Dexter

[KallDrexx]

Something keeps nagging me.  Why did Dexter have to fake King's death instead of just explaining that he was kidnapped by King, woke up, managed to escape and kill king in self defense.  Hell it's fully explainable since he was on the Freebo case and besides, Dexter's blood is on the scene as well.

Does anyone have a reasonable explaination? 

[Xerapis]

Maybe they would be a little suprised that King would choose Dexter specifically...and much more surprised that their little bloodspatter dork managed to physically overpower and kill someone who was a torture expert? That kind of behavior doesn't fit the persona he attempts to portray.

No worries about Dexter's blood on the scene. After all, he'd probably be the guy asked to check for blood and then test it.

[Riggswolfe]

What Xerapis said. And Dexter wouldn't want to answer questions about why he specifically was chosen. Remember, people like his sister were much more visible on the Freebo case than Dexter. Everyone who was taken so far had some connection to Freebo. At best, Deborah would wonder if Dexter had bought drugs from Freebo due to last season's addiction sideplot. At worst, she'd start to really wonder what's going on and start digging.

[Rasix]

Well, I obtained the rest of the episodes I missed and finshed them up yesterday. This season ended up better than I thought it would.  Still, I think this show has gone from a remarkable show to just a pretty good one.

I did not care for the entire Skinner plot or almost everything with Deb in it.
I did not care for Rita being a giant schizo bitch through most all of it (pregnancy sure, but they wrote her really oddly), but she did look pretty damn hot in her wedding dress.

I liked the work Jimmy Smits did with Miguel.  A truly manipulative monster.
I liked Dexter's dad.  I liked that Dexter went back to his dad after the betrayal he felt.

I would have liked to have seen more done with Masuka and Batista, but I think they did a good job with them for the most part.  The show focused really tightly on Dexter and Miguel and it didn't seem like there was much room for anything else.

I would really like this to move forward at a faster pace toward someone discovering him.  Someone he loves.  The Deb thing is going to take forever because she's a dipshit and won't connect it further than Brian Moser is Dexter's brother. If they recycle the "Dexter can't get along with murderers" plot line again.. 

[Arthur_Parker]

Not spoiling myself by reading the thread, on last episode of series 1.  Just wanted to say how good this show is, even the opening sequence is great.

[Margalis]

I have one episode left in season 3.

Yes, this season went off rails a bit. The stuff with Smits was great, but everything else was blah. The writing did no favor to many of the seconday characters and at times, such as the shit about Quinn and the IA woman, it passed the line into just plain stupid and made the characters look stupid, particularly Deb who mindlessly believed whatever was told to her last.

This is not an ensemble show. In the first couple seasons characters like Angel and Masuka fit in because they hung out around Dexter, this season it felt like the writers were just going through the motions of giving them some minor plotlines even though they had nothing to do with the story. Like they felt obligated to throw them some bones, rather than write a story that would genuinely include them.

The skinner stuff was not interesting and didn't really go anywhere. Also at this point the kills Dexter makes feel almost perfunctory. Remember the car salesman in season 1. (?) That guy got a lot of screen time before biting it. This season the kills consisted of a 5 second shot of Dexter looking at their face on google, perhaps a 30 second interaction and then voila, they're dead.

[Tarami]

Rise!

No comments? Really? We thought it was a great start, with a very interesting cliffhanger. The kind of dark comedy that we've come to expect from Dexter. Also, seeing John Lithgow in this was odd but slightly awesome.

[Tale]

What? It's back? Season 3 was a bit of a grind, like True Blood season 2, not quite as deteriorated as later Heroes or Prison Break seasons, but dangerously off-putting. I will struggle to get back into this.

[Margalis]

This season has been good so far. What I wrote above is still true, the storylines for the secondary characters still feel pretty weak, the secondary characters are only interesting when they interact with Dexter. This is most apparent in the new romance subplot, which feels pointless and soap-opera like. But other than that this season has been pretty great so far, even though Dexter is now married and with kid there is less family bullshit than in last season, it's really more of a backdrop than a major plotline.

[Riggswolfe]

The Trinity killer is chilling. I don't know why he creeps me out so much but he really does. He feels dangerous. Moreso than any other past killer.

So far I like this season, especially how they're showing Dexter having issues adapting to his changed life. I like that Dexter is making mistakes now.

[Tarami]

The Trinity killer is, I think, the first psychopathic killer we got on Dexter. The people Dexter have been killing have been random thugs and/or perverts, while the main plots have covered apathic genious killers that aren't really moved by many of the expected emotions, like Dexter himself. It made them very removed from our own world of, well, real people. The Trinity killer on the other hand does feel for his victims, he's just so off the fucking hinges that he can't help himself and that lack of control and rationale can be a lot creepier than the calculating, by-the-numbers murders we've had this far.

[pxib]

Yes and yes. Lithgow is a great choice as he has proven capable of pulling simultaneously funny, charming, and pitch black wicked. I look forward to further intractions with him. I also agree that while the A (each season's serial killer) and B (Dexter's episodic escapades) plots have been consistantly strong, the the office politics C and D plot stuff was especially unnecessary and unrelated for the last few seasons (Frankly, almost everything that includes LaGuerta and Batista). Unless they start pulling those threads back into the storyline proper they really need to stop introducing them.

That said, I'm happy to see Lundy back and look forward to Debra's collision with Dexter's past.

[Margalis]

LaGuerta has always been soap-opera-esque, remember when the other woman took over as captain (in season 1?) and LaGuerta drove her insane by sleeping with her boyfriend? That was really mid-afternoon soap style plotting, complete with ridiculous sinister surprise reveal. Batista's role has somewhat degraded over time, and Quinn is just pointless. Can anyone name anything he's done on the show that's even mildly interesting? Hopefully Dexter catching him pocket cash will turn into a real plotline, the character has no reason to exist otherwise.

Agree on Lithgow, he's scary in a way the other antagonists have not been. The way he killed that woman in the first episode was disturbing in a way the show hasn't been in a while.

[Riggswolfe]

I was a little afraid Lithgow would be hammy but he's not. He's being probably the most creepy I've ever seen him. I've heard an interesting rumor about Trinity and his upcoming actions.

[Oban]

[Signe]

What rumour from where?  Because if it's just supposin' then I don't understand why we're using spoiler tags.

[Soln]

I stopped watching in S3 with Jimmy Smits.  Yeesh.  Between him and the actress who plays the sister (along with a few other duds) I couldn't watch this anymore.  Is S4 worthy like S1 or S2?

[pxib]

We're two episodes in. Who knows? Lithgow is a great actor and has already completely owned his scenes, and Carradine's Lundy is the same passionately competent old detective he was in season two. I'm looking forward to watching those two outthink eachother... whatever the rest of the cast does with their own screentime.

The Skinner wasn't a particularly interesting mystery, and Smits wasn't dangerous enough to Dexter. Plus Dexter's awkward stumble towards marriage was mostly yawnsville. This season would be hard pressed not to clear last season's bar.

[pxib]

Best episode in a long while. Tied everything together, better Dexter/Target interaction than anything in seasons two and three, and transcended the soap opera shit they were delving a little too deeply into. I retain the interest I was losing.

[Margalis]

I agree, this is the first time in a while that the villain of the week didn't come off as perfunctory.

[Riggswolfe]

I thought they were going to drag out the stuff with Zoey or whatever her name was. Make it a 2-3 episode arc.

And wow...that ending. I think we all know that only one of the two of them lives which is sort of sad.

[waffel]

Pretty obvious that Lundy dies (:[) but Debra lives (:[)

[pxib]

Pretty obvious that Lundy dies (:[) but Debra lives (:[)

Neither necessarily dies... at least one of them could wind up in a coma, or they could both simply be hospitalized. The show doesn't always choose the most obvious answer.

[Signe]

He looked really dead.

[ahoythematey]

He's dead.

[Riggswolfe]

This last episode was pretty darn good I thought. I really thought Dexter was on the verge of revealing his inner self twice. Once to Rita and the other time to Deborah.

[pxib]

I'm beginning to think that's what this season is about. Something's got to give. Trinity, like Ice-Truck, serves as an example to Dexter. Someone else who survives despite ghastly secrets. Trinity will die, but not before he teaches Dex something. I'm sorry to see Lundy go, though... the show has a shortage of smart people.

[pxib]

Lithgow is the heart of this season. I am on the edge of my seat in totally casual, otherwise pleasant scenes.

[waffel]

Really, really solid episode this week. Moreso than usual.

[Rasix]

This season is so much better than last.  Guessed the whole impetus for Trinity's killings right from the start.  It's somewhat sad that someone like Lundy couldn't at least theorize that he was playing out something from his past and in particular some of the details.  But then again, he didn't know how far back it went.

I don't know if Dex has thought out the logistics of him rummaging in his shed at 3am after a kill.   

[pxib]

The scene with Trinity and his wife was just chilling, even as I knew he wasn't going to kill her. I think Lundy had a LOT of theories, and had been working on it so long he didn't want to nail anything down that he wasn't certain of. Dexter has the advantage of having the man's name.

On a lighter note:

Q: So when you knew that you'd be nude in this role - that was just old hat?

A: Oh yes. My first job on Broadway was "The Changing Room" in 1973 and it all took place in the locker room of a rugby team. And I had a long scene stark naked on stage. I won a Tony Award for that, so I look for every opportunity to take my clothes off ever since. People don't always necessarily want me to, of course.

[Oban]

[Gobbeldygook]

Yeah.  My only concern is that they're really dipping back into the themes and storylines of season 1.

John Lithgow better get nominated for an Emmy.  He is by far the most terrifying villain Dexter's ever had.

[pxib]

It's too late to make the Bautista/La Guerta subplot relevant to anything. At this point they can't even drop it. We have to watch save time for it in EVERY EPISODE. Also poor Masuka... the guy just can't catch a break.

[Margalis]

The twist at the end was very soap-opera-y but overall a terrific episode with his wonderfully fucked up family. That daughter!