S

DVD Wholesale Main Features :   

Actors: Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Seamus Dever, Jon Huertas, Tamala Jones
Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: French, Spanish, English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. )
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 5
Studio: Walt Disney Studios
DVD Release Date: September 1, 2015
Run Time: 982 minutes