Post by mylungswereaching on Sept 24, 2013 12:47:58 GMT -5
Are there any other Dexter fans out there? The final episode was a couple of days ago and I've got a few thoughts about it.
Most reviews I've read hated it but I mildly liked it. I've got a lot of complaints about it but most of them were more about the last couple of seasons than the last episode itself.
The biggest thing to me were numerous plot holes. Plot holes to me fall into three categories.
1) Writers/Directors convenience / allegory.
How did Dexter always get great parking spots? How did they get bus tickets at the last minute when everyone was trying to get out of town?
I don't have any problem with these types of problems. Do you really want to spend 10 minutes showing someone buying a bus ticket. Sand storm/rock climbing anyone?
I even lump Dexter dumping Deb's body at sea under this one. In his mind, she was his last victim so it was appropriate. People are making a big deal that Dexter was able to defeat the security at a hospital to kill Debra. I laugh at that complaint. I really don't think that hospital security is all that difficult to defeat.
2) Plot holes that leave things to the imagination.
I don't like being spoon fed the plot. I don't think having Morgan Freeman tell the audience that someone has just died right after showing the person dying on screen is good story telling.
How Dexter treated his son goes under this category. A lot of people are complaining that Dexter let his son Harrison go with his girlfriend, a known serial killer. I understand the problem but I look at his other choices. Many people said that Harrison should have gone to his babysitter. Huh, what court is going to give a four year old to their babysitter? Since all of Dexter's close relatives were dead by this point he would have gone to his dead wife, Rita's family. Harrison's closest relatives were his half sister and brother. I don't think the courts are going to give a four year old to an 18 year old girl. She's living with her dead father's parents, but they aren't related to Harrison. That leaves Rita's mother. Rita hated her mother and blamed her for being so messed up.
Bottom line, Dexter had only a few minutes to decide and went with his gut.
3) Plot holes which aren't necessary to the story and cannot be explained within the story.
These are the one's that drive me crazy. They have been common in the last 4 years of the show. The biggest one this year is that his girlfriend is a hunted serial killer with her picture all over the papers and she makes zero attempt to change what she looks like. Two otherwise intelligent criminals who have avoided detection for many years not taking any basic precautions aggravated me badly. There are many other plot holes of this type spread through out the last 4 seasons.
One thing I do not consider a plot hole. In another scene, Dexter walks into a police station that he has worked at for many years and kills a serial killer who killed his sister, (a cop) right on camera and the police let him walk. People thought this was unrealistic but I thought it was one of the more realistic things in the show. Cops protect their own. I don't think that the cops would work all that hard to prosecute a person who killed in self defense a serial killer who killed a cop. There just looking for an excuse to let him go.
At the end, Dexter is in self imposed exile cut off from everybody and everything he cares about because he knows that in the end, people he love always end up dead. I thought it was a decent if not great ending.
I've got a lot of other thoughts but this is too long already.
Most reviews I've read hated it but I mildly liked it. I've got a lot of complaints about it but most of them were more about the last couple of seasons than the last episode itself.
The biggest thing to me were numerous plot holes. Plot holes to me fall into three categories.
1) Writers/Directors convenience / allegory.
How did Dexter always get great parking spots? How did they get bus tickets at the last minute when everyone was trying to get out of town?
I don't have any problem with these types of problems. Do you really want to spend 10 minutes showing someone buying a bus ticket. Sand storm/rock climbing anyone?
I even lump Dexter dumping Deb's body at sea under this one. In his mind, she was his last victim so it was appropriate. People are making a big deal that Dexter was able to defeat the security at a hospital to kill Debra. I laugh at that complaint. I really don't think that hospital security is all that difficult to defeat.
2) Plot holes that leave things to the imagination.
I don't like being spoon fed the plot. I don't think having Morgan Freeman tell the audience that someone has just died right after showing the person dying on screen is good story telling.
How Dexter treated his son goes under this category. A lot of people are complaining that Dexter let his son Harrison go with his girlfriend, a known serial killer. I understand the problem but I look at his other choices. Many people said that Harrison should have gone to his babysitter. Huh, what court is going to give a four year old to their babysitter? Since all of Dexter's close relatives were dead by this point he would have gone to his dead wife, Rita's family. Harrison's closest relatives were his half sister and brother. I don't think the courts are going to give a four year old to an 18 year old girl. She's living with her dead father's parents, but they aren't related to Harrison. That leaves Rita's mother. Rita hated her mother and blamed her for being so messed up.
Bottom line, Dexter had only a few minutes to decide and went with his gut.
3) Plot holes which aren't necessary to the story and cannot be explained within the story.
These are the one's that drive me crazy. They have been common in the last 4 years of the show. The biggest one this year is that his girlfriend is a hunted serial killer with her picture all over the papers and she makes zero attempt to change what she looks like. Two otherwise intelligent criminals who have avoided detection for many years not taking any basic precautions aggravated me badly. There are many other plot holes of this type spread through out the last 4 seasons.
One thing I do not consider a plot hole. In another scene, Dexter walks into a police station that he has worked at for many years and kills a serial killer who killed his sister, (a cop) right on camera and the police let him walk. People thought this was unrealistic but I thought it was one of the more realistic things in the show. Cops protect their own. I don't think that the cops would work all that hard to prosecute a person who killed in self defense a serial killer who killed a cop. There just looking for an excuse to let him go.
At the end, Dexter is in self imposed exile cut off from everybody and everything he cares about because he knows that in the end, people he love always end up dead. I thought it was a decent if not great ending.
I've got a lot of other thoughts but this is too long already.