Castle (TV Series) The Lives of Others (2013) User Reviews

Good one

[Sumu_Deo · 9/10 · 25 June 2021]

Okay this really was a very good episode, they kept you guessing till the end and it pretty much panned out. I had low hopes that the episodes would get interesting especially after the 17th one, but this seemed an enjoyable one. Also Castle and Beckett's relationship was given some more screen time which was good to watch.

Outstanding

[lewismom-59557 · 10/10 · 24 January 2022]

Keeps you guessing, and everything ties up neatly in the end. A brilliant homage to the classic "Rear Window," with lots of humor too. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Rear Window

[kols · 10/10 · 4 April 2013]

Is not a favorite of mine - few of Hitchcock's post-war films are. Just "to Catch a Thief" and "North by Northwest" and even those suffer from what I consider toxic audience manipulation and mannerism.

So, as I suffered through this episode just to see how faithful it was to "Rear Window", which it was, with Beckett and Alexis sharing Grace Kelly's role while Castle himself did a good job with Jimmy Stewart's, I was constantly reminded of why I dislike Hitchcock's version so much. Kept having to keep reminding myself I was watching voluntarily, they did such a good job with their source.

And then Wham! Kate with a knife to her neck, the lights going out and Castle hobbling to the rescue. Identical to Hitchcock's manipulation of his audience and Wham! The ending.

Giving a ten partially for its Homage to "Rear Window", including the outrageous audience manipulation, but mainly for the Wham! and will spoil that by warning: if you have a heart condition have your nitroglycerin handy.

Nice Surprise Ending

[tles7 · 8/10 · 25 September 2020]

I love the ending but it would have been even better if you see how the conspirators explained their moves....how they interacted to make the surprise work.

Yeah, It's fun but it doesn't make much sense

[kofila · 4/10 · 24 February 2021]

This episode is just nonsense. Both the Castle fake murder plot and the Beckett real murder plot don't make sense. It is enjoyable but there are major plot holes if you think about it. The rear window case relies on Castle watching the apartment at certain points and he does exactly that. Each time he grabs the binocolars something essential happens and he sees everything important. How unreal would it be to stage it exactly this way? Later he decides to go to the apartment to investigate and has his daughter watches for the perp and warns Castle when he's coming back but she watches the apartment hallway instead of the street (which is dumb) so when she sees him it is already sooo late for Castle to get out that he has to hide under bed which then seems to be a part of the whole plan of the gang but what if the assumed perp caught Castle sniffing around his place? Yeah.. All this aside how expensive would this be exactly? Hiring actors, renting the murder apartment, furnishing it, renting a storage unit.. Oh and what if someone else instead of Castle watched the apartment and called police? So half-baked.... Now to Beckett's case.. The real murder was so overcomplicated yet very dumb. The whole plan of the killer revolves around tampered video recording of the murder which actually happened another time. It is revealed that the recording was made by the killer in cooperation with the lady security guard. But the very first scene concerning this case shows us there are two security guards watching the cameras so at least one other person would have had to know about this. First the real murder occurs and during that time the security guards have to let it go then erase the footage and later place the fake recording over the live footage which seems impossible to accomplish with the other guard around, right? Also pathologists usually determine the time of death with an astonishing accuracy which in this case didn't happen for some reason... So yeah.. It made me rather disgruntled..