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dippin · 01-23-2011, 01:44 AM

I just finished season 5. Spoilers below:

Let's start with the good. The first episode was excellent and dealt with Dexter's grief in a way that was pitch perfect.

After that, the overall plot of the season was great. It would be too easy to fall into the same "chess match versus another serial killer mode," so the introduction of Lumen and the "group" worked really well (despite the ridiculousness of how it started, with the blood on the van that dexter rented, the car crash). Julia Stiles was great, Michael C Hall was even better than before. In fact, in terms of the stand alone plot of the season, I'd say its almost on par with seasons 1 and 2.

The main problem, though, is that after that season 4 finale, this season ended up feeling anticlimatic. They started dealing with Rita's loss with a very good season opener. But then its just completely dropped. Dexter mostly moves on, his kids either move away or he hires a super nanny that he can pay to stay on the job for days on end (while also paying rent AND a mortgage). By the middle of the season, its like that story has been dropped (except for the Astor-Lumen meeting). So Rita's death served less as a way of moving the plot forward than as a way of moving it back, undoing the domesticated dexter stuff of seasons 3 and 4. I thought this was disappointing. Likewise, they also completely dropped the "Deb knows Brian is Dexter's brother" story, just like they dropped the whole "who is Kyle? Why Rita?" investigation plot.

The Santa Muerte plot felt like a waste, just a way for Deb to consider that maybe killing bad guys is ok. Other than that, Santa Muerte leads nowhere.

On top of that, every secondary character felt even more flat. Everyone is good. Any potential gray areas are all misunderstandings (see Laguerta and Angel). All the gray areas disappeared.

This is especially true of Deb. She is still supercop, but now with an incredibly ability to mix moments of profound stupidity and profound brilliance. Even though Dexter, the expert in forensics and crime scenes, manipulates evidence to throw her off his trail, she still always almost catches up with him. So a hunch that those involved with the rapes wouldn't turn on each other (even though we know that Jordan was actually willing to turn on the others), a smear of blood in one house, two partial foot prints and a smell of bleach are enough for her to figure out they are dealing with a couple of vigilantes. She catches up with Dexter at the end because a Hispanic who didn't speak English pointed her in the right direction?

And Deb's love life is like those old star trek episodes where you knew the random extra that gets a bit of screen time is the one who is going to die. With Deb, if you have a non-regular character who at least looks like a good guy, you know she will end up in bed with him. And so in 3 years (the period portrayed in the series) she is kidnapped and almost killed by her fiance, gets dumped by the love of her life who is later killed in front of her, dates another guy who is also the target of a serial killer and now is back together with Quinn, making up with him in the end because he was suspected of killing another cop.

What remains to be seen is the Dexter- Quinn relationship in the next season. I am on the fence on this one. If Quinn stopped poking around because he pretty much figured it all out that is ok(Dexter is shacking up with a petite blonde, Deb thinks there is a couple with a petite blonde getting revenge on the killers, they are seen dropping plastic bags in the sea, not unlike the bay harbor butcher). If he is clueless after all this and only dropped it all because of Deb, then it will suck.

Here's looking forward to season 6.

01-23-2011, 01:44 AM	#278 (permalink)
dippin Crazy, indeed Location: the ether	I just finished season 5. Spoilers below: Let's start with the good. The first episode was excellent and dealt with Dexter's grief in a way that was pitch perfect. After that, the overall plot of the season was great. It would be too easy to fall into the same "chess match versus another serial killer mode," so the introduction of Lumen and the "group" worked really well (despite the ridiculousness of how it started, with the blood on the van that dexter rented, the car crash). Julia Stiles was great, Michael C Hall was even better than before. In fact, in terms of the stand alone plot of the season, I'd say its almost on par with seasons 1 and 2. The main problem, though, is that after that season 4 finale, this season ended up feeling anticlimatic. They started dealing with Rita's loss with a very good season opener. But then its just completely dropped. Dexter mostly moves on, his kids either move away or he hires a super nanny that he can pay to stay on the job for days on end (while also paying rent AND a mortgage). By the middle of the season, its like that story has been dropped (except for the Astor-Lumen meeting). So Rita's death served less as a way of moving the plot forward than as a way of moving it back, undoing the domesticated dexter stuff of seasons 3 and 4. I thought this was disappointing. Likewise, they also completely dropped the "Deb knows Brian is Dexter's brother" story, just like they dropped the whole "who is Kyle? Why Rita?" investigation plot. The Santa Muerte plot felt like a waste, just a way for Deb to consider that maybe killing bad guys is ok. Other than that, Santa Muerte leads nowhere. On top of that, every secondary character felt even more flat. Everyone is good. Any potential gray areas are all misunderstandings (see Laguerta and Angel). All the gray areas disappeared. This is especially true of Deb. She is still supercop, but now with an incredibly ability to mix moments of profound stupidity and profound brilliance. Even though Dexter, the expert in forensics and crime scenes, manipulates evidence to throw her off his trail, she still always almost catches up with him. So a hunch that those involved with the rapes wouldn't turn on each other (even though we know that Jordan was actually willing to turn on the others), a smear of blood in one house, two partial foot prints and a smell of bleach are enough for her to figure out they are dealing with a couple of vigilantes. She catches up with Dexter at the end because a Hispanic who didn't speak English pointed her in the right direction? And Deb's love life is like those old star trek episodes where you knew the random extra that gets a bit of screen time is the one who is going to die. With Deb, if you have a non-regular character who at least looks like a good guy, you know she will end up in bed with him. And so in 3 years (the period portrayed in the series) she is kidnapped and almost killed by her fiance, gets dumped by the love of her life who is later killed in front of her, dates another guy who is also the target of a serial killer and now is back together with Quinn, making up with him in the end because he was suspected of killing another cop. What remains to be seen is the Dexter- Quinn relationship in the next season. I am on the fence on this one. If Quinn stopped poking around because he pretty much figured it all out that is ok(Dexter is shacking up with a petite blonde, Deb thinks there is a couple with a petite blonde getting revenge on the killers, they are seen dropping plastic bags in the sea, not unlike the bay harbor butcher). If he is clueless after all this and only dropped it all because of Deb, then it will suck. Here's looking forward to season 6.