(I wrote this post before the finale. I read what happened in the finale, because I couldn't care less what happens anymore. And it was so much worse than I could ever have imagined. I said I was going to watch the final season, but I don't think I will after hearing (SPOILER) Dexter is a lumberjack now. Way to top yourself on being awful, Dexter writers)
There are three types of people who have seen Dexter: people who gave up sometime a few seasons ago because of its drop in quality, people who continue watching because of some weird need for finality, and people who watch because they think it's good. I'm in the second camp. I've seen up to the first episode of season eight, which was ok. I have no strong desire to continue watching but I will when I get back in St. Louis just for the sake of finally finishing the show.
If you try to argue with me that season eight is different, that it's better, just don't. I've been sort of following along on recaps/analysis and it seems to be suffering from the same problems it has since about season five and even before.
I'm writing this for myself by the way and not to convince anyone. Anybody who still watches the show fits in two of the categories above and I doubt one post will convince someone to change their views on the show. And obviously people who have given up on the show are pretty dead-set on their views. So this is just me venting my frustration against the show.
Ok, to the point of the post: Why do I think Dexter sucks now? Well, for starters, the show never makes Dexter pay for his crimes. There are basically no consequences. And since he doesn't feel emotion mostly, there's very little internal moral debate going on with him. He's just killing people with little consequences either internally or externally.
I'm not sure you can really argue that he's suffering no legal consequences. It's stupid. I'm going to speak more on Miami Metro later, but basically everybody just assumes Dexter is innocent despite an ENORMOUS amount of circumstantial evidence. It's one thing if you have nothing to convict him. It's another to just completely ignore it and go about acting like Dexter isn't even a possibility. They have one character who is suspicious each season and anybody who he/she brings those suspicions to assumes they are batshit crazy because that's what the plot requires for Dexter to continue maintaining the status quo.
TV shows like this by nature are problematic because they want to stay on the air. Dexter is no exception. A compelling show about a serial killer shouldn't be eight seasons, because at some point, he needs to get caught. Or he needs to suffer personal friendships. Dexter sucking recently is mostly due to their need to make sure they maintain the status quo - Dexter kills bad people, insert person who thinks Dexter is nuts/guilty, create a compelling Big Bad, and when a new season begins, act like nothing ever happened.
The real problem I have with the show is character consistency in that it has none except for Dexter. Characters don't seemingly make their own decisions, they make decisions based off allowing Dexter to get away with it. The best example is that Deb shoots LaGuerta for some fucking reason. Sorry, that's not in character at all. You have to build your characters to that point, you can't just skip them from Point A to Point D. Deb needed to further lower her moral line in order for that to be believable. She went from "I can barely accept my brother is a serial killer" to "murdering an innocent person for my brother who is a serial killer."
As a side note, Miami Metro may just be the worst police unit of all time in television shows. That's saying something considering shows like this usually have poor police catching the bad guys. Miami Metro takes it to the next level. They are so bad at their job. They are only as good at their job as the plot demands it so whenever they randomly get good, it's obvious the writers need them to be good at their job and it's frankly jarring. It's also weird how it seems the writers act like they are supposed to be good at their job. Like in some weird universe, they are considered good at their job and the audience is supposed to just accept that they have a weak spot when it comes to anything related to Dexter's story.
This show is also the king of having something in the plot go nowhere. How many story lines just get dropped and forgot about? Remember when Quinn used to be suspicious of Dexter? Well at some point in the show, he replaced Doakes and filled Doakes role, but somewhere along the line, they just stopped that. I'd say more ideas, but I genuinely don't remember and I'm not re-watching it to find out.
The show largely has gone off the rails because it never solved its supporting characters problem. Few of the supporting characters were genuinely interesting even in the first two seasons. They weren't a large problem early on either because they minimized their role, they didn't matter as much because Dexter was still a fascinating character, or I was able to effectively ignore them. Also, Doakes was a genuinely interesting character mostly because he was on to Dexter's shit and obviously he had to go. They never really successfully filled the void left by his departure.
But man the creative team ran out of ideas after Season 4 and just recycled previous story lines with a little twist. Hell, after Season 2, the quality of a season largely depended on the Big Bad of the season. That's why Season 4 was so good and the beginning of Season 7 was strong. The Big Bad was interesting, well-acted, and provided a good opponent to Dexter.
I guess my biggest problem overall is that this is a show for people who like to see Dexter succeed. I don't know, I was kind of hoping that he would pay for his crimes in one way or the other - like Breaking Bad. I don't want to spoil Breaking Bad, but let's just say that it's pretty obvious that Walt's choice to become a meth kingpin was a poor one. I'm no morality watching TV member, but it's kind of stupid to just watch a serial killer kill other people with justification without really the show indicating that they think he's wrong.
He's deviated from Harry's Code too many times and killed or been responsible for enough innocent people's lives that at this point, that he should pay - not necessarily even go to jail. Maybe he gets ousted but they have no evidence, Deb stops talking to him for good unless he changes, etc. Even if you accept that he's got this impossible to control urge to kill people and he's justified in killing other terrible people, he's way past that point. Hell, he's making Debra face who she is as a person and forcing her to make moral compromises. But Deb will come around if she already hasn't - like I said I haven't seen most of Season 8 - because for some reason, the showrunners seem to want Dexter to have his way.
As a side note, even the seemingly good parts of Season 7 that I liked made me stretch belief. Yvonne Strahovski's (Hannah) relationship with Dexter was enticing at points, but the way they introduced it was ridiculous. One of the most unearned sexual tensions between two characters I have ever seen was when they first met. And anytime the two got lovey dovey was cringe-worthy.
I'm sorry if this post seems a little too much like rambling and jumping around. I mostly just wrote this free form style so it may show in this. And I fully realize that a large majority of my complaints are due to why I watch TV shows so if you watch it for a different reason, they wouldn't hold up for you.
I just find post-S4 Dexter uninteresting, boring, predictable and implausible. I am indifferent about what happens because ultimately I know how it will end up: Dexter is free to do his own thing. This could all be irrelevant if the finale somehow proves my point wrong, which I haven't seen yet. I don't think it will, but I'd be delighted if it did.
I'm sorry for ragging on one of your favorite shows - you know who you are - but that's what makes TV great. It allows for differing opinions and differing audiences. I just needed to express this because I'm frustrated with the show and I'm reminded every time I see a tweet praising the show.
Note: After this post, I became aware Grantland did a similar type post and did it much better than me so I would recommend you go read that.
Playlist
1. "Caring is Creepy" - The Shins
2. "Shining Star" - Earth, Wind & Fire
3. "Bad Day" - Chiddy Bang
4. "Still Waiting" - Sum 41
5. "Gimme the Loot" - Notorious B.I.G.
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