Seven years ago, a show premiered which changed the perception of how television viewers viewed heroes and villains. DEXTER focused in on a serial killer named Dexter Morgan. Yet, the reasons behind his killings were that of a vigilante. The questioning of his actions and the overall likability of the man had many falling in love with the show, which ended this past Sunday after an eight season run.
My first found fascination with DEXTER was after a friend recommended it. It was right before the fourth season started and he lent me the first three seasons. I was hooked immediately and even watched one season in about a day or two. I just couldn’t believe what I was watching; the lead is a serial killer, but I am rooting for him and hoping he makes it out okay. The intricate writing of such a delicate matter was based off of Jeff Lindsay’s novel, “Darkly Dreaming Dexter.” The author even had major, hands-on influence over that first great season.
To not credit the cast would also be a major injustice, as Michael C. Hall, the main character, quickly became one of my favorite actors. For a man to convey a sense of being, all the while portraying a man with no real emotions or feelings (this is a psychopath after all), is a feat done exquisitely by Hall. The supporting cast was also top-rank. Helped in-part by the fantastic writing of the novel, each actor had a wonderful persona to fill-in. Nothing was off-limits, and every storyline pushed the boundaries of what could be seen on television. This was all true until a change in show-runners occurred.
Scott Buck was the writer and Co-Executive Producer on the show in the beginning. That “Co” is very important. It wasn’t until the fourth season he achieved the full title of Executive Producer. Thus allowing his hands on every aspect of the show. To his credit, Season Four was the one of the, if not most, highly praised seasons in the show’s run. Yet, for whatever reason the show began a decline into predictable, boring, story lines that could have easily been seen on network television. Criminal Minds, for instance, a CBS production, was producing darker and more boundary-pushing material than the Premium Showtime channel about a blood-born serial killer. The real problem Buck got himself into was that he tried making Dexter more human. He would constantly throw love-interests at him, try and make him feel more emotions and sympathetic feelings. This didn’t work at all for the show as a whole, because the first four seasons had Dexter as the true, emotionless, psychopath that he was. Buck had completely redone what the series had done so well. This is when many of the show’s biggest fans began to turn their backs, and rightfully so.
The finale of a ground-breaking show is always food for fodder, and this could’ve quite possibly been the worst finale for a show ever created. The finale, in a nutshell, was a massive plot hole. Nothing was properly explained, and it felt like the writing was entirely too lazy to take seriously. There was a high sense of, “Well not knowing what happens is the point. Edgy, right?” No, Mister Buck, you got it all wrong. Where The Sopranos executed that type of ending perfectly, Dexter ended like it didn’t know it had an episode limit and was thrown into the abyss with no explanation of what happened.
Dexter was my favorite show (and still is, for the first four seasons at least); I even own enough merchandise to bolster the claim. Yet, as avid of a fan I was, I couldn’t sit back and take it, that the show had drifted apart from what made it so special. I remember always thinking how I would write about the finale, and certainly never would have guessed it would have been so negative. To anyone interested in the show after this, watch seasons one through four. That is a prime example of great television, and should be seen by anyone who fancies themselves as a pop-culture fanatic or lover of art. It really was art, until it was mass-produced for a wider audience, losing its honorable respect in the process. The charm is there during those earlier seasons, but it wore off as the show ran too long for its own good.