Dexter on Showtime

was really turned off to this show by the first ep (too grim? i dunno), then i gave it another chance & loved the hell out of the first season. never got around to watching the 2nd, though i'd like to check it out. i guess the books its based on are not so good?

never read the books but they're pretty popular in their own right and from some of the plot spoilers, it seems that they go in a slightly darker direction than the series.

season 3 was pretty terrible imo but i'm looking forward to season 4 because John Lithgow as a serial killer is just abt the greatest idea ever (though maybe they should've gone with Kelsey Grammer).

Kinda annoyed with myself for watching the pre-air of s04e01 i wont see a new ep for over a month

i mentally put this show in the same category as house, m.d. in that (a) both shows have a conventionally unlikeable and mentally unbalanced title character; and (b) both shows are dramas that are funnier than most so-called comedies.

Weird, I thought season 3 was the best one of the bunch.

Just finished the first disc of season 3, and it took me a couple episodes to get back into it. I liked 1&2 quite a bit. It's such an over-the-top cartoony show but once I accept that it gets much more enjoyable.

Also it kind of freaks me out when Dexter's voiceover says things about his personality that fit me pretty exactly, as I am not a murderous sociopath. I just really like to be quiet and alone sometimes.

Am about 5 episodes into season 3 ... kinda a let down from the previous two, though the last one is pretty hard to top. I recently watched that movie Obsessed where Idris Elba is stalked by a psycho white temp, and she just did not compare to Lila.

I have caught this series and I find it addictive. Michael C. Hall is a captivating actor.
What do you all think?

Everyone will disagree with me, but season 3 > 1 > 2. The Miguel character just kept cracking me up the whole season. Hilarious.

Could not stand Lila. Or Doaks.

I'm amazed how I fall for the will-Dexter-be-caught? dance every fucking time.

i like it too -- though i'm definitely glad they resolved this thing within two episodes instead of stretching it out. i'm sure we'll get more of these things as the season goes on, though. definitely getting a better vibe from this, so far, than season 3.

i'm not in love with the dad-hallucinations (either last season, or in their increased usage, this season)

yeah, they're definitely not nearly as good as the more comic book-origin style flashbacks from season 1 and 2

This is getting pretty bad imo. Oh no, Im really worried about guys from the neighbourhood catching me sneaking around and being suspicious and shit because Im a serial killer! So I should obvs sneak around the neighbourhood in a creepy mask and break in to someones house and wear my serial killer outfit. Duh.

Honestly kind of feel this show would be more interesting right now if it was just Lundy and the cops going after John Lithgow, have the show be about him or something. Getting irritated at what an emotional retard they keep making Dexter, like at the start he was supposed to be a high functioning cold and calculating serial killer - he should know the things to say to people because he has it figured out, even if its just an act. Instead its like some awkward social comedy shit and for no real reason. I know hes supposed to be struggling right now but I feel its a little aimless and its no good if you're just hoping he'll get drawn in to mystery of this serial killer rather than dealing with some mundane shit.

I think you are missing the point. Yes, Dexter is losing his mojo, suburban life is interfering with his abilities, that has been apparent since the first episode of the season. The married life, the kids, those concerns are clouding his judgment. He sneaks around the neighborhood (not in a serial killer outfit, but a black one for the dark, and a mask so the kid can't tell who he is) because is trying to secure his privacy in the community. He makes mistakes that he wouldn't have made before because his priority is keeping his home life safe, keeping his family out of his affairs, not catching bad guys. I think after three seasons of Dexter beating the odds, the show is allowed a small suspension of disbelief (it's only the 3rd episode of the season). IMO this continues to be the best written show on television.

er....I meant that his priority is keeping his home life safe and keeping his family out of his affairs, not catching bad guys.

I dont think I'm missing the point, I just think it's stupid and he's not supposed to be that stupid. Kind of a stupid thing to risk, getting chased round the neighbourhood by all your neighbours, to secure yr own privacy surely. He wears the same clothes and gloves etc he uses for his killings, just adds a mask on top. Why risk getting caught like that, when it's obvious yr doing something shady when you could actually just sneak around under the pretence of neighbourhood watch? Serial killer 101 surely. His mistakes may well be legitimate because of what you say, I just dont think they're particularly entertaining and the subplots are slightly tiresome. They always have him struggle with things when it suits them because of the function of the show, he has to be more emotional than he might, which has always irked me a little.

Dont think it's ever been the greatest written show tho.

Sorry if Im tired and not much sense is getting through here, trying to avoid anything getting monstrously long

dexter is tired from babies and concussions

Even so it's still kind of weak. I read a review which nailed it, which said something like: when did this become an episode of Desperate Housewives? This is the "edgy" shit we're getting now? Especially thinking back to the "killer of the week" stuff from the first two seasons.

That said, Lithgow is great, and those parts of the story are still really entertaining. I'm wondering how they're gonna stretch out his third kill into nine episodes, and if it's at all possible that Lundy will survive this (too bad because his interactions with Dexter are still fun to watch). And because of this side, I'm pretty sure it'll still be good and better than last year, at the very least.

Deb. ;_; she's so horribly fucked-up, poor thing.

Getting irritated at what an emotional retard they keep making Dexter, like at the start he was supposed to be a high functioning cold and calculating serial killer - he should know the things to say to people because he has it figured out, even if its just an act.

I hate it when they do this too because they seem to pick and choose at random which parts of everyday interaction Dexter's good at, and which parts he isn't and it's never a consistent thing - he can flirt with trigger-happy cop just fine but small talk with the neighbours? Awkward!

the only things saving his character imo are Michael C Hall's performance (which remains compellingly sad and funny and creepy all at once) and the fact that they've made Rita even dumber than Dexter. Seriously, he might as well come out and tell her he's a serial killer - don't see how that's much worse than all the other lies she's caught him in and the lame excuses he gives her that she somehow continues to believe in (ok this week maybe not so much, but come on you know they're just making us think his marriage is in jeopardy when it really isn't).

Contrary to that episode with the community vandal, the last two episodes have really gotten back to form - especially the one with the lady cop who murdered her family, it was a throwback to the earlier seasons, really entertaining. This past episode was pretty good too, though I agree somewhat that the whole episode was just waiting for the twist at the end, I really liked Carpenter's performance, and that twist WAS good (I've really been wondering how they can keep the Trinity storyline going if he only kills three people and moves on, when we have half the season left...)

You're right about the weird confusion regarding Dexter's interaction skills, and part of why that particular neighborhood episode was so bad. I actually somewhat liked this in this week's episode though - there's definite ambiguity, on a broad level, on how much Dexter's actually feeling or just playing out the motions in reacting to everyone - is he actually becoming more of a real person, or getting worse and unsure at faking his persona due to this emotional reaction? Is it actually an emotional reaction? Not sure if this the writers have a sure grasp on this, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt in this case, and the performance is really good in any case.

Lithgow continues to be fantastic, too.

Guys, this weekend's episode had the single most terrifying moment I have seen on Dexter.

worse than nude lithgow?

Terrifying in a different way.

Agreed. Best episode of the season so far.

Episode was fantastic. Probably the most terror we've seen in the show in ages, if ever, like Mordy says. I'm initially having a dreadful reaction to the huge twist in the last scene, but let's see how that plays out...

Yeah I thought this was the best episode in ages until the very last scene too.

They might be overdoing the last-minute plot twists this season a bit - there seems to be one every couple of episodes now.

Is there a way to watch this online?

god john lithgow is creepy. this show has gotten so much better since the awful start of the season.

in other news, deb still can't catch a break. girl seriously needs a happy storyline. although knowing this show, that prob means she's gonna end up with quinn. :/

her performance has definitely been the best since the first season, though! i am afraid they're going for her hooking up w/quinn as you say, though. still - such a great season.

Yeah. Definitely better than the last two seasons.

I can't believe it's over this Sunday.

fucking FUCK. devastating finale.

OK, I did not see that coming at all. HFS

: o

wow ;_;

really really did not see that coming. damn.

The final is indeed awesome, fucked up, kinda inevitable and fitting.

Apparently he has Hodgkins but is in recovery. (My mom had nit too. It has a very high recovery rate.)

After watching the whole season, I believe I have traced the shark jump moment to when...

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
SPOILER SPOILER Lundy gets killed. SPOILER
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

huh - to me that's exactly when the season turned around and got good!

I felt like taking that tension out of the show just deflated all of the subplots. it was a great moment, but the result was that it flattened everything out. there were so many uninteresting and unrelated subplots pursued after that episode, like they just didn't have enough story to fill up 8 more episodes. every time they showed that reporter, I cringed and rolled my eyes. the Laguerta/Batista story was second rate melodrama. I can only hope that the crazy events in the finale lead to a more interesting show as opposed to a more dramatic one.

MORE SPOILERS FOLLOW...

My idea for the next season would be to skip forward about five or ten years, with Dex an addict in recovery, raising his kid (assuming the other two kids just went to the mom or the ex's parents) and faced with something either too sweet to pass up, or being toyed with by some evil genius.

Do people who don't want ***SPOILERS*** actually read the thread?

The will-Deb-find-out? twist will probably be next season's long arc, with the usual killings thrown in. Actually, with the S3 ending it'll be more of a will-the-department-find-out arc.

Yeah, it's been a month - people who haven't caught up by now are probably going to catch it on DVD. Who's foolish enough to jump onto a forum thread after the show airs, not expecting spoilers? Beforehand I can understand, but no more than a day after it airs.

While I appreciate the intent of the finale (to reboot Dexter a bit since he'd gotten far too soft and humanized) I'm worried that the next season will have lots of boring custody battles with his mother-in-law, Quinn being a third-rate Doakes, and so on. I'll be shocked if they save Deb figuring out Dexter's secret before the real end of the show, and I think there's at least two seasons left. Also, one of the original showrunners immediately left after the finale, despite Dexter getting record ratings - that doesn't give me a lot of hope.

This show by its very premise has been getting stretched thinner and thinner every season, and it really should end sooner than later, but it won't due to the ratings. I will give it to them, though, I thought this was the best season since the first, mostly thanks to Lithgow.

I hope they go with Dexter going through the five stages of grief but skipping straight to ANGER, 5 kills a night kinda thing.

I was always disappointed when they went from him explicitly torturing and carving up his victims to a simple, single stab wound to the chest - it seemed like such an obvious cop-out, a way to make his (no matter the justification, still wretched and disgusting) executions more palatable. Hopefully they'll use this opportunity to get back to that Dexter.

There was a scene where Dexter gets all protective of his family and literally growl/yells at someone (can't remember who - prob Lithgow) like Mel Gibson, was one of the worst moments not only of this show but possibly of Michael C. Hall's acting career. I laughed out loud and said "fuck this show" under my breath when I saw it. You can feel the writers trying to make people care more about Dexter, and what better way than to make him more of a masculine bad-ass, protecting his domain, punching out dudes who kissed his wife, toning down his sadism, and blah blah blah. For a dude without feelings he was an emotional wreck in seasons 3 and 4, but it bugged me most of all in S4.

You know, I actually don't disagree with you on any of those points. It just didn't bother me that much because I was captivated enough by the main plot. By contrast, Jimmy Smits being unbelievably terrible last year just made all the softening trends worse and more noticeable, though they went further with it this year. 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. Inherently though, I don't have a problem with the idea that he might have emotions after all, or that he's discovering them now, since that's how Season 1 ended. S4 does put up a statement that says: Dexter can't be the stone cold serial killer he once was, or he'll be like Trinity, but I don't know if that HAS to be true for this show (or if it's even true for all the real serial killers that the Trinity character was inspired by).

I remember liking that scene where he punched out his neighbor, since there's the possibility that he didn't do it out of real anger but only because that's what he believed Dexter Morgan, family man, should have done. Did he realize that his wife was watching and did he do it for her benefit? I'm not sure, but it was played and acted in an ambiguous way, I thought. Maybe I'm wrong on this, though.

To me the low point of the season was Dexter's confrontation with the neighborhood vandal, after getting chased down by an angry neighborhood watch. I know I already mentioned this a few months ago, but man - I can't believe anyone in the writer's room actually thought that was a good idea.

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.