Castle: Sometimes Publicity *is* Bad Publicity

If you’re a fan of Castle and you don’t live under a rock, you’ve known for a bit now that Stana Katic and Tamala Jones – two of the original cast members and integral parts of the show – will not be returning if the show is renewed for another season. The official reason for their departure is “budget cuts”, but I’m guessing we’ll never know if that’s truly the case or not. I’m choosing to believe ABC is simply clueless to the importance of these two women and wants to keep the Male 18-34 Demo, but I’m probably being naïve.

Nice Girls TV, being a site that highlights strong female presences on (and behind the scenes of) television, sees the writing on the wall at Castle. With the ouster of Katic and Jones, that leaves Susan Sullivan, Molly O’Quinn, and Toks Olagundoye (if she’s invited back). And no offense to those ladies, but none of them have roles that come close to rivaling that of Katic.

The impact of this “budgetary” decision goes beyond losing beloved cast members – it seems to fall in line with a disturbing trend to remove women from the show. Last season, we lost Penny Johnson Jerald and Maya Stojan, now we’re losing Katic and Jones. Whether deliberate or not, the message here seems to be that the women in Castle’s life are disposable.

With the news about Katic and Jones not being invited back came a massive backlash from fans and critics alike. There’s nobody applauding this decision, which is saying something. With any huge shake-up, there’s usually sides taken, and in this case, that just isn’t true. Neutrality is as close to “on the Network’s side” as I’ve seen. And that’s definitely NOT on the network’s side.

Two fan-driven movements have popped up on social media, both of them unique in the annals of TV fandom.

One of them is the #SaveCaskett campaign. They’re asking people to send coffee sleeves – because coffee is a touchstone in the Beckett/Castle relationship – to the ABC execs to let them know Caskett deserves a happy ending. They simply want the pair to have a happily ever after, which is what the show should’ve been about – the love story between Rick and Kate.

The second, and more unprecedented, movement is #CancelCastle. These viewers would rather see the show cancelled than have it go on without the women that have been discarded from the lineup. I don’t remember a fandom ever campaigning for a show to be pulled from the air rather than be kept on for another season. Again, this should send ABC a message – if they’re even listening at this point.

One of the main things I want to say in this article is that we need to keep a level head. The two referenced social media campaigns are respectful and polite, and if there’s any chance of being heard, they’d be the ones to do it. We also need to keep in mind that the livelihoods of many people will be impacted by whatever move the studio makes as well.

Threatening cast, crew, showrunners, writers, executives or even other fans will NOT get anyone anywhere. It doesn’t seem to be happening much anymore, now that the initial shock has worn off, but the day the story broke seemed to bring out a lot of anger. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, lashing out in anger never gets people to listen to your opinion. In fact, it’s usually the opposite.

So, in summation, I think time will tell what kinds of lessons will be learned or not learned from a misstep of this magnitude. Right now tensions and feelings are running high – but in the long run – it is just a TV show, and our lives will go on, perhaps with a slightly worse taste in our mouths, but they will go on.