Television Showtime announces 10-episode revival of...Dexter

[Spork3245]

The one criticism that seems semi-valid: 

Spoiler

Police chief spent basically her entire career trying to figure out what's up with all of these missing women, never made any progress, yet figures out Dexter is the BHB in like 2 weeks because she finds out his name isn't Jim.

Doesn't really bother me, I overall enjoyed this one-off season, but I'm also not one these mega-fans that's freaking out about Dexter being shot.

 

[Greatoneshere]

6 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

The one criticism that seems semi-valid: 

  Reveal hidden contents

Police chief spent basically her entire career trying to figure out what's up with all of these missing women, never made any progress, yet figures out Dexter is the BHB in like 2 weeks because she finds out his name isn't Jim.

Doesn't really bother me, I overall enjoyed this one-off season, but I'm also not one these mega-fans that's freaking out about Dexter being shot.

 

 

I mean, it takes episodes for her to reach that conclusion, but as soon as you know someone killed their old identity, that's a huge red flag. Additionally, it wasn't until she noticed the needle scars on the necks of victims in both Iron Lake and in Miami that she finally felt it confirmed, and to be fair, it all connects cause otherwise that's a hell of a coincidence. It's no worse than most of the police procedural stuff in Dexter I thought.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I mean, it takes episodes for her to reach that conclusion, but as soon as you know someone killed their old identity, that's a huge red flag. Additionally, it wasn't until she noticed the needle scars on the necks of victims in both Iron Lake and in Miami that she finally felt it confirmed, and to be fair, it all connects cause otherwise that's a hell of a coincidence. It's no worse than most of the police procedural stuff in Dexter I thought.

It worked for me...

Spoiler

what i thought was the bigger contrivance was her meeting Angel at the Police conference. It didn't bother me but it did feel like one hell of a coincidence.

 

[Spork3245]

6 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I mean, it takes episodes for her to reach that conclusion, but as soon as you know someone killed their old identity, that's a huge red flag. Additionally, it wasn't until she noticed the needle scars on the necks of victims in both Iron Lake and in Miami that she finally felt it confirmed, and to be fair, it all connects cause otherwise that's a hell of a coincidence. It's no worse than most of the police procedural stuff in Dexter I thought.

 

It felt like she was overly "after" him, tbh. She didn't go even close as hard with the in-town serial killer.

[Greatoneshere]

13 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

It worked for me...

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what i thought was the bigger contrivance was her meeting Angel at the Police conference. It didn't bother me but it did feel like one hell of a coincidence.

 

 

That was definitely a massive coincidence, but, life is stranger than fiction sometimes? I mean they are in the same industry, it's possible, but it felt strained to me too.

 

10 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

 

It felt like she was overly "after" him, tbh. She didn't go even close as hard with the in-town serial killer.

 

Oh, definitely. I think once she knew he wasn't Jim Lindsay and she'd been lied too that she was personally hurt and after him. Then Molly explained the whole weirdness between Kurt and Dexter and that got the ball rolling. It wasn't necessarily elegant, but believable I thought.

[Spork3245]

2 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

That was definitely a massive coincidence, but, life is stranger than fiction sometimes? I mean they are in the same industry, it's possible, but it felt strained to me too.

 

 

Oh, definitely. I think once she knew he wasn't Jim Lindsay and she'd been lied too that she was personally hurt and after him. Then Molly explained the whole weirdness between Kurt and Dexter and that got the ball rolling. It wasn't necessarily elegant, but believable I thought.

Spoiler

Molly: Pretty sure that Kurt guy is a serial killer and I was about to be his next victim until Jim showed up.
Angela: hmmm
Molly: Weird that he knew I was there, though. Jim wasn't sitting close enough to hear the convo... unless he was recording with his phone!
Angela: OMG I MUST INVESTIGATE... JIM

 

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, Spork3245 said:

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Molly: Pretty sure that Kurt guy is a serial killer and I was about to be his next victim until Jim showed up.
Angela: hmmm
Molly: Weird that he knew I was there, though. Jim wasn't sitting close enough to hear the convo... unless he was recording with his phone!
Angela: OMG I MUST INVESTIGATE... JIM

 

 

I'm pretty sure like the rest of us she just didn't care about finding Matt Caldwell's killer.  But yeah I think she was hurt by Jim so a lot of emotional distraction perhaps? Anything to nail the lover who has been lying to you for your whole relationship.

[Spork3245]

35 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I'm pretty sure like the rest of us she just didn't care about finding Matt Caldwell's killer.  But yeah I think she was hurt by Jim so a lot of emotional distraction perhaps? Anything to nail the lover who has been lying to you for your whole relationship.

Not Matt Caldwell’s killer. 

[Greatoneshere]

18 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

Not Matt Caldwell’s killer. 

 

Right but that was her running theory for awhile in the season as I recall.

[Spork3245]

1 hour ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Right but that was her running theory for awhile in the season as I recall.

At that point + finding her friend, I think she had other thoughts regarding Kurt. She had more of a focus on Dexter, though, even after seemingly mostly forgiving him. 

[Brick]

Listening to a couple of the post episode podcasts, which can be found on the Showtime YouTube channel, Clancy Brown was actually originally considered for Harry. That would have been interesting. 

 

Also Jeremy Renner was also considered for Dexter, but didn't want to play another serial killer after playing Jeffrey Dahmer. 

 

Now I want to rewatch this whole series. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Husband just did a watch of seasons 1-4. I watched them on my own back then, he didn’t start watching with me til the 5th season, after we got married. He missed the best stuff. 

[Moa]

Dexter killing Logan really bummed me out. I think the show needed to end with Dexter facing justice, but I would have rather he be held accountable for the hundreds of people he killed according to the code, you know what the show was actually about, rather than the one character he killed without justification. It just feels unsatisfying to have a show break its rules in the final episode, especially when they could have reached a pretty much identical ending without that.

[Brick]

I believe they said that him breaking Logan's neck was accidental. When he dodged the gun that's when he snapped his neck on the bars. It could have been shown a little better, and Dexter could have been a bit more "whoops" about it, but it was meant to be an accident. 

 

Ideally I think they should have had Dexter and Batista have their reunion. It's such a huge missed opportunity. People are saying this last episode felt rushed and this revival should have been 12 episodes like the original series, and while I certainly would have liked that (hey more Dexter), I think even just another 20-30 minutes would have helped. Have Batista come in the morning, bringing the file (not sure if that was supposed to be Laguerta's files on the Bay Habor Butcher, or his own files on Laguerta because he was looking into her murder), building the evidence that Dexter is the BHB. Then Dexter realizes he's fucked, tells both Angela and Batista to go look at Kurt's secret bunker to get them out, leaving only Logan, and the rest plays out the same from there when he figures he better escape because rule number one of the code is "don't get caught". After all if he stayed they would have had serious questions as to why and how he knew that bunker was there, and what was in it. Hell in the episode as it is, Angela seeing that bunker was basically proof that Dexter was the Butcher, but of course by then it's too late as he's already escaped. 

 

 

I've also seen speculation that this was only 10 episodes instead of 12 because both 10 and 12 would require a two month subscription, so Showtime only made 10 to save money rather than having to produce another 2. I don't think that's accurate as I'm sure that Showtime still makes money per episode airings on television since it's not just streaming. Although that does make me wonder if pure streaming services like Netflix and D+ do that sort of thing. @skillzdadirecta would you know anything about that kind of business decision since you work in the industry? 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Brick said:

would you know anything about that kind of business decision since you work in the industry? 

No idea. 

[BloodyHell]

On 1/11/2022 at 6:41 PM, Brick said:

The finale is now the lowest rated episode in all of Dexter, even lower than the season 8 finale. Really? Just seems like overreactionary people on the Internet, yet again. Even if you didn't like the episode, like really it's a 1/10, or worse than that original finale? Seems people are just pissed because they thought it was a bad ending again. I've been reading some of the complaints, and quite honestly I don't think some of them are very fair. 

 

Just reactionary fools. They like the character and are mad he's dead, even though he's a terrible person.

 

On 1/13/2022 at 8:34 AM, SoberChef said:

I feel that there was one thing that SHOULD have happened

 

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Angel should have had a face to face w/ Dexter once more to tie things together

 

Aside from that, the show did nearly everything right. Made me genuinely CARE about Dexter, everything that was happening, Clancy killed it in his role, the kid playing Harrison was spectacular, and the Sheriff girlfriend was genuinely smart & not blinded by the truth of who & what Dexter truly was, which was thrilling in its own right as well. I had a feeling some sort of finality was inevitable here but I think it's more "Welp, he's gone." that hurts more than anything.

This is my one major complaint. Otherwise I thought it was good. It feels weird that they never game them any sort of final meeting.

[Moa]

1 hour ago, BloodyHell said:

 

Just reactionary fools. They like the character and are mad he's dead, even though he's a terrible person.

 

 

I think there are legitimate reasons to be underwhelmed by the final. The first rule of these types of revivals is that you can't shit on the original series. On a fundamental level Dexter was supposed to be the character you root for. Dexter was not meant to be a deep examination of the consequences of American bloodlust, it was American bloodlust. The show only works when it manages to convince the audience to continue to cheer for Dexter. 

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't remember a coach Logan moment from the original series. The original run seemed to understand that the audience's ability to remain sympathetic towards Dexter was both essential to the show's success and incredibly fragile. They went to great lengths to ensure that Dexter never had innocent blood directly on his hands to the point that it became more than the rules of the code, but a fundamental rule of the show. So to see them break that rule in the final episode of the revival just feels lame.

 

To continue to restate myself, Dexter feels like it has far more in common with superheroes like Superman or Batman than with modern antihero dramas like Breaking Bad or The Sopranos. I may be out of my depth here since I don't engage with much superhero media, but as I understand it superheroes are relatively static characters. Some arcs may see some deviation from their essential core, but these are followed by re-commitments to the mostly hard and fast rules that define who Superman and Batman are. Dexter was also a very static character, so it felt extra uncharacteristic for him to do something uncharacteristic.

 

Going back to revivals in general, I also think it's important to remain true to the original ending. People had 9 years to let the original ending of "Dexter got away" solidify in their mind, and to jerk that away feels wrong even if it's a better ending.