Dexter : Season 8 - *SPOILERS*

[Maxximus]

The beginning of the end starts this Sunday.

 

This thread is for all things related to season 8. Feel free to discuss things from the current season freely, but please use spoiler tags for previous season comments and anything related to the books.

 

 

Trailer:

 

[video=youtube;6ckzE5vT0wc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ckzE5vT0wc

 

 

Episode 1 Clip - Psychopath Whisperer

 

[video=youtube;yEAaxYM0Q6s]

 

 

I'm looking forward to the final season and I'm kinda glad the show's coming to an end. Deb has been driving me nuts for years now. Like I said in another thread, I wish she would have been Ice Truck'd in season one.

 

Anybody else gonna be watching?

[JobberJoe]

Dexter is a strange beast for me. I recently watched most of it; only catching the ends of S1 and 2 before settling in properly and Netflix only has up to the end of S6, but man this is an awful show. The dialogue is laughable, Deborah is an awful, AWFUL actress and the only thing that kept me going was Masuka's hilarious and awesome laughs. Admittedly S4 was, for the most part, really brilliant and I don't understand how the show produced such a well-thought out plot frame. Oh, baby Harrison also pulls some of the most brilliant non-acting acting faces in the history of toddler acting. I HATED the entire LaGuerrta/Batista love story. It came out of nowhere, developed in non-sensical directions and then ended with the 5-minute-marriage-from-hell. But then they KEEP going with it. AAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

 

What I'm saying is that I'm looking forward to seeing S7 and for 8 to begin.

 

[video=youtube;1XowMv_JbB4]

[John Hancock]

The dude who created The Wire hates Dexter with a passion, so it's officially, provably not good. What he says, goes.

[Kam]

In the UK we'll get it on FOX from Sunday July 7th at 9pm.

 

Oh and Max/JJ, Debra has a message for you:

 

[video=youtube;f8Niw_WtpKU]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Niw_WtpKU

[Maxximus]

:lol

[Jimmy Redman]

So... Ep 8x01.

 

I think the main problem with this whole storyline is that, as everyone can agree, Deb just isn't likeable. I don't care if she is supposedly not coping and spiralling out of control. This is the issue with the past few seasons, they have been built around Deb discovering everything, her world falling apart and her transformation into a psychopath enabler, but it is hard to feel sympathy for her downward spiral when she's a weird neurotic bitch with daddy issues who is in love with her own brother.

 

Only Cersei can pull that sh*t off.

 

And then the weird thing is that by the end she is actually working the case and, while exhibiting dangerous behaviour, she is kind of coping in a weird way and suddenly we're back to Dexter being the one not coping with Deb not being able to cope but also kind of coping as well. So like, are we supposed to be feeling sorry for her or not? Is she coping or not? She's punishing herself by snorting coke in a piece of sh*t motel with a criminal, but she's also continuing to work the case and apparently liked the company of the dead guy, so how bad can she be?

 

And I have to say Dexter also came off as quite a douche throughout this for seemingly being completely bewildered that Deb would hate him for what she became. I know his deal is that he's a psychopath, but the previous 7 seasons were all about Dexter becoming more human and feeling things for people, and the previous season was all about Deb being a good person who would be destroyed by finding out the truth - which happened - and now he doesn't get how that makes her resent him? Its one of those times he really comes off as a selfish douche.

 

I think I'm complaining more than I want to, because I always like this show no matter what. And the Psychopath Whisperer Lady intrigues me a lot. But the Deb and Dex drama was just weird today.

[Jimmy Redman]

So, is anyone else actually watching this?

 

3 eps in and I'm kinda warming up to it. Like I said above, the parts that are pure The Passion of the Deb are annoying, because Deb is f*cking annoying and her downward spiral means she's even more of an obstinate, unlikeable ****. But when they link it to other stuff it gets better, like Dexter trying to figure out their new dynamic, or the fact that she (might have?) killed someone in cold blood (which was absurdly undersold after Dexter cleaned it up - Deb killing someone of her own accord isn't a gigantic f*cking thing?!), or the Psychopath Lady wondering where a loving relationship with his sister fits into her image of Dexter The Perfect Functioning Psychopath Killing Machine.

 

And woah, Psychopath Lady. She is so excellent and SO F*CKING CREEPY. I can't even. She just HAS TO be suss, right? She comes off as so brilliantly, subtly unhinged. One day all will be revealed and she's the one slicing people's brains out because her entire public life and career is some pseudo-scientific cover for her own psychopathic tendencies, all of which she will calmly explain to Dexter so matter-of-factly, so confidently, so reasonably, and expect him to TOTALLY get it as a fellow psychopath, but because Dexter has developed some semblance of a conscious in his lifetime (to some extent from the same moral code she gave to him), he is horrified and repulsed by his creator being so deranged and evil and just completely f*cks her sh*t up. I can't wait.

 

Everyone else is, of course, annoying as hell. I miss LaGuerta. She was my favourite in all of Dexter. I just love that kind of character, someone so completely, hilariously, transparently selfish, with zero redeeming qualities, who has absolutely no scruples and no shame at being such a complete piece of sh*t. The same reason why Victoria Grayson is my favourite character on TV.

[Kam]

Finally got started on this! I'm up to episode #3 at the moment.

 

As I've said before, I love Deb...although I have to admit I wanted to give her a slap when she went in to confess!

 

And woah, Psychopath Lady. She is so excellent and SO F*CKING CREEPY. I can't even. She just HAS TO be suss, right? She comes off as so brilliantly, subtly unhinged. One day all will be revealed and she's the one slicing people's brains out because her entire public life and career is some pseudo-scientific cover for her own psychopathic tendencies, all of which she will calmly explain to Dexter so matter-of-factly, so confidently, so reasonably, and expect him to TOTALLY get it as a fellow psychopath, but because Dexter has developed some semblance of a conscious in his lifetime (to some extent from the same moral code she gave to him), he is horrified and repulsed by his creator being so deranged and evil and just completely f*cks her sh*t up. I can't wait.

My thoughts exactly! I just cannot trust her...she scares me more than any of the other psychos they've had on the show.

 

I miss LaGuerta. She was my favourite in all of Dexter. I just love that kind of character, someone so completely, hilariously, transparently selfish, with zero redeeming qualities, who has absolutely no scruples and no shame at being such a complete piece of sh*t. The same reason why Victoria Grayson is my favourite character on TV.

It sounds like you are describing Joffrey! :lol

[Kam]

I'm up to episode 6 now. I'm surprised the whole Debra breakdown seems to get resolved so quickly along with the Brain Surgeon storyline. It was weird seeing Jamie Maguire from Shameless in the show, never expected to see him there!

 

Only 6 more episodes to go...

[Kam]

Zak! :eek Wasn't expecting that at all.

[Jimmy Redman]

They did that annoying thing where they finally made the character likeable and gave them an interesting direction...and then slit their throat before close of business.

 

I'm a week or two ahead of you so I will hold off on specifics from new eps for the minute, but what I want to say about the general direction of the season is that it just feels...rushed. Pretty much all previous seasons of Dexter have felt, if anything, the opposite, like they took a single idea and stretched it out as much as possible to fill a season. Here it's like, its the final season so the writers are taking the last chance they have to throw ANY cool idea they ever had into the show before it dies. Things have no room to breathe and develop because there's so much going on. Deb's meltdown, introducing Vogel, protecting Vogel, Zack as a young Dexter clone, Zack as Dexter's apprentice, the Brain Surgeon serial killer angle, Hannah McKay and Dexter's desire for a family...so, so much sh*t to get through and resolve in 12 eps, when previously they'd flesh out a season with only two or maybe three of those ideas.

 

Like, Jesus, Dexter trying to teach The Code to a young psychopath certainly deserved more than the ONE EPISODE or so that it got. Vogel really needed more than one season to properly get through her character arc relative to Dexter, which should be some form of: introduction as Code-creator and Dexter getting to know and his pseudo-mother > Vogel is threatened by the serial killer du jour forcing Dexter to protect her and solidifying their bond > her urging Dexter to pass on the Code to an apprentice to continue the experiment > the breakdown of their relationship because he's not the perfect psychopath after all/he doesn't want to be her experiment/she's a crazy psycho bitch serial killer/etc. and BOOMSKI. Now, that has all basically happened, but it happened in the space of like 5 episodes, when it should have happened over like 2 seasons.

 

My point is, they are trying to get all their sh*t in before the time expires, and it's unsatisfactory.

[Ciaran The King]

Finally caught up with the series, it's boring me. I'll watch the end but this should have ended a couple years ago

[Hanahbananabob]

I am really enjoying this season, but I agree with Jimmy they are trying to fit too much into one series. It's weird for me watching 1 episode a week, as I only got into Dexter this year, so watched seasons 1-7 in the space of a few months. Only 4 more episodes to go and its all over :(

[FreeSpirit]

Hannah McKay and Jamie Batista are always great eye candy on the show. While Im loving the character of Dr Evelyn Vogel. She brings something different to a show that ran it's course a long time ago.

[Jimmy Redman]

Tell me when you guys (Kam) have seen the last episode so we can discuss this.

[DC]

I stopped watching after Season 4, but made sure I watched this episode.

[The B-Man]

Should of Ended at the end of Series 5!

[Kam]

Just watched the final episode!

 

They made it blatantly obvious Deb would die...I mean seriously, all the talk about how she was going to be fine at the start of the episode and the reminiscing, I knew it was coming! I didn't like how they did the relapse off screen too, it just felt like an afterthought, she deserved better. Although saying that, I actually cried when he turned off the machine and carried her to the boat and let her go. It just brought back memories of when my sister died, having watched the show for the past 7 years it didn't help she was one of my favourites.

 

Overall for me, this season seemed to have got more sloppy as it went on, as Jimmy said, they tried to cram too much in and it really had a negative impact on the show. Easily the worst season for me, it had a lot of potential with Vogel and her son but it just felt too rushed.

 

I would have preferred a more ambiguous ending, just Dexter on the boat facing the storm would have been better.

[Jimmy Redman]

Man, I have so many thoughts in my head about Dexter I'm not sure where to begin or how to organise them.

 

Essay warning.

 

I think the main thing that went wrong philosophically with the last few seasons of Dexter is that the people who made it completely forgot what the show was about.

 

Dexter's story is about death. And they tried to turn it into a love story.

 

I mean, the entire point of Dexter was him being a serial killer. The end game, and thus the tension it created along the way, revolved around "Will he be caught/exposed/arrested/killed?" He was a serial killer, at some point, something would go wrong and he'd meet a sticky end, one way or another. The only end game is his double life catching up to him. And then like with less than half a season left in the series, the end game suddenly shifts to "Will the two lovebirds escape in time and live happily ever after?" Nawww, how romantic! What the F*CK. The point of Dexter was not us wanting him to live happily ever after with the love of his life. We wanted to see what would happen to a serial killer when they get caught out.

 

I mean, there are a lot of things to complain about with the show lately. But my biggest f*cking grievance out of everything was the scene where Dexter was about to kill whoever (Saxon?) and off-handedly went "Oh, wow, I don't feel the need to kill anymore! Well, what a load off my mind."

 

...

 

http://darkvice.net/pics/wth.gif

 

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

YOU JUST KILLED THE WHOLE POINT OF DEXTER IN 7 SECONDS.

 

He's a psychopath. The whole PREMISE AND POINT OF THE SHOW is that he's a psychotic serial killer with a pathological need to kill. It dictates his entire life, from his mother's death that screwed him up, to Harry seeing his issues, to Harry using the Code to channel his psychosis and keep him alive, safe and functioning in society. Then the show is all about Dexter killing people, trying to exist in the world as a secret serial killer, avoiding detection, having a cover life, developing emotional attachments, having a wife and child, experiencing loss, and killing more people. Throughout it ALL the one constant was that Dexter was a killer who needed to kill. No matter the risk of being caught, all his struggles with Harry and the Code, all the loss he experienced, he always, ALWAYS needed to kill and his whole live revolved around enabling him to do it. His killing caused his WIFE to be murdered, and he couldn't stop killing. Whenever he was monitored 24/7 by the police he would risk life and limb and detection to an absurd degree in order to get away and kill someone. Deb found out and begged him to stop and tried monitoring him, and he did the same thing. He sort of even realised that Harry and Vogel manipulated him into becoming a killing machine, and yet he was still a killer. But then suddenly one day, with no warning, he decides that LOVE IS GREATER THAN KILLING and he is magically cured of his psychopathic urges. Just in time to make the show into a love story where, instead of being about the fallout from being a serial killer, it is about two people who love each other running away to start a new life of happiness.

 

WHAT.

THE ACTUAL.

F*CK.

 

Dexter could actually have BEEN a lumberjack for all it seemed to matter in the end.

 

The lumberjack shit made zero sense either. IF, as previously established above, Dexter suddenly didn't need to kill people anymore, then why did he have to abandon Hannah and Harrison? He said it was because he always puts his loved ones in danger, but the only way he puts people in danger, the only way they'd come into danger in the future, is complications arising from his life as a serial killer. If he's not a serial killer anymore, what's the problem? Why couldn't he run off with them and be an Argentinian lumberjack? How could he hurt them now if he's cured?

 

Whereas what we get is him escaping to be an emotionally-vacant lumberjack leaving behind a heartbroken girlfriend and the poor kid who thinks his father is dead when really, he abandoned you because he didn't want to feel feelings anymore. Well, f*ck you. Dexter came off as such a piece of shit in that finale, between killing Deb, stealing her body to throw in the ocean like a fish, then abandoning his own son and the woman he uprooted his ENTIRE LIFE for on a whim, only to pop up somewhere else to start anew, no worries, because...he was upset? F*ck you.

 

Now that we're at the end of the season it's ridiculous how much potentially good shit they rushed past on the way to the motherf*cking love story bullshit that ended up as a big swerve anyway. Vogel, Zack, even Deb's meltdown in the beginning. THAT shit was actually relevant and they wasted all of it to make room for HANNAH MCKAY. And I don't hate Hannah on principle because, hey, Yvonne, but once again, motherF*CK a love story. You are entirely missing the point.

 

Gah.

[Jimmy Redman]

Not done.

 

I've been watching Season 4 again (because, I guess, I like torturing myself) and what really sticks out to me is how much more human Dexter was then than he ended up becoming. Of course it's amplified because S4 is about dealing with family, but I mean the way he interacted with them, with his normal, kind of neurotic wife and normal, growing children, was really, I don't know, down to earth and endearing. He was trying to fit in killing while he was sleep deprived, running errands in the middle of a kill, being an awkward goof with his normal neighbours, having no idea how to deal with Astor and her developing emotions and attitude, being distant with his new wife leading her to make out with the more present neighbour...ALL of that shit is such normal, everyday life with a family shit...that Dexter has to deal with through his serial killer lens, because he, as a serial killer, chose to have a family. The entire season is him dealing with this choice.

 

So how does Dexter deal with his family in Seasons 5-8? He doesn't!

 

They COMPLETELY abandoned it. Rita slashed. Astor and Cody immediately shipped off-screen for all eternity. And Harrison is constantly, to the point of parody, passed off to a robot cyborg nanny who never complains or has any need to sleep, eat or leave Dexter's apartment, just so Dexter never, ever, EVER has to deal with having a son. I don't know which Dexter writer decided "writing for a kid is too hard, f*ck it", but I want them identified and then eliminated via firing squad. In avoiding having Dexter deal with the very real problems of his family or his kid, they lost that link Dexter had to his own humanity. And none of the attempts they made in the final few seasons to give him a "family" - Vogel, Hannah - seemed remotely relateable in comparison.

 

I assume you've all seen Season 4 by now (spoiler alert!) so let me say also, on a happier note, that it is awesome, Trinity is excellent, and the cliffhangers in this season are immense, from the Lundy/Deb shooting, to the incredibly casual "Hey Dad" reveal, to the chilling "Hello Dexter Morgan" confrontation. And of course the ending.

 

It's such a shame the show ended up like it did, because the first four seasons for sure belong up there with any great run of television.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Jimmy Redman

[The B-Man]

Sorry I meant Season 4 then, jesus I didn't think there was that many after Rita, very poor since that point in comparisson

[Chris2K]

I don't watch the show or know what's happened but I just read an interview featuring one of the Dexter producers that Showtime insisted at the start of the season that Dexter had to be shown to be alive at the end of the finale.

 

I only mention this because personally I'm getting sick of networks giving direction to the shows that have their own writing team in place.

[Jimmy Redman]

He could have been seen to be alive without running away to be a lumberjack.

[The B-Man]

From killing killers to kiling trees! - An Album by Dexter and the Lumberjacks

[Jimmy Redman]

Update: I'm not done.

 

F*CK EVERYTHING.

 

Like seriously. I think I had a very pro wrestling-like attachment to Dexter, in the sense that I view it with the deliciously destructive combination of unconditional love and devotion combined with obsessive and exhaustive analysis, which ends up ruining my life because I can never get over stuff or stop talking about it. Over a month later, I am still reading Dexter finale criticism as a form of relaxation. There's something wrong with me.

 

Mainly, after everything, it just bothers the hell out of me that we were robbed of seeing Dexter's exposure. That and the fallout one way or the other - arrest/imprisonment/execution/murder/escape/whatever - was the only remotely logical end game for this show. And they completely failed to deliver it. I mean, imagine when you started watching this show back in Season 1, or whenever, and the Ghost of Dexter Future comes to you and explains that Dexter is never found out, never captured or arrested, never tried, his colleagues never discover the truth, he is never exposed, and neither is he killed. What is the point of continuing to watch at that point, if you're going to be robbed of a remotely satisfying conclusion?

 

I feel like the writers and people who made the show became too attached to the character of Dexter itself, and sort of forgot about what the show was. By this point, it's been so long and he's been through so much, that they would have probably felt weird treating him like a serial killer and having him be brought to justice in some way. He means a lot to them, so they'd rather have him discover true love (vomit), float the idea of an idyllic happy ending (vomit), and then give himself some psychological maxim as his own "justice" (gross).

 

There's a really important failure in the last season or so of Dexter: his complete omnipotence, and total failure to face any consequences. The charm of early Dexter seasons was that things didn't always go his way and you saw him deal with adversity. Losing a body here, sneaking away from his family there, killer who is a step ahead of him here, cop who suspects him there. He wasn't all powerful. Again, I think the writers got too attached to the character, because by the end they had basically deified him, he could do no wrong and nothing ever beat him.

 

Think about Jamie being the world's hottest indentured servant, looking after Harrison at all hours of the day and night, every day, just so that Dexter never, ever had to deal with being a single parent or trying to sneak away to kill with a dependent child. No worries there. Think about Deb killing an innocent person to save him from being arrested as a serial killer and having a mental breakdown as a result, and it being HER fault that she's trying to get out of his life and it's totally reasonable to drag her back in. Think about Deb trying to drown them both in a lake because of how much he's ruined her life by being a serial killer, and it's HER fault and SHE APOLOGISES TO HIM. Think about Saxon, who was a useless shit of a Big Bad, who was unbelievably stupid and did everything that Dexter thought and expected him to do right on cue. No worries there. Think about the time Dexter killed that guy IN THE MIDDLE OF MIAMI AIRPORT with absolutely no worries. Think about Dexter making Deb open her house to someone who tried to kill her and having to eat food prepared by a poisoner. Think about Dex making the decision to euthanise Deb, and then stealing her body and dumping it in the ocean in the same way that he dumped his evil murder victims. No, it's fine, nobody else will be wondering where the f*ck Deb's body went. Go ahead, your serial killer ritual for someone who didn't even deserve to be murdered is far more important than a funeral for her loved ones with full police honours. Everything is about what Dexter wants, everyone bends to his will, nothing ever gets in his way or makes things hard for him. Dex as a character really became a piece of shit in the end. Earlier on he was actually genuinely likeable, and relateable. Getting through life was a struggle for him. There was no struggle in the end. No stakes, zero sense that he was in any danger ever. It became "which one of these things that I want to do will I do first?" for him. Not "how do I get through today without ending up dead or in jail?"

 

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGETYPING!!!!!

 

There was an interview with one of the previous showrunners after the finale, where he said his idea would have been for the final scene to be Dexter strapped to the chair, looking out through the window at all of his previous victims and the innocent people in his life that he'd affected. The implication being that the entire show was Dexter reminiscing about his life just before he is executed, and while I'm not wild about the "it was all a dream" of it all, I think the idea of the scene itself is actually the best possible ending there could have been for the show. Dexter faces his victims (literal and psychological) one last time, and then finally faces the consequences of his actions. He was OUR serial killer, but he was still a serial killer, you know? That is how that ends. Badly.