Dexter - Part 4

[Maximus One]

That all but confirms it? They've got a deal with the showrunner. That hardly confirms a Dexter spinoff. It confirms that they have probably made a deal with Buck to develop more shows. There's just absolutely no possible way things could play out this season that would merit a spinoff. Did you read the article about what a possible spinoff could be about? Whoever wrote that couldn't even take the idea serious enough to write an actual article about it. It was all dumbass jokes n stuff. I dunno. I just do not see how anybody could ever think this could be a good idea. The mere thought of even starting to consider such a thing is equal parts laughable and appalling.

 

[Tron Bonne]

As for this not feeling like the final season of Dexter, I think that's also an unfair criticism at this point. It wouldn't be smart for this show to all of a sudden try to change it's tone to make things more "epic" and "final" this early on. Keep in mind that it's not as if the characters in the show know that "this is the end". For Dex, Deb, and all the regular characters, it's just business as usual fr them at this point...until, as I said before, **** starts the hit the fan.

I'm going to have to disagree here. I get the basic idea of what you're saying, but generally, I feel that if we're going to have a serialized story over two seasons, I think you should structure the entire season to feel like a finale. Doesn't matter if the characters know it's the end, because it's still the end. Rarely should the end of something be about introducing so much new stuff, it should be about focusing on the end of the story of the characters that the series has focused on.

Some don't like comparisons, but I think this one is apt. It's a lot like that final season of Weeds. It just felt like they were introducing new stuff for a new status quo, and then did as you suggest, and used the last few episodes to try and create some kind of finality feeling, but it only came up as unsatisfying since it never really felt like the end until they finally did pull the curtain down.

It's not to say you have to have adrenaline pumping every second of the show, but I think the criticism is still apt. It feels like just another season, because it's playing out like just another season. The focus is as much on newer elements than warping up older ones, and it lacks any feeling of moving towards something big

 

[BatLobster]

Any official talk on a potential spinoff? I hadn't heard anything.

As far as this show going out with a "whimper", I think that's unfair. Episode 7 of TV seasons (especially with these kind of 1hr cable dramas) is usually the kickoff point for when **** really starts to hit the fan. The first half of the season usually spends much of its time laying down the webs for which they will weave the story later on. I'm sure there will be big developments as the season progresses, as well as some shocking moments. No need to worry now.

As for this not feeling like the final season of Dexter, I think that's also an unfair criticism at this point. It wouldn't be smart for this show to all of a sudden try to change it's tone to make things more "epic" and "final" this early on. Keep in mind that it's not as if the characters in the show know that "this is the end". For Dex, Deb, and all the regular characters, it's just business as usual fr them at this point...until, as I said before, **** starts the hit the fan.

This. So much this.

I think it's actually a sign of confidence that they're still playing things cool. Make no mistake, the sh** WILL hit the fan, and they know that we know the clock is ticking whether the characters know it yet or not.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I honestly don't get what this means about the character not knowing the clock is ticking. Are the characters writing the show, or are the writers?

 

[Liam_H]

Writers know they only have 7 episode left, at this point. Things should escalate quickly as we approach the end.

 

[Tron Bonne]

It's possible, but I don't know. Tying everything this season has introduced, with last season, with the culmination of the series in 12 episodes is better than 7. The only way I would feel that these first episodes weren't a drag on the whole is if all the elements tie together, and how they could do that without a giant face palm I don't know. It's not impossible.

I do get the notion that **** is going to hit the fan. I'm sure it will, like it does with every other season. But I think that might even be part of the point, because it just solidifies that it fills just like any other season thus far. I guess it comes down to philosophy on what a finale should be. Personally, for serialized beginning-to-end storytelling, I feel like the final installment (in this case, season) should be structured and made to feel like it's moving towards the end from the get-go. But that's just me, so mileage varies. It still has plenty of ability to explode with something amazing, but this first half of the season is sure a slow light.

 

[Maximus One]

Agreed. This should be like the final season of The Shield. From the get go you could tell everything from the last few years was about to come to a head. And in the end, everything comes full circle and there's closure and finality and the whole season you could feel it all coming. This is it. This is the end of the road. It's all been leading to this. That's how a final season of something this serialized should feel.

 

[Liam_H]

I'm confused why all of a sudden they decide to add some depth to side characters like Quinn and Masuka. Is it gonna tie into stuff by the end?

 

[Reek]

Quinn yes, Masuka no.

Danco would have been a perfect series finale season villain.

 

[Maximus One]

Or that cannibal from the second episode. I've said for years I wanted Dexter to go up against a cannibal. But, not as a killer of the week. I wanted a cannibal with Trinity-level depth. Seriously, Trinity was this show's best villain just because of how amazingly developed his pathology and background was. ITK was given even that much depth aside from the fact that he was related to Dexter. Jordan Chase had an awesomely developed background and pathology as well. He was seriously the series most underrated big bad. Isaac was awesome and his dynamic with Dexter was GREAT but he wasn't a "serial killer" per se. Anybody else isn't even worth mentioning.

 

[Ghostvirus]

I wonder if the show will end with Dexter getting the electric chair? It would be an interesting commentary on the fact that they are killing a criminal who kills criminals just because he isn't doing it their way.

Plus they could do a Dexter like montage of the "ritual" the state takes before executing someone.

The Last Meal
Checking the electrical wiring to the chair
doing a time check on the clock in case the mayor calls
last rights
last words
the rehearsal before the actual execution
Fade to black
VO "time of death 12:01"
Credits

 

[The Shape]

I honestly don't get what this means about the character not knowing the clock is ticking. Are the characters writing the show, or are the writers?

How would you suggest the characters be acting right now, heading into episode 6? What could the writers be doing to make this seem like a "final" season for you? That's what I'm confused about.

As for this season introducing "so much new stuff"...not really. I don't see Masuka's daughter or the black detective gunning for Sergeant to be big introductions that take away from the rest of the show. Plus, we have no idea how those storylines will pan out or what meaning they'll have eventually. The big introduction is Vogel because of what she represents for Dexter, and because she (so far) is the one providing conflict for our main character. I certainly don't think that's anything to complain about...and again, you have no idea how that will pan out.

It's not as if there's some sort of unspoken rule that final seasons aren't allowed to introduce new elements. And no, Weeds is not a good example. First of all, the last few seasons of Weeds were stupid, not just the last. And the last season had a ridiculous ending that came out of nowhere. The second to last episode leapt 7 years forward, so yeah, the entire ending of Weeds felt completely out of place and unsatisfying. Do you honestly see Dexter doing something similar?

In terms of what the writers are doing, some say this should "feel like the final season from the get-go" (whatever that means), others are able to patiently wait for the big picture to come together. But in terms of what the writers are doing, I think they're being smart by not blowing their load too early, so to speak, and I have the patience to let them tell the story they want to tell before I prematurely label a season that's less than halfway completed as "disappointing". So far, this season has been way more interesting than the Doomsday Killers, and maybe even better than last season.

 

[The Shape]

I'm confused why all of a sudden they decide to add some depth to side characters like Quinn and Masuka. Is it gonna tie into stuff by the end?

Most likely, yeah.

 

[Maximus One]

Lmao better than last season? You so craaaazy

 

[The Shape]

Lmao better than last season? You so craaaazy

Tell me what was so great about last season, besides maybe LaGuerta investigating Dex and what Deb did to her in the end.

Last season is when the promising Louis (the intern) storyline was abruptly abandoned. Issacc's character went nowhere and meant nothing, and the fact that you would mention him in comparison to Trinity is strange. Hannah was an interesting character, in a way, but she was also just yet another girl who knew that Dexter was a killer. She was like a more evil Lumen, nothing too special there.

This season, so far, has definitely had some good moments. Not sure why you're being so hard on it already.

 

[Maximus One]

Last season felt more final than than ****. If you don't know what people are meaning by "it doesn't feel final" I dunno what to tell you dude. Last season, we had Deb just finding out and all the revelations that brought with it. The big one though was Laguerta looking into the BHB case. Sorry but last year's trailer that was released with Change by Deftones got me so psyched about Dexter last year. It felt fresh again after two ok seasons. We haven't had any indication whatsoever that anybody at all is suspicious of Dexter or Deb (she is a murderer now afterall.) Sure, all this could be leading to something amazing but as of now, it's mediocre at best. Even if the last 3 episodes of the season are mind-blowingly amazing we would still be left with a crap season that took forever to get awesome. Sorry but Dexter deserved to go out on an incredibly high note and after it's all said and done I wanna be able to go back and watch the whole season and love the whole thing. I don't wanna start watching it and have to skip the first few episodes because they're so stupid. I'm not saying I think it's completely stupid so far but it's close. They gotta start getting this ball rollin for real

 

[Maximus One]

Tell me what was so great about last season, besides maybe LaGuerta investigating Dex and what Deb did to her in the end.

Last season is when the promising Louis (the intern) storyline was abruptly abandoned. Issacc's character went nowhere and meant nothing, and the fact that you would mention him in comparison to Trinity is strange. Hannah was an interesting character, in a way, but she was also just yet another girl who knew that Dexter was a killer. She was like a more evil Lumen, nothing too special there.

This season, so far, has definitely had some good moments. Not sure why you're being so hard on it already.

When I mentioned Isaac it was due to his amazing dynamic with Dexter. Their scenes together last year were just great. And he wasn't meant to have any real lasting effects. Isaac's whole purpose as a character (and going along with a ton of stuff Deb brought up) was to demonstrate the chain reaction or domino effect of Dexter's actions. Personally I think the weakest part of last season was Hannah even though we did get some great moments with Dexter trying to articulate what he's feeling and his ideals. This season's only good stuff has been with Deb and Vogel's revelations about Harry. Quinn has been good so far too but still more should be happening. Personally, I don't see how you don't understand that. Somebody should be gathering evidence and investigating Dexter. That's what should be going on. Right now, EVERYBODY should know exactly who and what Dexter is but not with the ability to legally do anything from lack of evidence. There should be a massive cat and mouse game going on right now. There isn't. It doesn't seem like Dexter is gonna get his comeuppance. It should feel this way by this point. Hell I'm pretty sure by this point in season 4 Dexter and Trinity were already buds or he was at least on to Arthur. Nothing is ****ing happening here! How can't you see that? And the previews look to be the same old **** this week. As a huge Dexter fan this is pissing me off. Very badly. This stuff should already be incredibly intense edge of your seat television right now and IT ISN'T. Last year it at least on some level was. Seriously, thus far, this is like barely by the skin of it's teeth better than season 6. And about Louis, wtf was so promising about that *****e? I've never understood why so many people got upset over that. He was a dumb character who was equally as menacing as Colin Hanks was and it would've just been insanely dumb for him to truly go toe to toe with Dexter. I've never been as glad to see a character get killed as I was Louis

 

[Tron Bonne]

How would you suggest the characters be acting right now, heading into episode 6? What could the writers be doing to make this seem like a "final" season for you? That's what I'm confused about.

I think I went over that pretty well. Keep the focus on wrapping up what you have and keep the feeling that you're moving towards something.

As for this season introducing "so much new stuff"...not really. I don't see Masuka's daughter or the black detective gunning for Sergeant to be big introductions that take away from the rest of the show. Plus, we have no idea how those storylines will pan out or what meaning they'll have eventually. The big introduction is Vogel because of what she represents for Dexter, and because she (so far) is the one providing conflict for our main character. I certainly don't think that's anything to complain about...and again, you have no idea how that will pan out.

It's not as if there's some sort of unspoken rule that final seasons aren't allowed to introduce new elements. And no, Weeds is not a good example. First of all, the last few seasons of Weeds were stupid, not just the last. And the last season had a ridiculous ending that came out of nowhere. The second to last episode leapt 7 years forward, so yeah, the entire ending of Weeds felt completely out of place and unsatisfying. Do you honestly see Dexter doing something similar?

That's true, of course, but a lot of the point of introducing so much new material is generally to set up a status quo. The end of something should be a way of wrapping up a status quo completely. As I said, it's possible this will tie into a huge final picture. I don't how they're going to put those pieces together in a coherent way, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

As far as the Weeds comparison, you're looking at it too literally. I didn't mean to imply that Dexter will end with a time skip or anything, just that I'm seeing a lot of similarities. I recall a lot of people saying the same kind of things about that final season of Weeds, too (it was understandable, though, since it wasn't originally envisioned as a finale). It just didn't feel like finality until the last three or four episodes when they tried to cobble together one, but it just didn't come off as organic at all.

In terms of what the writers are doing, some say this should "feel like the final season from the get-go" (whatever that means), others are able to patiently wait for the big picture to come together. But in terms of what the writers are doing, I think they're being smart by not blowing their load too early, so to speak, and I have the patience to let them tell the story they want to tell before I prematurely label a season that's less than halfway completed as "disappointing". So far, this season has been way more interesting than the Doomsday Killers, and maybe even better than last season.

I'm not saying it's bad. As I've said, thus far it's been a solid enough season, it's just lacking the tenseness and tightness that I would expect from a final season. Again, just to clarify, they could pick it up but I think it would all have to tie together to bring that feeling back. We'll see, but as of right now, I'm not feeling it.

 

[The Demon's Head]

Last season felt more final than than ****. If you don't know what people are meaning by "it doesn't feel final" I dunno what to tell you dude. Last season, we had Deb just finding out and all the revelations that brought with it. The big one though was Laguerta looking into the BHB case. Sorry but last year's trailer that was released with Change by Deftones got me so psyched about Dexter last year. It felt fresh again after two ok seasons. We haven't had any indication whatsoever that anybody at all is suspicious of Dexter or Deb (she is a murderer now afterall.) Sure, all this could be leading to something amazing but as of now, it's mediocre at best. Even if the last 3 episodes of the season are mind-blowingly amazing we would still be left with a crap season that took forever to get awesome. Sorry but Dexter deserved to go out on an incredibly high note and after it's all said and done I wanna be able to go back and watch the whole season and love the whole thing. I don't wanna start watching it and have to skip the first few episodes because they're so stupid. I'm not saying I think it's completely stupid so far but it's close. They gotta start getting this ball rollin for real

Agreed. The first 5 episodes of Season 7 were epic.

 

[Maximus One]

Right? Only time it really dragged was after Isaak was killed.

 

[Reek]

its a little early to distinguish how good this season will/won't be... its not living up to expectations just yet, but that remains to be seen.

Eklypze... In the books there is a group of big bads that are cannibals. the book was ok. but i guess that small arc was an homage.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well so far I'm enjoying this season. I can see the criticism that it as of yet does not feel like a finale. Is this the final season I envisioned? Most definately not, BUT I am willing to see the whole season through until I make my final decision on how the season is as a whole.

I have been a huge Dex fan since season 1 and I personally feel that even though some seasons haven't been as solid as some of the rest it will go down as one of my favorite shows of all time.

 

[Reek]

^agreed. Even its 'bad' seasons are better than most everything on TV,

 

[Maximus One]

I dunno. I can't make the same claim. Storytelling wise and narrative structure and character complexity/depth etc etc. I can list 2 dozen shows off the top of my head that are better than Dexter. That being said, yea it's still in my top ten favorites. But there's a difference between something being better and being a favorite. Lost is my favorite show ever, but I can name a few other shows that are way better story quality wise.

 

[Maximus One]

Oh and yea Reek I know about the cannibal cult from the novels. Didn't they wear bull helmets like Speltzer did last year? I kept hoping we would get the Kashka Brotherhood at some point and they'd be cannibals or something.