A case of "Dexter" indigestion

I experienced a moment of pure “Dexter” fan joy last year when I saw Desmond Harrington (Det. Joey Quinn) had a part in The Dark Knight Rises as a "Gotham State Police officer.  However, after watching season seven of the hit Showtime series my enthusiasm for the show took a steep nose dive.   

First (spoiler alert), killing off big bad guy Isaak Sirko three episodes before the season wrapped up was a huge mistake. Isaak was, in a word, cool. His presence infused pure electricity into season seven when it began.   Why not have kept Issak alive and well until the very end? He could have been keeping watch for Dexter as Dex killed the man responsible for his mother’s death, then along comes La Guerta and her men and a big shootout breaks out. She dies and he crawls off mortally wounded.    Then he could have joined Dex on his boat for his ride to reunion with his lover Viktor. It would have been a much cooler way to have resolved La Guerta’s snooping around Dexter as opposed to Deb killing her.   Instead, by killing Isaak off early a driving force behind season seven's story was wasted.  After that things ran out of gas fast.     

Speaking of Hannah, why was she even in the season at all?   Her character seemed very pointless.  All she did was look good, become Dexter’s lover, kill a snooping reporter, then try to kill Deb, and finally is arrested … only to escape.    Yawn.  The "love" story of Dex and Hannah also threw out of whack Deb's discovery of Dex's secret. The show runners explored it a little ... and then ditched it once that scum killer Speltzer was dispatched in favor of the Dex and Hannah subplot. What a wasted opportunity!  

The way LaGuerta’s snooping around Dexter’s life was resolved by having Deb off her instead of him is rife with plot holes.   She used her own firearm, after all.    This can be traced and get her into a world of hurt, unless the show runners come up with a convoluted explanation.   LaGuerta’s death also felt forced and contrived.   The suggestion offered by this writer as to how Sirko could have done it would have been much better.

Deb killing La Guerta, Isaak's early death, and leaving an unresolved plot thread with Hannah McKay's escape is perhaps evidence that the show runners for "Dexter" are no longer first-rate storytellers of the first rank. In fact, they seem to have slid down to third-rate if this was all they could come up with.  And fumbling the much-heralded discovery of Dexter's secret by Deb is simply inexcusable. 

Recently the head of Showtime parent CBS announced the eighth season of “Dexter” would be its last. Frankly, I probably will not watch it. Season seven gave me, well, a case of “Dexter” indigestion.   Which leads to the question: if you like “Dexter,” will you stay to the bitter end or are you bailing out too?  

Article image courtesy Zap2It.