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Mullon Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
#451: Sep 16th 2013 at 9:44:17 PM

The last season is a car wreck of monumental proportions. Every episode is just another car slamming into the pile. Soon it will be dead and all anyone will remember is how awful it was at the end, which is what it deserves.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.
Nithael Since: Jan, 2001
#452: Sep 17th 2013 at 11:43:27 AM

There are a hundred things wrong with this season, but the most unbelievable is that the writers really have no balls. This is the last season of the show ever, you could have anything happen; someone revealing Dexter's secrets to the world, him having to flee while all his coworkers go after him, having to choose between killing his former friends or being sent to the chair, maybe while some crazy villains target him and his family...

It could have been Breaking Bad's last season. Instead Dexter is redeemed by The Power of Love, Masuka has a daughter who smokes pot, some useless characters have sex, and a bunch of characters introduced this season die.

TommyFresh Since: Aug, 2013
#453: Sep 17th 2013 at 1:55:20 PM

This is pretty much the most anticlimactic way to end the series. I also really hate how the writers are trying to whitewash Dexter, Hannah, and Deb. It`s like the writers forgot they were murderers.

Mullon Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
#454: Sep 23rd 2013 at 7:39:44 AM

And that was "How Not to End a Series Properly". Tune in next week for "How to End a Series Properly".

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.
JOZeldenrust Since: Jul, 2010
#455: Sep 24th 2013 at 5:19:26 AM

That was totally awful. The flashbacks with Deb to Harrisons birth looked and sounded terrible, the last fifteen minutes could be summed up as "all that character development Dexter went through, yeah, that didn't really happen," and killing off Deb in the final episode leaves no room to explore the consequences. Still, given how bad this final season was, I'm pretty glad it's over. I would've liked to see the series die with some shred of dignity, but at least it's out of its misery now.

Nithael Since: Jan, 2001
#456: Sep 24th 2013 at 11:35:45 AM

Well that was definitely one of the worst ending I've ever seen. Not that the rest of the season was any good, but this was awful, and not even in an interesting way.

Firestorm Nudist Snake from Just Chillin Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Noddin' my head like yeah
Nudist Snake
#457: Sep 24th 2013 at 6:09:55 PM

hahahaha what, Lumberjack!Dexter, what were they just, hahahahahaha.

Seriously, Miami Metro never finds out the truth about Dexter, like, fuck. I can't get over that, like, "Dexter's friends and co-workers finding out his dark secret? BOOOOOORING! Now a story about Masuka and his daughter having wacky family problems? GOLD!"

Fuck you Dexter writers, bow in shame to Vince Gilligan and his crew.

TommyFresh Since: Aug, 2013
#458: Sep 24th 2013 at 6:39:28 PM

[up] Apparently the writers thought that would be too "predictable". Ya know because this season was soooo original. Even if Miami Metro finding out about Dexter would be somewhat predictable, it might actually have been satisfying. It actually would involve characters we knew and had some attachment for.

Firestorm Nudist Snake from Just Chillin Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Noddin' my head like yeah
Nudist Snake
#459: Sep 24th 2013 at 7:44:54 PM

Hahaha, they seriously said that? I mean, if your main character has a Dark Secret, the rule of drama dictates that he will be found out, it might be "predictable", but it's logical story telling.

TommyFresh Since: Aug, 2013
#460: Sep 25th 2013 at 6:33:05 PM

Here's the interview:[1]. Other highlights include them saying Hannah wearing sunglasses was a good enough disguise, saying Hannah is a good person because she only kills out of self interest, and Dexter escaping a hurricane on a dinky lifeboat.

FOFD Since: Apr, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishing you were here
#461: Oct 2nd 2013 at 6:26:29 PM

[up] (x7)

In the end, he's so twisted up now he doesn't even have a monologue to close the episode with, and he's outright abandoned his family. I wouldn't call that "redeemed".

Brian, Miguel, and Arthur each reminded Dexter that he can't have a family because shit will go terribly wrong. The final shot of the series could easily be Dexter returning to form, just without his self-reflection. He's a lumberjack now, surrounded by an appropriate arsenal for man-slaughter.

edited 2nd Oct '13 6:27:42 PM by FOFD

Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).
VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#462: Apr 17th 2014 at 7:28:47 AM

So I've finished season six right now on Netflix. So far, I'd rate the seasons as 4 > 2 > 1 > 3 > 5 > 6. I liked Dexter's and Debra's Character Development, even if I though the later season faltered a little. I also happen to like Doakes, Masuka and Bastista even if I don't necessarily want to see their personal problems. I hate La Guerta, Magnificent Bastard she happens to be, and Quinn, who I thought was getting better but became a tool as the show went on. The Big Bads are all threatening in their own ways, which Is good. Jordan Chase and The Trinity Killer feel like the most vile, while Lila Tourney and Miguel Prado ended up unique and entertaining to watch without either of them being Serial Killers. I feel like Brian could have stayed a while longer as Dexter's "Dark Passenger" in season 6 however.

Lightysnake Since: May, 2010
#463: Apr 17th 2014 at 8:46:05 AM

One issue I have with La Guerta is the writers never had any idea what to DO with her. She leapfrogs between inconsistent characterization constantly

VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#464: Apr 17th 2014 at 9:35:40 AM

She seemed to go through a Heel–Face Revolving Door without being established as a Heel or a Face first.

dexterian120 from Chicago, USA Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: Snogging Lavender Brown
#465: Aug 16th 2014 at 12:17:55 PM

Yes, exactly what somebody said above about La Guerta. Is she a petty bitch? Cold, heartless manipulator? We will never know.

“My loathings are simple. stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music." -Vladimir Nabokov
VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#466: Aug 17th 2014 at 9:43:48 AM

To finish my thoughts on this show:

The first half of season 7 was great, but started to falter when Ray Stevenson left the show. it also introduced Hannah Mc Kay, who in my mind is the catalyst for season 8 being so bad. Season 8 is the worst, but what makes it really bad is the interesting stuff it introduced that is later wasted. Oh and Hannah Mc Kay.

Soble Since: Dec, 2013
#467: Apr 16th 2017 at 6:30:43 PM

I'm going to start rewatching this on Netflix. To celebrate:

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!
Soble Since: Dec, 2013
#468: Jul 13th 2017 at 9:57:19 AM

Ey.

Remember that time Dexter did something weirdly humane and the show completely forgot about it? It always bugged me how they never brought this kid up again.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!
XFllo There is no Planet B from Planet A Since: Aug, 2012
There is no Planet B
#469: Sep 5th 2017 at 3:54:14 PM

This show was once so very, very good. It stings how it ended. Some time ago, I caught the series on on one local channel at night when I wanted to kill some time when I couldn't sleep, but I couldn't bear to watch it. It just was not fun anymore.

I actually stopped being interested somewhere in season 7, and season 8 was just a complete train wreck. I just finished it because I invested so much time in the series and I wanted to have "a closure".

I remember I saw the finale and I vaguely remember what happened (Deb is dead, Dexter is a fookin' lamberjack and he's not okay, his colleagues know nothing, Hannah the murderer is with Dexter's kid in fookin' Argentina, and what the heck happened to Dexter's step-kids?), but strangely I don't remember much what was happening before in the season. It was so painfully bad that I got it out of my head.

My rank of seasons:

  • 2 (The chase of Dexter was the best, and Lundy was the best, and Doakes was the best. Lila was annoying, though.)
  • 1 (The show was something else, so fresh, exciting, I haven't read the books, so the mystery kept me hooked, Dexter's sense of justice was captivating, the death had such great aesthetics, I loved the flashbacks and dream sequences, Dexter's meticulous preparations, how he tried to find cold cases — it was so stupid that he later tried to catch the bad guy the department was chasing as well)
  • 4 (Trinity killer was really menacing. Loved Dexter/Rita and the kids dynamics. Lundy again was great.)
  • 5 (The villains were so disgusting. I liked Lumen. The way she left Dexter was disappointing though.)
  • 6 (The murders were so horifically beautiful — I loved the Biblical imagery and the sense of doom approaching. The plot with the professor being Dead All Along was dumb. And Dexter got so sloppy with his kills. I kinda liked the set up with the intern who was obsessed with serial killers and Dexter. Too bad it didn't go anywhere.)
  • 3 (For some reason, the main serial killer of the season didn't work for me, and I disliked Dexter's "pal" in the season. I thought it was stupid of him to show off his methods like that.)
  • 7 (I had to look up that this was the season when Deb found out about him. I liked the writers had guts to do that. I was very surprised when Deb murdered La Guerta — I didn't see that coming. But I don't remember much more.)
  • 8 (Was this the one with the brain surgeon? I remember being somewhat interested in that. On the other hand, the scientist who was Dexter's "mother", who invented this project for him and his code — that, I really disliked. Hannah was cringeworthy. Debra was pitiable. Others were stupid and/or uninteresting. And the finale— what a fookin' disaster.)

I was disappointed Matthews was not "something" — I read a theory that as Dexter's father's friend and superior from the time when Dexter's biological mother was murdered, he had to remember Dexter's origins and that it was probable he would be onto something and that he might know about Harry's code or Dexter's dark passenger. It would be cool if they explored his character.

I thought that could have more Rita and Brian present after their deaths, similar like they had kept his father. I think in season 1, he was present only in flashbacks, only later he appeared as advising Dexter or commenting his behaviour.

The dream sequences and voices and flashbacks were great in the early seasons. I vividly remember the scene when Dexter dreams or imagines Debra killing him in the way he murders his victims.

Also, I read somewhere that some writers or the team wanted to have Dexter busted. Even though it is a rather predictable ending, I think it would be satisfying to watch. I read somewhere that they imagined a scene when he walks to his execution and in the corridor, he sees all the people he killed, perhaps even those that died because of him — like Rita. There was a scene like this in episode "Beyond the Sea" of The X-Files, and it was extremely powerful. The impact after so many seasons would have been even bigger. What a shame they couldn't do it. Apparently somebody among the producers was against it. Probably because all those years they kept saying that Dexter wouldn't get caught.

Way to ruin an awesome series. It was so, so good at the beginning. The last two seasons were barely decent, though. And the finale — I can't even.

Nithael Since: Jan, 2001
#470: Sep 5th 2017 at 6:24:00 PM

I would put season 1 first but otherwise I agree with pretty much everything you said. I would say though that the writing in general got progressively worse with every season, with the characters and stories getting stupider and stupider until we got to the mess that was the last season.

I think a good sign of this is the role of Dexter's father. In early seasons, Harry showed up in flashbacks that explained something new about Dexter while still being his own character with motivations and flaws. By the time of season 8, he was a cardboard cutout who only appeared to tell Dexter something obvious so that even the most braindead of viewers would understand what was going on. "Dexter, you have to avoid leaving any fingerprints or the police might catch you and throw you to jail because you are secretly a serial killer!"

Also, for a long time I imagined the problems came from producers, but it turns out the writers didn't want to have Dexter been caught because, and I'm completely serious, they believed Dexter was a superhero on a rightful mission to vanquish Evil.

For those who read French, this article explains very well all that went wrong.

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#471: Sep 5th 2017 at 8:39:08 PM

...Man, so what happened, did the writing team come out of the early 2000s with their sense of irony destroyed from overuse? Because the whole point of The Dark Defender is that even someone as tone-deaf to morality and empathy as Dexter can understand that going around murdering people doesn't make you a hero.

As much as their deaths were well-handled, the series really went off the rails without Doakes or Rita around to reinforce the point that what Dexter does isn't workable in the long-term or on any kind of larger scale, that if more people took the law into their own hands in the same way we'd end up living in a kind of nightmare world. The (real) world really lost its ability to see shades of grey somewhere during the last decade. I can't help feeling that the need to portray Dexter as a misunderstood hero as opposed to a sympathetic killer played right into that.

edited 6th Sep '17 6:03:26 PM by Unsung

XFllo There is no Planet B from Planet A Since: Aug, 2012
There is no Planet B
#472: Sep 6th 2017 at 8:32:45 AM

Thank you, guys, for your reactions. I didn't expect anyone to reply, I just wanted to vent my frustration as well as appreciation of the series. It was very cool to read your posts.

Thank you for the link. AV Club reviews are usually very solid, but I didn't read the Dexter ones.

The karmic debt of that plane crash was placed directly at Walter White’s feet, though it was only indirectly his fault, the result of a series of events he put into motion, but not directly attributable to him. Dexter has never done this. Not one time. Not ever. Not after Doakes got incinerated by Dexter’s batshit crazy girlfriend. Not after he accidentally killed an innocent man in season three. Not after finding his son sloshing around in Rita’s blood. Not after Debra shot LaGuerta. Not after the Brain Surgeon killed Cute Cassie What’s-Her-Face and then Zach. None of it is ever Dexter’s fault or his responsibility. There’s no depth, no shading, no remorse, no downtime, no wondering if all of this is worth it.

My thoughts exactly. Sometimes Dexter doubted his actions or if it is really worth it, but it was only in the scope of one episode (like the time when he killed the innocent photographer — I think it was in season 4, not season 3.)

Soble Since: Dec, 2013
#473: Sep 9th 2017 at 8:06:48 PM

Two arguments I would make here:

The karmic debt of that plane crash was placed directly at Walter White’s feet, though it was only indirectly his fault, the result of a series of events he put into motion, but not directly attributable to him. Dexter has never done this. Not one time. Not ever. Not after Doakes got incinerated by Dexter’s batshit crazy girlfriend. Not after he accidentally killed an innocent man in season three. Not after finding his son sloshing around in Rita’s blood. Not after Debra shot La Guerta. Not after the Brain Surgeon killed Cute Cassie What’s-Her-Face and then Zach. None of it is ever Dexter’s fault or his responsibility. There’s no depth, no shading, no remorse, no downtime, no wondering if all of this is worth it.

     

Now to be fair, this backpedals quite a bit.

But A) its both Crowning Moment Of Funny and a Tear Jerker, and B) it's kind of the point. Dexter doesn't know really know how to process this kind of thing, so he's not going to have a genuine moment of "wondering if this is all worth it."

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!
XFllo There is no Planet B from Planet A Since: Aug, 2012
There is no Planet B
#474: Jul 28th 2020 at 7:41:28 AM

I'd like to share this video essay. It's an insightful analysis of Dexter by The Take. The title refers specifically to the disastrous finale, but they claim the problems started to creep much sooner, the key problem being the writers' never wanting to commit to anything — is Dexter a good guy, or bad guy? Should we sympathise with a psychopath protagonist? Should he get away with it, or should he be caught and punished by law?

Edited by XFllo on Jul 28th 2020 at 4:43:16 PM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#475: Jul 29th 2020 at 12:13:06 PM

The problem with Dexter was the writers forgot that Dexter isn't Tony Soprano or Walter White. He's not on a road to damnation. He has been damned for a long time. He's a monster on a road to feeling again and becoming more human. The writers seemed to forget this and wanted him to stay in the role of Villain Protagonist.

Having Dexter wanting to associate with fellow serial killers just...never made any goddamn sense.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 29th 2020 at 12:14:46 PM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

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