I used to truly enjoy the campy mysterious goodness of “Castle.” Or, to be more precise, I used to truly enjoy the campy mysterious goodness of Nathan Fillion in “Castle,” because the mysteries themselves weren’t all that tricky. It wasn’t difficult to spot the killer in the first 15 minutes, which made for pretty stress-free viewing.

The thing that made “Castle” fun to watch was the interaction between mystery writer Richard Castle and cop extraordinaire, Kate Beckett. Their romance was really the engine of the show; the rest was standard procedural fare, populated with fun characters you didn’t mind inviting to your house once a week.

In summary, “Castle” wasn’t exactly enlightened viewing. It’s no “12 Monkeys,” for example.

So when I read that Stana Katic — the actor behind Beckett — was out for a possible season 9, I was disappointed. And then more so when I heard Tamala Jones, who plays a snarky medical examiner, was also out.

The two major female characters were cut from the show.

I’ve always loved Nathan Fillion, a) because I am a straight human female, and b) because he has always exuded the effortless, humor-packed charm of a man who has a highly-functioning brain, which is also appealing.

But all of that vanished when this show, reportedly due to conflict between the stars, dropped not only the female lead, but the second most-prominent female character as well.

Was a unique character like Beckett simply disposable? Replaceable?  After eight years?

I literally stopped watching the show as soon as the news broke. I’d loved that this strong, intelligent, brave detective-turned-captain was an equal partner to the crime novelist. But by firing her, and the only other major female actor, the show told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was wrong.

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