Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) recovers from being shot while the police squad deals with a new commander, Captain Gates (Penny Johnson Jerald).   Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett take new cases together as a team while Captain Gates wonders if Beckett would be better off without Castle.    Meanwhile, Castle and Beckett dig deeper into the conspiracy surrounding the death of her mother.   The cases this season range from Castle and Beckett being handcuffed together, get involved with the CIA (for the two-part PANDORA/ LINCHPIN), Castle dressing up as Elvis, and meet zombies.   The fourth season features a little nod to Fillion’s favorite show, FIREFLY, as one of his co-stars from that series plays a dangerous rogue detective (Adam Baldwin as Detective Ethan Slaughter).   The series continues to develop the characters while pushing the personal character arcs in what continues to be one of the most fun TV series on air and DVD.  The show manages to pull out new interesting cases with each season.  I can’t wait to see how they resolve and go on from the end of season 4 as the relationship between Castle and Beckett takes another turn.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentaries-

Disc 1 – Rise with Executive Producer Rob Bowman and cast members Jon Huertas, Tamala Jones, and Seamus Dever.

Disc 2 – Cuffed with Executive Producer & Writer Andrew Marlowe & Writer Terri Miller, Cast members Nthan FIllion and Stana Katic.

Disc 3 – The Blue Butterfly with Writer Terence Paul Winter, Costume Designer Luke Reichle, Actors Susan Sullivan, Tamala Jones and Molly Quinn.

 

Deleted Scenes for Dial M For Murder, Linchpin, A Dance with Death, Headhunters, and Always

 

The blooper reel has fluffed lines, swearing, and general goofiness on set

 

FILLION AND FRIENDS: CASTLE GOES RADIO- Fillion, his TV daughter, and others participate in a radio play done as a podcast in front of a live audience.  A behind-the-scenes featurette kicks things off before showing video of two podcasts.

SUBMERGED: AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT STUNTS- an extensive behind-the-scenes look at the various elements that went into filming a car crash into the bay and having a car interior slowly fill with water for an episode of CASTLE

BOWMAN, BOWMAN & CASTLE- Executive Producer Rob Bowman and his father Chuck Bowman talk about their careers and work methods as Rob called his father to direct THE BLUE BUTTERFLY episode.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  CASTLE continues to be a fun mystery crime series with Nathan Fillion bringing his A game to a fun character.   The deleted scenes and featurettes are fun to watch.  I do wish they release this show to Blu-ray.

 

This DVD review is (c)9-14-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com