The complete eighth and final season of Castle hits DVD tomorrow (August 22). The five-disc set contains all 22 episodes of Season 8 and a handful of extras, bringing the story of Richard Castle and Kate Beckett to a conclusion. What’s the set like? Here’s our review.
The Episodes: As mentioned, all 22 episodes of Castle’s final season are included here, with the LokSat storyline coming to a head. Obviously, the set includes the show’s series finale, which had some odd pacing though I was kind of glad the show ended where it did – the notion of the show continuing without key components was weird. Ultimately, Castle was a fairly unique show for the 21st century: Despite continuing stories like the LokSat thing, there was a lot of good procedural material with fun lead characters and a great cast. I don’t think ABC has anything to take its place, but I’m glad they’re not continuing with a half-hearted version.
The Extras: The main “extra” on this DVD is a cringeworthy feature called “The Great Escape” where most of the cast “solves a mystery” in a room. Stana Katic is noticeably absent, and it’s so staged and cheesy that it might be worse than some of those things they put on the Once Upon A Time sets sometimes. If you’re a huge fan of the cast, maybe you’ll like it, but it seems like a waste of time and resources, especially when, say, interviews with producers or cast about the show’s conclusion would have been much more satisfying. Eight years is an impressive run; celebrate that!
There are some audio commentaries, including one reuniting Nathan Fillion with his Firefly co-star Adam Baldwin. Bloopers and deleted scenes are also present on this set.
The Packaging: Castle DVD sets have rarely been that impressive with their packaging and design, and this time is no exception, having fairly generic artwork of Rick and Kate on the cover.
Is It Worth It? None of the extras are all that great, but if you want to have all 22 episodes handy, it might be worth it. Otherwise, wait for TNT repeats, where Castle repeats are always on, or for the show to land on Netflix if it hasn’t already. For a final season box set I was fairly disappointed. There are some fun episodes, though.
