DVD Review: Castle: The Complete Fifth Season

The fifth season of Castle hits DVD today with a set containing all 24 episodes of Season 5. The ABC series, which stars Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, has a huge fan base that should definitely enjoy reliving the fifth season, as Castle and Beckett have finally given in to their feelings for one another. What can you expect to find within? Here’s our review.

The Episodes: What I love about Castle is that it is a show that, despite having some ongoing storylines, you can tune in to at almost any time and still “get it.” It’s a lot more like the TV that I grew up with in that way. Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic are likeable leads which also help the process. It’s part procedural, part mystery, part romance… it’s a good mix for male and female audiences. Nathan Fillion as a series lead, especially, is charming enough to win the women but cool enough that male audiences would want to hang out with him, making him one of the most likable leads in series television.

The notion that we get 24 episodes — which is two more than most series give us — means that marathonning this one should be fun.

The Extras: This is where I have to be a little bit critical. Fortunately, there are a number of extras, but some didn’t really work for me, to be honest.

“Martha’s Master Class,” featuring Susan Sullivan as Castle’s mother, felt like a joke that I just wasn’t in on, and I admit I kind of started dozing off because I was that little invested. (Sorry!) A feature called “Lot Cops” – which was meant to show Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas training for authentic cop situations – was [surely purposely] a farce, but it came off as silly and disrespectful, even though I’m sure the actors aren’t like that in every day life and that most of that was scripted or pre-planned. To see what kind of training they actually go through would have been far more interesting to me.

And speaking of interesting… all negativity is made up for with a fantastic feature called “Your Home Is Your Castle,” where interior designer Vern Yip takes a look at Castle’s penthouse and Beckett’s loft, and the architecture and design within. This is a really fascinating feature — a lot of it because those sets are amazing, but a lot of it also because you see what planning goes into it all. There was some camera flicker on some patterns in Castle’s penthouse, but I guess that is to be expected with whatever cameras they were using. No matter what, though, this was by far one of my favorite DVD features on any set.

Since the packaging doesn’t reveal what commentaries are on the set (more on that below), I had to take to Google to know what to look for. One is “The Final Frontier” with Nathan Fillion, director Jonathan Frakes, and costume designer Luke Reichle, and that is probably the one I will tackle and watch first, because Fillion is hilarious and Frakes is, of course, a favorite from his Star Trek days. We’ve also got “Target” with Molly Quinn, Susan Sullivan, executive producer/writer David Amann and director Bill Roe; “Hunt” with executive producer/writer Andrew W. Marlowe, and director Rob Bowman, Nathan Fillion, and Molly Quinn. The 100th episode “The Lives Of Others” gets commentary, too, with Andrew W. Marlowe, Terri Edda Miller, editor Marta Evry, and composer Robert Duncan.

There are deleted scenes and bloopers, which of course give people an idea of what sometimes goes on set, so that’s fun.

Graphics & Sound: Even though Castle is on DVD and not Blu-ray, it looks really good. It implies to me that there still is life in the DVD format, if the studios are willing to go the extra mile to make it look as clean as possible. Sound is good, too. The only issue I had with either thing, I mentioned before… the whole bit about the flickering on the extras, which was more of a camera thing than anything.

The Packaging: Now, this I liked even less than that “Martha’s Master Class” thing, because at least that had Susan Sullivan who I enjoy. I don’t know if it is because my copy came with some sample Castle trading cards within or what, but the package was immediately protruding, and when I opened it, part of the top of the case cracked off. The cover artwork is somewhat generic, as are the menus. The disc art, however, looks really nice.

But what REALLY bugged me is that at no point, anywhere, does it say what features are on which disc. It’s safe to assume (and I assumed correctly) that most of the features would be on Disc Five, but without Google or going through every individual disc, I couldn’t tell you which episodes have deleted scenes or commentary, off hand, because that information isn’t listed anywhere.

Is It Worth It? As I mentioned, Castle is a show that you can always pop in for a pick-me-up. It’s a great series that I really wish I took the time to watch every week, and thanks to DVD, I can now get caught up.

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