Dexter Review: The Lowest Form of Storytelling Comments (Page 3)
101 Comments
mark
November 28th, 2011 7:45 PM
the show went downhill fast.
Sausage Camp
November 28th, 2011 6:03 PM
Don't settle for mediocrity, people! You pay good coin for premium cable and should expect the best TV for it. Oh, and honey? This ain't it.
jmaddi
November 28th, 2011 4:53 PM
REVIEWER IS A DOUCHEBAG AND HE VERY WELL KNOWS IT! ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD GIVE AN EPISODE A 1 STAR BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T LIKE THE TWIST. WHAT A CRYBABY!
P.S. SOME OF US ACTUALLY DIDN'T SEE THE TWIST COMING AND WERE SUPRISED AS MUCH AS ENTERTAINED. TVFANATIC HAS SOME OF THE WORST CRITICS ON THE WEB. YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW GOOD TV TO SAVE YOUR LIFE.
Tamara
November 28th, 2011 4:48 PM
I swear i didnt see that coming, but i made one big mistake: I read the last review - and Matt (i think it was u) thanks for telling us your thoughts straight away. Man i wish i wouldnt have knew it, i think it was an awesome twist.
But i have to say one thing: That was the worst review ive ever read! its not a review - what do u think about deb, dexter and all the other stories? etc. U cant just write: oh i hate that twist 1 star and finished.
I think its a good season and if u hate dexter sooo much, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE dont write reviews for that show!!!!
Art
November 28th, 2011 4:40 PM
Dexter has definitely jumped the shark. Last week Travis killed his sister in the the middle of a schoolyard in broad daylight, then he sets up an elaborate tableaux that would have taken hours to do without anybody noticing. This week Travis breaks an elevator, kills the professor, and sets up a complicated scene in the middle of a university auditorium that would have taken a day minimum, but Travis did it all in 15 minutes! And whilst setting up the tableaux, Travis didn't even get a drop of blood on himself! And he apparently even purified the blood! And the police said there was no tripwire, but there was one after all! And Dexter didn't suspect a thing! And in Dexter's world, there are no security cameras *anywhere*, unless one is needed to push the weak plot along.
Alex Roggio
November 28th, 2011 3:59 PM
I'm bewildered that no one has complained yet about Miami Metro using some intern to track an IP Address when the FBI has a whole branch dedicated to this sort of task. Not only that, but Colin Hanks played a member of this branch in "Untraceable".
Sword of Damocles
November 28th, 2011 3:50 PM
Quite the race to the bottom on the part of Dexter's writers.To say this show "jumped the shark" would be giving it far too much credit. Since season four, the writers haven't even pretended to try. Dexter's no longer entertaining, either. How can one suspend their disbelief from something so abjectly absurd and contrived?
II'm no advocate of tortue, but hear me out. I firmly believe any individual who is profiting from this show should be drawn, quartered, and half-way hanged, only to be resuscitated, cut down and then waterboarded repeatedly in the public square. Only then can we put this sad shell of its former self out of its misery. OK, maybe just waterboarded.
Chris
November 28th, 2011 3:34 PM
Typically I annoy the hell out of my friends and family in predicting these things. In this case, I honestly did not see this coming.
Perhaps it is because I don't think Dexter has had any sort of twist (not simple shock a la Rita's death) of this magnitude since Brian's introduction as the Ice Truck Killer. I didn't expect a twist (though in hindsight, it was very obvious, except for Dexter "seeing" Gellar last week). Anyway, in short, it was way more fun not seeing this coming...and if I did...I'd probably share your sentiment.
JoEllen
November 28th, 2011 2:49 PM
Knock-knock!
Who's there?
Dexter's Kill room!
Dexter's Kill room who?
Yeah, we've forgotten what that is, too.
After season 5, we all whined about how off track Dexter was getting, and we hoped for a comeback for season 6. After giving it time with a very slow start this season, it became clear this season was just as disconnected as last year. Now, Dexter is tracking a phantom Gellar and the viewer is asked to ignore some pretty major plot stretches/holes and Dexter's complete laziness to get us to this point. Did Dexter really thing Gellar would be in that hidden basement area that was only accessed by moving that heavy table off the entrance? Perhaps there are multiple entrances, but if that's true, Dexter being down there isn't a real problem. He can just leave using a different route. Would the Dexter of seasons 1-4 really have given his telephone number to Travis, someone he knew Deb and all the rest of Miami Metro was looking for? Or run around a college with an ax knowin
Byzon
November 28th, 2011 2:29 PM
I dont usually criticize other people´s reviews but Matt, what the hell???? This ain´t a review it´s a list of complaints about last 30(!!!!!) seconds of the show....Of course its your opinion but at least try and be objective..... This deserved at least 4 stars if not 4,5.....
Matt Richenthal Rank: Staff Member
November 28th, 2011 2:18 PM
@Sommerleigh Pollonais: We ran a poll about this very topic last week and I expressly said the only reason I didn't think it would happen is because it was just SO stupid that I couldn't imagine the writers going there.
Brian
November 28th, 2011 2:10 PM
I didn't see it coming but I believe those who say they did. I probably should have. But I think it nicely sets up the more interesting moral quandary that ties into Dexter's exploration of morality and religion (vs simply following a code designed to keep him from getting caught) - he now knows that Travis is not simply evil, but is truly schizophrenic and crazy, and in need of institutionalization. But Travis has seen his face now and knows him. To be free, Dex has to kill him. To kill him would be to violate the code and his new moral compass. That's a great quandary.
I didn't see this coming at all, and actually I think you didn't either. I love the fact that they brought in a a character, that has his own Dark Passenger, and I thought the reveal was well handled. That's just my opinion. (OH, and by the way, I figured out Sixth Sense - which left clues all over the damn place, Dexter didn't !)
Eric
November 28th, 2011 12:03 PM
For those wanting to know where this "twist" is going to take Dexter, here is a spoiler. Dexter makes his way back to where Brother Sam's ashes are spread, dips his toes in the water, finds a pair of water-skis and manages to jump the shark.
Anna
November 28th, 2011 11:43 AM
I'm not denying that I absolutely saw this coming, I'm still interested though and you're being too harsh on the show. This has not been the best season, but Olmos was a great character, imaginary or not. The fact is, that Dexter seasons take a long time to come together, and I have strong faith this one will do. Since this is only episode 9 there are at least 3 shockers in the future. Dexter being seen by the police in the church? I don't believe this is the big twist since it has been quite clear it's going to happen. You think the writers are dumb, I think they're just building up to something better and bigger.
It's clear from your review and the reactions that you don't represent the majority reaction to this episode. There is no way this is a 1/5.
If you didn'y get Fight Club either ... that explains a lot.
Jeff
November 28th, 2011 11:38 AM
I think it's more interesting that they're setting up the intern as a serial killer who worships Dexter as a rockstar not just as a blood spatter expert but as a killer.
Bryan - I wondered the same thing about how Travis could have possibly kidnapped and killed the athiest within the 2 minutes that Dexter was stuck in the elevator. But I think what probably happened is that Travis grabbed the athiest even before him and Dexter went to the school. Dexter left Travis alone for hours in that hotel room, so I think Travis did all his killings when Dexter would leave him in the hotel.
Very disappointing season. I wasn't 100% convinced that Gellar was imaginary until last night's episode when they made it blatantly obvious when Dexter and Travis were waiting in the car and Dexter happened to close his eyes and rest his head back right as Travis saw Gellar walk by. After that, I thought, 'you've got to be kidding me'. There's just no way that they had Dexter do that as a coincidence.
That was the tipping point for me when I realized that everyone who had predicted Gellar was imaginary were correct. I think I was in denial this whole time about it beca
Matt Richenthal Rank: Staff Member
November 28th, 2011 9:47 AM
@Scott: You make a great point about Fight Club and my simple answer is, no, I did not like that movie for a similar reason. It was certainly done better than this was because this was SO obvious from the second episode of the season, but I am not a fan of overtly manipulating storytelling.
It's a lazy cop out to write scenes with a character who isn't actually there.
John M.
November 28th, 2011 9:38 AM
"You're wrong about this. I'm a lot smarter than you and I didn't see it as an obvious twist." no, you're blatently as dumb as a sack of hammers.
Bryan
November 28th, 2011 9:30 AM
Although I too felt this was extremely predictable storytelling, hopefully it was meant only as a twist to Dexter and not the viewer.
Now the biggest gripe, Dexter leaves Travis alone for 5 minutes and suddenly Travis abducts the atheist prof, hides the body, and comes back to rescue Dexter. Then Dexter drops off Travis and he has time to hollow out the atheist prof, stitch him, set up this elaborate bucket trap, all without Dexter being aware and before the crime scene is discovered.
Reminds me of the Saw franchise with insane elaborate traps created in short periods of times with no witnesses.
John M.
November 28th, 2011 9:28 AM
The only thing i found shocking was that some people managed not to see it coming, probably one of the most obvious twists in TV history. This season has been the most boring of Dexter so far and the religion theme gets duller and less interesting every episode. Last season wasn't great but it beats this one by a mile.
jmaddi
November 28th, 2011 8:51 AM
STOP REVIEWING DEXTER YOU DOUCHE!!! AMAZING EP! SOME PEOPLE WILL NEVER KNOW GOOD TV!
Scott
November 28th, 2011 8:24 AM
I am curious to read the reviewers opinion of the movie Fight Club - which is a much better comparison. The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis was as real as any other ghost/spirit that we witnessed during the movie, and he wasn't just part of Haley Joel Osment's imagination. He was a ghost that Osment had to help bring peace to his situation, so he actually was real and present to Osment whose eyes we were seeing the movie from.
Fight Club is clearly the better comparison in that Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden was a part of Edward Norton's subconsciousness. We see Pitt and Norton talking to each other, even fighting each other. We see Pitt taking actions that later on we are told were actually done by Norton. Just wondering if you feel that this movie, and book by Palahniuk, is indeed the "lowest form of storytelling" as well.
Jarrod Mitchell Rank: Leading Character
November 28th, 2011 8:08 AM
I too agree that (the show) Dexter is getting slack, but hopefully, the ending to this has opened up a box of a magnificent ending to the last 3 episodes. Hopefully they can get it right. JUST hopefully.
Matt Richenthal Rank: Staff Member
November 28th, 2011 8:05 AM
@K: You're right, Harry is also in Dexter's head and this is also something that bothers me about the show, mostly because Harry serves very little purpose except to illuminate Dexter's thinking, something that really isn't necessary if one is any kind of discerning viewer. He's used as a writing crutch, really.
But at least he's never any main storyline focus. He's always just on the side, saying obvious things. If Harry went away tomorrow, nothing about the show would change.
Conversely, as I've said, the Gellar storyline has been THE driving force of the season.
Dexter : Don't be sorry your darkness is gone. I'll carry if for you - always. I'll keep it with mine,
November 28th, 2011 7:45 PM
the show went downhill fast.
November 28th, 2011 6:03 PM
Don't settle for mediocrity, people! You pay good coin for premium cable and should expect the best TV for it. Oh, and honey? This ain't it.
November 28th, 2011 4:53 PM
REVIEWER IS A DOUCHEBAG AND HE VERY WELL KNOWS IT! ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD GIVE AN EPISODE A 1 STAR BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T LIKE THE TWIST. WHAT A CRYBABY!
P.S. SOME OF US ACTUALLY DIDN'T SEE THE TWIST COMING AND WERE SUPRISED AS MUCH AS ENTERTAINED. TVFANATIC HAS SOME OF THE WORST CRITICS ON THE WEB. YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW GOOD TV TO SAVE YOUR LIFE.
November 28th, 2011 4:48 PM
I swear i didnt see that coming, but i made one big mistake: I read the last review - and Matt (i think it was u) thanks for telling us your thoughts straight away. Man i wish i wouldnt have knew it, i think it was an awesome twist.
But i have to say one thing: That was the worst review ive ever read! its not a review - what do u think about deb, dexter and all the other stories? etc. U cant just write: oh i hate that twist 1 star and finished.
I think its a good season and if u hate dexter sooo much, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE dont write reviews for that show!!!!
November 28th, 2011 4:40 PM
Dexter has definitely jumped the shark. Last week Travis killed his sister in the the middle of a schoolyard in broad daylight, then he sets up an elaborate tableaux that would have taken hours to do without anybody noticing. This week Travis breaks an elevator, kills the professor, and sets up a complicated scene in the middle of a university auditorium that would have taken a day minimum, but Travis did it all in 15 minutes! And whilst setting up the tableaux, Travis didn't even get a drop of blood on himself! And he apparently even purified the blood! And the police said there was no tripwire, but there was one after all! And Dexter didn't suspect a thing! And in Dexter's world, there are no security cameras *anywhere*, unless one is needed to push the weak plot along.
November 28th, 2011 3:59 PM
I'm bewildered that no one has complained yet about Miami Metro using some intern to track an IP Address when the FBI has a whole branch dedicated to this sort of task. Not only that, but Colin Hanks played a member of this branch in "Untraceable".
November 28th, 2011 3:50 PM
Quite the race to the bottom on the part of Dexter's writers.To say this show "jumped the shark" would be giving it far too much credit. Since season four, the writers haven't even pretended to try. Dexter's no longer entertaining, either. How can one suspend their disbelief from something so abjectly absurd and contrived?
II'm no advocate of tortue, but hear me out. I firmly believe any individual who is profiting from this show should be drawn, quartered, and half-way hanged, only to be resuscitated, cut down and then waterboarded repeatedly in the public square. Only then can we put this sad shell of its former self out of its misery. OK, maybe just waterboarded.
November 28th, 2011 3:34 PM
Typically I annoy the hell out of my friends and family in predicting these things. In this case, I honestly did not see this coming.
Perhaps it is because I don't think Dexter has had any sort of twist (not simple shock a la Rita's death) of this magnitude since Brian's introduction as the Ice Truck Killer. I didn't expect a twist (though in hindsight, it was very obvious, except for Dexter "seeing" Gellar last week). Anyway, in short, it was way more fun not seeing this coming...and if I did...I'd probably share your sentiment.
November 28th, 2011 2:49 PM
Knock-knock!
Who's there?
Dexter's Kill room!
Dexter's Kill room who?
Yeah, we've forgotten what that is, too.
After season 5, we all whined about how off track Dexter was getting, and we hoped for a comeback for season 6. After giving it time with a very slow start this season, it became clear this season was just as disconnected as last year. Now, Dexter is tracking a phantom Gellar and the viewer is asked to ignore some pretty major plot stretches/holes and Dexter's complete laziness to get us to this point. Did Dexter really thing Gellar would be in that hidden basement area that was only accessed by moving that heavy table off the entrance? Perhaps there are multiple entrances, but if that's true, Dexter being down there isn't a real problem. He can just leave using a different route. Would the Dexter of seasons 1-4 really have given his telephone number to Travis, someone he knew Deb and all the rest of Miami Metro was looking for? Or run around a college with an ax knowin
November 28th, 2011 2:29 PM
I dont usually criticize other people´s reviews but Matt, what the hell???? This ain´t a review it´s a list of complaints about last 30(!!!!!) seconds of the show....Of course its your opinion but at least try and be objective..... This deserved at least 4 stars if not 4,5.....
Rank: Staff Member
November 28th, 2011 2:18 PM
@Sommerleigh Pollonais: We ran a poll about this very topic last week and I expressly said the only reason I didn't think it would happen is because it was just SO stupid that I couldn't imagine the writers going there.
November 28th, 2011 2:10 PM
I didn't see it coming but I believe those who say they did. I probably should have. But I think it nicely sets up the more interesting moral quandary that ties into Dexter's exploration of morality and religion (vs simply following a code designed to keep him from getting caught) - he now knows that Travis is not simply evil, but is truly schizophrenic and crazy, and in need of institutionalization. But Travis has seen his face now and knows him. To be free, Dex has to kill him. To kill him would be to violate the code and his new moral compass. That's a great quandary.
Rank: Extra
November 28th, 2011 1:41 PM
I didn't see this coming at all, and actually I think you didn't either. I love the fact that they brought in a a character, that has his own Dark Passenger, and I thought the reveal was well handled. That's just my opinion. (OH, and by the way, I figured out Sixth Sense - which left clues all over the damn place, Dexter didn't !)
November 28th, 2011 12:03 PM
For those wanting to know where this "twist" is going to take Dexter, here is a spoiler. Dexter makes his way back to where Brother Sam's ashes are spread, dips his toes in the water, finds a pair of water-skis and manages to jump the shark.
November 28th, 2011 11:43 AM
I'm not denying that I absolutely saw this coming, I'm still interested though and you're being too harsh on the show. This has not been the best season, but Olmos was a great character, imaginary or not. The fact is, that Dexter seasons take a long time to come together, and I have strong faith this one will do. Since this is only episode 9 there are at least 3 shockers in the future. Dexter being seen by the police in the church? I don't believe this is the big twist since it has been quite clear it's going to happen. You think the writers are dumb, I think they're just building up to something better and bigger.
It's clear from your review and the reactions that you don't represent the majority reaction to this episode. There is no way this is a 1/5.
If you didn'y get Fight Club either ... that explains a lot.
November 28th, 2011 11:38 AM
I think it's more interesting that they're setting up the intern as a serial killer who worships Dexter as a rockstar not just as a blood spatter expert but as a killer.
Rank: Extra
November 28th, 2011 10:17 AM
Bryan - I wondered the same thing about how Travis could have possibly kidnapped and killed the athiest within the 2 minutes that Dexter was stuck in the elevator. But I think what probably happened is that Travis grabbed the athiest even before him and Dexter went to the school. Dexter left Travis alone for hours in that hotel room, so I think Travis did all his killings when Dexter would leave him in the hotel.
Very disappointing season. I wasn't 100% convinced that Gellar was imaginary until last night's episode when they made it blatantly obvious when Dexter and Travis were waiting in the car and Dexter happened to close his eyes and rest his head back right as Travis saw Gellar walk by. After that, I thought, 'you've got to be kidding me'. There's just no way that they had Dexter do that as a coincidence.
That was the tipping point for me when I realized that everyone who had predicted Gellar was imaginary were correct. I think I was in denial this whole time about it beca
Rank: Staff Member
November 28th, 2011 9:47 AM
@Scott: You make a great point about Fight Club and my simple answer is, no, I did not like that movie for a similar reason. It was certainly done better than this was because this was SO obvious from the second episode of the season, but I am not a fan of overtly manipulating storytelling.
It's a lazy cop out to write scenes with a character who isn't actually there.
November 28th, 2011 9:38 AM
"You're wrong about this. I'm a lot smarter than you and I didn't see it as an obvious twist." no, you're blatently as dumb as a sack of hammers.
November 28th, 2011 9:30 AM
Although I too felt this was extremely predictable storytelling, hopefully it was meant only as a twist to Dexter and not the viewer.
Now the biggest gripe, Dexter leaves Travis alone for 5 minutes and suddenly Travis abducts the atheist prof, hides the body, and comes back to rescue Dexter. Then Dexter drops off Travis and he has time to hollow out the atheist prof, stitch him, set up this elaborate bucket trap, all without Dexter being aware and before the crime scene is discovered.
Reminds me of the Saw franchise with insane elaborate traps created in short periods of times with no witnesses.
November 28th, 2011 9:28 AM
The only thing i found shocking was that some people managed not to see it coming, probably one of the most obvious twists in TV history. This season has been the most boring of Dexter so far and the religion theme gets duller and less interesting every episode. Last season wasn't great but it beats this one by a mile.
November 28th, 2011 8:51 AM
STOP REVIEWING DEXTER YOU DOUCHE!!! AMAZING EP! SOME PEOPLE WILL NEVER KNOW GOOD TV!
November 28th, 2011 8:24 AM
I am curious to read the reviewers opinion of the movie Fight Club - which is a much better comparison. The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis was as real as any other ghost/spirit that we witnessed during the movie, and he wasn't just part of Haley Joel Osment's imagination. He was a ghost that Osment had to help bring peace to his situation, so he actually was real and present to Osment whose eyes we were seeing the movie from.
Fight Club is clearly the better comparison in that Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden was a part of Edward Norton's subconsciousness. We see Pitt and Norton talking to each other, even fighting each other. We see Pitt taking actions that later on we are told were actually done by Norton. Just wondering if you feel that this movie, and book by Palahniuk, is indeed the "lowest form of storytelling" as well.
Rank: Leading Character
November 28th, 2011 8:08 AM
I too agree that (the show) Dexter is getting slack, but hopefully, the ending to this has opened up a box of a magnificent ending to the last 3 episodes. Hopefully they can get it right. JUST hopefully.
Rank: Staff Member
November 28th, 2011 8:05 AM
@K: You're right, Harry is also in Dexter's head and this is also something that bothers me about the show, mostly because Harry serves very little purpose except to illuminate Dexter's thinking, something that really isn't necessary if one is any kind of discerning viewer. He's used as a writing crutch, really.
But at least he's never any main storyline focus. He's always just on the side, saying obvious things. If Harry went away tomorrow, nothing about the show would change.
Conversely, as I've said, the Gellar storyline has been THE driving force of the season.