History YMMV / Dexter

** Julie Ann Emery guest stars in one episode in Season 3, and would go on to have fairly prominent roles in ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' and ''Series/{{Preacher}}'' the following decade.

** Anything involving Dexter ending the series as a [[spoiler:lumberjack]]. Especially the [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Monty Python]] song.

** Michael C. Hall's character on ''Series/SixFeetUnder'' was exactly the same nice guy/control freak persona as Dexter (minus secretly being a serial killer), and was in a complicated on-off gay relationship with a tough black cop (who was bald and had a mustache). Now, try not to see the dynamic between Dexter and Doakes as one enormous mountain of HoYay.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: The plot of the fourth book revolves around the antagonists' efforts at art with dead bodies.

** [=LaGuerta=] is easily the most hated character in the main cast, and it's hard to find fans who actually like her. She has little to no redeeming qualities and only gets worse over the years, even losing her few likable traits from the early seasons. She manages to combine a willingness to [[ManipulativeBitch screw over her own colleagues]] for the sake of her career with an [[NeverMyFault absolute refusal to take responsibility for her own actions]], while not even being particularly competent at her job to make up for it. Even if she's portrayed as a HeroAntagonist in her last season and Debra killing her is considered Debra's MoralEventHorizon, many see [=LaGuerta=]'s death as a TakeThatScrappy.

* AssPull: Dr. Vogel's involvement in Dexter's development into a killer. Until the Eighth Season, there was no mention of anyone having any part in training Dexter besides Harry, and the Code of Harry was never meant to be psychologically accurate, but the desperate attempts of a cop trying to control his adopted son. Which is why many fans believed that had Dexter been given ''actual'' treatment, [[AllForNothing he would have been relatively normal]]. It seems that Vogel was introduced to completely dismiss all questions about whether the Code was really necessary for Dexter, and to remove any moral ambiguity about Harry's actions.
* AudienceAlienatingEnding: Even years after the final season concluded, you can still find people warning newbies who've just started to stop at Season 4. Plenty follow the advice, if they even start the watch the show at all because of the ending backlash.

** Lumen. The fans that can't stand her believe she's a [[FlatCharacter flat]] ReplacementGoldfish for Rita who is [[{{Wangst}} annoying and whiny]], constantly shouting about getting revenge on her rapists at all costs, and for doing things without thinking them through. The fans that love her however find her a sympathetic WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds and see her as the ideal woman for Dexter who relates to him and actually understands and accepts him in a way that Rita definitely would not have.
** Some fans love Rita for being a NiceGirl and they think she has good chemistry with Dexter. Others don't like her because (after the first season) she goes from TheWoobie and a BrokenBird to a clingy and annoying girlfriend to Dexter, especially in season 4 where she acts like the typical nagging wife.

** [[Series/BetterCallSaul Julie Ann Emery]] in Season 3.

* ''JerksAreWorseThanVillains'': This show is filled with various serial killers, rapists and other murderers, and yet even though Rankin is not a killer himself and he had less than five minutes of screentime, [[HateSink you hate this guy]] more being an [[JerkAss unpleasant asshole]] who mouths off to Dexter and [[KickTheDog rudely mocks his recently dead wife,]] which [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLYb6XLXuBs finally]] causes Dexter to [[AssholeVictim attack and kill him.]]

** [=LaGuerta=] is easily the most hated character in the main cast, and it's hard to find fans who actually like her. She has little to no redeeming qualities and only gets worse over the years, even losing her few likable traits from the early seasons. Even if she's portrayed as a HeroAntagonist in her last season and Debra killing her is considered Debra's MoralEventHorizon, many see [=LaGuerta=]'s death as a TakeThatScrappy.

** A minor one with the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series, of all things. Some fans accuse it of being indirectly responsible for the downturn in this show's quality after Season 4, as a result of Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote many of the show's most acclaimed episodes and is the person who just about every fan will agree should have succeeded initial showrunner Clyde Phillips for Season 5, quitting ''Dexter'' to focus on writing the ''Twilight'' film sequels.

** "You're sorry? Well, you can take your sorry, and '''shove it up your''' '''''AAASSSSS!!!!!'''''" Partly thanks to Creator/Cs188 using the last part in some of his [[WebAnimation/YouTubePoop YouTube Poops]].

* ''JerksAreWorseThanVillains'': This show is filled with various serial killers, rapists and other murderers, and yet even though Rankin is not a killer himself and he had less than five minutes of screentime, [[HateSink you hate this guy]] more being an [[JerkAss unpleasant asshole]] who mouths off to Dexter and [[KickTheDog rudely mocks his recently dead wife,]] which finally causes Dexter to [[AssholeVictim attack and kill him.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** Some of their uses of real-life Miami locations are just plain '''wrong'''. A particularly egregious example is when a villain is noted to have had a rich upbringing, demonstrated by going to a Westland Prep School in Hialeah. Nevermind the fact that Hialeah has no prep schools and that it's a low-to-mid income city, and that they've somehow confused Westland High School (which is in Hialeah, Florida) with Westland School in Los Angeles (which is a prep school), but Westland High School was founded in 2007, making it completely impossible for a middle aged man to be an alumni of it. Sure, most non-Floridians wouldn't even notice, but all of Miami facepalmed when that sentence was uttered.
** Season 5 sees a string of murders committed by members of a cult known as Santa Muerte. In RealLife, Santa Muerte is not the name of a cult, but the name of a saint revered by some members of the Mexican drug cartel for secrecy and wealth. Additionally, the cult members in this season are Venezuelan, whereas the "real" Santa Muerte doesn't see much reverence anywhere beyond Mexico and its borders. Further cementing this ignorance, Lauren Veléz said [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-b86dmCpZk&t= in an interview that her worship is a form of Santeria]], which is an Afro-Carribean centric religion with absolutely no roots in Spanish culture.
** [[Literature/BookOfRevelation The Beast]] and {{Satan}} are referred to as the same being in season 6. A simple look reading of Revelation will show this to be completely false. The Beast was simply a being — often equated with TheAntichrist — given permission by Satan to rule over the Earth for 42 months, and apart from having seven heads, its appearance is vastly different.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: He's said to be sociopathic, but he is far too restrained and can calculate too well into the future to be one. He was never diagnosed as such, as he deliberately messed with the diagnosis under Harry's request which leaves us with yet inexplicable violent urges and lack of ability to socialize and feel empathy. Overall, the safest diagnosis for him is a psychopath. Still, even that doesn't fit him entirely, since he shows fear multiple times and feels some sense of remorse for hurting innocent people, accidentally or otherwise.
** Some fans consider him to be a blend of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoid_personality_disorder#The_.27secret_schizoid.27 "covert" or "secret" schizoid]] and a really malignant case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, due to his loner tendencies and the unusually obsessive nature of his homicidal impulses. It's technically possible that he has both schizoid personality disorder and psychopathy though, seeing as how many convicted serial killers meet the diagnostic criteria for both.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: The entire Dexter/Hannah arc, but ''especially'' Dexter's ImagineSpot where he envisions himself and Hannah at an old age (i.e. with gray hair and very little makeup applied), with Harrison all grown up. It stands as probably the most disgustingly sappy scenes in the entire series.

* MoralEventHorizon: Lila, in an attempt to get Dexter back, roofies herself and frames Batista for date rape after they had rough sex. When Lila is asked why, all she has to say is "Because I am your soulmate, not Rita, ME."

* DesignatedHero: Dexter in the later seasons, especially 6 and 8. While the earlier seasons portray him as a morally dark-grey AntiHero, the later ones practically make Dexter a paladin by rationalizing and justifying his every action, no matter how [[MoralDissonance immoral]] or [[IdiotBall stupid]].