Those were Paul's parents. They mentioned that in season 4. Rita even said they were good people despite how awful Paul was. Pay attention. Although one thing that does seem to be missing was Rita's mother from the funeral. I know they probably didn't have her under contract anymore after her brief appearance in season 2, but you'd think she'd be there.
Just a few brief thoughts We all knew White Doaks was coming, but they could have waited another episode. I realize Quinn & Dexter are at odds, but nobody was questioning Quinn about his connection to Trinity after fucking the guy's daughter. I look forward to the dialogue between characters trying to make sense of the apparent randomness of Trinity's M.O. striking a family member of Miami Metro. Obviously they're all still in shock, but you know we're going to get more than "Has Trinity ever killed a married woman in a bathtub before?" Deb's knowledge of Dexter's relation to Brian Moser has to be what ultimately wakes her up, if that happens at all. Jennifer Carpenter's acting skills have improved, or maybe just the character's added depth has given her more to work with. The hillbilly who ultimately becomes the outlet for Dexter's impossible revenge/rage was perfectly played for a bit part. This episode is a perfect example of why the show continues to shine: Michael C. Hall's fantastic acting Dexter already had trouble freeing himself from his family to go hunting in S4. How much will being a single dad actually play a role in his ability to hunt other killers, or will we have to suspend disbelief a little more? If you saw the preview after the ep for "this season on Dexter": Spoiler will the PI hired by Quinn play a role in an arc longer than an episode or two?
Does anyone else think that the random hick that Dexter killed ends up being the murder that brings him down? As far as we know, he left him there. Just a thought.
I honestly think the whole Quinn thing lasts a 1/4 of the season tops. I am actually interested in seeing where the Quinn-Dexter storyline is going though, which seems to be a minority opinion. That being said, I loved this episode. The contrast between Dexter on his first date with Rita and Dexter as we know him now is really amazing. Those scenes were a real reminder of the evolution we've seen Dexter go through and I thought that was awesome. I'm really pumped about where this season might go. My personal predictions (which are sure to be wrong): Spoiler -Angel and LaGuerta's storyline just disappears (not really, but we can hope) -Deb finds out about Dexter -Dexter ends the season in jail or worse
I had to laugh at the lengths the writers went to to make the audience feel "well, he's totally outside the code, but c'mon, he deserved it a little." "Your dead wife can suck my dick"? Really?
I definitely don't think the writing (dialogue, specifically) is the show's strongest point. The story of Dexter's life, the narrative it has taken, and especially Hall's acting (all combined), I would say is ground-breaking. But it's also 80% of the show. I think all the actors do a good job, but some of the characters/secondary plot lines are dead weight (*cough*Angel/Laguerta*cough*). They have some gems, in terms of dialogue, but the only ones that come to mind are Dexter lines. I find a lot of other characters' lines would come across quite cheesy on paper, or if the actors didn't pull them off as well as they do. As for this season, I have enough faith in the writers to believe they wont copy Doakes with Quinn, and if I were betting, I'd agree with others that Deb (with Quinn's assistance) is going to grow more and more suspicious of Dexter. Combined with all she knows about him (not to mention his insistence to her the last couple seasons that he ISN'T a good person), it could lead to something huge (as in, Dexter's downfall). Can't freakin wait. Also, I thought Christina Robinson did a very admirable job freaking out at Dexter by the car after he broke the news. Along with the other instances of Dexter being emotionless, it was great hearing her say "you don't even care...I can tell by looking at you". Intense.
My official prediction is that Quinn is going to do a lot of legwork, and put all his suspicions on the table to Deb. She's going to tell him to go fuck himself in a typical dramatic Deb fashion. Soon thereafter Deb is going to be talking to a still distraught Astor, who is going to reveal something she saw or head with regard to Dexter that she knows bothers her, but is too young to really know why, and this fact will fit perfectly into Quinn's theory, thus pushing Deb over the edge into official suspicion.
I know already repped you for this but it is just really bothering me. If you disliked last season, I'm not quite sure how anyone could agree with anything you posted. The writing is so "tight" because they manage to give you a glimpse inside the mind of a serial killer rarely seen on screen. They have also managed to get the majority of Dexter's audience to root for a sociopath killer. (Everyone probably wanted the hillbilly to die last week however insulting someone no matter how awful should not get you killed.) The point of the grandparents is ridiculous, just because the child is messed up the grandparents should be messed up? Not to mention they could have something wrong with them it was hard to tell in the seven minuets they were on screen. Jeffrey Dahmers parents were normal so where did he come from? Everyone is entitled to opinions but you supported yours quite poorly. Last season was not only the best season of the show but one of the best season's of any show I have ever seen. Lithgow's interaction with Hall was absolutely brilliant. He also won an emmy for his work last year. The writers were also nominated for an Emmy but did not win, maybe they were just not "tight" enough to dethrone Mad Men. If your going to blast the show have better examples than Rita's mom's crazy but her grandparents seem ok, and to not like last season? Maybe you should try Real Housewives or Jersey Shore for some real drama.
I think Masuka and Quinn are going to grow a mutual suspicions that feeds off of each other. The dynamic was set up in Sunday's episode. Masuka is going to be the evidence guy (blood work, mentioning the kiss etc). Quinn is going to be the cop trying to figure it all out. They were the only two not wearing blinders in the premiere. EDIT: This was mentioned last season, but remember Masuka looked directly at Trinity talking to Dexter last year (a week ago in the show). But by the time he mentions that to Quinn, Dexter will probably be fucked already.
Kerbunked corrected me on the grandparents. They are supposed to be Paul's parents. I didn't remember them being introduced in season 4 as a way to get the kids out of the house, so sorry about that. I wasn't trying to imply that Paul was fucked up so his parents should be too. I mistakenly thought this was some couple that was supposed to be Rita's parents. Paul was way less fucked up than most of the people on Dexter anyway. My problem with the writing is that the writers are inconsistent. Interactions between main characters like Dexter and Trinity have been great, but other story lines are lackluster or flat-out annoying. Don't try to tell me that you enjoyed even a moment of the La Guerta - Batista love saga. Like Superfantastic said a few posts back, the dialogue isn't the show's strength. But I'd go a step further and say the dialogue is weak. The writers seem to phone it in with scenes that don't advance the major plots. As far as I'm concerned, a "best season" of a show should be well written in its entirety, not just in its most memorable scenes. Understand where I am coming from; I really like the show as a whole. I just can't ignore that plenty of dialogue and character development (outside of Dexter and Trinity, before you go off again) is half-baked at best. Here's to hoping this season doesn't disappoint.
If this happens, my real question is whether Dexter is going to try to kill Deb and make it look like an accident, or if he'll finally come to terms that he's a real person with feelings, and real people face the consequences of their actions. Seeing as how they've set it up for Dexter to realize this season that he has emotions, I feel like that could be an interesting source of tension.
I think the problem is you are expecting the writing quality of the best TV show to equate to that of the best movie. They don't, and they can't, because of how much more material there is in a TV show than a movie. 12 one-hour episodes of a season works out to 9 or 10 hours of material. The Wire, The Sopranos, Dexter, whatever, the writing is always markedly weaker in a "great" TV show than a "great" movie.
Wrong, there are plenty examples of TV series delivering "best movie" quality dialog (you actually list two). It's hard not to have high expectations, look at the number of reviewers on here pontificating that this might be one of the best TV shows of all time. Im on Toejams side here, it is certainly a well crafted show but has some short fallings that keeping it from being as good as many would lead you to believe. I said it before in the pertinent thread but I've always disliked Dexter's inner monolog, I understand that it must be used for this show. Unlike Hall's acting the voice over lines are never as "tight" and a lot of the time never add much more than plot progression fluff. I also don't give the writers as much credit for crafting a serial killer we can root for. How hard is it really to get audiences on a villain's side? Who didn't cheer a little inside when Hannibal Lecter escaped and told Clarice he was having his old friend for dinner? But Dexter was never even intended to be viewed as evil or true villain, his "code" is a cop out so that you can side with him because he's not really killing innocent people. I think Aetius' point stands out here. I thought having the redheaded bearded hick so blatantly insulted Dexter was just a horrible piece of writing intended to justify Dexter killing an innocent person. You don't need to be that hackneyed this late in a series when you already have a rabid audience base.
I didn't actually cheer for Hannibal Lechter when he brutally murdered the two completely innocent police officers guarding him and the ambulance driver who was taking the body to the hospital. Did it make for great drama and amazing suspense? Absolutely. Was I pleased that most likely there would be a sequel following one of the best villains of all time? 100%. However I did not root for him like I do for Dexter, Dexter kills scumbags and criminals. Men who in his world deserve to die, many of us can understand that line of thinking as well. Child murders, Rapists, degenerates who kill their wives, all get no sympathy from me if they end up on Dexter's table. That was another amazing turn in the series when Dexter killed an innocent man (innocent according to his code) and I credit the writers and Hall for showing the affect it had on the main character. I couldn't disagree with you more about Dexter's inner monologue. I think the show would be lost without it. It offers a comic relief as well as a snapshot of a man who thinks like 1% of society. I thought it was hilarious when Rita would shout at him "doesn't that make you feel something?" Dexter would stare blankly at the ground and you would hear the voice in his head go "Nope. Even last week when he saw the family at the funeral and thought "that's how people act at funerals." Hall does such an excellent job with his expressions and playing off his own inner voice I could not imagine the show without it. As far as comparing the writing using the metaphor of "great show vs. great movie" I'm flabbergasted about how stupid that is. Did you watch the Wire? It had probably the best dialogue I have seen in any televsion show. As well as being incredibly realistic. I think the problem was better addressed by Toejam when he shed light on the whole Batista/ LaGuerta problem. I'm not sure it was a wtiting issue, other than the fact it just didn't need to be written in the show period. For whatever reason many of these dramatic cable series follow a formula where they have spin off stories that don't involve the main character on the show. It worked perfect on The Wire because there were so many interesting characters that you enjoyed the different storylines. The Sopranos it worked sometimes, I loved watching Vito on the run I hated however watching Carmella go to France. Dexter really struggles with this because his character and his storyline are so good it almost becomes unbearable to watch anything else, especially LaGuerta and Batista falling in love.
See I don't know if I can fault the writers here more than the original author on this one. I don't think their is a cheaper way for them to make a serial killer acceptable to root for than having him ONLY kill criminals as part of his MO. I would have really given them (author or writers) more credit if they had originally created a more morally ambiguous killer. A character that you could truly wrestle with the idea of rooting for. I don't know if you were responding to me or the guy above me but I agree with you here. I don't know what his metrics were for "great tv" and "great movie" dialogue but I can think of at least 5 shows that have much better dialogue writing than most movies produced. See it is all up to the writers to deliver side stories that are compelling. Deb on one hand has never had a really good story line so I don't know if the actress is bad at acting or she is just amazing at playing the shitty role they give her. She gets knocked for having a horse face but with that little strip n' fuck scene this past week I still think she's got a smoking body.
There's a difference between overall quality of dialogue and overall quality of writing. Just like there is a difference between realistic and good dialogue (although they are certainly not mutually exclusive). I liked The Wire, but to me, movies like Being John Malkovich or Glengarry Glenn Ross are much better written than any TV show I've ever seen. And yes, most movies produced have shitty screenplays, but the writing on most TV shows is also shitty.
Dead fucking on. The monologues are not only the best part, but essential, and the whole reason it grabbed me in the first place. It's like reading without reading and supplies that missing depth that is so often lacking in T.V./film when a work is transferred from book to screen. In fact, most of my favorite movies have that internal monologue/voice over character narration. Goodfellas specifically springs to mind. Why even bother to watch if your not enjoying that aspect of it? As far as Jeniffer Carpenter, I don't understand why she gets a bad wrap at all. I think she has been fantastic and her character is very unique compared to the other female cops I've seen portrayed in any television show. I thought her acting in the episode after Lundy is killed was fantastic. The writing on Dexter is far and away some of the best on T.V. There's no question. Just as good as Breaking Bad, certainly better than Boardwalk Empire so far, and I would even say better than the Sopranos.
She's blonde... all of Fowler's victims are blonde. My guess is she's going to be one of his potential victims and Dexter "saves" her when he gets Fowler and they strike up a bizarre friendship. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.
I haven't read the books in a while, and I don't THINK this is a spoiler (if it is, delete it)...but I really hope this cult shit they're talking about isn't a prelude to them going in the direction that the one book did that dealt with demons and the like. The books are good, but that one was just way too out there.
I don't know where the show is going with it but so far they are talking about a pretty common trend that is happening in the drug wars south of the border. The two Mexican hitmen from Breaking Bad were offering gifts/pictures to the same Saint of Death during that creepy episode where everyone was crawling on their knees to the shrine. I was disappointed in the lack of progression this episode until Dexter's revealing how much losing the kids will affect his dark side. I thought the episode ended pretty strong.