Why Castle and Beckett Should Never Hook Up

Castle is ABC's hit mystery show. It follows Rick Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, who is a best selling crime novelist. After killing off his most popular character he was stuck for something new. Then he found his muse: Detective Kate Beckett, played by Stana Katic. She's a no nonsense and skilled part of NYPD's homicide department and she has little use for a grating personality like Castle. However Castle has a few choice connections that has put him in a position to be able to shadow Beckett on her cases and base his newest novel's on her. The show is in it's third season and the banter between the two has always been a great mix between irritation and flirtation. However every now and then the writers hint that they might take that relationship to the next level, and that would be a terrible thing.

There have been a number of episodes of Castle in which either Castle or Beckett has been noticeably jealous when the other had a potential significant other. Naturally given their respective prides neither would admit this to the other, they probably barely even admit it to themselves. However there is a general feeling that the minds behind the show might want these two to finally admit their feelings for each other and become a couple. It's something that comes up from time to time in the form of longing looks and more than just partnerly concern. To be fair these have been going on since the end of the first season and they haven't been matched up yet. But every instance brings the two one step closer to changing their relationship, and the show, forever.

There's an inherent problem with having any bickering pair actually turned into a couple, and that is the release of all the tension. Fillion and Katic have a great chemistry built up a carefully constructed sexual tension. As if often the case in these shows that tension is coming out of the fact that they are always irritating each other. In the real world they probably would truly just hate each other but in entertainment that constant fighting is an amped up form of flirting. The sexual tension is thick and if it came to them hooking up, or even just kissing, all of that tension would be released and it could never be recaptured again. To release that tension is to irrevocably change the fundamental relationship at the heart of the show.

It's always been the natural inclination of TV writers to have any pair of male and female characters that have any kind of chemistry get together sooner or later. However the results once the pair are actually matched up are never as enjoyable as when they're still flirting/fighting. Any attempt to keep a show going after a main character hook up has one of two results. The first is that they remain a happy couple and make it work, however this results in them becoming boring to watch. The alternative is to keep the bickering going which will, given enough time, mean that they have to break up because it's clearly not working. This is usually the option writers go for to try to recapture the magic that was lost when the two were made a couple. However since they're now exes it can't ever be the same again.

There's another reason these two should never be made into a couple: it would suddenly be a "couple" show rather than a "partner" show. It sounds like a minor distinction but it's a vital one. Right now the show has struck an ideal balance between the interplay between the characters and the mystery at the center of any given episode. It's very important that there's just enough character work to keep the characters fun and believable but at the same time the mystery is given enough room to be interesting in and of itself. If Beckett and Castle were a couple the show would be forced to spend more time focusing on the ins and outs of their relationship. This would mean that the clever mysteries and the colorful characters that come with them would be swept to the side. Cases would become less complex and more run of the mill to allow extra time to be taken up with generic "relationship" scenes. The show currently has a wonderful balance of light mystery fun and flirty comedy, to tip it too far in one direction or the other could derail the entire thing.