Written by: Kevin Berge
All these memories of greatness then you ended it with this. (Image Courtesy of: geekyrant.com)
Quick Take: Dexter Season 8 sends off the series with a whimper thanks to an uninspired plot that fails to wrap up the final threads for the character including an atrocious finale. The actors do their best with what they are given, but this is a season that didn't need to happen.
Previous Season Reviews: Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 | Season 7
***The following is a review of the final season of Dexter that expects the reader to have knowledge of all eight seasons. If you plan to watch the series and do not want to be spoiled on anything in the show's run, do not read ahead until you have.***
When I started watching Dexter for the first time, later in its original run, I made a mental checklist of all the stories I wanted to be told about Dexter Morgan over the series' run. Almost every story was told during the eight seasons even if other less impressive stories were also told.
There was one story that still needed to be told: Dexter Morgan being caught by Miami Metro. While season two teased this idea, it was the kind of story that is made for a final season of the show, leading to final consequences for his actions.
I know this is a reviewer faux pas, but I want to present my synopsis for the fantasy eighth season I wanted before watching this final season as it aired:
In the wake of the death of Maria LaGuerta at the hands of Dexter and Deb, Miami Metro has been forced to reopen the case of the Bay Harbor Butcher. Dexter and Deb are both under fire as the consequences for their actions finally come back to bare.
I'll even up the ante for this massive gaffe by revealing how I would have Dexter end:
Forced to protect Deb, Dexter creates a bread crumb trail for Miami Metro to find him out. Taking the fall, Dexter is given the death penalty, and his last words are a brief goodbye to Deb. The final frames of the series focus the camera solely on Deb as Dexter dies.
I present this all the start to say this was my expectation for the final season. Like any other show, I created my own fantasy for what would my ideal ending to the show. I know mine would be hated by some fans as well, but I needed to set up the bar before I review this important final chapter.
***The following is a review of the final season of Dexter that expects the reader to have knowledge of all eight seasons. If you plan to watch the series and do not want to be spoiled on anything in the show's run, do not read ahead until you have.***
When I started watching Dexter for the first time, later in its original run, I made a mental checklist of all the stories I wanted to be told about Dexter Morgan over the series' run. Almost every story was told during the eight seasons even if other less impressive stories were also told.
There was one story that still needed to be told: Dexter Morgan being caught by Miami Metro. While season two teased this idea, it was the kind of story that is made for a final season of the show, leading to final consequences for his actions.
I know this is a reviewer faux pas, but I want to present my synopsis for the fantasy eighth season I wanted before watching this final season as it aired:
In the wake of the death of Maria LaGuerta at the hands of Dexter and Deb, Miami Metro has been forced to reopen the case of the Bay Harbor Butcher. Dexter and Deb are both under fire as the consequences for their actions finally come back to bare.
I'll even up the ante for this massive gaffe by revealing how I would have Dexter end:
Forced to protect Deb, Dexter creates a bread crumb trail for Miami Metro to find him out. Taking the fall, Dexter is given the death penalty, and his last words are a brief goodbye to Deb. The final frames of the series focus the camera solely on Deb as Dexter dies.
I present this all the start to say this was my expectation for the final season. Like any other show, I created my own fantasy for what would my ideal ending to the show. I know mine would be hated by some fans as well, but I needed to set up the bar before I review this important final chapter.
Sorry to actor Darri Ingolfsson, I am not taking this time to acknowledge your character. (Image Courtesy of: rossonl.wordpress.com)
A series like Dexter focusing on the serial killer of serial killers extraordinaire was never going to have a happy ending. There was also going to blood and death at the end. The series though was too afraid to kill of its likable killer at the end perhaps because of network obligations.
Who dies at the end of Dexter? Debra Morgan. Echoing season four, Dexter's own actions ultimately come back to hurt him emotionally rather than physically, and the beacon of hope and goodness in the series is killed off the final make-shift Big Bad.
The much-maligned season finale is a dreary sendoff to an intense show, a hasty painful burial of a concept never quite finished. In many ways, this defines the final season as a whole which does not have the conclusive drive of a final chapter.
In terms of pure craft, there is not much inherently wrong with season eight. The dialogue is still strong. The direction keeps everything uneasy. The acting is superb with both Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall putting in their all at the end.
The main guest star, Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool), is great as the mysterious Dr. Evelyn Vogel, but her character amounts to a McGuffin to give some semblance of higher meaning to Harry's Code which Dexter cast aside already.
Ultimately, she functions to prove that the Code was not what made Dexter so likable. Dexter himself was actually a rare kind-hearted psychopath which just doesn't work for most other psychopaths. The others who are supposed to follow in Dexter's footsteps become corrupt and ultimately cause chaos.
It is all just messy storytelling with writers who had lost their direction a while ago. They just seemed content making this final threat bigger through the death of Deb.
Who dies at the end of Dexter? Debra Morgan. Echoing season four, Dexter's own actions ultimately come back to hurt him emotionally rather than physically, and the beacon of hope and goodness in the series is killed off the final make-shift Big Bad.
The much-maligned season finale is a dreary sendoff to an intense show, a hasty painful burial of a concept never quite finished. In many ways, this defines the final season as a whole which does not have the conclusive drive of a final chapter.
In terms of pure craft, there is not much inherently wrong with season eight. The dialogue is still strong. The direction keeps everything uneasy. The acting is superb with both Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall putting in their all at the end.
The main guest star, Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool), is great as the mysterious Dr. Evelyn Vogel, but her character amounts to a McGuffin to give some semblance of higher meaning to Harry's Code which Dexter cast aside already.
Ultimately, she functions to prove that the Code was not what made Dexter so likable. Dexter himself was actually a rare kind-hearted psychopath which just doesn't work for most other psychopaths. The others who are supposed to follow in Dexter's footsteps become corrupt and ultimately cause chaos.
It is all just messy storytelling with writers who had lost their direction a while ago. They just seemed content making this final threat bigger through the death of Deb.
Still waiting for the great spinoff, Dexter: The Lumberjack Years. (Image Courtesy of: vulture.com)
The series ends Dexter's story by grief causing him to forgo his remaining ties to his own humanity. He abandons his son to the maybe reformed serial killer and his prospective girlfriend Hannah and starts a new life as a lumberjack.
You really don't get more depressing than this. I wanted the guy to be killed at the end, and I still found this ending morbid. Ultimately, it was all truly shallow, using Deb as a tool for putting Dexter somewhere in a place that he had grown past.
The past few seasons slowly neutered Dexter's edge as a character, taking away the frightening and aggressive side to his personality that made him complex. He became the lovable antihero, and that honestly made him boring.
It was all right to root for Dexter, to even empathize with him, but this was not a good man doing good work. He was not some superhero triumphing over evil. He deliberately killed innocent people in fits of rage. He threw off police investigations to get his thrill and got those he loves hurt and killed through his brash nature.
This season was a culmination of a series losing track of its main character. The writers grew too attached to the point where they couldn't change direction to complete the story instead swerving to a finish where they let perhaps the most important character die in Dexter's place.
Here I am speaking as a fan over the final resting place of a show I loved, and I can't bring myself to be objective with this. There are moments of well crafted drama in this season, but it is all for naught with a boring main story and a finish that made out the series to be more timid than it ever was meant to be.
You really don't get more depressing than this. I wanted the guy to be killed at the end, and I still found this ending morbid. Ultimately, it was all truly shallow, using Deb as a tool for putting Dexter somewhere in a place that he had grown past.
The past few seasons slowly neutered Dexter's edge as a character, taking away the frightening and aggressive side to his personality that made him complex. He became the lovable antihero, and that honestly made him boring.
It was all right to root for Dexter, to even empathize with him, but this was not a good man doing good work. He was not some superhero triumphing over evil. He deliberately killed innocent people in fits of rage. He threw off police investigations to get his thrill and got those he loves hurt and killed through his brash nature.
This season was a culmination of a series losing track of its main character. The writers grew too attached to the point where they couldn't change direction to complete the story instead swerving to a finish where they let perhaps the most important character die in Dexter's place.
Here I am speaking as a fan over the final resting place of a show I loved, and I can't bring myself to be objective with this. There are moments of well crafted drama in this season, but it is all for naught with a boring main story and a finish that made out the series to be more timid than it ever was meant to be.