Is there a better character on TV than Dexter Morgan?
I didn’t think so.
What a great season. John “Trinity Killer” Lithgow was inspired casting [1] and the ending — oh the ending! There are few shows that make me as deliciously uncomfortable as this. I live in constant fear that Dex will be caught. Never have I enjoyed sociopaths — nor wanted them to succeed — this much.
There’s no way he can tell the police about Rita is there? All roads to Trinity lead back to him.
Best thing on US telly.
1. The scene where he made the woman jump from the building was supremely nasty in a good nasty kind of way.
December 16, 2009 in Television | Comments (17)
There’s just something maddening about asking if there is a better character on tv than a serial killer.
Comment by Dan — December 16, 2009 @ 8:34 am
To good Democrats, Dan, not to bad Tories like me.
Comment by The Brit — December 16, 2009 @ 9:54 am
Dexter is a great show. I’m a huge fan. Michael C. Hall is a phenomenal actor, but Dexter’s not the best character and it’s not the best show on American TV.
Don Draper is a better character. Mad Men is a better show. Walter White from Breaking Bad is also a better character. It’s also a better show. John Locke is a better character. Lost is a better show. I could go on and on…
Comment by Brian G — December 16, 2009 @ 11:13 am
To err is human, Brian. I forgive you.
Comment by The Brit — December 16, 2009 @ 11:17 am
The Trinity Killer character’s ritual murder ‘pattern’ doesn’t make sense to me. He kills a child, a woman, another woman and a man – each in a peculiar particular way. Then he waits for awhile before repeating the same series of murders, with the same series of victim types, again – all in the same way, all in the same order.
As I understand it, a serial killer (as opposed to a spree killer) has a specific victim type and doesn’t vary much from it.
But the Trinity Killer has a whole series of victim types.
This level of specificity and variety in victims – the complicated psychological compulsion that the Trinity character is supposed to have in regards to each victim type – I don’t find it very believable. I understand the show is pointing at him re-enacting traumatic deaths/murders of his family members that he witnessed and possibly even committed. It just doesn’t strike me as believable.
Just my opinion.
Comment by danithew — December 16, 2009 @ 1:11 pm
Out of curiosity, have any of you seen Gamer, also starring Michael C Hall? Just wondering whether he’s any good in that.
He’s amazing on Dexter. It’s been nice seeing him grow – at first, you’re pretty sure he’s a sociopath, but he’s clearly not. (Oh, he’s still completely messed up.)
Deb is awesome, too! =)
Comment by FHL — December 16, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
The scene where he made the woman jump from the building was supremely nasty in a good nasty kind of way.
On that point I completely agree.
Comment by danithew — December 16, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
I’ve been missing Dexter since I cancelled Showtime. I would like to start viewing it again, but I’m stumped on the best way to catch up on the episodes I’ve missed. Is it available online somewhere or should I just rent the DVDs? How are you seeing it Ronan?
Comment by MCQ — December 16, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
My vote is for Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory. He’s a different kind of sociopath.
Comment by Blake — December 16, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
The first two seasons are available on Netflix Watch Instantly. The third season probably will be one day soon.
Comment by Brian G — December 16, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
I haven’t seen the finale yet (and haven’t read the above)
You have me excited as overall I’ve been kind of disappointed with this season. There were some great episodes but the satirical social commentary felt much more forced. Yes the casting was great, but this season was disappointing for me. What I do like is that unlike prior seasons the finale isn’t anticlimatic. It seems like in previous seasons the main plot finished the episode before the last and then there are a bunch of implausible events tying all lose ends. Last season they did leave open Deb’s searching for the mistress of her dad, although they didn’t do much with it (unless it’s a point in the finale) It sounds like this one really is leaving a lot more open and that they are really changing the structure of the show more.
Comment by Clark — December 16, 2009 @ 5:58 pm
Dexter is easily the best character. Easily the best season finale of any show I’ve ever watched. The cliff-hanger at the end was soo unexpected.
Comment by Paul M — December 16, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
Interestingly the show runner is quitting. Taking over is one of the producers of 24. We’ll see how that affects things…
I’ve not read the books but I’ve heard they are quite different from the show and that while the author is one of the writers on the show, the show is vastly superior to the books.
Comment by Clark — December 16, 2009 @ 11:40 pm
love the show too, although i don’t know how dexter will get out of the jam w/ rita. i think he has to go to the police, but then like someone else said, it’s hard for him to come up w/ a plausible alibi so that he’s not linked to the Trinity Killer.
there’s always eztv.it and utorrent.
Comment by mike d. — December 17, 2009 @ 12:04 am
I torrent the episodes. So I just watched episode 10 last night thinking that was the finale. I guess I still have two episodes to go…
Comment by Clark — December 17, 2009 @ 1:20 pm
Frankly, I got to be honest, Dexter is good, but not great. If not for the performances of Lithgow and Hall the fourth season would have been over-the-top silly. I actually thought the finale was a let down, and a bit anti-climactic.
Spoilers below:
I found it difficult to imagine that a killer as proficient and skilled as Trinity would allow a stranger like “Kyle Butler” into his home and confidence as easily as Trinity did.
And I also find it hard to swallow that a character as controlled and disciplined as Dexter would lose his temper in front of law enforcement officers, thus, allowing Trinity to escape, albeit temporarily. It also didn’t make sense to have Dexter frame another person for Trinity’s crimes. If Dexter’s first priority was to protect his family, wouldn’t he want the police to catch Trinity?
What bothered me about Dexter this season, besides the annoying “romance” between Angel and LaGuerta was that Trinity never seemed like much of a match for Dexter. He should have been the ultimate challenge, but instead he turns to Dexter for emotional support, and tries to kill himself in front of him. Then just when you think these two killers were going to go at each other mano a mano in a knockdown, drag-out fight, Dexter dispatches him easily. Sure, Trinity got his revenge from beyond the grave, but I still felt the finale didn’t deliver on what it promised at the end of the previous episode.
Now, I hear the writers are thinking of jumping forward. Sounds like they wrote themselves into a corner that is just too hard to get out of.
What I feel like they might be leading up to is for Debra and Dexter to start murdering together. That would be a cool direction for the show to go in I think. You heard it here first.
Comment by Brian G — December 17, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
Trinity wasn’t much for Dexter because the real foe Dexter was battling was himself. Personally I thought this finale was superior to past seasons simply because it wasn’t ant-climatic. (Even if the surprise ending was foreshadowed pretty heavily – there was no shock to it)
The question now is whether they follow up on all that points to Dexter being tied tovthe Trinity killer.
BTW in the books Deb finds out about Dexter early and helps him.
Comment by Clark — December 18, 2009 @ 1:29 am