Dexter on Showtime

Maybe I bought it more because Dexter having his first child born was a slightly more believable cause of his attitudes changing than having a goofy serial killer buddy.

That is a good point. I also agree with you about the neighborhood vandal thing. I felt like they could have mined that whole story line for comic relief - a lot of missed opportunities there.

This is another big problem I am having with this show lately: It's just not as funny as it was. One of the reasons I put up with a lot of the sloppy writing surrounding the police work (DNA tests can be done at someone's desk in 15 minutes, etc), and lot of the less plausible plotlines, was because I didn't take this show very seriously on a dramatic level. Yes, it was suspenseful, but it was also a fun black comedy in a slightly cartoonish world. When you show me an extended shot of Deb hunched over and wracked with grieving sobs, and make me care on that level, then I am going to start holding up the rest of the show to a higher standard, too. I noticed toward the middle of S4, I started getting really annoyed by the some of the shitty writing that I had always let slide in previous seasons.

OH MY GOD THAT ENDING

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

yeah this show was better when the main character had no emotions - i thought that was kind of the point.

they still know how to pile on the tension thought jeeeeeeeeeeeez

also what is up with that reporter chick taking her clothes off

i'd trade all her sex scenes for one LaGuerta :P

Season 5 starting Sunday!

At the end of S4, I was convinced the show had totally jumped the shark. I made fun of the last 5 episodes out loud. But I'll be damned if I am not ready to dive back into the world of Dexter again. Really excited about it, actually.

After seeing the preview trailer, Quinn seeming to have an even more prominent role was kinda killing my interest, but whatever, I'm on board

surprised and a bit sad that dexter hasn't had anywhere near the ilx chatter that mad men, sopranos et al have had

mainly cause dexter isn't anywhere near as good as those shows imo.

at least this show has a thread. Unlike Chuck, an awesome show that no one here watches. :(

yeah dexter's not in the same league as those other shows, but it's still pretty fun + ridiculous

mmm yeah i guess, i love em all though, just figured dexter would be the kind of show to get a lot of chatter as its all daft plot twists and big cliffhangers. anyway yeah can't wait to see this new series. suffered a modern-media-consumer crisis during s4 when i was downloading the eps from TPB last month, absent-mindedly scanning the comments to see if it was legit and reading a post by some utter dick revealing the big spoiler in the final episode. will. not. let. this. happen. again!

i find Dexter to be infinitely more enjoyable than Mad Men (which i find to be VERY boring -- albeit well-done). that just comes down to taste (Mad Men probably IS the better show in terms of plot, scripts, acting, etc.).

and whoever wondered aloud why "Chuck" doesn't have an ILX thread and deserving same ... 1000% OTM.

Near the end of the first season - love Michael C Hall, like the character of Dexter, not so sure about the show surrounding him. The general standard of acting isn't very high (particularly his sister, ugh), some of the storylines are glaringly unbelievable, and others are strangely banal.

My housemate says season 2 is shit, should I listen to him and not bother with it?

haha Deb gets quoted a *lot* in our house. They don't even have to be real Deb quotes. "No fucking shit, Dexter, God!" She's so terrible and vulgar...at first I hated it & now I think it's great.

That time when she was wearing a dress and said something like "I feel like a tranny," I think that was the ultimate 'wtf Deb' moment for me. Among a very great number to choose from!

Watch all seasons as there's stuff that happens in each that's carried over to the next.
I didn't think any season was shit, enjoyed them all.

Agree with Abbott on the deb likingness, she grows on you.

I still need to watch season 4, esp. as I love Lithgow a lot!

4 + 1 are the best. 3 is the worst. 2 is ok, imo.

Thanks to this show, every time I see palm tree trimmings lying around in the parking lot of my apartment complex (about once a week), the little kid part of my brain that believed in ghost stories gets creeped out a bit.

1 was great because it was something new, 4 was the better season, so much going on and really dark.
Lithgow won an award for his part didn't he?

I keep unfavourably comparing it to Breaking Bad in my head, which is really unfair as there are only really superficial similarities.

Not seen breaking bad, is it worth getting into?

It is incredible. First season is just good, then it becomes one of the best things ever in S2.

oh hell yes.

It does the protagonist with a double life thing with way more tension and psychological veracity than Dexter.

Great, i've been wanting something to get into since watching all the Dexters and seasons of other stuff.

Thanks :)

See you on the BB thread.

I'm probably in the minority in that I really liked season 3. It bordered on absurd, which I quite enjoy.

I just found the central antagonist/conflict in season 3 forced + inexplicable. (SPOILER especially as it required us to believe in the existence of someone psychopathic enough to have no problem with what Dexter does and want to learn how to do it himself (!!!) but who somehow kept out of trouble and led a successful political life before now)

Hahaha Jimmy Smits, I forgot all about that character until your post. "Dexter, I want you to keep this on the down low, ok my friend? I am with you one hundred percent on ACTUALLY DOING JUSTICE, brother of mine! My wife you and I are making mango salsa together."

My wife thinks you and I

golfing, killing, fishing, killing...so OTT

I kind of loved it.

It was so goofy! I enjoyed it, though.

Smits was soooooo bad.

s3 was such a letdown after the previous two awesome seasons. pretty much all prado's fault too.

first episode of s5 the other night, so dark and depressing. esp when you recall e1 of s4 was all brady bunch family chuckles, with even the title sequence amended to reflect dexter's new homelife.

i try to avoid all the "this particular episode of this particular season was weak" that comes with watching tv shows week on week rather than the cohesive whole/boxsets thing (the mad men thread often becomes unreadable with people pointlessly banging on about this shite) but s5 looks set to be great. particularly loved the nods to six feet under in the funeral parlour scene - it's been a while since i watched SFU, was it the actual same funeral home? and did dexter really use the same david lines or am i misremembering? loved that bit anyway

disappointing premiere. although i was happy when he went bat shit on the dude in the shitter.

I liked the season 1 finale a lot - was worried Rudi would escape to become a recurring nemesis, but then the actual resolution was surprisingly affecting. Also enjoyed Dex's imaginary victory parade, and Debs chewing out that muscly cop who looks like an action figure.

I thought the premiere was a bit of a let-down, too. I really was sort of hoping they would just jump like 2 years into the future as Dex gets the killing urge again or something. But it appears that they are just going to deal with the fallout of the s4 finale all season. This show is at its best when it is funny.

Hopefully the fallout from the finale is contained as much as possible in this episode, because man was I bored by it. It's obvious Quinn will not actually expose Dexter, so why are they even bothering with this angle? I really was hoping he would sail away on that boat.

haha yeah same here.

was surprised by season one and thought the show had potential but subsequent seasons have generally disappointed me (if still generally entertained me). i thought lithgow was a good bad guy last season which helped and weirdly somehow deb has become the closest thing to a compelling non-dexter regular on the show (besides her and matsuka i really have no use for the other characters at all - less interesting the more they're given to do). show clearly has no larger plan behind it, i can't imagine whoever's running it now could tell you where/what the show will be in two years whereas w/ breaking bad, mad men and the wire, sopranos, deadwood before that you knew there was a definite roadmap in place.

I'm finding Dexter's sideburns in S2 very distracting.

im thinking he's wearing a toupee since he's recovering from cancer

in this season...oops.

And pretending to be a drug addict is a TERRIBLE plan.

Sorry, should probably stop liveblogging my several seasons behind viewing.

I find dexters overly pink lips distracting. always want to apply chapstick when I watch..

I really was sort of hoping they would just jump like 2 years into the future

can't think of anything worse. i think the writers have handled it perfectly, the show has moved on in a big way from the old "one lolkill a week!" mode, returning to that after such a huge event would have made the show a silly pastiche of what it was. it's a welcome change to make it much less jokey and frivolous, more about him dealing with raw grief.

also this was predicted at the end of s3 (blood on wedding dress) so 'no larger plan' crit is kinda bs, esp after only seeing the opening episode of a show that generally takes a while to reveal that season's plot arc

is it posted on this thread that michael hall and jennifer carpenter are married.

new antagonist might work out pretty well this season imo - love the way he was quickly moved from "oh yawn another gf killing chump that dexter will chop up" to full on sinister uh oh

Mickey mouse "your mom is dead" scene was one of the greatest things this show has ever done

I agree with the Mickey Mouse scene. So far the rest of this season has done nothing for me, though.