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Post by Insomniac on Dec 19, 2011 0:39:47 GMT -5
The season as a whole was utterly boring to me. Colin Hanks turned out to be a poor choice for the part of "Crazy Religious Murderer". Just could never buy into his performance. The supporting cast had generally uninteresting side-plots. And the direction they went with the Deb-Dexter relationship was pretty laughable. Overall, a poorly written season that was probably their worst yet. The only real bright spots IMO were (a) Mos Def's terrific performance as Brother Sam, and (2) the final scene which will hopefully finally trigger some change in a show that seemed to be on cruise control for the last two seasons. They needed to shake things up, and I'm glad they did.
Oh, and Colin Hanks saying "Hello Whore". That might've been my biggest laugh from this show since "Shut up c***". So I guess Hanks wasn't entirely useless.
And yeah, the intern, did anything ever come up about that at the end? Dexter never saw the package, right? Or did I miss the payoff? Seems like a poorly thought out storyline that ended with nothing.
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Post by triplezs on Dec 19, 2011 1:42:40 GMT -5
It was an up and down season myself. I thought the season got off to a very solid start in the first four to five episodes, limped along in the middle and then ended on a good note. The highlights: I thought Jennifer Carpenter was the MVP of the season and I'm saying that as someone who hasn't been a big fan of the Debra character during the show at times. Her character was fascinating to watch this season. Mos Def was excellent as Brother Sam and outside of Litgow, there hasn't been a better "guest star" than him. I was skeptical of the casting of him, but Mos was very good in the role. Overall, I rank the Dexter seasons in tiers - Seasons 4, 1 and 2 are in my top tier, while 3, 5 and 6 are in my bottom tier. I'll probably stick at least above 5 and maybe 3 as well. Season three absolutely limped to the finish IMO. Now, my big disappointments with the season in spoiler tags since both resolve around big plot points: {Spoiler}-Gellar was 100 percent useless. I know some people probably didn't figure out the twist, but anyone who watched the Sixth Sense probably did. My issue wasn't necessarily the twist, but I felt Gellar's screen time could have been used to develop Travis. Travis was at his best when he was the demented killer that he was in Episodes 10, 11 and 12 without Gellar. Collin Hanks could have been better, but I thought he was really hamstrung by the plot and writers. Leaving Gellar out completely and have Travis as this nut throughout the season would have been great. I think they tried too hard to recreate Trinity, which will never happen.
- The "return" of Brian could have been a game-changer from the standpoint that it could have turned Dexter "heel" and into a bad guy. Instead, it's for one episode. I wish there would have been a bigger struggle between his Harry conscience and Brian conscience. Instead, it's for one episode.
- There was absolutely no payoff to some potential interesting side-plots. Quinn being a jackass and drunk all year should have led to Baptista's death at the hands of Travis. There should have been more fallout from the Matthews/prostitute thing as well. I agree with the poster that said the side-plots sucked, but if there would have been some payout from them, I think they would have been solid. Season 4 set the standard for this with the female reporter angle and how she killed Lundy. Season 2 was excellent in how they turned the Doakes-Dexter feud into the final showdown at the end. All that said, it's Dexter and I'm still watching.
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Professor Chaos
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Post by Professor Chaos on Dec 19, 2011 1:52:57 GMT -5
Tonights episode was badass. This is the only season I've seen so can't compare to past seasons. The ending was AI gratifying.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on Dec 19, 2011 2:08:29 GMT -5
The highlights: I thought Jennifer Carpenter was the MVP of the season and I'm saying that as someone who hasn't been a big fan of the Debra character during the show at times. Her character was fascinating to watch this season. Mos Def was excellent as Brother Sam and outside of Litgow, there hasn't been a better "guest star" than him. I was skeptical of the casting of him, but Mos was very good in the role. Overall, I rank the Dexter seasons in tiers - Seasons 4, 1 and 2 are in my top tier, while 3, 5 and 6 are in my bottom tier. I'll probably stick at least above 5 and maybe 3 as well. Season three absolutely limped to the finish IMO. I agree with both of these. This season was honestly on its way to becoming my new favorite season as we had so much plot development and truly different things happening. Then, once "Nebraska" ended with them establishing that the entire point of 'Dexter' is to maintain the status-quo, this entire season took a nosedive. The two episodes before the finale I consider the worst episodes in the entire series run. This end was slightly better, but I doubt I'll be watching next year. Here's my full thoughts on tonight - popularopinions.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/dexter12-2/
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Post by Insomniac on Dec 19, 2011 2:37:16 GMT -5
Now, my big disappointments with the season in spoiler tags since both resolve around big plot points: {Spoiler}-Gellar was 100 percent useless. I know some people probably didn't figure out the twist, but anyone who watched the Sixth Sense probably did. My issue wasn't necessarily the twist, but I felt Gellar's screen time could have been used to develop Travis. Travis was at his best when he was the demented killer that he was in Episodes 10, 11 and 12 without Gellar. Collin Hanks could have been better, but I thought he was really hamstrung by the plot and writers. Leaving Gellar out completely and have Travis as this nut throughout the season would have been great. I think they tried too hard to recreate Trinity, which will never happen.
- The "return" of Brian could have been a game-changer from the standpoint that it could have turned Dexter "heel" and into a bad guy. Instead, it's for one episode. I wish there would have been a bigger struggle between his Harry conscience and Brian conscience. Instead, it's for one episode.
- There was absolutely no payoff to some potential interesting side-plots. Quinn being a jackass and drunk all year should have led to Baptista's death at the hands of Travis. There should have been more fallout from the Matthews/prostitute thing as well. I agree with the poster that said the side-plots sucked, but if there would have been some payout from them, I think they would have been solid. Season 4 set the standard for this with the female reporter angle and how she killed Lundy. Season 2 was excellent in how they turned the Doakes-Dexter feud into the final showdown at the end. All that said, it's Dexter and I'm still watching. I agree that Gellar was absolutely a waste of time. He seemed to exist for the soul purpose of having a plot twist, which really wasn't all that surprising to begin with. I was calling Ghost Dad by the second or third episode. It's a shame too since I had high hopes for Olmos. He seemed to be poorly utilized this season, and I place the blame entirely on the writers. The Travis character seemed to get better without Gellar holding him back, but I guess there was no where to go but up after the first 75% of the season. I also would've liked to have seen more of Brian. Loved the character and would've liked to have seen more than just an episode or two from him. Could've been fun to explore Dexter going off his chain with his dead brother pushing him on. And I absolutely agree with the tiers. My ranking of the seasons, going from best to worst: 4th, 1st, 2nd, 5th, 3rd, 6th With a significant gap between the quality of the 2nd and 5th seasons. To be honest, I would've been done with this show had it not been for the last 30 seconds. I eagerly await how they decide to follow this up, but I probably won't stick around if the quality of writing continues to decline.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Dec 19, 2011 2:45:22 GMT -5
I still say 5 was the worst season.
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Post by triplezs on Dec 19, 2011 3:24:09 GMT -5
I also would've liked to have seen more of Brian. Loved the character and would've liked to have seen more than just an episode or two from him. Could've been fun to explore Dexter going off his chain with his dead brother pushing him on. Yeah, what's frustrating is they had one or two solid opportunities to bring back Brian as that "devil on the shoulder" type. After Dexter finds out the twist mentioned, he lashes out at Brother Sam and said the only thing he has faith in is himself.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on Dec 19, 2011 3:55:59 GMT -5
I really don't get the love for Season 4 around here. Lithgow gave a great performance, but outside the Trinity Killer storyline, what else about this season did you all find so compelling?
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Post by triplezs on Dec 19, 2011 6:00:34 GMT -5
I really don't get the love for Season 4 around here. Lithgow gave a great performance, but outside the Trinity Killer storyline, what else about this season did you all find so compelling? - It was the first year where Dexter had to balance family-life and being a father with being a killer. Some fans hated the Rita/kid angle, but it was interesting to see him trying to balance it and how many mistakes he made as a result of it. - It seemed like each episode was very eventful. There were no wasted episodes from the beginning. Dexter gets into a car crash in episode one. Deb gets shot a few episodes later. The plot twist involving the reporter. The Thanksgiving scene. The last four episodes of the season were incredibly intense and was one of the best months of TV I've ever seen. - Generally, I'm not a fan of the scenes with Harry in them, but even they were reasonably good in Season 4. - Lundy was one of my favorite supporting cast members and him coming back was cool. - The ending. It was one of the few times where Dexter "lost" in someways to the big bad guy. It was like Dexter's Vietnam of sorts.
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Post by BatPunk on Dec 19, 2011 7:50:25 GMT -5
This season was really weird. The first half I nearly stopped watching. After sitting through Season 5, I just felt that Dexter had lost its mojo. If it wasn't for Mos Def being absolutely fabulous in his role as Sam, I would have stopped watching this season as well as the next two. It was a little bit too preachy for my liking (but I was watching this seasons Survivor as well so it might have been a bit of religion overload) Deb getting her promotion was kind of a WTF moment and the Quinn/Batista buddy cop routine just didn't sit well. Brea Grant really did nothing apart from look hot! And then there was the last 4-5 episode. THEY WERE FANTASTIC!!! Colin Hanks finally looked comfortable and owned his character. Deb's troubles with LaGuerta and balancing the job was absolutely brilliantly done. Quinn and Batista were still a bit 'meh'. But the real kicker for me was Louis (Masuka's inter) This character is totally interesting and I'm hoping his story arc builds over the next two season and ends spectacularly. The seeds were sown so brilliantly! The only part that I hated was this 'relationship' angle between Deb and Dex. This is just dumb. {Spoiler} The entire ending with Dexter killing Travis and their conversations leading up to this was awesome. Neither man backing down from what they believe. Just going at it until the end. And darkness swallowed up the light.
... then Deb walks in. The look on Dexters face was perfect. It was kind of a cross between 'I've been caught.... by my sister' and 'I'm going to have to kill.... my sister In short, the ending of this season has guaranteed that I will be watching next season!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2011 8:50:56 GMT -5
IIRC The actor who plays Brian was only available for that one episode due to his schedule.
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Post by mcmahonfan85 on Dec 19, 2011 13:25:40 GMT -5
I still say 5 was the worst season. No, 3 was the worst I really don't get the love for Season 4 around here. Lithgow gave a great performance, but outside the Trinity Killer storyline, what else about this season did you all find so compelling? The Trinity storyline is all you need
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on Dec 19, 2011 15:19:23 GMT -5
The Trinity storyline is all you need No, it's not. I guess my biggest problem with Season 4 was that it was the first time Dexter killed an innocent (the fashion photographer), something that should have shook him to his absolute core as we have four years of build up for that moment where the code of Harry would and should have completely crumbled, leaving him with no order in his life and having to pick up the pieces. Instead, this was brushed off in the next episode and never mentioned again. That should have been HUGE for the series. It renders all the Harry/Code/Ritual stuff after it pretty meaningless. And before I get a bunch of responses, yes he did kill someone who wasn't a killer in Season 3 BUT that was in self-defense, something outlined within the first two seasons as within the code and falling under the "don't get caught" umbrella.
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Post by OGBoardPoster2005 on Dec 19, 2011 15:35:01 GMT -5
Season 6 is the case of something that I think you had to wait til the end to judge it. I remember being iffy at times throughout it but stayed because I figure that just maybe it was leading to something great (which is the attitude I took with Season 5 as well). Unlike Season 5, however, I enjoyed Season 6 and at the end of the season I see it as a success. I loved the Travis/Gellar stuff, granted it went a little long and the twist was obvious but it helped create a dynamic between Travis and Dexter that I really liked a lot.
I see this season as a bit of a retcon of Season 5 and a great season. I'm excited for next season with the ending of the Season, the Quinn/Batista feud, and I get the feeling Masuka turns up dead next season. The Louis character I think will make for a great character next season and I'm looking forward to the 2nd part of this 3 season arc.
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Mac
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Post by Mac on Dec 19, 2011 15:41:46 GMT -5
Outside of the finale I watched all the Dexters on demand towards the end. I had a tough time this season starting another episode it just seemed tedious. The ending of season 6 is of course as massive a plot twist heading into the future as possible but the whole Deb/Dexter issue is just odd and uninteresting to me.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on Dec 19, 2011 15:56:43 GMT -5
I actually like the 2nd half of season 5. They logistically made it plausible that Dexter could kill a celebrity. Plus, the tension is those last few episodes were much better than the last few this season. Did anyone REALLY think Harrison was in the least bit of danger?
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