[TV] Dexter

Mr Bubbles · Post by **Mr Bubbles** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:46 am

So I've missed this gem, but been watching it on Netflix instant view. I know there are threads out there already, but I have about 5 episodes left in Season 2 and didn't want to read any spoilers. I haven't been this engrossed in a show like this in a long time. Unfortunately netflix only goes up to the end of season 2. I don't think I can wait long to see season three. I just might have to buy it.

The story and acting are first class and I am very much enjoying the dialogue. While Dexters sister can be a bit annoying, other than that I can't find any fault. I sure hope it continues on as strong as it is now.

Fellstrike · Post by **Fellstrike** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:04 am

When in doubt, Google.
Season 3 was pretty good.
Season 4 starts Sept 27th.

I'll leave it at that.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:05 am

Season 3 isn't out until sometime in August. I've got the bluray preordered (though I could probably just wait and see if it turns up on instant view).

Mr Bubbles · Post by **Mr Bubbles** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:43 am

Chaz wrote:Season 3 isn't out until sometime in August. I've got the bluray preordered (though I could probably just wait and see if it turns up on instant view).

Oh ok. I went on to amazon to check and apparently I didn't check close enough, thought it was released already. Unfortunately don't have showtime so thats going to be an issue.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:41 am

I looove Dexter. Such an awesome show. Season 2 is probably the best so far. Season 3 was definitely good, but not as good as 2. It was about on par with Season 1. I envy you getting down toward the end of Season 2 for the first time. Some of the best television I've seen. Really sucks you in and doesn't let go.

As for his sister on the show, she got on my nerves during the beginning of the first season, but now I guess I just accept her as she is and like her better now.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:46 am

Dexter's sister is easily the worst part of the show. I thought Season 2 was leaps and bounds better than Season 1 (the last couple of episodes were just too ridiculous). I haven't seen Season 3 yet, though I've heard mixed reviews.

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:17 am

It's gonna be weird to watch this season knowing his sister is now his wife in real life...

Post by **godhugh** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:57 am

Z-Corn wrote:It's gonna be weird to watch this season knowing his sister is now his wife in real life...

Seriously. That really wierds me out.

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:16 am

Showtime has all three seasons on demand. One of the best shows on TV.

ohbalto · Post by **ohbalto** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:19 am

Seasons one, two and three area also available to purchase on iTunes.

Hipolito · Post by **Hipolito** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:32 pm

The Dexter series finale aired last night. I think the lack of any recent Dexter discussion shows how little there's been to talk about

It was a weak ending to a weak season. It looked like they just wanted to get it over with. There were no fewer than three highly illegal acts committed near a dozen potential witnesses, yet none of them noticed. The show had to move on! There are a few loose ends regarding the minor characters that I guess will never be tied up. The episode was ultimately unsatisfying.

The series was best in its first half when it was driven by Dexter's inner turmoil (and killing lots of people). Eventually, it became more about Dexter's external conflicts (and not killing as many people). There were still great moments in the second half of the series, but the momentum was gone.

I think about how chilling the finale could have been if it had brought Dexter's torment and rage back to the forefront and just shocked the hell out of everybody, like the show used to do. As a minor spoiler, the plot involves some inclement weather. It could have made a great backdrop to some heady confrontations. But I guess the budget ran out, and so did the inspiration.

That's OK, though. It doesn't diminish the show's highlights, some of the best moments I've seen on TV.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:39 pm

God that was an awful finale.

Toe · Post by **Toe** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:53 pm

I thought it was pretty weak as well.

Spoiler:

I wish they had planned on ending dexter this season like 5 seasons ago, it makes a big difference as is obvious with breaking bad.

Toe · Post by **Toe** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:53 pm

WPD · Post by **WPD** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 11:47 pm

Even my wife thought it was terrible. And she loves all the television.

stimpy · Post by **stimpy** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:00 am

Yep. Compared to how Breaking Bad is going out, this sucked hard.

Good news is I can now cancel Showtime.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:35 am

I think that any time you have a show (especially a drama series like this, and one that is no longer available to easily stream via netflix) that runs for 8 seasons, you are going to have trouble maintaining your audience and the quality of the show. It gets harder when you set such a high water mark with Season 4 (the best season of a show I've ever watched).

There is no way to end a show like this to make your audience happy. Too many people want too many different things. The OP wanted old skool killer Dexter (IMO that's what we actually got). My wife wanted the happy ending (which wouldn't have made any contextual sense with the character or the show).

Like The Sopranos, LOST, Seinfeld, etc, it's not easy to make a satisfying ending, and so most aren't satisfied. I loved the ending to both the Sopranos and Seinfeld. And while I didn't love this ending (yet), I thought that it made perfect sense given Dexter (the character). Personally I could have done without the final scene. But...

Spoiler:

Overall, I was satisfied, and that's what counts (to me).

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:56 am

I think the writers meant for something in the show to shock us, they just overestimated the audiences value in that character. Kind of sadly, I think I would have cared more if it was Jamie. On the flip side, the way the penultimate episode ended was shocking (especially since I didn't realize there was one more to go).

Realistically, what would have shocked people that have been watching Dexter for 8 seasons? I'd argue the happy ending would have been the biggest shock.

There's no way they could trump the end of season 4. No way.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:47 am

His face merkin in that final scene might actually be the worst part of the finale.

Nightwish · Post by **Nightwish** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:57 pm

It could have worked, but it was terribly written and directed. At least.

Also,

Spoiler:

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:33 pm

Why did it have to shock people? Why is that (or should that) have been the goal?

After 8 years, people are too invested in what they want, they are doomed to hate the ending. The Sopranos solved that by simply not having one (brilliant).

I know many people that hated the ending and the last season. I'm not one of them I guess.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:44 pm

I can understand that. However, deb's death was so contrived and manipulative that that alone made it a horribly written episode in my opinion. Making the primary protagonist a character they introduced in the final season was just the nail in the coffin for me. So much potential wasted as far as I'm concerned.

I've yet to see a positive review of it, by the way. That doesn't mean I'm right in my opinion. But it does mean I'm obviously not alone in them either.

I'm not trying to dampen your enjoyment of it. I just wish I shared in that feeling.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:06 pm

Just watched the finale and wow, that was truly atrocious.

The fact that the original showrunner (up to season 4) felt compelled to share how he planned to end the series makes me think he was well aware of how awful the ending that actually aired really was:

Clyde Phillips served as an executive producer and showrunner on Dexter in the early years, helping shape the series for its first four seasons until he decided to leave the show in late 2009, at the end of the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) season, which ended with Rita's shocking death.

I tracked down Phillips, who now serves as executive producer of Showtime's Nurse Jackie, and asked (OK, possibly begged) him to share what he had planned for the very end of Dexter...assuming he had one.

Turns out, he did have a very specific ending in mind, and it's possibly one of the best series-finale ideas I've ever heard.

"I haven't shared this with anyone," Philips told me. "And I can tell you that this is what I personally would have done should I have stayed with the show. I chose not to stay with the show, and so everybody did what they did, and I had no problem with that…and I think they did a good job with the final episode. But here is what I personally would have pitched."

"In the very last scene of the series," Philips explained, "Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, 'Oh, it was a dream.' And then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realize, 'No, it's not a dream.' Dexter's opening his eyes and he's on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They're just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery.

"And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed—including the Trinity Killer and the Ice Truck Killer (his brother Rudy), LaGuerta who he was responsible killing, Doakes who he's arguably responsible for, Rita, who he's arguably responsible for, Lila. All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.

"That's what I envisioned for the ending of Dexter. That everything we've seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter's execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies. Literally, his life flashed before his eyes as he was about to die. I think it would have been a great, epic, very satisfying conclusion."

Hipolito · Post by **Hipolito** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:32 pm

Mmm, that would have been a much better ending. A divisive one, certainly, and one that I might not have liked. But still better.

KKBlue · Post by **KKBlue** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:42 am

I watched this season basically because I was too lazy to get out of the chair, it's my husband's show. What struck me the most about the last show was having the cast give the viewers a thank you for being great fans then continuing with a very (in my opinion) quick wrap up finale. I had a hard time being convinced of:
(Noting in the spoiler has to do with the storm, the special effects were not as good as they could have been for 2013)

Spoiler:

If I was let down and don't consider myself a fan, I do feel bad for those who took an interest in the show.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:51 am

Haven't watched the final season yet, but I've felt it's been a downhill slide since S4. While I enjoyed S6 with Colin Hanks, I would definitely agree with most that S4 was the peak - which was amazing considering how awful S3 was.

Anyway, Doakes was still one of the best characters on the series and S1/S2 still remain awesome. Possibly some large-font NSFW language:

Spoiler:

Inverarity · Post by **Inverarity** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 4:03 pm

Season 3 gets a bad rap. It was a letdown after seasons 1 & 2, but it was miles ahead of anything after season 4, imo.

The last two seasons were particularly bad. I'm glad it's over.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon May 26, 2014 12:31 pm

Just watched the final season over the last few weeks and finished it up this weekend. The final season wasn't nearly as bad as the worst season (SEE: Lumen), however the ending was truly awful. While I'm totally fine with him slipping away and recusing himself knowing he's a monster and that everything he's near ends suffering (Deb, Harrison, Rita) the last 10 or so minutes of the final episode made no sense. Why would he take Deb's body and dump her in the ocean? Why would he race into a hurricane...and then somehow manage to survive the storm? I could have seen the ending with him just disappearing into the shadows. I had a hard time understanding the way he did it.

RuperT · Post by **RuperT** » Mon May 26, 2014 2:53 pm

Haha, Doakes was the best.
Maria: "...blah blah... James, you used to laugh!"
James: "Bullshit! I never laughed!"

I also thought the finale was surprisingly tame (and that season very slapdash), but I had watched the series in such a haphazard manner that I had no real investment in the characters at the end. I saw the original 2 seasons way back when, and then the remainder fitfully as they sputtered onto Netflix.
Good TV.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Mon May 26, 2014 5:22 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Why would he take Deb's body and dump her in the ocean?

Because that's how he disposes of all of his victims.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon May 26, 2014 6:38 pm

I'm hesitant to liken her to the various serial killers we've seen over the last 8 seasons; his disposal of her body seemed reverent. His disposal of serial killer parts seems calculated. I mean...he didn't dump Rita or Doctor Mom surrogate off his boat and they were arguably his "victims" as well, no?

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Mon May 26, 2014 6:56 pm

Smoove_B wrote:I'm hesitant to liken her to the various serial killers we've seen over the last 8 seasons; his disposal of her body seemed reverent. His disposal of serial killer parts seems calculated. I mean...he didn't dump Rita or Doctor Mom surrogate off his boat and they were arguably his "victims" as well, no?

Not in the way that Debra was.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue May 27, 2014 11:16 am

RunningMn9 wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:I'm hesitant to liken her to the various serial killers we've seen over the last 8 seasons; his disposal of her body seemed reverent. His disposal of serial killer parts seems calculated. I mean...he didn't dump Rita or Doctor Mom surrogate off his boat and they were arguably his "victims" as well, no?
Not in the way that Debra was.

What he said. Funny thing is I didn't get it until he just said it... and I saw the finale the day it aired.

Still annoyed at how crappy the finale was otherwise. Thanks for reminding me.

Trent Steel · Post by **Trent Steel** » Tue May 27, 2014 12:49 pm

As others have alluded to, I get the concept the ending tried to convey, but my problem is that they pulled it off as skillfully as Rodney Dangerfield driving a yacht through the lake at Bushwood Country Club. The chain of events that led to the final scene made no sense and seemed haphazard compared to the history that had been built up through previous seasons. Throughout the whole finale, instead of being on the edge of my seat in anticipation, I was more baffled and disappointed, which made the very end a complete MEH (IMHO).

Comparatively speaking, The Sopranos ending was 180 degrees opposite. The setup in that series finale was perfect in that it had me watching the TV unblinking with my eyes as wide open as possible waiting to see what was going to happen. At the time, I was angry at the final scene, but I have grown to appreciate it thinking about it since. That kind of reaction tells me how good of an ending it was.

The Seinfeld finale?... probably the only bad episode of Seinfeld in the entire series.

KKBlue · Post by **KKBlue** » Wed Jun 29, 2016 10:53 am

Swiped through this when I was noodling around on Facebook this morning. Though you folks would like to take a peek.
16 "astounding" stories from behind the scenes of Dexter.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Jun 29, 2016 11:10 am

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:42 am

Started watching this show with my wife when she was home sick with mono, but didn't catch all of the episodes, so I'm going back now and watching them all on my own.

God, I hated Lylah!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 30, 2016 11:46 am

...you're gonna hate the way the show ends even more.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Wed Oct 14, 2020 4:42 pm

As absolutely no one demanded - he's back!

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Oct 14, 2020 4:59 pm

I am sure someone demanded it.

I'll want to see it I am sure. I'm not sure how I'll do that as I am unlikely to sub to another service, but I will see it.