BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
Before I start rambling about the Showtime television series “Dexter” I’d like to point out that I don’t give a shit if you haven’t watched it. This ramble will have spoilers, theories, and randomness that will pertain to what’s gone done over the past seven seasons of this show. So don’t freak out if you’re not caught up. Basically what I’m trying to say is that this shit has spoilers. I’m not even going to come close to doing the show justice so just watch it for yourself.
“Dexter” has been one of my favorite television shows over the past few years. I didn’t get on board right off the bat. It took two seasons of the show being around before I actually sat down and binged on its goodness. From season three on, I’ve been smooth sailing on the “Slice of Life” with the rest of the world. It’s been a great run. Seriously. I’m confident to say this is one of the best shows of the decade. It’s right up there with “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” for me. If you don’t agree you’ve either not watched “Dexter” or you don’t get it’s magic.
The concept is that Dexter is a serial killer who kills only bad people. Michael C. Hall plays Dexter. He’s the best actor on television. He was great in “Six Feet Under”, which is my favorite show of all time. He has proven he can play and do anything with impact. Other characters and actors are sometimes more notable, but Hall owns everything I’ve seen him in. The fact that he’s not on every award stage every single year is a crime. He just does his job so damn well that you can’t help but get lost in the ride. Dexter has some serious issues and a need to kill so this was channeled into “the code”. “The code” is a set of ideals that Dexter learns, is conflicted by, and confronts regularly. It’s still an interesting starting point to think about. On top of this he is a forensics specialist for the Miami P.D. So he uses his knowledge for his own benefit. His sister is also on the force and the only person he can trust. Their relationship is strange, but they are all they have so they cling on. For years the tension built. You’d wonder if she’d ever find out about his true side and then she does at the end of season six. By that point, it’s a big moment but there is so much going on it’s hard to let it faze you. The fact is that the sister “Deb”, played by the A-lister in the making Jennifer Carpenter, also has a sexual tension aimed at her non-biological brother. There are layers upon layers upon layers in Dexter and Deb’s relationship and interaction.
I read in Entertainment Weekly that Dexter has murdered 125 people since the show started. It’s mostly people who were killers themselves or just evil, but some innocent people died along the way. The show started to embrace an almost-super hero movie formula. Each season would be fun because each one would have a new super bad guy for Dexter to rival and take down. Some have been awesome like John Lithgow’s “Trinity Killer” and even Ray Stevenson’s recent “Issak Sirko” while others are just kind of there. The one that I think was massively underrated and underappreciated was Jonny Lee Miller’s evil motivational speaker character. The main core of actors is solid as they come, but the special appearances and featured performances were always top notch. There are tons of performances like that though. Keith Carradine, Julia Stiles, Julie Benz, Jimmy Smitts, and a slew of others have shown up on the series and really carried the ball when needed. The list goes on and on.
The direction is also awesome on this show. It doesn’t go too artsy, but it definitely has it’s own “vibe” going for it. I always liked the way the show looked. The Miami backdrop doesn’t hurt the aesthetics for sure. There is just a certain dryness to the extremely emotional tone that’s going on in the show. The antics and actions are so crazy that on a normal show you’d be conflicted and bothered. On this show, the lines of right and wrong are so blurry that it’s just a great show.
I’ve been nervous every year that the show will suck. It never does. Some seasons are better than others, but I appreciate every minute of the show that’s given to us. The problem is that successful shows like this are often forced to stay around longer than they’re needed. It’s rare for a show to not overstay its welcome. Not every show is going to go five awesome seasons and end with such a definitive closer like Hall’s old show “Six Feet Under”. This has had seven long seasons. It’s understandable they keep going. The show’s ratings rise every year peaking at 6.1 million across Showtime’s viewing platform last year for season seven. That’s almost unheard of for long time shows like this. The problem with going out on top is figuring out when exactly you’re at “the top”. I’m fearful that the next season could be the point where the show “jumps the shark” and it loses me forever. It happens and it hurts. Luckily, I think this is the right time for the show to end. The show has told its story for seven seasons and now we have one season left of this. What next?
We left off with Deb having to kill a main character in LaGuerta. LaGuerta was around since day one and it was the first time Deb had to kill someone to save her own ass and to save Dexter’s ass. It was intense and leaves a lot of things on the table. Where does it go from here?
If I had it my way, I’d like it to get even more surreal. Everyone thinks Dexter dies in the end. I think that’s a necessity for the closure of the show. We’ve come too far to not see him finally die. It’s just the poetry of the hundreds of hours put in. The hunter is finally hunted down. I’d like him to get away from whatever bad guy he is faced with, have him save the day, and have things ALMOST go perfectly. Then bam! Dexter is caught by Agent Lundy! That’s right, bitches… Lundy lives! They could play it as if he knew that Deb was too close to Dexter to ever turn him in. He’d take down Dexter in a blaze of glory. This is NOT the last episode, but the second the last.
The final episode picks up with Dexter’s story being breaking news story. From there it could really put the media and the glorification of murderers, villains, and criminals. With all the of mass murdering in the news and all of the violent crimes, I don’t know how much a story like Dexter’s would really get picked up. Of course it would be everything people talked about for a week or two, but after that it would fade away. The news and impact of the story would be buried in the common trash that is the media. Slowly and surely, the story of Dexter Morgan being one of the biggest seriel killers of all time becomes more a myth. Only die hard “fans” would talk about him and they’d eventually consider making a movie. But the whole idea is that despite all we know, the character would be embellished and the story would be altered to make the viewing public feel one way or another about the “person” that is Dexter Morgan. The final episode would be “The Execution of Dexter Morgan”. Fast forward through his life in prison, where he’d kill once or twice more, where he’d be a cult-celebrity, we’d hear from Angel, Vince, Deb, and everyone else close to Dexter. Then the closing moments would be Dexter’s execution. Imagine the narrative in his head as he’s taking his last breaths. It would be intense as fuck. Then the last heartbeat and the “Dark Passenger” finally exits Dexter. The series closes with a shot of Dexter’s son Harrison with a blank look in his eyes. We are left to wonder what route Harrison would go as well as seeing the biggest victim in the entire show.
I don’t know. I’m not the writer of this show. I came up with that just off the top of my head. Still, I want something impactful. Something intense. Something that says something. We’ve gotten just that so far in the past seven years. I think it’s safe to say we WILL be fulfilled with a great ending. I’m just a little tense that it could suck. Then again, this show has always been about tension.
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