Dexter Season 8 Review: Weak Finale to Bad Season

Dexter Final Season - How to Kill a Great Show 

Be aware Dexter Season 8 spoilers are up ahead

This last and long awaited season 8 of Dexter (The last season) started really slow and mostly boring. The direction that the writers chose for Debra was very disappointing in my mind. It felt like everything that got to do with Debra was exaggerated in unproportional scales; Debra's falling apart process was a massive overkill. 
DEXTER blood
DEXTER (Photo credit: Chesi - Fotos CC)
It was spread on too many episodes, sucked all the attention and it wasn't something I was eager to see. 

Another thing that I wasn't as excited about was the Dexter and Vogel angle. The cliffhanger that the first episode of this season was perfect but whatever followed from those two was nothing to be exited from. 

The rest of Dexter supporting cast characters lost their importance last season I had no special expectations from Dexter creators to make Quinn, Masuka and Angel important once again. Although Quinn received a bit more screen time and he got something more interesting to do with Jaime and later on with Debra this season but that was on the expense of Masuka who disappeared almost completely and angel who become even more unimportant than he used to be in the past.


Dexter Season 8 shoot
Dexter and Debra Morgan
This Debra thing was mighty frustrating and very boring if I may add. It took Debra half a season to get her act together and do something meaningful but even driving the car into the river didn’t make the events look as important. The only thing positive and interesting that got out of the entire deal was Dexter's attitude change towards Debra, unfortunately Dexter wasn't angry long. After only one episode everything was forgiven and forgotten and the Morgans were one big happy family again.

This season was so unimaginably frustrating for me that there was a point that I just couldn’t take it no more. It felt like they were busy dealing with all kind of sentimental bullshit half a season that nobody cared about.

  1. I didn’t really care about Debra's exaggerated reaction to the death of LaGuerta.
  2. I didn’t care about Vogel her angle, her psycho patients or anything that got to do with her, the only thing she was good at was bore me to death with her British monotonic accent.
  3. I didn’t care about the semi hot neighbor Dexter got that had the hots for him and after one date only, the magic was gone.
  4. I didn’t care about Quinn's and Angel's entire sergeant quarrel.
  5. Most importantly I didn’t give a rat’s ass about Dexter's new apprentice Zack.

Fortunately for me my complete breaking point was the cliff hanger scene in the end of episode 6 A Little Reflection. If Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) wouldn't have shown up in the end of the episode I don’t know what had I done with this season. I was really worried about the no direction this season was taking by wasting 6 episodes of the season on completely nothing. Now when Hannah was back Dexter got interesting again, I can actually say that I looked forward seeing the next episode. Since Hannah returned I even started to like Zack. Suddenly out of practically nowhere Zack gets killed off by the brain surgeon and everything turned on its head.

The surprising twist of the killer's identity was good but not great because it was somehow expected with all the vague chapter of Vogel’s past. Again Hannah's character managed to save the Make Your Own Kind of Music episode with her interaction with Dexter and most importantly her dinner with Debra. Unfortunately Hannah cannot save everything. The mysterious but mostly boring and predictable villain this season just didn’t work. Ever since his identity was revealed most of his moves were expected and it seemed somebody made Dexter go on first gear the entire season in a failing attempt to make it seem like a close struggle.

8 Season’s finale was strange and very disappointing, people expected Dexter to go out in a boom, when in reality everything ended quite and calmly. Throughout the last episode there were way too many mentions of a happy ending but even without those massive clues everybody knew that TV shows like Dexter never end with a happy endings and Showtime’s Dexter was not different in that aspect.


Dexter's Brown regular Kill Shirt
Dexter's Brown Kill Shirt
No doubt Debra got the short end of the stick, from her last conversation with Dexter it was obvious she is not coming back. Becoming a vegetable is a creative and one of the cruelest ways the writers picked to end Debra's run, it was heart breaking. Seeing Dexter in his brown shirt entering the hospital helped the viewers come to the conclusion that Debra's minutes are numbered but how did he disconnect her from all the hospital gear and none of the nurses jumped to her rescue remains a small plot miss up.
The final scene with Dexter in a Lumberjack / Truck driver’s look that ended the show leaves some open questions. Does Dexter keeps on killing or he just waits for something to happen.

There were a lot of politics behind the scenes of the show. Some pushed for Dexter season 9 and some wanted to end Dexter right here right now from what it looks like now Dexter’s creators decided to end the show right now but the indecisiveness of the people in charge influenced the final ending of the show and the end like the entire season was very disappointing, some even call it “The lamest finale ever”.

Dexter Seasons on DVD from Amazon

Dexter: The First Season
Dexter: The Second Season
Dexter: The Third Season
Dexter: The Fourth Season
Dexter: The First Season
Dexter: The Sixth Season
Dexter: The Seventh Season 

photo credit: Pop Culture Geek via photopin cc
photo credit: nikpawlak via photopin cc




About Sasha Shapiro

Sasha is the founder and editor of Cool Reviews Rule. He is very passionate about Movies, TV Shows and some Books. His favorite genres are: Action, Fantasy, History, Horror, Sci-fi and Adventure.
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4 comments:

  1. I loved Dexter for what it was & really enjoyed Deb & her meltdowns & attitude. It was exaggerated & humorous. Really liked it when she died.
    Last year, I watched all the episodes of Dexter in preparation for the beginning of last season. So I was excited for this very last season of the show.
    Loved the ending & writing in general.
    The warm & fuzzy initial apprenticeship of Zack & Dexter, culminated in Zack's torturous death. Deb's continuous meltdowns & then her truce with Hannah & collusion in their preparations to escape, ultimately resulting in her teased death, was fantastic.
    Finally, Dexter's transition & survival were apropos. I don't agree with any people & their criticisms of the finale. I liked it, it was "pure Dexter". I was one of many that liked the ending & realized it was a television show & that the writers were at the wheel.

    One can't spoil a TV show that's already aired. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Everyone got his own opinion.
    Mine was like i mentioned - the first half of the season was very slow, it felt the creators didn't have a clear direction and they were wasting time. Debra's meltdowns are always fun but they exaggerated with all the LaGuerta thing.
    At the beginning i hated Zack but after a while he grew on me

    i think that the Lumberjack scene was too much, they should have left it with Dexter entering the storm and leave it there

    ReplyDelete
  3. Worst season EVER! I am sooooo disapopinted I was left laughing!
    Walking a dead body out the hospital was 2 easy and getting stabbed in the shoulder with a pen doesnt seem to hurt??? oh and stabbing a wanted man in the neck and walking free 10 mins later??? oh and Hannah an wanted convict just stroles round all day with out being noticed?? the whole season was a insult to Dexter fans, they just couldnt wait to finish!
    masuka's long lost daughter!?!?! WTF!!!

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