Dexter Season 8 (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

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?

Or at least security cameras you could watch after the fact to figure everything out?

 

[TravisR]

Michael C. Hall was so damn good in this role and he deserved a much better series.

 

[joshEH]

Or, a much better final few seasons, at least (though, to be sure, I actually like aspects of Season 7, including Ray Stevenson's character, quite a bit).

 

[Jeff Adkins]

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).

I agree about Season 5. That's probably where it should have ended, although there were parts of seasons 6 and 7 that I found enjoyable. The writing on this season has been awful. Last night's episode had some of the most implausible scenarios in the history of the series. It's sad that such a fantastic show couldn't have gone out with a bang, the way that Breaking Bad seems to be doing.

 

[TravisR]

Did the producers know that this was the last season when they started writing or did they only find out part way through? With this being the last season and with Deb having shot LaGuerta, I just assumed that this season would have been about the net was closing in on Dexter and by extension Deb.

It's not fair to ask Dexter to reach the heights that Breaking Bad is managing to hit but I think this season would have been much more satisfying if it was about Dexter trying to cover up LaGuerta's murder and throw his co-workers off his trail rather than a main plot involving Dexter's pseudo-mother and her long lost crazed son.

 

[ScottH]

It's not fair to ask Dexter to reach the heights that Breaking Bad is managing to hit but I think this season would have been much more satisfying if it was about Dexter trying to cover up LaGuerta's murder and throw his co-workers off his trail rather than a main plot involving Dexter's pseudo-mother and her long lost crazed son.

Exactly. I wasn't a huge fan of 'The Shield', but Dexter should have taken a page from that book with the way they closed it out - spending the last season with everyone trying to take him down (like Vic Mackey). They even could have brought in a Forest Whitaker type character to be a nemesis for Dexter. When the season started I thought maybe that's what Vogel would be, but as soon as they revealed who she really was I knew the season was doomed.

It's really disappointing that in the end, Deb was the only primary character that found out who Dexter really was, and she's dead. Would have loved to see what someone like Angel's reaction would have been to find out about him. Or even Quin or Masuka.

 

[TravisR]

Would have loved to see what someone like Angel's reaction would have been to find out about him. Or even Quin or Masuka.

Until a few episodes ago, I assumed that the truth about Dexter would be revealed. So every time Angel was nice to Dexter (and he always seemed to consider Dexter to be his friend rather than just a co-worker), I'd feel bad for him and think what a bummer it was going to be when he found out.

 

[Steve Berger]

Someone REALLY didn't want to finalize the series. End the season maybe, but not the concept of "Dexter"

 

[Yee-Ming]

I sort of thought it should have just ended with him literally sailing into the hurricane. End of, even if it is slightly vague as to whether he lived. As Steve notes above, this keeps open the possibility of spin-offs/sequels or a TV movie.

 

[TravisR]

I sort of thought it should have just ended with him literally sailing into the hurricane.

I thought the same thing and given the story path they took, I would have liked that as an ending. I still have to give it up to Michael C. Hall because he really sold the scenes of Dexter killing and disposing of Deb and the pain Dex felt with all of that.

 

[Tommy R]

While agree the season was under whelming, at least in the standpoint that it's the final season, I do think that it's a very interesting final end to the series. Dexter alone in a forced exile, giving up the possibility of having a happy ending. It's the perfect punishment for him.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Pretty disappointing finale to another disappointing season. While you can argue for the justice of Dexter not deserving a happy ending, I think that just reinforces how much the show changed over the years. In the early years the show was subversive enough to make Dexter the protagonist and celebrate (in a fashion) what he did. At the conclusion of Season 1, Dexter fantasizes about whether folks would cheer for him if they knew what he did (Think the ending of Clockwork Orange.) The show embraced Dexter's vigilante justice in the early seasons and was frankly more daring for it.

Extremely disappointed in the treatment of Deb over the past few years, particularly the stupid "I love you" plot which never seemed to gain traction, and finally death through misadventure because a U.S. Marshal didn't recognize a fugitive whose face was all over the news. Really?

Anyway it is over and while I'm glad to get that hour of my life back, I will miss the characters.

- Walter.

 

[Paul D G]

Hated it. I was willing to go along with the season because I expected things to suddenly go non-linear in the last two episodes. This was just... bad. Simple fact. Dexter is a serial killer. He needed to be figured out and pursued. Put the hero in danger... I mean, what happened to the blood soaked toy of Harrison's? Didn't everyone expect that to come back to haunt him?

I went back and looked up some of the theories people have had on how it should end (which I've avoided) and this one nailed it.

 

[Emanuel1]

What is the music playing when Dexter asks Rita to marry him?

 

[ScottH]

I went back and looked up some of the theories people have had on how it should end (which I've avoided) and this one nailed it.

That final season would have been 100 times better. No, make that 1,000 times better. In fact, I might just pretend that is actually what happened.

 

[RobertR]

I don't think I agree that it would have been better. I'm not defending Season 8 overall (the execution was poor), but I do agree with the basic idea of Dexter suffering for his crimes. He was Pinocchio (wanted to be a "real boy"), and in becoming so, he lost everything.

 

[Paul D G]

By his own choosing, tho. Had Hannah been captured, Harrison would have gone into the system while it was determined if Dexter was a fit father for becoming romantically involved with a known serial killer. He chose to separate himself.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

I think the worst part of the finale is how Dexter made a terrible decision to abandon Harrison. Poor kid. He's stuck in a foreign country with a complete stranger. I'm a dad now so I think about these things. So sad. Deb's death was pointless. Just because the show is ending doesn't mean they need to kill people off.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I think the worst part of the finale is how Dexter made a terrible decision to abandon Harrison. Poor kid. He's stuck in a foreign country with a complete stranger. I'm a dad now so I think about these things. So sad. Deb's death was pointless. Just because the show is ending doesn't mean they need to kill people off.

Deb survives and then dies in hospital, i thought that was very weak and poor, she was a survivor, a tough cookie during the shows run and they killed her off in a poorly written scene, her character should have survived and that would have given a bit of light in what was a pretty bleak final episode, it should have ended with the boat, no stupid lumberjack scene.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Deb's death felt very contrived, and I'm not sure I buy Dexter abandoning Harrison and Hannah in the end. But oh well. I'll just look at that last episode as one of an infinite number of potential universes. I'm OK with Dexter's transformation from pure sociopath into more of a "human." It's an interesting character arc.

FWIW, my favorite storylines (after the Ice Truck and Doakes/ Lila) were Lumen and Ray Stevenson (whatever his character was called).