Dexter [POTENTIAL SPOILERS]

[patrickaa317]

Anyone watch the series? Thoughts on the finale?

[strike wolf]

Watched it. Me and my friends argued about how it ended a little but ultimately I liked it.

[patrickaa317]

Watched it. Me and my friends argued about how it ended a little but ultimately I liked it.

I wish the last scene hadn't happened, would have been more satisfying IMO.

[strike wolf]

Watched it. Me and my friends argued about how it ended a little but ultimately I liked it.

I wish the last scene hadn't happened, would have been more satisfying IMO.

Agreed.

show

[patrickaa317]

Watched it. Me and my friends argued about how it ended a little but ultimately I liked it.

I wish the last scene hadn't happened, would have been more satisfying IMO.

Agreed.

show

Exactly.

[strike wolf]

Watched it. Me and my friends argued about how it ended a little but ultimately I liked it.

I wish the last scene hadn't happened, would have been more satisfying IMO.

Agreed.

show

Exactly.

show

Sigh no more Dexter.

In slightly related sense, here's a somewhat old Youtube clip:

[betiko]

ahh... didn't watch the finale yet! will post in here when i do. there was already a dexter thread by the way.

[denominator]

Overall I thought it was a good final season. You had a killer who was equally capable and even seemingly ahead of Dexter at most turns. Some good subplots and character interaction, some twists that kept you wondering (First time in a while I had no idea what to expect for a series finale) and a more or less satisfying ending. Overall, I thought i was the best put together season since at least season 4, possibly 1 or 2. In my mind, One will always be the best in my mind if for no other reason than it being the original but two is a very close second. Season 3 I thought wasn't that great, I guess because I never bought the skinner or Prado as serious villains. Season 4 was good with John Lithgow portraying a surprisingly convincing serial killer who took no pride in his actions and his interactions with Dexter were worth watching. I never really managed to reconcile him though as Rita's killer. Something had always seemed off about it. Season 5 had potential but tried to do too much and never brought it all together with the convoluted main plot of Lumen and Dexter hunting down Jordan Chase's cult while dealing with Rita's murder, the Angel and Laguerta subplot and Quinn going after Dexter among other things. Too many subplots that never connected very well. As far as season 6, I didn't hate it as much as some seem to and thought trying to reconcile Dexter with the ambiguous properties of faith was a nice idea (the episode where his brother reappeared as his anti-conscience was interesting but too short lived. However I had a difficult time reconciling Mr. Hanks as a serious villain and him imagining that the professor was still alive while it was actually cool, involved a little too much suspension of disbelief (who did Dexter see walking into that building who Mr. Hanks said was the professor?). Season 7 was pretty good and the finale was unforgettable (I kind of realized that Deb was going to shoot LaGuerta when she appeared in the crate with Dexter but somehow, I kept waiting for that not to happen.

I was quite disappointed by both the 7th and 8th seasons. The 8th in particular. Partially because it was so easy to contrast with Breaking Bad, in which the final season was exceptional, and partially because the final season of Dexter was actually terrible.

Each season had the same/similar story arc in that Dexter is happily living his life and killing bad people, then comes across another serial killer, through which he learns more about himself, but in the end learns that he is best suited for the niche he has carved out in life. To that end, I found that seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 were the best, although 5 was solid too. My personal favourite was 4 simply because John Lithgow was exceptional.

Seasons 7 and 8 (particularly the latter) moved away from Dexter the serial killer and into Dexter the soap opera. None of Dexter's or Deb's motives in the final season made any sense. The Quinn/Jamie storyline made no sense. The Matsuka storyline was haphazard and thrown in, at best. And they tended to completely undermine Bautista's character at every turn - a character that they had built up for 8 years. Dexter made zero kills in the final season for his "dark passenger". To top it off, I didn't buy into the Hannah McKay storyline in season 7 (it seemed like they rewrote season 5's Lumen storyline but with a "happy" ending) and even less so in season 8.

As for the final episode itself, I thought it was terrible. It seemed as though the writers couldn't decide whether to have Deb live or die and instead wrote a weak and unbelievable storyline leading to her death (although I figured her death was inevitable this season after killing LaGuerta). The federal marshal working with Elway never amounted to anything, and Elway came across as exceedingly sloppy after we'd been led to believe he was good at his job all season. Then, to top it all off, we had a whopping 5 endings.

Ending 1: Deb dies, Dexter somehow manages to take her out of the hospital to his conveniently parked boat, and they ride off into the storm. Dexter seems to be willing to abandon everything at this point, despite everything he's done to the contrary for 8 seasons.

Ending 2: The wreckage of Dexter's boat is found. Nobody saw Dexter get on the boat, everyone knew he was headed to Argentina, and yet they assume he died on the boat despite not finding a body.

Ending 3: Bautista gets the call about Dexter dying. A disjointed scene that made no sense.

Ending 4: Hannah finds out Dexter has "died" and is now caring for Harrison, who they made abundantly clear all season is very fond of her. They have a perfect life in Argentina despite the fact that she is a wanted felon and her apparent disguise of choice is putting her hair in a ponytail.

Ending 5: Dexter is alive and well and working as a forestry trucker somewhere cold. He is evidently back to killing, although this raises many questions as to how he vets his new victims.

All in all, I thought the 8th season was poorly done and unlike the previous 7, had no planning done beforehand. The final episode was sad and seemed to me to be a feeble attempt at getting picked up for a 9th season. It was all too easy to contrast it with the absolutely fantastic final episode of Breaking Bad, which had one very poignant ending and wrapped up the whole series well. Just goes to show that it's better to go out on top than to drag it out.

[betiko]

i don't know what I think of the finale... I agree that the jaimie/quinn/deb/batista storyline made no sense at all.
Dex surviving the storm either. The water being incredibly calm with the storm neither (have you guys ever been on a boat???). I don't buy the dex remorse, I don't buy that hannah could let go what happened with dexter when he dupted her and sent her to prison. I don't buy harrison's affection for hannah that he barely knows, and the fact tat he doesn't give a shit about Jaimie who's been raising him all his life.
And yeah, dexter getting out of the hospital with deb's body to go get his boat just sitting there was a nice little joke as denominator says.
I don't know, I kind of lost interest during season 6, then I think that season 7 and 8 got me back into it. I think there were a few interesting new characters. But there is still something sloppy all around this... so yeah, I'll go with the first 4 seasons. Also, I don't know why everyone hates so much season 3. I thought it was interesting that dex could have a dexter wannabe as his boss...
by the way; lumen just walks away but she was still alve right?