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Over at Digital Spy today, it's my latest article. This one fantasises about 12 "crossover" episodes of past and present TV shows, that would be extremely unlikely but incredibly fun to watch. Dexter meets Hannibal? Sherlock travels to Fargo? Justified visits True Blood? Click through to read more, and remember to share if you enjoy it!
From the very beginning, fans of Dexter have speculated about the very end. It seemed inevitable the show would resolve with either serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) murdered by one of his quarry, or his secret exposed to the world and made to pay for his crimes. I'm sure everyone reading this review has dreamed up their own series finale (mine involved Dex being given the lethal injection, watched over by his workmates and spectral father), so the challenge for the writers was to do something unexpected. I think they achieved this, for the most part, which meant the finale was interesting and one of the better episodes this season. It was pretty good and a decent finale, but I'm very disappointed the writers never embraced the possibilities a final season presented them with. It was a chance to do something truly radical and memorable. Some will also argue the ending was cowardly, for reasons I'll expand upon below...
As penultimate episodes go, "Money in a Box" wasn't awful. As penultimate episodes of a series-ending season go, "Monkey in a Box" was an underwhelming hour. I just expected so much more for Dexter in its final season. While it's almost inevitable eight years of expectations are hard to satisfy, the writers have taken things in a direction that lacks impact. I find it hard to care that Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is planning to leave the country with Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski), because what we really want is him forced to deal with everyone knowing he's a serial killer. Maybe that will happen next week, but this episode also played the "all you need is love card"--where it seems the antidote to Dex's homicidal urges was love. Awww. A sentiment so naive and one-dimensional it wouldn't have been used pre-season 4, but a lot's changed since those days.
The final three episodes begin, but with a mild pop instead of an explosion. I simply don't buy into the idea Dexter (Michael C. Hall) would elope with Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) and his son, leaving his sister behind, because their relationship doesn't feel as strong as it once did. It's tried to undo some of the knots the Dexter/Hannah situation had tied itself up in last season (he can't trust her, she hates his sister), but it hasn't been handled effectively enough. It just feels like the show needs Dexter to start making a life-changing decision like leaving Miami because, well, it's the end of the series soon and they need a big event.
It isn't helping matters that Dexter's final run of episodes air the same night as Breaking Bad's own, because these shows couldn't feel more different in terms of how well the writers are bringing their stories to a close. Dexter's final season has failed to feel climactic in any particular regard, as you could imagine the show continuing for another season or two—even with occasional mentions that Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is serious about leaving Miami with Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Harrison (Jadon Wells) as a happy ending nobody expects to come true. The stakes of the show are largely the same every season (somebody discovers Dexter's secret; someone's plotting to kill him), so season 8's just going through the motions with a few changes to that formula.
There was a lot wrong with this episode, but there was also enough good to pull me through to the end. What I didn't like was just how clunky the story was, which is something Dexter as a whole suffers from. It doesn't have much finesse these days and the way each episode offloads exposition can be terrible—usually Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) internal monologues and his discussions with ghost Harry (James Remar). But then "Are We There Yet?" threw in a road trip discussion where Dexter filled Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) in on the season's events she wasn't present for, which also worked as verbal notes for lazy viewers. Is there a genuine belief at Showtime that Dexter's viewers just dip into the show occasionally, so need catch-up conversations between characters? It's a little exasperating to watch a show discuss itself so much, wasting time in the process, when it should be trusting its audience to keep up.
The reintroduction of pretty poisoner Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) certainly perked things up, but only slightly. I'm still unsure this final season has anything up its sleeve to astonish me, but there are now four people in existence who know Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) secret: ex-girlfriend Hannah, sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), confidant Dr Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) and teenage protégé Zach (Sam Underwood). (Okay, five if you include Lumen from season 5, but I'm guessing Julia Stiles isn't going to be making a surprise comeback.) This means there are quite a few potential leaks for Dexter's serial killing to be exposed to the wider world, although only Zach perhaps stands a chance of framing Dexter and getting away with it. Or is that beyond someone like him, even with his family's fortune to help? Vogel could hardly vouch for Dexter's innocence and hypocritically oppose Zach's side of the story...
For the majority of its hour, "A Little Reflection" did little to shake season 8 out of the doldrums, but the last quarter-hour grew more interesting once Dexter (Michael C. Hall) decided he's going to become a "spiritual father" and murder mentor to rich psycho brat Zach Hamilton (Sam Underwood). And this means the writers can explore an idea the drama's eight-season run would never allow with Dexter's own flesh-and-blood Harrison, because they've never jumped years ahead in time between seasons. Harrison's only four years old, so it would be ridiculous if he started skinning neighbourhood cats and whatnot. But with eerie teenage Zach, it's a different matter entirely, and this episode did a predictable but enjoyable job of setting up Zach as Dexter 2.0: he's already undergoing therapy with sociopath-sympathiser Dr Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), who wants to teach him Harry's Code, and managed to talk his way off Dexter's kill-table by making Dex realise they're two peas from the same pod.
This was a bad episode, let's not claim otherwise. It would have shaken my optimism about Dexter ending strong after season 7's impressive comeback, too, were it not for the fact it ended with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) establishing a twisted family dynamic with sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) and their pseudo-mother/therapist Dr Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling). It feels like season 8's first stage is completed here, which comes as a relief because these five episodes have been very inconsistent, but hopefully the remaining hours will stop disappointing me as readily.
This episode covered two important bases very well: Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) undergoing therapy at the hand of Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), who's determined to make her see her serial-killing brother as a positive force; and Dexter (Michael C. Hall) continuing his search for the elusive Brain Surgeon and finding cable guy A.J Yates (Aaron McCusker), a former patient of Vogel's who underwent a lobotomy at her insistence. While I'm a little jaded when it comes to Dex's almost weekly stalking of villains, Yates had a few quirks that made him more interesting than most—like being the first person to detect Dexter during his reconnaissance with the help of a secret room equipped with CCTV, and avoiding capture by threatening the life of his own ailing father in a hospital. I'm not convinced Yates is the Brain Surgeon just yet, however; mainly because it feels too early in the season to settle on someone.
The weakest episode of season 8's opening trio, although it's obviously early days and you can sense the writers trying to find their groove now Evelyn Vogel's (Charlotte Rampling) secret was revealed far earlier than you'd usually expect. I think what dragged this episode down for me is the focus on Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) being a big liability for Dexter (Michael C. Hall); getting arrested for DUI and eventually confessing to Quinn (Desmond Harrington) that she killed her boss. Carpenter's doing a brilliant job playing Deb as a rudderless mess, but I find her character a little irritating in this mood. The show could hardly ignore the emotional toll on Deb after shooting LaGuerta dead, but I'm already hoping she finds a way to move past it, because it's beginning to feel like a millstone around the season's neck.
Michael C. Hall makes his directorial debut with "Every Silver Lining..."; an episode that improved on the uneven premiere and sold this season's big concerns in a more compelling manner. There are two major storylines that are working quite nicely at the moment, and both concern the women in Dexter's (Hall) life, who are moving in different directions. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) revealed she has knowledge of Harry's Code last week, and here most of my assumptions were proven true. With the help of old VHS tapes, Vogel proved to Dexter that she helped Harry (James Remar) deal with a 10-year-old adopted son exhibiting psychopathic behaviour, and essentially thinks of herself as his "creator" and "spiritual mother". But while Dexter's gaining a maternal figure for the first time, he's simultaneously losing a sister...
Dexter's back for its final season, earlier than usual. I hope this means it will maintain season seven's momentum, which conjured a satisfying comeback after two weak years in which the show fell victim to its refusal to shake things up enough. Last season's decision to have Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) discover that her brother Dexter's a serial killer was a breath of fresh air. Alas, this premiere didn't have anything as gripping. That made the majority of events feel 'business-as-usual', although things improved and the hour ended on a high.
Continue reading at MSN TV...
Dexter's back for its final season, earlier than usual in the year. I hope this means it will maintain the momentum of season 7, which provided fans with a a satisfying comeback following two weak years—where the show fell victim to its inability to shake up the status quo. It's still hesitant to do anything outstandingly brave on a weekly basis (or just have the common sense to kill dead weight characters), but last season's decision to have Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) discover her brother Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) a prodigious serial killer was a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, this premiere episode didn't have anything as gripping to tangle with, which made the majority of events feel 'business-as-usual', although things improved and the hour ended on a high.
