A Killer Finale

Dexter's sixth season wrapped up tonight, and my feelings about it are decidedly mixed. I'm certain that it was the worst season of the series... but that's largely because I felt the bar had been set so high in the past. Even rocky Dexter was better than most of the rest of television.

The problem in my mind was that the show tried to be too cute with plot twists this season. In the past, Dexter has traditionally rocketed along at a whirlwind pace. Any "stunning revelations" in the plot were set up at best an episode or two ahead of time. This wasn't poor planning; on the contrary, the show had so much story to convey that it didn't need to labor on plot twists for any length of time to satisfy.

This season, on the other hand, had a couple of big reveals planned. And it tipped its hand way too early on them. I always watch Dexter with the same group of friends every week. By the end of the second episode of the season, someone in the group had figured out the season's major twist -- that Professor Gellar was in fact a figment of Travis' imagination (just as Harry is to Dexter). Had that been a secret paid off quickly, that could have been a fun springboard for something else. Instead, the writers tried to play games with this fact until the end of episode ten, all the while using increasingly strained ways to play with the truth about Gellar.

And then the writers did it all over again with the big reveal at the end of tonight's season finale. Ever since Deb started going to a therapist five or so episodes back, the talk of how important Dexter was to her was layered on just a little too thick. The references to secrets were not carefully veiled enough. It was obvious they were building toward Deb finally learning about Dexter's true nature.

This, I was more willing to forgive, because it's a moment basically six years in the making, and clearly something so monumental that of course they'd be saving it for the season finale. But my forgiveness was tested by the plot twist I didn't see coming, that they decided to make Deb confess true love for her non-biological brother. Creepy, weird stuff, I have to say. I just don't see how those extra stakes were really needed to punctuate the reveal. It would have been big enough already.

But despite the sometimes sloppy writing of the plot, I still enjoyed the season of Dexter overall because the writing of the characters was still as spot on as ever. The witty banter of Dexter's voice-overs. Deb's filthy (and funny) mouth. LaGuerta's icy calculation. And so on. The story may have slipped in places, but the characters were as enjoyable as ever.

So now, when next season rolls around, we'll be heading into truly new territory for the show. That's reason to hope they'll pull out of their story slump and get back to form. Either way, I'll still happily show up next fall for more of the great characterization and fine acting.