I found you review of Dexter rather impressive. I gather that you haven’t seen it a dozen times and applaud your memory for narratives. Well done.

Kinda wished I stoped watching after the Trinity season, that character and Rita’s death would have been quite a chilling ending to the seires.

Interstingly the title sequance was done be a different production company (Digital Kitchen), who also did the title sequance for True Blood (good sequance too) and 6 feet under (havnt seen it).

@ Victoria:

Yeah, the opening sequence is great. I talked about it in my first review. This is the sort of attention to detail and quality that I was talking about in my response to IceBrain above. The show was all mostly like that – the little details popped and made all the difference. Then they lost that touch.

We joked around that after the series is over they will make a Deb spinoff. It will be the same opening sequence only she fucks up every single task: she rips her shirt, she spills the coffee, she gets orange juice on her pants, she cuts her legs while shaving, etc.. :P

Luke Maciak wrote:

@ Victoria:

Am I the only person who didn’t hate Rita? She was kinda annoying in Season 3, but overall I thought her character added something to the series. Having Dexter marry her, and move in was logical conclusion of the story arc, but it kinda changed the dynamic between the characters.

Rita for me was annoying as hell, like some kind of screeching noise :) I always wondered whether it was intentional from the way the character was written, intentional from the actress that played her or it was my own perception of her. If it was first or second, then the actress did a really good job. But I was sad in the s4 finale. The way it was shot I expected something bad to happen but I was really sad when I saw Rita in the bathtub.

Changing the topic slightly, I think Dexter has one of the best opening credits EVER. They show the most mundane things in such a sinister way, it sets the whole theme, I love them so much.

@ IceBrain:

I agree. From what I read about the series, that “flavor” had a lot to do with their tight budget. They were using cheaper hand-held cameras to do most of the filming, which allowed them to do a lot of unconventional angles. They only had a few sets, so there was a lot of attention put into designing them to look presentable.

There is a great article somewhere in which some of the set designers talk about how they wanted to differentiate between Dexter’s flat an Rita’s house. His apartment has a lot of empty-clean surfaces, mostly monochrome color scheme (they tried to add as few stark colors as possible) with a lot of light-dark contrast. They also tried to set up shots that would have these sharp, shafts of light coming in from the windows, creating areas of light, and shadow.

In contrast Rita’s house was kept in soft, warm hues. A lot of browns, reds, not much contrast with diffused, even lighting. They were going for a warm, hazy, cozy feeling.

After Season 2 the show moved to LA, rebuilt the sets using the Hollywood standards and best practices, got a lot of new equipment, and there was a good deal of turnover among the crew. The series actually started looking “better” from the standards, quality an clarity perspective. They actually got better cameras, were able to set up better shots, streamlined their production, got better at editing. But it also lost that unique look in the process.

Oh, and while I agree that there is a lot of shitty acting on American TV, I’m not really sure Brits have that much better track record. I think the main difference is that shitty British TV mostly stays in UK whereas shitty American TV still gets syndicated all around the world.

@ Victoria:

Am I the only person who didn’t hate Rita? She was kinda annoying in Season 3, but overall I thought her character added something to the series. Having Dexter marry her, and move in was logical conclusion of the story arc, but it kinda changed the dynamic between the characters.

I love-love-love your take on Dex. I agree almost to the word! Haven’t seen season 7 though, couldn’t bring myself to do that since the ugly-sloppy S6. I actually sort of understand the S5 though – some people bury themselseves in work, and Dexter found a new bad guy to track as not to deal with Rita’s death (one of the most antisipated deaths in the history of TV for me :) she was becoming unbearable). But yes, Deb should have discovered who Dex was in the finale of S5, not S6. I will probably watch the 7 and 8 (I survived the whole House MD thing despite hating it in the end :) ) and hope for a grand finale of a rather unique show.

I was a big fan of Dexter circa seasons one and two, but from then on I just started drifting until I stopped watching at all.

It wasn’t just a matter of the plot; I think the series had a “flavor” to them (like the Latin music) that was lost after S2. And of course, the Ice Truck killer crime scenes were just fantastic – even I felt excited at the sight of the bloodless flesh!

That said, Michael C. Hall and a few of the other actors still deliver good performances. I find most US series to have appalling bad acting, compared to e.g. many British shows, but these are solid.