So I watched Season 4 of Dexter...

[Michael Bergeron]

If you haven't watched it yet SPOILERS!

Ya, I'm late to the party. Started watching Dexter after Christmas and I just finished watching season 4 (JUST. As in about 5 mins ago).

Holy Hell! I almost want to throw up I'm so disgusted with that season finale. Good TV? Absolutely. But it makes me want to forget I ever watched the show put the characters out of my mind and not continue with the series. I was watching it by myself and still had to yell "NO!" at the TV when he found her in the tub with his child in her blood!

So maybe I'm hyper sensitive to this, I'm approximately the same age as the characters, have a wife who is very dear to me, and two little boys who are my entire world. I also have a very overactive imagination (as many of us here do) that immediately sees that child on TV and sees my youngest son sitting in my wife's blood. :sick

Good God. Makes me want to cry. :cry

All this said I'm the guy that has a bug up his a$$ about nuTrek because I'm the father of a boy named James and they killed off Kirk's father like it was nothing. :angry

Cue all the posts saying "dude, it's just a TV show". I know it is, it's not real, but DAMN. It opens up a place in my brain I'd really rather have left closed.

Just had to vent... Whew.

 

[Zombie_61]

*** SPOILERS ***


Of all the main characters, Rita probably had the most developed story arc in the four seasons the character appeared on the show. She want from being a victim to taking charge of her life to being a control freak (some might say to the point of being annoying). The real tragedy of Season 4 is that Dexter finds her body after he's disposed of Arthur "The Trinity Killer" Mitchell; Dexter isn't particularly sadistic, but somehow I think he might have made an exception for Mitchell if he'd known Mitchell had killed Rita.

Yeah, it's a fictional television series, but sometimes the best television shows and movies can hit a little too close to home. Give your wife and sons an extra hug, you'll feel much better.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Give your wife and sons an extra hug, you'll feel much better.

If only everyone wasn't asleep! :lol

I think instead of sleep I'll spend my nights in the hallway with a shotgun after tonight! I agree with you on Rita's character. It didn't help that it was completely out of left field at the end of that episode. You think everything's done and he's going to go meet her then BAM. I hate when seasons end on a downer but this was just... Wow.

 

[Rbeato]

yea a sad ending, but one helluva twist. one of the best seasons of Dexter imo.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

yea a sad ending, but one helluva twist. one of the best seasons of Dexter imo.

I still think season 1 was the best of the series, it was the most involved and the killer was the most menacing (and meaningful) to our protagonist.

 

[0neiros]

I have to Disagree RE Star Trek, Kirk's Father's death was NOT Nothing. Pike said it "Your Father commanded a Starship for 15 minutes and saved 800 lives" Starfleet sure appreciated his sacrifice, and it did shape JTK's future, it was the necessary prod to get his **** together.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

I have to Disagree RE Star Trek, Kirk's Father's death was NOT Nothing. Pike said it "Your Father commanded a Starship for 15 minutes and saved 800 lives" Starfleet sure appreciated his sacrifice, and it did shape JTK's future, it was the necessary prod to get his **** together.

You're right, wrong terminology on my part. To kill Kirk's father and then end up with the same character is absurd though and made me angry. Worst part of the film? When Spock told Kirk that his father lived to see him command the Enterprise.

Dick move JJ, dick move.

 

[DARTH SABER]

***SPOILERS*****






The thing that bothered me about Rita was that she was always bugging Dexter when he was in the middle of a hunt or cleaning up.

Dexters on his way to a kill, or driving around with a guy in the trunk, and Rita calls him to pick up diapers or something. Lol

 

[Rbeato]

yea she started getting on my nerves bad in season 4 (just how dexter was annoyed when she was driving him to work singing with boy geroge" and not letting dexter get another cup of coffe), hell dexter has court in the morning, she clearly hears the baby cry but ooohhhh dexter can handle it. then she wonders why he "hasn't been the most presesnt father lately" yea cause you never seem to take care of harrison at night, and your husband works all day and kills after work, so he needs sleep. If she wouldn't have been killed of, i would have hoped for something come the following Rita when she would have been even more annoying and controlling.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Ya, nagging Rita wasn't exactly the best but I guess I have a code too, she didn't deserve it. AT ALL. She was a loving mother who just got through a really bad time and things were looking up. Then bam, dead in a tub with an innocent child in her blood.

At least with Dexter's mom she knew that she was involved in some dangerous stuff... Rita had no knowledge whatsoever.

 

[Solo4114]

Ok, thoughts.

Rita did have a major arc, but I can't tell if that was by design or what. Rita towards the end had become a giant pain in the ass, but that is, I think, mostly due to how the writers used her. Her sole purpose on the show came to be bugging the hell out of Dexter with inane requests in mid-kill or body dump....and that was it. This is a real shame because the CHARACTER is incredibly interesting (or could've been). Also, Julie Benz, while apparently a bit snotty in person, is a terrific actress who could've done a lot more with that part. Instead, she was just a constant annoyance on the phone. "Dexter, don't forget to pick up milk on your way back. We never spend enough time together. Blah blah blah." Ugh.


S1 is absolutely the best of the series. It was fresh, the characters seemed (to me at least) to change the most and in meaningful ways, and it was TENSE. All the seasons after that were going through the same motions but with less meaning.


Rita's death on the show was important....or should have been. Personally, I don't feel like they ever really dealt with her death effectively in subsequent seasons, so take that into account. I'm not giving specifics (there's not much to give, really), but to me it seemed like they only touched on it for a few episodes or in passing here and there later. Otherwise it's back to normal.

I think the show writers changed somewhere around the 3rd or 4th season, and that had a MAJOR impact on the show.

The later seasons are more...hmm...I'd say "cinematic" but not in a good way. They have less depth, and are more about visceral thrills than about character development. They play at having more development, but the writers seem to either leave stuff hanging, or hit a reset button with characters and nothing much changes. This leaves them free to mine familiar ground for the same old thrills, but at the cost of innovation. Their version of innovation has been....questionable as well, in my mind.

Basically, I think if you stopped watching the show now....you really wouldn't be missing a ton. The rest isn't BAD, mind you. It's still entertaining. But it's nothing like what Season 1 was. You'll never catch that high again with the show. On the other hand, as just a fun, silly little show where Dex kills people and chases a "big bad" of the season, it's an entertaining show, still.

Meantime, hug your wife and kids, and practice your kung fu when they aren't looking.

 

[GeneralFROSTY]

Actually it's refreshing to have someone feel such away about Sason 4. While it is arguably one of the best, most were happy to see the Rita character go - me included. But yes, inherintly the show is going to have story elements that are disturbing.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

I agree with you Dan, they could have done a lot more with her but just ended up using her as a one dimensional plot device.

I understand why the writers wanted her out of the picture, just the way they did it was terrible. Great twist, great fit to the show, but I hated it.

I would have been much better with it if it had some purpose or meaning aside from "my son and I were both born in blood" and "she's getting annoying". And it sounds from what you're saying about the next seasons that it doesn't really. I don't mind her out of the show, just this way it feels so wrong and empty.

Oh well, life goes on. :lol No kung fu for me though, I've got a very nice gun collection to sooth my paranoia! :lol

 

[Rbeato]

It was indeed a shocker to where I felt horrible for Dexter as when he was on his boar disposing of Trinity, he looked up at the moon and thought "i wonder if rita is looking at it too, i like that" and he was so happy to be going on his honey moon with her, and bam! Trinity got to her without Dexter knowing while he thought he had his family safe. When Rita died, and when Lumen left him were the only times I felt really really bad for Dexter as he was actually happy and feeling it for a short while, and since he is who he is, that feeling doesn't happen to him often. But if it didn't happen in season 4, it would have been inevitable that his wife would be killed by a serial killer he was hunting. but the next two seasons should be very interesting with his secret out with Deb.

 

[red4]

What are the rules about necroposting? I recently started watching Dexter on Netflix instant streaming, and have been blasting through the seasons. I just finished season 4 a few minutes ago, and it gutted me. Dexter came home so relieved and happy, only to find his life turned (somehow) even further upside down. I've been expecting someone like Debra to die, but not so much Rita. Here's hoping nothing so tragic happens in seasons 5 through 8.

 

[Risu]

Brace yourself for the worst series finale of all time...

 

[DuneMuadDib]

Do yourself a favor, and don't watch seasons 5-8.

 

[red4]

Do yourself a favor, and don't watch seasons 5-8.

Brace yourself for the worst series finale of all time...

I've heard about seasons 6,7, and 8 being bad, but have purposely avoided reading into why. I'm already watching season 5. I've also heard about the series finale being really bad and unsatisfying (or something), but again haven't read into why.

 

[Risu]

I still enjoyed watching the show up til the end. Just the last couple episodes tanked.

 

[Jedi2016]

I'm still two seasons behind myself, but they're back on Netflix now, so I plan to catch up. Despite what everyone says... good ending or bad, at least it'll be over. I'm not just going to leave it hanging.

As for Season 4, the only good thing about it is that Rita never found out about who/what Dexter really was.