Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Dexter: The Complete Final Season

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior seasons, but no major spoilers from the final season.+++

Season 8 of Dexter picks up months down the road from the events that ended season seven. The first part of the season started out pretty good and then went downhill as the season progressed. As most have pointed out, the overall ending was pretty bad, so the season just gets a worse reputation than it really deserved. Jennifer Carpenter is definitely the highlight of the season. She plays Deb spiraling out of control wonderfully. She feels enormously guilty over killing LaGuerta to protect Dexter and is mad because he does not feel the least bit guilty about it. Of course, there is a new serial killer that Dexter has to contend with, as well as the psychiatrist who helped Harry come up with "the code", whose intentions are murky, to say the least. I will not spoil how the season ends, although chances are anyone reading this now is already aware. I will just say that I would have chosen a different ending to the series than was done for this one. Obviously, this was meant to be the end of the series and was for many years until the series was resurrected as a limited event miniseries in 2021.

The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray is very good, but the extras are pretty lame. There are just a handful of very short (2-3 minutes at most) featurettes and the first two episodes of the series Ray Donovan. Not nearly as much as a show that had an eight-season run should have received. Overall, the season was decent to good, with a band ending. The acting was great, but the writing most definitely was not. With those provisos, I do think it is worth watching but know that you will probably not enjoy the season as much as you did the first 3-4 seasons.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Dexter Season 7

 

+++Warning... this review will spoil the ending of season six and contain a minor season 7 spoiler, but there are no major giveaways about the plot of season seven.++++

The seventh season of Dexter picks up immediately where the season six finale ends, with Deb trying to find Dexter to confess her feelings to him and seeing Dexter kill Travis Marshall. He gives her a story that he snapped, but Deb suspects otherwise and asks Dexter if he is a serial killer, and he admits everything to her. The rest of the season is really about Deb balancing protecting Dexter while trying to help him stop. This season also introduces the character of Hannah McKay (played by Chuck's Yvonne Strahovski) who was an underaged accomplice to her boyfriend's killing spree, who now, as an adult has agreed to testify against him in return for immunity from prosecution. Dexter suspects there is more to the story than what she claims and begins a dangerous dance with her. He also has to keep up appearances at work as LaGuerta is convinced the Bay Harbor Butcher is still alive and that Doakes was set up.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the AV quality is great. The extras are horrible however as the only extra is the pilot episode for Ray Donavan, which is fine, but there should be at least some Dexter-specific extras. So really, at this point, the only reason to get the Blu-Ray set over streaming the show (unless you greatly prefer having the physical discs) is to keep your collection complete.

Overall, the season is good. It does diverge a bit from the "big bad" that Dexter has to stop (at least somewhat) but adds multiple layers of tension into the show, especially for the character of Deb. Jennifer Carpenter does a great job playing Deb torn between being a good cop and protecting her brother, whom she loves both as the step-brother she grew up with and more. The character of Hannah caused a lot of debate among fans. Some hated the character with a passion. I actually thought she was a good character, and Strahovski (whom I loved on Chuck) did a great job portraying the character. I think she introduced even more tension into the Dexter-Deb relationship and really tested Dexter's loyalties in a similar way to how Dexter tested Deb's. The season ends on a major cliffhanger yet again and sets up the eighth season well.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Dexter Season Six

 

Season six of Deter finds many of the characters at various crossroads. LaGuerta is promoted to Captain, Deb is promoted to Lieutenant, which affects her relationship with Quinn, but also makes for an even more tenuous relationship between LaGuerta and Bautista, as Bautista thinks that it is LaGuerta's fault that he was passed over. Dexter meanwhile, befriends a minister named Brother Sam, whom he initially believes to be a new serial killer, and Deb begins to confront her feelings toward Dexter. There is also a bookend to the Trinity storyline that puts a nail in that arc.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the series looks and sounds great in HD. The extras, which are only available through BD live (meaning your blu ray player has to be connected to the internet to watch them) include cast interviews, a couple of episodes from the series House of Lies, Californication, and The Borgias. So, very light on Dexter-specific extras which is disappointing.

Overall, the season is good. Better than season five, but not as good as seasons one through three. The season ends on a cliffhanger that definitely changes things for season seven. The writing is definitely not as good under the new showrunners as it was under the direction of Clyde Phillips, but the acting is always great. This season sports a strong supporting and guest cast including Mos Deg, Collin Hanks, Edward James Olmos, and includes Aimee Garcia as a new recurring cast member. I cannot say that people who loved the first 3-4 seasons will definitely like this one, but I think, generally, if you have liked the prior seasons, you will probably like this one. The only real disappointing thing about the Blu-Ray set is the lackluster extras, so if you only get the physical discs when the extras are extensive and good, then you may just want to stream this.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Dexter: Seasons 1-5

 

Dexter was a show which aired on Showtime from 2006 to 2013 and was then brought back for a limited series run in 2022. It starred Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan, who, by day, was a blood-spatter analyst for Miami Metro Homicide, and by night was a serial killer, with a twist. The twist being, that he only killed bad people (usually other killers) who got away with their crimes. The main storyline is that Dexter saw his mother murdered and dismembered when he was a child and was adopted by the cop (played by James Remar) for whom his mother was a confidential informant. When Dexter started displaying violent tendencies, his father Harry taught him how to kill without being caught and instilled a code for when it was permissible to kill. Harry (who is dead in "real life") acts as Dexter's conscience throughout the series.

The rest of the cast included Jennifer Carpenter as Debra Morgan, Dexter's adoptive sister and a detective at Miami Metro, David Zayas as Detective Angel Butista, Lauren Vélez as Lieutenant (later Captain) María LaGuerta, C. S. Lee as lab tech Vince Masuka (who was pretty much the comedic relief), Erik King as Seargent James Doakes, and Julie Benz (of Buffy and Angel fame) as Dexter's girlfriend Rita, who tethered Dexter to the real-world.

This set includes the first five seasons of the show, which were the best seasons of the show's original run. The series was in part a story-of-the-week procedural with a larger "big bad" that Dexter had to deal with throughout the season. The first season involved a killer that was dubbed the "Ice Truck Killer" who leaves clues specifically for Dexter. The best season of this set, and maybe the best season of the entire series, is season four, which is the season that involved the "Trinity killer" that leads to one of the best season finales in TV history. Along with the "main" killer Dexter has to worry about each season, he is always trying to keep from getting caught himself, and is every so often on the verge of being discovered.

This set is just the individual season sets bundled together. The extras varied from season to season, but generally included commentary tracks on selected episodes, sometimes with members of the cast, other times with the show's producers or writers, then there were usually behind-the-scenes or making-of featurettes. In some of the seasons, most extras are enabled via BD live so you need a network-connected player to access them.

Overall, the show is very good. That said, not everyone is going to like it. It is very violent, as you would expect, has a lot of swearing, and has some nudity and sexual content. It is very well written and acted. Hall does a great job playing a person with very few real emotions having to fake his way through everyday life to seem normal. Carpenter steals pretty much every scene she is in, especially in the early seasons, and really all the characters get developed well and all the cast members get a chance to shine at some point during the series. The series does go downhill a bit in the later seasons, but this set definitely has the best seasons of the show (not that I would call any of the seasons bad). So, if you are looking for a unique show that is definitely not cookie cutter or a carbon copy of anything, this is definitely worth checking out.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Dexter - New Blood

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from Season 8 of the original series but does not contain any major giveaways from New Blood.+++

As most are likely aware, Dexter is a tv series about a "good" serial killer that ran from 2006 to 2013. It ended with Dexter having gotten away with everything, faking his death, and moving to Oregon. That ending left pretty much everyone, including Michael C. Hall, with a bad taste in their mouth. Because of that, this series was thought up by the original series creator, Clyde Phillips, who was no longer a part of the show in season 8, to retcon that ending.

New Blood sees Dexter living a normal life in a fictional town called Iron Lake in upstate New York. He works at a fish and game shop, is dating the chief of police (played by Julia Jones), and is living the typical small-town life. We find out that he has abstained from killing for ten years, and seemingly has everything he ever wanted. Of course, things do not remain rosy as his dark passenger rears its ugly head again, and Harrison (played by Jack Alcott) manages to track Dexter down seeking answers.

This series has a mostly new cast that includes Jones and Alcott, and also includes the great Clancy Brown, Jamie Chung, Johnny Sequoyah, and Alano Miller. There is a handful of returning characters from the original series, most notably Jennifer Carpenter. I will not spoil her role, but it is not hard to figure out in what capacity she is brought back.

I do think the series gets a bad rap for how it ended (there are some absolute crazy one-star reviews on Amazon from right-wing nutjobs and Q dipshits that should be totally ignored), but most of the negative reviews revolve around the last few minutes of the final episode. Although I do think some variation on how it ended is the way the show should have ended, I do think that it could have been done better. I personally would have liked to see a bit more of a tie-in with the original series and have the original cast members included in the climax of the series, even if it meant making one more episode.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the show looks and sounds great in HD. There is some really great cinematography that shows off the filming locations very well. The extras include short featurettes on reviving the show on discs one and two (each just 2-3 minutes long) and then on the fourth disc there is a making-of documentary that runs about 30 minutes. A good amount of material, especially since many series, if they are lucky enough to get a DVD release much less a Blu-Ray release have almost no bonus features.

Overall, the series is very good. The ending is controversial, but I do think it is better upon second viewing than it was the first time I watched it, and I get why they made the choices they did. The writing, on the whole, was much better than what we got in Season 8, and the acting by all was superb. Hall and Carpenter fell back into their roles seemingly with ease, Clancy Brown was great, and Jamie Chung pretty much stole every scene she was in (all but one). I certainly cannot say that everyone will like this season, but I think most fans of the show's original run will find this season to be more satisfying than what season eight provided.