Just a wee bit of tee vee

[lizardbeth]

Two days at Disneyland has kind of killed me. But I caught the finale of Dexter last night. (because that's what everyone needs when returning from a trip exhausted - serial killer mayhem!)



I... I've seen some shock, and I wasn't really at all. Once Trinity knew Dexter's real name, he was obviously going after the family and since he wasn't going after the kids.... They teased the Deb thing, but she wasn't there. Maybe if I hadn't seen CM a few weeks ago run the same story, I would've been more shocked, but, not really. And I liked Rita (when the writers weren't using her as a device to pile on Dexter, but generally she reacted as a real person would, I think, to Dexter's various irritating habits).

But comparing the two eps, I found the CM one so much better. Part of it is Dexter both as a show and as a character is more distant from emotion, and part of it was the writers were so committed to the "twist" that it sucked a lot of the horror out of it. But the only one I really felt for last night was wee Harrison -- I couldn't really feel for Rita because she was already dead. I can imagine what her last moments were like, but I KNOW what Haley's were. I know what she did, I know how brave she was.

Also, the CM one was structured so you have Hotch able to cathartically kill Foyet's ass, whereas Dexter was the opposite -- Trinity was already dead by the Dexter found Rita, so it just sort of hangs there, unresolved. (and the unnatural-in-retrospect moment, in which Trinity SHOULD have told Dexter he was too late - it's very manipulative either for the sake of the death ending or to dangle the possibility of a copycat).

But despite my rather "been there, done that" attitude, the season was still awesome. Lithgow was fabulous, and can probably write his Supporting Emmy speech right now. Deb's fall and rise this season is a thing of beauty. But, boo, to the ending. SUCKS. Poor Rita. Poor Julie Benz.

Dexter Single Dad of Three? *shudders* That's going to be resolved in the first two eps, I'm sure - with them all going away, becauese, there's just no way he can cope.

Also, I know he's kind of annoying and I wouldn't mind him figuring some things out and becoming the new Doakes, but I'd like to stare at Quinn a little more next season before his inevitable death. Thx.

Comments

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

Ha! That last comment is priceless! I thought Quinn was an excellent addition to the cast. I just wish they would've made him a little less clueless about the whole Christine thing. I called her as the shooter from day 1, though I will admit to being slightly surprised by her connection to Trinity.

ITA with your thoughts on CM vs. Dexter. I usually see all of these 'twists' coming from a mile away but I didn't see either of those! With Criminal Minds, I was just SO used to the writers constantly putting these characters in dangerous situations and having them come out without a scratch that I thought the whole Hayley thing would be more of the same. And as far as Dexter is concerned, I honestly wasn't paying enough attention to the end of that episode:) I kept thinking it was the lamest season finale to date and sort of tuned out until those last few minutes.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

oh, it seemed pretty clear early on that this was the Arc of Putting the Screws to Aaron, so I thought she might die. But that ep it was the LACK of surprise -- the sheer dread -- of what was coming that made it so affecting to me, and then when it actually happened and she was brave and it was SO SAD -- *chokes up* Dexter seemed very anticlimactic, by comparison. But it didn't help that we came into the aftermath, and then Dexter's VO is so restrained that it undercuts any response. Though I guess plenty of people found it horrible and shocking enough -- maybe I'm just more inured.

I think it might have been more of a "shocking twist" if they'd had CODY die. Trinity had, after all, been thwarted in his kill of the boy and Cody's about the right age. But I guess they didn't want to be THAT shocking.