by Mr Change » Mar 5th, '14, 03:38
So my dad and a couple of my friends got me into this show and I've spent the last month or two watching it in it's entirety without any real expectations going in.
What I found was a show that, in it's top form, could easily string together 3-4 episodes in a row at any given time that were top notch and forced me to binge watch them up until the wee hours of the night. At first I figured it would be the basic cop drama without the cable limitations but I gladly discovered the series played out more like a constant game of cat and mouse featuring a smart bad-good protagonist that you couldn't help to root for when he was thrown in and out of every back against the wall situation possible.
Who would've known it would be so fun to watch season after season a freak who acts like a normal person teeter on the edge of ruining his own life and the lives of the ones around him time and time again?
Up until season 4 it was a great show, heck, I may even use the word brilliant to describe some parts of it. But after that it went down hill in my opinion.
It wasn't necessarily that the show took too many paths that I didn't agree with (But I assure you, it definitely did take a lot of them), but just the fact that the quality deteriorated. The writing dumbed down. An easy example is the show never once reached the manic spider web scenarios that challenged Dexter to barely squirm out rivaling the formula of other shows like Breaking Bad (Dexter used this formula even better and in greater abundance for the first 1-4 seasons to be completely honest.) after season 5.
Sure, there were many cool ideas and well-done moments to happen in 5-8 (Examples being things like Deb's death and when she finally saw Dexter in the church killing the DDK), but overall the show just couldn't keep up with it's past self. The secondary characters had less, more uninteresting things to do. The "big bad" of each season got considerably worse. Many scenarios and love interests seemed forced. And don't even get me started on the lack of traditional kill-room kills in the latter half of the show. All of these things Dexter needed to be a great show, and all of these things it had never not had of utmost quality before.
I'm still gathering my thoughts on the show as I just finished it a day ago but as bad as I may trash the later seasons I'm glad I watched the show and it was a pleasurable experience. Still good TV even at it's not-so-best moments. The last episode was good for what it wanted to do.
Dexter is one of the GOAT television characters in my viewing experience and his sister Deb was an insanely strong female lead/secondary protagonist. The concept of the show in general was very fresh and fun to me, moreso than anything in recent memory.
Season Ranking (Best to Worst)
4
1
2
3/7
8
5
6
jinofthewind wrote:And Koolo's sources said... Nothing you idiots Koolo's sources are dead they're locked in my basement
"Soon as I stopped saying I gave a fuck
Haters started to appreciate my art
And it just breaks my heart to look at all the pain I caused
But what am I gonna do when the rage is gone?
And the lights go out in that trailer park?"