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DEXTER - Season 7 finale'd! Spoiler for those who haven't caught up. 1 season left!

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  • Grey GhostGrey Ghost Registered User regular
    So I don't even watch the show but are you guys hating the finale as much as AV Club did

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    edited September 2013
    Grey Ghost wrote: »
    So I don't even watch the show but are you guys hating the finale as much as AV Club did
    brawny_paper_html.jpg

    Langly on
  • Sweeney TomSweeney Tom Registered User regular
    Grey Ghost wrote: »
    So I don't even watch the show but are you guys hating the finale as much as AV Club did

    Worst finale I've ever watched. Not hyperbole; of every TV show I have ever viewed, that was the worst finale I've seen.

  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    As I gave up on the show mid season last year can someone summarize everything for me please?

  • Sweeney TomSweeney Tom Registered User regular
    Blake T wrote: »
    As I gave up on the show mid season last year can someone summarize everything for me please?
    The storm alluded to throughout the season was a real, actual storm. Dexter kills Deb and dumps her in the ocean (he does this as a "heroic act" because earlier in the episode she gets shot in the abdomen and gets brain damage from this abdomen wound [yes, really], so he puts her out of her misery by pulling the plug). Then he pulls another "heroic act" by driving a boat into the hurricane.

    EPILOGUE: except he's not dead, he abandoned his murderous girlfriend and his kid, who's now fatherless in a foreign country, and he's also now a hobo trucker lumberjack

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    hahah you thought I was joking, no that's an actual photo of his hobo trucker lumberjackiness. END SERIES

  • UnbreakableVowUnbreakableVow Registered User regular
    What

  • wirehead26wirehead26 Registered User regular
    You're better off watching the first 5 seasons of Dexter and ending it there. Hell, I'd go so far as to say the third novel was a better Dexter story than season 8. And that novel reads like the worst Stephen King story ever.

    I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
  • LarsLars Registered User regular
    I wasn't as against post-S4 Dexter as some. I liked most of S5 and even admit S6 and S7 had good points.

    But S8 was directionless and the ending was terrible and unsatisfying.

    In the past, I would often need to reflect on something after watching it to realize just how bad it was. The first time I saw Phantom Menace I was along for the spectacle and it was only on the car ride home that I started to go "Hey, wait a minute..."

    For this finale, it was just obviously bad throughout.

    The S1-S4 showrunner apparently posted what his ending would have been:
    Dexter would have been caught, then the final scene would be him waking up--tricking you into thinking it was a dream--only for the camera to pull back and reveal Dexter is on the execution table at Florida State Penitentiary. As the lethal injection begins, specters of his major kills or deaths he's responsible for (Trinity, Ice Truck Killer, Rita, Doakes, etc.) would appear around him.

    For those that didn't watch, the actual finale was:
    Dexter is never exposed (even after killing the season's villain on camera), Deb goes braindead after a stroke and so Dexter kills her then dumps her body in the river. Afterwards he drives his boat into a hurricane.

    The wreckage of the boat is found after the storm has passed and Dexter is reported dead. In Argentina, Hannah has Harrison and sees the news and then takes Harrison out for ice cream. Fade to black.

    Fade back. Dexter is a lumberjack and lives in a crappy house. The end.

  • UnbreakableVowUnbreakableVow Registered User regular
    I can imagine Michael C. Hall's thoughts

    "You know, the finale for Six Feet Under was so much better than this."

  • StarfuckStarfuck Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Just, just.... ugh. Remember that deadend storyline with the video game guy. I've had a Dexter beef since and just, man.

    jackfaces
    "If you're going to play tiddly winks, play it with man hole covers."
    - John McCallum
  • NogginNoggin Registered User regular
    hahaha, i still have to watch it just to see it through, but that's even worse than expected

    Battletag: Noggin#1936
  • cabsycabsy the fattest rainbow unicorn Registered User regular
    Lars wrote: »
    The S1-S4 showrunner apparently posted what his ending would have been:
    Dexter would have been caught, then the final scene would be him waking up--tricking you into thinking it was a dream--only for the camera to pull back and reveal Dexter is on the execution table at Florida State Penitentiary. As the lethal injection begins, specters of his major kills or deaths he's responsible for (Trinity, Ice Truck Killer, Rita, Doakes, etc.) would appear around him.

    Yeah I actually think this is pretty ok. I quit watching partway into season 5 because it was kinda clear to me it just wasn't "there" for me anymore but I like this ending well enough

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    I kind of had a feeling that any ending would be a disappointment... I didn't expect it to be that bad though

  • CelloCello Registered User regular
    I don't think anything has ever given me so much joy as seeing that the AVClub didn't even give this a Gentleman's F. Just a straight up F. The comments are like a written version of this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np6vAuS0KNs

    Steam
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  • StaleStale Registered User regular
    They should have ended it with Trinity and been done with it.

    John Lithgow was the only redeeming quality of the last few seasons.

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  • Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    Imagine if the end of Breaking Bad was

    (no Breaking Bad spoilers, just easy to figure out the Dexter spoilers)
    Jesse forgiving Walt for every bad thing he's done to him, and then actively telling Walt that he deserves to be happy

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  • wirehead26wirehead26 Registered User regular
    Mr. G wrote: »
    Imagine if the end of Breaking Bad was

    (no Breaking Bad spoilers, just easy to figure out the Dexter spoilers)
    Jesse forgiving Walt for every bad thing he's done to him, and then actively telling Walt that he deserves to be happy

    Well the BB writers aren't hacks.

    I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
  • LarsLars Registered User regular
    I'm still surprised they didn't have Dexter get exposed as a killer as the plot for the final season. They still could have done their silly lumberjack ending, but at least the season would have had a direction and real tension.

    That plotline was basically gift-wrapped for them. Their own promotional images for the season even indicated they would finally be going for it. They even set up multiple Chekov's Guns that they then never mentioned again (Batista has all of LaGuerta's files about Dexter, Harrison has a bloody toy that links Dexter to a murder, etc.).

    But nope, instead most of the tension for the end of the season seems to be wrapped up around whether or not Hannah can safely get out of Miami. They never even hinted that Saxon may try and expose Dexter to the public even though he knows everything and Dexter was just going to leave him for the cops at one point.

    I honestly don't think the writers were even aware how sloppy Dexter had been getting with his kills in the last few seasons either (well, when he actually bothered to actually go out and be a serial killer at least), which is also something that should have bit him in the ass.

  • DragkoniasDragkonias That Guy Who Does Stuff You Know, There. Registered User regular
    So...I was looking on getting back into Dexter because I liked the first season but didn't have Showtime(only saw the first season because they were doing a free promotion at the time).

    But people are telling me its on Netflix now, so what I'm hearing is I should watch until the end of Season 5 then move on.

    Because, yeah, I spoiled the ending for myself and that does sound dumb.

  • cabsycabsy the fattest rainbow unicorn Registered User regular
    Dragkonias wrote: »
    So...I was looking on getting back into Dexter because I liked the first season but didn't have Showtime(only saw the first season because they were doing a free promotion at the time).

    But people are telling me its on Netflix now, so what I'm hearing is I should watch until the end of Season 5 then move on.

    Because, yeah, I spoiled the ending for myself and that does sound dumb.

    I'd stop at the end of season 4... I didn't really find anything of value after that. Your results may vary though!

  • KaplarKaplar On Google MapsRegistered User regular
    The treadmill scene about sums up how I felt about this season.

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    There's so much you can do with the last season of a show about a murderer and they did... none of them.

  • LarsLars Registered User regular
    edited September 2013
    The state they left Dexter in is such a huge Jenga Tower of failures, it's got to be like a 90% certainty that he gets exposed as the Bay Harbor Butcher within a few weeks of the hurricane, even if everyone does think he's dead. We just don't get to see any of it.

    First up, Elway is alive, mightily pissed off after his nap on the bus and having sources that Hannah fucking McKay has Harrison and has been caring for him for the last few weeks and has fled the country (and with his magical sources that told him Hannah was going to be on that bus even though it was a last-minute plan of her part, who knows what else he'll turn up?).

    Now everyone will know Dexter (and Debra) was harboring a wanted fugitive, so Dexter is definitely going to need to be looked into. Especially since Hannah's rich husband has recently turned up murdered. On top of at least four other people directly connected to Dexter who were all murdered this year (one of which being an expert on serial killers who took a special interest in Dexter and...oh, look a bunch of her former patients were murdered this year too). On top of the last investigator looking into Dexter turning up murdered, with Batista having all the evidence in a nice little box on his desk.

    Plus I don't recall how Dexter was shipping all his stuff to Argentina, or if he was just leaving it, but if it was shipped it was traceable and if he's leaving it then Harrison's bloody toy linking Dexter to another murder is there to be found. Heck, I think Deb may have even mentioned to Batista or Quinn that Dexter was going to Argentina.

    This is assuming that both Vogel's and Saxon's computers somehow don't have anything incriminating Dexter on them, otherwise the Jenga Tower falls even easier.

    Plus they still think Zach was a murderer and his body was never found despite a video showing him get killed. In the course of looking for him or just through his stuff, should they ever happen upon any of his cameras he's got a bunch of pictures of a blood-splattered crime scene that Dexter was working even though he shouldn't have been allowed there.

    Finally, after watching the video of Dexter killing Saxton, Batista should at least wonder about the fact that they never found Trinity--the man who killed Dexter's wife. Quinn probably gives no shits at this point, but if he did he'd actually be knocking over the Jenga Tower with a baseball bat by now.

    So even though the public thinks he's dead, Dexter is going to be revealed as a killer (and likely the Bay Harbor Butcher if Batista or whoever replaces him gets off their ass and looks in the box of evidence--which should even reveal Dexter's connection to the Ice Truck Killer).
    Half of Maimi Metro is fired for incompetence.
    He still ruins the lives of Astor, Cody, Harrison, Jamie, Hannah, and everyone he knows at Miami Metro.
    And Hannah kills Harrison because he's dead weight when you're on the run and she barely even knows the kid anyways.

    (though on the plus side, everyone should figure out that Doakes was a hero at this point)

    Lars on
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    There's so much you can do with the last season of a show about a murderer and they did... none of them.

    In an interview they literally said doing anything with Dexter in the final season re: him being a serial killer and being found out/caught would have been "pedestrian"

    I posted some highlights from it in the D&D Dexter thread.
    Viskod wrote: »
    The producers attempt to defend their shitpile in an Entertainment Weekly interview.

    Here are some fun highlights.
    It’s also surprising that Miami Metro never realized Dexter’s secret. Everybody expected them to figure things out in the final season.
    BUCK: We toyed with that idea, but it felt off-point. The story was ultimately about Dexter’s personal journey. We have one moment in that interrogation room with Quinn and Batista. Watching the tape, Quinn has known all along that there was more there to Dexter. Batista is seeing a hint of the darker Dexter. There was a hint in that moment. But we didn’t want to blow it all up and revel he’s a serial killer.

    But a fan gripe was the season had Dexter dispatching new threats like in a typical season rather than a sense of that the show was arcing toward a finale with Dex’s world unraveling.
    BUCK: It felt like we had done that with LaGuerta last season and with Lundy in season 2. I felt like it ran the risk of feeling repetitious and familiar.
    COLLETON: Going that way felt pedestrian to me. I don’t know how else to put it. Years ago it was discussed and tabled as a very predictable non-interesting way to go.

    So with all the complaints that the 'last' season felt like any other formulaic season, these idiots literally thought they were doing something different. Yeah, wouldn't want anyone to find out about Dexter, definitely avoid addressing the entire premise of the show. God knows having Batista learn who killed LaGuerta and come face to face with her would have just been so boring.
    Have to ask: How did Dex get from his boat to the shore in the middle of a hurricane?
    BUCK: Hopefully it’s not a question that will be examined too closely. The show has always been a half step away from reality; it’s a hyper-reality. We established there is an emergency life raft with an outboard motor on the boat. He could have gotten in the raft and made it safely to shore.

    Do I even need to comment on this?
    One point of contention was some of the supporting story lines. Like why spend time with Masuka and his daughter and Quinn taking the sergeants exam in the final season?
    BUCK: We wanted to give some indication of where these characters were going. We wanted to give them all a bit of resolution toward the end. Masuka was a very small story, it took up a small amount of screen time. This is probably the most sexist character most of us have ever seen and for him to have his first honest relationship with woman and have that be his daughter felt interesting. As for as Quinn, we’re trying to spend time with characters that have been with us for a long time and we’re never going to see again.

    Except those storylines never go anywhere, and they reset the characters to their default status before the finale! You accomplished nothing!

    And, finally, a question all of us have asked.
    Since Hannah’s a wanted fugitive, couldn’t she have at least put on a ball cap when walking around Miami?
    BUCK: We played with the idea of dyeing her hair. In the research we did on fugitives we learned there are countless fugitives out there just walking around that nobody is really looking for. There aren’t funds to hunt down every one of them — particularly Hannah, as she hasn’t been convicted of a crime. She’s not high priority. We put her in sunglasses. Otherwise we didn’t want to call more attention to it.

    I...what? So Hannah didn't wind up in prison for the murder of Sal Price just....last season? That's not why people are looking for her? her prison escape?



  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    Man I'm glad I gave up on this show. I never thought it was very good, even in seasons 1 and 2, so I'm glad I just stopped watching before it really got bad.

    LxX6eco.jpg
    PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    Well lets put it this way. The final season was trying to convince everyone that watched it all this time that being a serial killer can actually break causality in the universe and make people stupid. After all, how long before we see someone blame Dexter for killing someone?

    Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
  • JansonJanson Registered User regular
    I kind of had a feeling that any ending would be a disappointment... I didn't expect it to be that bad though

    Haha yeah. This, entirely. I've not seen any of the last season but after reading the spoilers I definitely won't bother now.

  • BedigunzBedigunz Registered User regular
    edited September 2013
    I believe this will be the era of "TV shows that went on too long"

    Dexter
    Community
    The Office
    How I Met Your Mother
    Weeds
    The L Word

    All of those shows started out strong and had 2-4 really good seasons, but then became victims of their own success, and all dropped the ball.

    Whatever your opinions are on British television, you have to admit that they're model of "end a show after a few solid seasons" is brilliant, especially when you look at American TV shows and how a lot of them are stagnate.

    Bedigunz on
    cdmAF00.png
    Coran Attack!
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    There are a lot of things Community could have been a victim of, success is not one of them.

  • BedigunzBedigunz Registered User regular
    I should have mentioned "success" in a non-traditional sense for Community. Season 4 (and even parts of season 3) were relying too hard on the memes, one-liners, and jokes it created in its early season and that the internet latched on to.

    I.e. "Troy and Abed in the moooorning" was used like twice in the first two seasons, then it was used in almost every other episode of season 3 and 4 in some capacity.

    Paintball was mentioned in season 3 at the end (as a flashback scene) but then they based the 4th season finale on it because everyone loved it in seasons 1 and 2...and it was awful

    Same with the darkest timeline

    cdmAF00.png
    Coran Attack!
  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    The success of Breaking Bad in spite of all the risks the writing team took, and the complete and utter failure of Dexter to garner much of anything but criticism online bolsters my faith in humanity quite a bit.

  • LarlarLarlar consecutive normal brunches Moderator, ClubPA mod
    Tube wrote: »
    There's so much you can do with the last season of a show about a murderer and they did... none of them.

    Did you watch any of it? "Off the rails" is no longer enough of a description. It destroyed the world's supply of rails and killed anyone who knew how to make them.

    Forget rails. Rails are long gone.

    iwantanswers3.png
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    The thing about their opinion that Dexter getting caught in the last series would be "pedestrian" is this; it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's pedestrian, or predictable. The point is how you do it. Most of the broad strokes of Breaking Bad are predictable. Despite what people say, it's not full of WHOA HOLY SHIT moments if you look at it from a long view rather than specifics. The shape of the last season is something that you could have predicted from the first episode pretty easily. The point is that they did it really well and the specifics of how they did it were fantastic. It doesn't matter that "Dexter gets caught!" is a predictable plotline, it's good drama. I wouldn't mind them skipping that delicious low hanging fruit, but they didn't even have anything to replace it with! Just "oh I don't like killing people any more. I guess that's the end of our premise"

  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    The thing about their opinion that Dexter getting caught in the last series would be "pedestrian" is this; it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's pedestrian, or predictable. The point is how you do it. Most of the broad strokes of Breaking Bad are predictable. Despite what people say, it's not full of WHOA HOLY SHIT moments if you look at it from a long view rather than specifics. The shape of the last season is something that you could have predicted from the first episode pretty easily. The point is that they did it really well and the specifics of how they did it were fantastic. It doesn't matter that "Dexter gets caught!" is a predictable plotline, it's good drama. I wouldn't mind them skipping that delicious low hanging fruit, but they didn't even have anything to replace it with! Just "oh I don't like killing people any more. I guess that's the end of our premise"

    Pretty much. It's the singer, not the song. And they got Fred Durst to sing the last half of Dexter, accompanied by Chad Kroeger for the finale.

  • Sweeney TomSweeney Tom Registered User regular
    I wouldn't insult Chad Kroeger or Fred Durst by comparing them to Dexter's finale.

  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Scott Stapp?

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Larlar wrote: »
    Tube wrote: »
    There's so much you can do with the last season of a show about a murderer and they did... none of them.

    Did you watch any of it? "Off the rails" is no longer enough of a description. It destroyed the world's supply of rails and killed anyone who knew how to make them.

    Forget rails. Rails are long gone.

    I didn't watch any of it. I watched five minutes or so of the finale and the awful scene where Deborah tells them not to call Dexter destroyed any desire I might have had to watch any more of it.

  • DragkoniasDragkonias That Guy Who Does Stuff You Know, There. Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    The thing about their opinion that Dexter getting caught in the last series would be "pedestrian" is this; it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's pedestrian, or predictable. The point is how you do it. Most of the broad strokes of Breaking Bad are predictable. Despite what people say, it's not full of WHOA HOLY SHIT moments if you look at it from a long view rather than specifics. The shape of the last season is something that you could have predicted from the first episode pretty easily. The point is that they did it really well and the specifics of how they did it were fantastic. It doesn't matter that "Dexter gets caught!" is a predictable plotline, it's good drama. I wouldn't mind them skipping that delicious low hanging fruit, but they didn't even have anything to replace it with! Just "oh I don't like killing people any more. I guess that's the end of our premise"

    Yeah, the whole "unique for the sake of being unique" mentality really bugs me. Sometimes tried and true is just that because it makes sense.

    That isn't to say you can't try to be different but don't do it at the expense of your own narrative consistency.

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    I mean, the thing that everyone wanted to see from the very start of Dexter is "what happens when he gets caught?". That's where the actual drama is in a show about a serial killer. You can dance around it for a while, but that's the trump card you have in your deck. The only big plot they hit since season 2 (aside from Rita which they did nothing with) was Deb finding out. Which they did nothing with.

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