Dexter Season 8 (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

Boy this season is all over the map, You got the Brain Surgeaon, the shrink, Hanna MCKay, Dexter's Protégé, Not to mention the minor character subplots. This season should be focusing on one storyline winding down to the final episode, not just throwing crap at the wall and wrapping it all up the final show, look at Breaking Bad as an example of a final season done right.

 

[ScottH]

Boy this season is all over the map, You got the Brain Surgeaon, the shrink, Hanna MCKay, Dexter's Protégé, Not to mention the minor character subplots. This season should be focusing on one storyline winding down to the final episode, not just throwing crap at the wall and wrapping it all up the final show, look at Breaking Bad as an example of a final season done right.

Dexter just isn't close to being in the same league as Breaking Bad. This season is as if somewhere along the way they completely forgot it's the final season.

They do seem to be setting up an ending of Dexter and Hannah (and Harrison) riding off into the sunset together though.

 

[mattCR]

I don't know. See, I think Dexter has been a show that is intentionally messy, intentionally full of lots of loose ends.. and so this final season seems very fitting; we'll wrap up some things, but not everything, and a ton is going to be left unknown. And unlike a Breaking Bad where it's a small lot of characters, Dexter has always relied on "body of the week" and "perp of the week" leaving a ton of storylines, whereas something like Breaking Bad is very focused on one storyline.
Is this season up to say, Dexter Season 2? No. But it's still fun for me, at least

 

[Paul D G]

I've always felt Dexter was a slow boil show - it moves along at it's own pace then amps up near the end as everything comes together. But, while I'm enjoying the season I can't help feel it's a bit messy. At the start of last week's ep (Aug 18) I was trying to recall if they actually caught the Brain Surgeon or not. We're we supposed to assume it was the guy who kept the girl in the basement or not? The hunt for him just sort of stopped. Then the kid shows up in Dexter's apartment with a chunk of his head missing.

Dexter should have immediately had a think about Vogel. Even without the audio clue for the audience. Who else could associate the kid with Dexter?

 

[Walter Kittel]

For me, the last quality seasons for the show were seasons four and five (Trinity & Lumen) and it has never come close to that level since in terms of focus and consistency. (I was able to see the big reveal of season 6 from miles away; an extremely disappointing season.) I'm watching it now at least partly to finish off the show that I've been with all these years. I've read that a lot of the talent behind the screen has changed over the years and IMHO it really shows. I still enjoy the show in terms of episodes here and there, but I'm ready for it to conclude.

It certainly seems like they are setting up a situation in which Dexter leaves town with Hannah and Harrison, but I'm guessing that a monkey wrench will be thrown into the works. Three episodes to go.

- Walter.

 

[Steve Berger]

Dexter just isn't close to being in the same league as Breaking Bad. This season is as if somewhere along the way they completely forgot it's the final season.

They do seem to be setting up an ending of Dexter and Hannah (and Harrison) riding off into the sunset together though.

I don't know about that ending but I agree about the plot planning. I'm seing a "standard season" with a short ending tacked on. At last I hope there is an end appended.

 

[Yee-Ming]

They do seem to be setting up an ending of Dexter and Hannah (and Harrison) riding off into the sunset together though.

Somehow, I just don't think they get to 'ride off into the sunset' and 'live happily ever after'. Something is going to go haywire somewhere.

 

[joshEH]

I also love that Hannah is a wanted fugitive, and apparently news of her being back in Miami is on the TV. So does she go out? Yes. Looking EXACTLY the same, wearing a sexy PINK dress.

Plus, she looks like Yvonne Strahovski. It's much more likely that I'm going to recognize a fugitive if I'm staring at her obsessively anyway.

For me, the last quality seasons for the show were seasons four and five (Trinity & Lumen) and it has never come close to that level since in terms of focus and consistency. (I was able to see the big reveal of season 6 from miles away; an extremely disappointing season.) I'm watching it now at least partly to finish off the show that I've been with all these years. I've read that a lot of the talent behind the screen has changed over the years and IMHO it really shows. I still enjoy the show in terms of episodes here and there, but I'm ready for it to conclude.

It certainly seems like they are setting up a situation in which Dexter leaves town with Hannah and Harrison, but I'm guessing that a monkey wrench will be thrown into the works. Three episodes to go.

Pretty much since the very first season, they've continuously announced a new showrunner at some point during the off-season. Manos left at the end of Season 1, Daniel Cerone left at the end of Season 2, Clyde Phillips left after Season 4 (when many fans claim the show was at its peak); so did the head writer. Another new showrunner (Chip Johannessen) left after Season 5, and still another one quit two episodes into Season 8.

Between that, and the brief marriage between Hall and Carpenter, I bet there's a great doc one could make about all the turmoil behind the scenes.

I can't think of one time when a show had such drastic or highly-publicized changes, and it turned out well in the very end. I'd say it's pretty apparent that some of the more passionate creators of the show were not particularly ecstatic about the way Showtime handled the series.

 

[MarkMel]

I don't even think they tried with these final episodes. Which is a shame because this was a good show at one point.

All that's missing is a laughtrack and it could be comedy. "Whatcha talkin' 'bout Dexter?"

 

[Dheiner]

Um, where'd the dude go when Dexter ran inside, and why didn't Dex break that window he ran into? He's not a fucking bird. Doakes would be spinnin' in his grave if this shit was real.

 

[ScottH]

Yeah it really is a shame how bad this show has become. This episode felt like it was 3 hours long. Pretty much no interest in any of the story lines going on right now. The dude happens to overhear Angel looking for Dexter's replacement? UGH!

 

[Patrick Sun]

Finally caught up with this season's Dexter, and sure, it's been a tepid ride to the finish line, hopefully tonight's finale will be a decent one (doubt it'll approach Six Feet Under's finale, though).

 

[mattCR]

Six Feet Under had one of the most memorable finales ever, and one of the only ones I can think of that wrapped up every single storyline possible with absolute certainty

 

[joshEH]

I don't even think they tried with these final episodes. Which is a shame because this was a good show at one point.

All that's missing is a laughtrack and it could be comedy. "Whatcha talkin' 'bout Dexter?"

Poor Lem -- he's basically Surfer Sean Bean™.

A couple weeks ago, I read an interview where a bunch of different show-runners were asked what they respected most about Breaking Bad, and Dexter's show-runner replied that it's the fact that Gilligan and Co. aren't afraid to take Walt to the absolute darkest places possible, and make him completely unlikeable.

This led me to conclude that perhaps Scott Buck is brain-damaged, because how else can a person be so oblivious as to what's happening in his own show?

There may be a mandate from Showtime involved, as well: nothing that makes Dexter too not-cuddly. No shots of the dissolving bodies of his victims, as we got in Season Two. No callous dismissals of the very concept of justice, as that conversation with Miguel in S3 gave us.

No more flashbacks of teenaged Dexter getting ready to go to town on a poor, helpless-looking little deer. Hell, when's the last time he even killed a woman on the show? Season Four? 'Cause Lord knows there are no unrepentant female murderers out there (ones Dex isn't schtupping, at any rate).

They've robbed the character of every solitary bit of edge he might have once had. Unlike Walter White, who gets to whistle while he works after watching a kid getting shot.

They couldn't just trust making him his sociopathic self, and that people would still be on his side and follow. Vic Mackey was horrible, and people loved him -- Dexter could have been the same, but the network chickened out.

If Dexter had been a show run by an actual person, rather than by Showtime's accountants, I imagine Season 5 would've been the last. It should've been obvious that they could never top Lithgow's serial-killer, so the logical next step would be to go immediately into the "Dex-vs.-Deb" endgame.

But Showtime milks shows until they're putting out fumes. I shudder at the thought of Season 8 of Homeland.

 

[mattCR]

Well, OK.

I have almost nothing to say about tonights episode outside of it ends the series. And that's about it.

 

[ScottH]

Yeah, I suppose it could have been worse...that's about all I can say.

Well, one other thing I'll say is I thought it would have been better if they left it open as to whether or not Dexter was alive.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The series finale blew chunks. That is all.

 

[Don Giro]

The finale left me cold. I expected so much more. It didn't even feel like a SEASON finale, just a run-of-the-mill episode.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

That sucked. So Deb is recovering, than dying, so that Dexter can have the epiphany that he ruins lives, and kill himself to save his loved ones from himself, but he fails to kill himself? And his glare in the final ep I think is supposed to make us think that sociopathic Dexter is back -- so then why all the time spent during the season showing that Dexter is evolving into having real feelings for Deb, Harrison and Hannah? It's hard to believe anyone thought any of this was a great idea.

I have a friend who just started watching season 1. I told him to stop with season 5 (I liked the Lumen season).

 

[ScottH]

That sucked. So Deb is recovering, than dying, so that Dexter can have the epiphany that he ruins lives, and kill himself to save his loved ones from himself, but he fails to kill himself? And his glare in the final ep I think is supposed to make us think that sociopathic Dexter is back -- so then why all the time spent during the season showing that Dexter is evolving into having real feelings for Deb, Harrison and Hannah? It's hard to believe anyone thought any of this was a great idea.

Not to mention that Dexter just turns off Deb's life support and waltzes on out of the hospital with her dead body. I realize there was a storm and evacuation going on, but you're telling me they would just leave one of their patients there with no monitoring or supervision and let people walk in and out at their convenience?