When I came to season 5 I did so on a wave of criticism and disappointment from message boards and reviews. I didn't totally agree with that even though I thought that the fifth season was only good when the others had been great. Well it transpires that the sixth season is when I join the mob saying "what has happened to this show" because this one has seen the show drop from great to so-so. Indeed by the end of the season it just felt instead of the writer's ideas being selected on quality, all the blue sky thinking was being put on the screen – whether it worked or not.
The (poor) writing was on the wall from the very start. I had no issue with the show skipping a year ahead in time, but it narked me to be updated by flat and fake dialogue from the characters. The viewer is informed by "hey isn't it cool that this has happened in the past year" dialogue and it feels lazy and unnatural and it didn't bode well that the main problem I had with season 5 (which unlike many I enjoyed) was so much to the fore this time around. As with previous seasons we have lots of things going on but the focal point is the hunt for a serial killer, this time a pair of religious doomsday nuts, trying to bring around the end of the world by committing elaborate murders. It doesn't help that they are not quite up to the standard of previous guest killers, but the real problem here is the overall writing, not one specific person or thread.
Previous seasons have been tight, engaging and thrilling – here we have bagginess, pointlessness, horridly convenient contrivances and just a real lack of understanding of the characters. The whole season seems concerned with making things happen rather than letting the characters drive it – and even if the things they thought of doesn't make sense, they'll do it anyway in the logic that 24 always got away with nonsense as long as it always kept moving quickly enough. This approach means that stuff from the previous season is left in the wash – so Quinn's suspicions over Dexter seem to have vanished for one example, but there are plenty more. What we get instead is characters forced into dynamics and places they don't fit for the sake of plotting – plotting which doesn't work anywhere near well enough to justify the way they have been brought around. With these weaknesses in the sweep, it is no surprise that they populate every show in detail too – Dexter injecting himself but then immediately coming too is the worst example (an event only made worse by the writers simply not even bothered to try and explain it), but there are plenty of others.
Somehow though the season just about manages to have enough of the old Dexter to it to somehow still be enjoyable, and don't get me wrong, there was still an OK show here that I was able to reasonably enjoy. The show does still have a solid dramatic sense to it and although many of the things here don't really work that well, they do still make for solid TV and the Doomsday killer thread is decent with some good twists along the way. The characters are a problem though – Deb feels forced down a career and personal road that is a stretch for the sake of the plot – previously she was a great character, this time she was poor. Dexter is solid but the religious aspect is poorly used and he doesn't develop or explore himself as he has in other seasons. Other characters used to be used well – now they have little to do and even less that works. The performances remain good though – despite it all.
Dexter seasons 1-4 were quite brilliant, so much so that even the weaker season 5 worked for me. Here though the quality of the writing really kills it – with laziness, convenience and a real lack of respect for the viewers that was annoyingly obvious and blunt throughout. So many things that the show had previously had as strengths, had not just dipped in quality but had actually become weaknesses. We'll see where the "Deb luvs Dex" and "Deb discovers Dex killing" thing goes, but the lab geek seems to have lazily been moved into position for the sake of next season, so we'll see – but it is hard not to feel like Dexter really jumped the shark here and I genuinely doubt it can pull it back, even if I hope it does.
The (poor) writing was on the wall from the very start. I had no issue with the show skipping a year ahead in time, but it narked me to be updated by flat and fake dialogue from the characters. The viewer is informed by "hey isn't it cool that this has happened in the past year" dialogue and it feels lazy and unnatural and it didn't bode well that the main problem I had with season 5 (which unlike many I enjoyed) was so much to the fore this time around. As with previous seasons we have lots of things going on but the focal point is the hunt for a serial killer, this time a pair of religious doomsday nuts, trying to bring around the end of the world by committing elaborate murders. It doesn't help that they are not quite up to the standard of previous guest killers, but the real problem here is the overall writing, not one specific person or thread.
Previous seasons have been tight, engaging and thrilling – here we have bagginess, pointlessness, horridly convenient contrivances and just a real lack of understanding of the characters. The whole season seems concerned with making things happen rather than letting the characters drive it – and even if the things they thought of doesn't make sense, they'll do it anyway in the logic that 24 always got away with nonsense as long as it always kept moving quickly enough. This approach means that stuff from the previous season is left in the wash – so Quinn's suspicions over Dexter seem to have vanished for one example, but there are plenty more. What we get instead is characters forced into dynamics and places they don't fit for the sake of plotting – plotting which doesn't work anywhere near well enough to justify the way they have been brought around. With these weaknesses in the sweep, it is no surprise that they populate every show in detail too – Dexter injecting himself but then immediately coming too is the worst example (an event only made worse by the writers simply not even bothered to try and explain it), but there are plenty of others.
Somehow though the season just about manages to have enough of the old Dexter to it to somehow still be enjoyable, and don't get me wrong, there was still an OK show here that I was able to reasonably enjoy. The show does still have a solid dramatic sense to it and although many of the things here don't really work that well, they do still make for solid TV and the Doomsday killer thread is decent with some good twists along the way. The characters are a problem though – Deb feels forced down a career and personal road that is a stretch for the sake of the plot – previously she was a great character, this time she was poor. Dexter is solid but the religious aspect is poorly used and he doesn't develop or explore himself as he has in other seasons. Other characters used to be used well – now they have little to do and even less that works. The performances remain good though – despite it all.
Dexter seasons 1-4 were quite brilliant, so much so that even the weaker season 5 worked for me. Here though the quality of the writing really kills it – with laziness, convenience and a real lack of respect for the viewers that was annoyingly obvious and blunt throughout. So many things that the show had previously had as strengths, had not just dipped in quality but had actually become weaknesses. We'll see where the "Deb luvs Dex" and "Deb discovers Dex killing" thing goes, but the lab geek seems to have lazily been moved into position for the sake of next season, so we'll see – but it is hard not to feel like Dexter really jumped the shark here and I genuinely doubt it can pull it back, even if I hope it does.