very few shows leveraged one decent season into an agonizingly long, miserable stretch run of television like Dexter did. i don't like it but i do grudgingly respect it
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Heroes tried. That season one was amazing and then season two was kinda okay but it was strike shortened so they put a 24 episode season of plot into 12 or do episodes. Then tried to keep that pace after the strike and it went bananas
Dexter was great, then fine, then great again, fine, really good, and then really bad. New show does a fantastic job imo- not too long and ends in a satisfying way for Dexter’s arc
The second season was pretty good too, but the writers took the easy way out with not having dexter make the decision with letting Dokes go or to kill him. It showed how desperate they were to keep the status quo of the show. Such a shame. The end really ruined that season.
Haven’t seen anybody in the comments make this point but MAN if this ever describes Heroes. Phenomenal first season, nothing really worth it in the next three seasons or the revival.
Yep. Dexter was good for about four series. Hated the last couple and was glad when they finally killed him off. Deb deserved better though! Fear the Walking Dead should have ended when Nick died!
oh the 100... my partner mentioned he'd seen some of it and really enjoyed it and i was like "i bet you stopped watching after the first season, right?" and had to quiz him on what he remembered. didn't get to season 2 lmao. i've seen every episode. it gets. really weird. to say the least
The only good season had Julia Stiles and they messed it up by the end. I only watched it at all because my ex wanted to or I would've bailed after the first season.
That's why they invented so-called 'binge watching', and retirement, right? Shortens the time to one intense week. My tip would be to watch 'Chuck' in its entirety – probably the only common factor between the two being Yvonne Strahovsky in two v.different roles. I'll be re-watching it on Jan. 20.
I'm not sure I finished True Blood (or Weeds, for that matter) but I also stuck it out to the bitter, bizarre end with Dexter. Deb deserved so much better.
I couldn’t get into it but I respect that they knew they could get away with anything if they stayed apocalyptically horny with their insanely beautiful cast.
I don't get why anyone watches these series. Whether "drama" or "comedy". They just don't entertain me. I've tried. I get bored halfway thru the 1st episode.
What I dislike most is when you start watching a promising show with a potential complete story arc, but then it gets popular so they start frantic re-writes to allow a second season. So disappointing
Each season had a kind of theme which helped structure the storyline… it’s true it might have gone in a better direction within a season, but I was engaged.
Occasionally, shows like Angel pull off the rare “what are we doing here, let’s jump start this shit back to greatness turnaround” like when they just wrote an in-universe “season 4 didn’t happen, forget that garbage” plot device AND IT WORKED
at one point i declared i could not watch another minute of weeds because i was the opposite of committed to finding out what happened next. more like dreading another 90-degree deus ex machina more than the cardboard dialogue. "what are we doing here" sums it up nicely, thank you for that.
Kate kept up with it even though she admitted it wasn't good anymore, she was just too committed to it, so I'd catch bits and pieces every now and again and just keep wondering what the fuck
I was intrigued by hearing about the first season, but everybody seemed to grow so miserable watching it from then on, I was just like, nah, no thanks.
Deter felt almost like an opp to me. Some kind of re normalizing of an American psychotic trifecta that no one was asking for. Puritanism Sadism Vigilantism
love when my anti-hero conveniently side steps a moral dilemma like when Walter White didn't have to kill crazy 8 because crazy 8 had a stroke and died all by himself
It started off promising and Lithgow is of course great generally, but I thought it became ponderously slow and boring after the first few eps, save for a couple of decent reveals.
But it looks like the Bay Harbor Butcher could still be alive! Are you sure Doakes is dead? He does reappear later for fans. I liked the third season and the fifth with Lumen. Even the incestuous seventh! Though it was getting a bit lost by that point. Still haven't watched the eighth.
I think having Lila off Doakes removed the narrative stakes of having Dexter have to break his code or have his secret be revealed. So completely agree, it felt like the writers backpedalling and absolving the character of any consequences.
(Spoilers) It always bugged me that when he snuck off from the scout camping trip and wound up murdering the wrong guy (who was innocent), the show just hand waved it and never mentioned it again, instead of it creating existential crisis and being the moral basis for and Dexter's downfall
That's a really good point! It's a shame because the show was always teetering on Dexter's morality and his attempts to justify his impulse to kill. No, I'm agree - there was a narrative trajectory they could have followed, and they've kept swinging left each time.
The further it progresses, the more it feels like it's stuck in a vicious circle of procrastination, making the originally good story line long and painful
I do like how the book tried to do this thing where demons were real and possessing people and etc., etc, but the show became more popular with what it was doing so they abandoned that and barely mentioned it again in the following books.
100% agree. Trinity didn't have the same energy level for the whole season as Miguel Prado did, but it gave us a new spin on the Hiding In Plain Sight motif and the first proper consequences of multiple seasons of bad decision-making.
That's a great way to put it, the energy level didn't maintain. I remember feeling like the tension was dropped a few times in the middle of the season and I felt that weakened it a lot. I also kinda resent Rita being killed off.
But the plot was well written! (as a series finale!! 😉)
I never thought I'd miss the era of networks holding successful shows at gun point to squeeze more seasons out of them, but I'd take Lost over every streamed show treating itself as an 8 episode season of prestige television only to get cancelled before the first season even finishes.
You have incredibly high expectations. Yes it was a bummer when Doaks died but we got so much more cool content. Jimmy Smitts and John Lithgow?!? Both were so much fun to watch. Plus all the character development was rad. Also loved all the ways the writers decided to use the word f**k by Deborah. 🤩
I personally thought 3&4 were better than season 2. They did blow their proverbial load by killing Doakes so early. They could have milked the internal pressure forever basically.
When his sister who was like in love with him ran to confess her love to him and instead walked in on him in the middle of chopping someone up, that’s when it jumped the shark for me.
I cannot fathom what they did with that many seasons of Dexter. “Season 5: Dexter is headmaster of a boarding school for young serial killers who kill serial killers. But will his sister’s rival school win the regatta before they uncover the Rowboat Stranger?”
Wait one of the actual answers here is “Debra follows a suspect to an abandoned house but is forced to get involved when suspect traps his latest victim in a Minotauran labyrinth.” In Miami!!!
I like the running theme that the only reason Dexter gets away with it is because the Miami metro force is wildly incompetent. When the new hire from Chicago looks at him right in the face and asks "you ever get fed up working with these morons?" like no babe that's how I survive. It's ACAB
For sure the best example is Dexter! But then... Homeland, The Good Place, Sherlock (kind of?), Mr Robot, The Walking Dead, You (again, kind of?), Orange is the New Black. (A lot of netflix shows actually, thinking about it.)
No decent seasons. It had the production of a soap opera. And if the main character wasn't unlikeable enough as it was, they added his repellent voice over which made him far worse than any of his victims.
I enjoyed the evolution of Dexter as a character. Poor third season strong fourth and fifth should have ended there. Guess it will not make you happy with the 3 spin offs then are making 🤣
The Walking Dead is the all-time award winner for this imo (spinoffs!) but also i could see it beginning to crap out towards the end of season 1 so its longevity is still hard for me to process
I think a lot about how Weeds was a great show with the perfect series ender with the season 3 finale, but then they decided “hey what if we did 6 more seasons but theyre all bad”
I watched the sequel, and now I understand there's yet another iteration with the kid. My brother is a real fan of the franchise, me, I can take it or leave it, but I watch with him for the company!
I’ll give Dexter credit for more than one good season, but from day one, it had some of the worst acting ever for such a popular show. Aside from Michael C. Hall and some of the later/guest actors.
I didn’t finish Dexter (1 decent season might even be pushing it), and I didn’t watch the sequel thing. But then they went and cast Steve from The OA and Buffy in the prequel thing and I’m like “maybe?”
On top of Sgt Doakes giving maybe the greatest acting performance of his generation, the other best part of dexter is any time they flash back to him during his late teenage years
It tapped into a lot of modern viewers 2 deepest desires. To be a secret badass that everyone underestimates and to secretly kill everyone you don't like without being judged morally or ethically
The John Larroquette Show is where my mind immediately went. An interesting first season that just became a slog when they sanded down all the edges because it was "too dark."
I never watched Dexter, but I have known some long-running series that went steeply downhill, with many seasons produced after. Sometimes, I think we just feel we’ve already invested so much time, we have to see it through. 😁
I think the Lithgow season was fun, but yeah the rest was ass. Killing Eve followed a similar pattern. Season 1 is an all-time fave, the rest can be binned.
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And "The Walking Dead."
And "Game of Thrones."
And "Falling Skies."
Can we also admit that Game of Thrones is pseudo-historical torture porn?
Each season had a kind of theme which helped structure the storyline… it’s true it might have gone in a better direction within a season, but I was engaged.
1. Family
2. Lover
3. Friend/Confidant
4. Mentor
5. Facilitator
6. Faith
7. Partners
8. Analysis/therapy
But also I feel like there are MANY far more miserable stretches of seasons after one decent one.
I think Dexter had at least 2-3 seasons that were at least decent. And the decline was far less bad than many other shows.
Season 1 = Good
Season 2 = Less Good
Season 3 = Not bad
Season 4 = Disappointing
Season 5 = Meh
Season 6 = Bad
Season 7 = Bad
Season 8 = Very Bad
Season 5 is the transition period between the old show & the new show. And it feels weird/murky.
Then Season 6-8 feel like bad fanfiction.
But the plot was well written! (as a series finale!! 😉)
I watched the prequel too when it came out.
Dexter was awesome.
Some seasons were better than others, but that's typical TV.
Other than Dexter & maybe one other character, every other one just sucks & is annoying. The premise is silly & gets dumber the further along it goes
But I remember "Charmed," in particular, jumping the shark when they introduced magic school. So goofy.
Sometimes the pain of watching is what makes it compelling. It’s a love-hate kind of thing.
Both of them really pulled me in. Dexter did all the way to the series finale
It was a steady downward spiral after Frank Darabont left.