Dexter - Part 6

[Blue Moon]

I had a thought for discussion - Instead of complaining about how terrible this season or that season is, How about everyone does a pros and cons list of their favorite season or their least favorite season? Like so:

I thought Season 6 had potential up until they killed Mos Def's character.
Pros:

• Edward James Olmos was pretty creepy as a religious fanatic and would have been a damn good villain without the twist. Of all Dexter's enemies at that point, He seemed like a credible threat because he was smart, cunning, vicious, and bat-**** crazy, just like ITK.
• I liked the possibilities that Louis presented. Was he connected to Dexter and Brian? What was his obsession with winning Dexter's approval? The writers totally f'd his subplot but the tease of his true intentions was pretty good.
• Dexter had to face some religious/moral questions early in the season that the show hadn't touched on before this point. This angle could have given some depth to how Dexter views his role as a 'savior' of sorts but again, potential squandered.

• I liked the 'bottle' episode with Dexter and Brian. It was a nice change of pace to focus on Dexter outside of Miami, giving into his dark desires represented by Brian. However, it did kill most of the momentum with the DDK case. I think this ep would have been better in Season5, before Dex gets into the barrel girls case, just as a way to bring closure to the Trinity stuff and his past with Brian.

Cons:

• The 'twist' was so transparent that by the time it was revealed, it felt like we'd wasted a few eps to get to that point.
• The last 3 eps where Travis recruits minions and becomes cliched villain. At no point before this had Travis become threatening and now suddenly we're supposed to buy he's a criminal mastermind with charisma to recruit two jabronis to his cause.
• The Wormwood attack: Could have been a brilliant way to knock off a few unnecessary characters or create fear for Dexter but no, he figures it out in plenty of time to save Deb and everyone else.

• Why does Dexter continue to take cases from Miami Metro? Like in previous seasons, he would only hunt those who escaped justice or would otherwise not be noticed as being missing. This season, he's like, Oh flamboyant serial killers with a religious bend, I guess it's my duty to kill them before MMetro catch them! This carries over into Season7 with the Victor killing Mike thing. Come on man, let the cops do their damn job! After Trinity, it seems like the writers thought it was logical for Dexter to hunt the same killer(s) as Metro and always beat them to the punch. Does anyone not notice how low the clearance rate for serial killers is in Miami? The Skinner: 'suicide' / Trinity: 'Escaped' / Jordan Chase and the funky bunch: 'Escaped' / Doomsday Killer: 'suicide' / Mike Anderson's killer: 'escaped' (and pretty much dropped by Metro, by mid-season, nobody was even talking about catching Mike's killer anymore) / The 'Minotaur' guy: 'vanished'. Seriously, if I were police commissioner in Miami, the entire homicide dept. would be fired.

Now there's plenty more to discuss but hopefully doing this will help some people see more 'pros' then 'cons' in past seasons and help steer the discussion towards the times we actually enjoyed Dexter rather than complaining about how it's all turning out.

 

[Ken-Kaniff]

I'm so tired of the Breaking Bad cheerleaders in this thread. You love the show. It's the greatest thing, ever! Nothing will ever top it. Nothing can come close to it. It's the king of television. Now can we please ****ing stop the damned comparisons? I see the show constantly brought up like it's important to compare them when it's not. Let it go already.

/rant

I totally agree! It's quite patethic really.

 

[DyeLorean]

[*]I liked the possibilities that Louis presented. Was he connected to Dexter and Brian? What was his obsession with winning Dexter's approval? The writers totally f'd his subplot but the tease of his true intentions was pretty good.

I completely forgot about Louis! He was indeed very interesting, and his intentions were a mystery. Having a connection with Dexter and Brian could've provided something different.

 

[Ken-Kaniff]

I completely forgot about Louis! He was indeed very interesting, and his intentions were a mystery. Having a connection with Dexter and Brian could've provided something different.

Louis was nothing more than a psycho nerd.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Louis was nothing more than a psycho nerd.

He was obviously supposed to be something more. They changed it after season 6.

 

[georgec]

He was obviously supposed to be something more. They changed it after season 6.

And nobody missed him.

 

[Infinity9999x]

And nobody missed him.

No, but it did make me go "really? that's the best you could do?"

I've just gotten very tired of the sloppy writing in this series. 7 was better overall, but it still had it there too.

 

[Ramsay Snow]

Every time Dexter says "Hannah", I feel like punching the crap out of him. No offense to Hannah since she's cool kinda.

 

[DyeLorean]

7 was better because it raised some of the stakes with Deb knowing. It was something different, and fresh for the series. Something we've been waiting for a long time. But Season 8, instead of expanding that idea and giving Dexter a truly bad time, just never happened.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Yeah, all that stuff with Louis just smells of last minute direction change. I'm almost certain they had something more planned for that character but decided to go another route.

But I'm glad those finale rumors got debunked. The first one wasn't that bad, in context of the season, but the other two were just so awful.

 

[The Navigator]

7 was better because it raised some of the stakes with Deb knowing. It was something different, and fresh for the series. Something we've been waiting for a long time. But Season 8, instead of expanding that idea and giving Dexter a truly bad time, just never happened.

That was a real highlight of the latter half of the show. That whole realization on her part was something I'd been waiting for since the start of the show and they did not disappoint.

 

[jacobed]

I totally agree! It's quite patethic really.

It's pathetic that tonight the Dexter cast and crew will be having a Breaking Bad viewing party while they dvr Dexter

 

[BatLobster]

I was kind of upset that they dropped Louis so abruptly. It made for a good twist, but it seemed to waste all the creepy groundwork they had laid out for his character.

He was basically pointless in the grand scheme of things. Now imagine if they had kept him around until this season and he could've filled the role of Vogel's son.

 

[Teelie]

I feel the need to go Dexter all over this thread suddenly.

 

[Infinity9999x]

I was kind of upset that they dropped Louis so abruptly. It made for a good twist, but it seemed to waste all the creepy groundwork they had laid out for his character.

He was basically pointless in the grand scheme of things. Now imagine if they had kept him around until this season and he could've filled the role of Vogel's son.

Man, that would have been SO much better.

 

[Tron Bonne]

To be honest, I feel like Vogel should've been dropped from this season all together. I think it put a lot of unneeded baggage for the season to unwrap. They should've kept Louis, revealed that he was some kind of serial killer at the end of season 7, then let that go into the last season with all the stuff with Hannah coming back. Would've been a lot smoother, I think.

 

[georgec]

Dexter writers are the masters at adding random characters, making them seem important, then just abandoning them altogether.

Hell, it even happened in season 3 with that IA detective that Batista slept with and the other random woman (I think she was Asian) who gave a few murky warnings about Quinn then disappeared.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Dexter writers are the masters at adding random characters, making them seem important, then just abandoning them altogether.

Hell, it even happened in season 3 with that IA detective that Batista slept with and the other random woman (I think she was Asian) who gave a few murky warnings about Quinn then disappeared.

We should check to see if some of the people who worked on the third season for Heroes migrated to Dexter....

To be honest, I feel like Vogel should've been dropped from this season all together. I think it put a lot of unneeded baggage for the season to unwrap. They should've kept Louis, revealed that he was some kind of serial killer at the end of season 7, then let that go into the last season with all the stuff with Hannah coming back. Would've been a lot smoother, I think.

I agree. While Vogel ended up being okay, since they got a good actress, I was just never crazy about the idea of her.

It seemed more like a fanfic writers idea than something that should have actually happened.

 

[BatLobster]

Thematically, I do think Vogel was a good addition. It addresses the whole "mother" factor that has a huge part in Dexter's origin. I do think introducing her AND her son in one season was a bit too much. Louis was a character with so much potential, he could've easily filled the role of either Oliver or Zach this season and it would've made things feel a bit more connected.

I do, however think it would've been a great revelation if it had turned out Matthews was aware of Dexter's true nature the whole time.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Thematically, I do think Vogel was a good addition. It addresses the whole "mother" factor that has a huge part in Dexter's origin. I do think introducing her AND her son in one season was a bit too much. Louis was a character with so much potential, he could've easily filled the role of either Oliver or Zach this season and it would've made things feel a bit more connected.

I do, however think it would've been a great revelation if it had turned out Matthews was aware of Dexter's true nature the whole time.

It does, but it also undermined Harry's character a bit. Not as badly as I was thinking, but still a bit.

I would agree though, both her and her son were a bit much. Louis easily could have fulfilled the son role, or Zach. It was too much to shoehorn in Vogel, Zach, and Vogel's kid. And the story suffered for it, I had almost no emotional attachment to Zach or Vogel, and that hurt the arc.

The past few seasons of Dexter really have begun to remind me of Heros when it was going downhill at the end of Season 2 and Season 3. The "twists' they do have usually aren't that well developed and only serve as shock value for the wrong reasons, and characters randomly drop development to serve the story instead of the story coming about because of their characterizations.

 

[Travesty]

I feel the need to go Dexter all over this thread suddenly.

By that, do you mean you're going to question yourself for what you're doing, look at the thread really closely, and then let it go?

Or do you mean Season 1-3 Dexter?

 

[Teelie]

I think it'll be the first. It's time to let it go. Unlike Dexter I know when it's time to bow out.

Until after the finale anyways. Then I'll pop in to hate some more on how badly they mutilated Dexter this season and then disappear from the thread.

 

[Ken-Kaniff]

It's pathetic that tonight the Dexter cast and crew will be having a Breaking Bad viewing party while they dvr Dexter

Whatever man! As disappointed as I also was with this season, I still find the BrBa comparison rather EXAGERATED.

 

[Liam_H]

In terms of the last season its not even close.

 

[Ken-Kaniff]

In terms of the last season its not even close.

And this is relevant because...? It doesn't even have the same writers, creators lol!

Honestly, I get that BrBa is great , what I don't get is why the comparison? It just seems so... random. They don't have the same story, they aren't about the same thing.