Dexter fans, Michael C. Hall feels your pain.
In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, the actor admitted that the series finale left more than a little to be desired. "Liked it? I don't think I even watched it," Hall said.
After eight seasons of watching Dexter battle with his Dark Passenger, the end of the serial killer drama saw its titular hero transformed—into a lumberjack! "I thought it was narratively satisfying—but it was not so savory," Hall said of the episode, which aired in September.
"I think the show had lost a certain amount of torque," he continued. "Just inherently because of how long we'd done it, because of the storytelling capital we'd spent, because our writers may have been gassed. Maybe some people wanted a more satisfying — maybe they wanted a happy ending for him, either a happy ending or a more definitive sense of closure. They wanted him to die or something, but I think the fact that he's sort of exiled in a prison of his own making is, for my money, pretty fitting."
However, Hall also admitted to IGN last week that he still has his reservations about Dexter's survival. "Sometimes I wish he'd offed himself, wish he'd died, wish Deb had shot him in that train compartment—of course, that would have made an eighth season difficult to do," he noted.
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Did they not learn anything from the lame Sopranos ending? We fans hate ambiguity. We need definitive closure. I would have liked to have seen Dexter either committing suicide by his own hand, or suicide by cop after his Dark Passenger becomes too much of a burden.
With Deb dead, and the rest of his family gone, there was no one left that could anchor him to the world as a whole person. Instead, we get a split-second glare before cut to black. Yup. Sopranos all over again. Pshhh.
I didn't like Dexter, and wanted to see him dead, because the show got to be shit at the end and he deserved to pay for what the writers did to Deb.
deb should have shot him season 7. the end.
Still, though, it was a good decision for Fox to lie, especially if he ever wanted to work again. Maybe he was so stupid that he actually loved that ending, but again, it's hard to judge (or care) what an actor feels about their job or the work they're doing when a camera's in front of them.
Ian Zierling (blonde dude from the original 90210): "Ye...ah, Sharknado is a wonderful movie. This is the kind of work I'd dreamed I'd be doing in the future..."
Dexter had a crap finale. No question.
Moronic writers, I think yes.
It was a crap finale. No question.
Almost forgot, the shoehorning of Rampling was bad, but not even one tenth as bad as the suppository of Maskua's daughter.
The last season was crap. No question.
Hall is promoting his new show. It's probably wise to concede when asked that Dexter's ending was disliked by many fans, before expecting them to trust him saying that his new series is worth watching.
Ah, didn't realize. I was having too much fun remembering how bad the last episode of the steaming pile of the last season of this POS show was.
As a fan, I disliked the finale/ending itself a lot less than the torture that was season 6 and the subpar second half of the final season. That is what was bad. Dexter living or not as a lumberjack or whatever is less of an issue to me at least.
Here's the thing: TV series are just stories, fairy tales with moving pictures. There can only be one ending to finish a story, so there will always be people who are disappointed with it. That's why I wasn't completely let down by Dexter's finale. It was an ending among many options. What matters more is the journey, what came before the end. Whatever the end might be to a story, what makes it matter is how the plot builds up to it. And that's the part that bothered me about the final season of Dexter; the fact that it fit so poorly together with previous seasons. It was the very last season of Dexter, and despite that, 12 episodes were wasted on side stories that were unnecessary, Dex and Deb behaved in ways that were so uncharacteristic of them, and the intensity of the story did in no way match up to previous seasons. The season simply didn't do justice to the previous seven. So when the end came, I didn't really care any more what it would be. I felt that whatever the ending - after all there had to be one - it would still fall flat. Even if the finale had been fantastic, satisfying most, it would not have made up for how they built up to it.
Related to this: A lot of people didn't like the whole last season of Dexter. But it looks like the last season of Californication which is currently airing might present a much larger drop in quality compared to its previous seasons. It really is that bad.
And nothing about his comment says he didn't understand it.
We don't know what happens in The end-END, but yeah, he meant what happens Right after we die - which we saw in Lost.
In any case, even if he didn't get it - I did.
And it's not that I can't appreciate ambiguity or draw my own conclusions, Lost's problem was that it contradicted itself so much, more than any other show I've ever seen.
Any show must operate within whatever rules it has chosen to establish - Lost handled That part Terribly!
And that's especially amusing, but ever worse of a blunder, considering the Lost Universe made a big point in establishing those very rules. But then they just changed them whenever they saw fit.
Lost have been praised for it's wonderful character-development, to which I would Mostly agree - but the thing is, when you can reshape the world around the character as opposed to vice versa - then creating beautiful, powerful and moving scenes isn't that hard at all actually, but something most writers could do - professionals and amateurs alike.
You just start at the scene you wish to make and work your way backwards. That's not good storyTelling, but does indeed make for a good scene.
"Not Penny's boat"(for instance)One of my favourite scenes,
but a terrible part of the overarching story when you look at the bigger picture. Tell me, why Did Charlie have to die..?
I understood Lost better than anyone I know.
After each episode I immediately went to message boards to discuss and exchange theories. I studied the "rules and laws" of Lost intently, and they really collapsed under their own weight.
The characters were(many of them)wonderful, it had some of the best story lines and most beautiful scenes ever.
But the Finale(and imo entire final season) really took away soooo much of the journey before it.
They destroyed John Locke(one of my fave characters ever)and tainted his legacy, diminished Charlie's sacrifice(basically made it pointlesss) and turned one of the most endearing, interesting, and important characters - Desmond, into a clueless puppet.
And while I enjoyed much of the ride, what I take with me from Lost is more or less solely Michael Emerson, who I now see as the best thing the show had to offer.
Re Californication, it's hard to believe that I considered the series one of television's most underrated. The first three maybe four seasons were great, but with each passing season it's gotten progressively worse and worse to the point I can barely remember what I ever liked about the series (a problem I never faced with Dexter). The way in which women are endlessly attracted to Hank is beyond tired, as is Karen's constant forgiving of him. Charlie and Marcy were once out there characters in a compelling way, now their antics are pitiful. Anyway, just like the early seasons of Dexter, I'll still have those early seasons of Californication which I'll undoubtedly go back and re-watch some day.
Otherwise, all is SO/SO and I am quite happy it is ending. NOT as happy as I was to see the back of Enlightened, but hey, I doubt I'll ever find another show to love to hate the way I loved to hate that one.
I'm curious, though - when did you actually perceive Californication to have quality?
On Dexter, and the bedtime stories we've all been told about the journey. Nope, the journey matters naught to me, I wanted Dexter with a bullet right between his eyes. I wanted Deb alive, and I couldn't care less about the rest of the show. The Journey is a platitudinous line of bull crap invented by the RCC.
But first Hall goes on Inside The Writer's Room (that was the name of the show) and praises the crap writing by the crap writers, and NOW he tries to do a turnabout?
Nice try, Hall, but game over, there's no going back.
Oh, and there can NEVER be enough kvetching about this piece of crap final season and the worst finale in the history of the world.
The last season was simply inexplicably bad. I have no idea why the writers wrote it the way they did. I have no problem with the very least episode. It was predictable, but I think we always knew there was going to be some kind of a happy ending between Hank and Karen. What bothered me was the build up to it. None of the spark from earlier seasons was there. The show had its many faults; it was juvenile, at times misogynistic, everyone always accepted Hank's apologies, and as you said, the idea of Hank's penis being the Holy Grail for women (or should I say Holy Groin) was tiresome.
In spite of this previous seasons had moments of introspection for Hank and times when people around him, mainly women, challenged him. I also enjoyed the dialogue which was at times witty and rife with quick banter. On some level the show's ridiculous simplicity appealed to me. People did pretty much whatever they wanted without accountability, which guaranteed that the show could portray the most insane story lines and press the reset button in the very next scene. The dialogue was also, despite it's dirtiness, very open and honest in a way I wish real-life dialogue would sometimes be.
The last season though had none of that. It was like a parody of previous seasons. It was like the showrunner decided that since it's the last season, they should just fool around and create kind of one long gag reel. It's like he thought "fuck it, let's just pick up a camera and film stuff that seems funny". All the new characters were over-the-top caricatures of previous seasons' characters, and the regulars just parodied themselves. And then the writers decided to introduce a dim-witted son that Hank would pass on his manly wisdom to? That was crazy. I fully expected that Levon would turn out not to be Hank's son, so that Hank would have a serious moment of feeling lost after having opened up his heart to Levon. Last season Hank at least hung around with rock stars, had drug fuelled parties and met enigmatic Faith, wonderfully played by Maggie Grace. But this final season he was relegated to playing house with a pop-up family and failing at a final chance of a proper job.
During the last season I really felt one could tell that the creator of the show, Tom Kapinos, has done nothing else but this show during the last ten years. It felt like he has been so immersed in Californication that he thought he could do whatever he wanted with it. I think he lost perspective of what the audience wanted; he owned the show too intensely which made him complacent.
Hell, anyone would now want to distance themselves from that POS finale, possibly the worst in the history of the world.
While he does note that 'the show lost a certain amount of torque... Because of how long we'd done it, because of the story capital we's spent, because our writers may have been gassed', he also clearly states that he found the series' conclusion 'narratively satisfying' as well as 'pretty fitting', which, if I understand what he's saying correctly, means he DID NOT hate the series final of Dexter. Websites are just trying to capitalise and perpetuate the idea that they think everyone whoever watched the series absolutely despised the eighth season and the finale, which is not the case.
It's also nice that he admits that the show lost its momentum because $$$$.
The finale is pretty much the best possible finale they could have done considering the shit they had to work with with the final season.
Oh well, at least I'll always have Breaking Bad's finale if I want to see a quality finale.
Dexter and HIMYM both were very good shows that started well, even excelled at some things but ruined later seasons (as well as their legacies) with plot holes, bad writing (Dexter just endlessly and stupidly eluding the police - case in point: "Lemme just quickly be the first to enter the crime scene, tear up this humungous painting of me with a hammer and I'll be out of your way") or in comedy's case just not being funny anymore due to overuse of jokes or bad character developments. On top of that came abysmal finales with ludicrous plot developments that were the cherry on top of
bullshit mountaina good show gone bad.Breaking Bad's last season had congruent story progression from season 4's events, raised the stakes, pulled the rug from under our feet and hit us in the face with some of the most memorable moments of television, ever. Dexter and BB ended around the same time and I can recite ten quotes from the latter's last season and none from the formers. Most of all, however, it's that BB didn't make any 'mistakes', as in television craftsmenship.
Meanwhile Dexter takes the ultimate cop out, at the end of the day he's alive, still has free will and can resume his killing whenever he likes. only the people around him met with any consequences of his actions.
The How I Met Your Aunt Robin does just as bad, it's been faltering for the last couple of seasons (Cause seriously, how long did they think they could milk a show based on the premise of telling a story about meeting your wife?) even then though, season 9 was actually pretty good. the thought of an entire season taking place 24 style on the eve of Robin and Barney's wedding sounded horrible but it actually worked. People LOVED Christine Milotti as the Mother, she was warm, funny, meshed well with the cast and had an undeniable chemistry with Ted. until the ending. Barney and Robin end up divorced so the entire season 9 was just a waste, the perfect proposal and Barney's growth as a character went straight into the toilet, then, on top of all that, to senselessly kill off the Mother to put him with fan favorite Robin... it really made the whole series unwatchable knowing NONE of these stories are even relevant, he "Met" his future wife in the pilot. Maybe not the Mother, but at the end of the day it turns out she's irrelevant too. turns out she was just a plot device to allow them to do a "twist" at the 2 minute warning on a technicality. at some point in the day they forgot they were making a comedy when the culmination of the series is a divorce and death of a beloved character.
I have Dexter and HIMYAR both on DVD in their entirety save the final seasons and don't see myself ever watching them again, also have All of Breaking Bad and have already rewatched it since it ended.
I think Dexter should have died doing something heroic like killing Saxon, Hanna should have just died, Deb should have gotten out of Miami with Harrison to start a new life. If anybody's death should have been faked it should have been Deb's, but that would still leave Harrison's whereabouts a mystery to Batista and company. End the show with a montage of the cops discovering some blood slides in Dexter's apartment, his tools, evidence of how he's used his job to help him do what he did, and an audio or handwritten confession from him detailing all the things he's done and how he doesn't want his son to know or be like him.
Professionally: that entire department would be done. They let a serial killer roam around and even unknowingly helped him. They'd be fired and pretty much pariahs in law enforcement. Professionally, they'd be DONE.
Personally: the members of the department would be devastated. Dexter wasn't just an employee, he was their friend. Not to mention that they'd realize that either Dexter or Deb killed their co-workers.
The two bullet-points combined would probably lead to a bunch of suicides, depression cases, etc.
Harrison would be more likely to learn the truth... and when he was too young to cope with it.
It's possible that knowledge of Dexter's actions could be contained or completely covered-up to protect the department and Dexter's image. If the information was public the department would likely face a lot of appeals for cases Dexter contributed to from convicts & lawyers claiming Dexter could have tampered with evidence and/or his coworkers' inability to see him for what he was calls their investigative skills & judgement into question.
Maybe only Batista , Matsuka, & Quinn would know, leaving them to deal with the emotional ramifications amongst themselves or individually Batista would probably quit the force again and drink heavily. Quinn would turn to alcohol, maybe drugs, and probably hookers. Matsuka would go from stripper to hooker to stripper, but that would probably happen anyway because that's who he is.
Glad he agrees (sorta).
Watch for Dexter Jr. in about 10 years.
And that the choices were either that a "normal" family raise him and he ends up hurting them and getting killed / imprisoned quickly, or someone like her raises him to be "smart" about it like Dexter and forcus his urges on the deserving. A female Harry if you will.
Morally, it's a very dark gray area but at least that's something.
That is if they even stay together. Considering she is a wanted fugitive, Harrison is not her son and are probably in Argentina illegaly there are chances of being exposed and deported back to US.