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Dexter Season 4 Review

For the most part, the Dexter series is perfect television that displays a perfect balance between quality and technique: at times, season four makes you wonder if all of that has changed.

On the plus side of things, John Lithgow is a great actor who gives a seamlessly creepy and pleasantly nuanced performance as Dexter's opponent. Some of his scenes (especially the ones in which Lithgow reveals his character's meticulously concealed insanity) are amazing to watch: scenes so good that they remind you that acting is a craft and that it is possible for an actor to be amazing at it.

In a strong departure from the earlier seasons, season four sees the writers trying to establish a longer-term change in the love-lives of a couple of the characters instead of the previous season's twelve-episodes-and-out shacking up. Unfortunately, this doesn't make up for all the things in season four that make you roll your eyes.

On the minus side, the complications that arise from Dexter's family life stretch credulity to the breaking point and beyond--a situation that is made obvious when several different characters call attention to how much time Dexter, the family man with an office job, spends in places where no one can find him day or night.

Dexter's wife, Rita, whom the writers have made a fiercely independent woman who puts great energy into her children and her marriage, becomes unsupportably unpleasant at times--at times almost shrewish--when she reacts to Dexter's unavoidable furtiveness and need for evasion. Unfortunately, this removes much of the emotional value from one element of season four's resolution.

Dexter worked in those first three seasons. Despite its dependence on a formula as contrived as a television sitcom's, Dexter has been bullet proof entertainment until now and it makes you wonder if the it's the writers who have run out of steam or if the original idea is just too thin to allow for stronger and more nuanced writing.

Watching the first three seasons of Dexter, things never became so strange that you threw your hands in the air and walked away regardless of how contrived the scripts were, or how much yoga the writers had to do to fit a compelling resolution into the show's formulas. It was what was good about the series's writing: its technique was never so bad that you saw that it was technique; nor was it so bad that you saw that the technique was missing. In season four, with it reliance on melodrama and increasingly wild coincidence, both those problems are present and noticeable.

One of the great things about the Dexter TV series is that even when the season's resolution is as strange as this season's is, you still want more of it, Dexter is an engaging character as are the people around him, but season four leaves you with a strange taste in your mouth--like weak tea and Tequila: at best the result is an acquired taste--one that makes you wonder if you will like the next season.

Dexter is a great show, beats out CSI and Law and Order. My husband and I don't have Showtime and are never in the same place to watch tv or movies, however, we purchase each season and watch it all in one weekend. Great movie weekend. Don't ever watch them out of sequence as it will not be the same. If you haven't seen the other seasons start with 1 and work your way through the series. It definitely has a plot throughtout the years.

Dexter is an original thriller that goes beyond the imagination but in a realistic edge of your seat sort of way. Everything works, the actors, storylines all of it. What other show will make you root for a serial killer and hope he never gets caught? We love it!!!

Lithgow as Trinity Killer is just amazing. Hall is in great form and really starts to live and breathe the character. The only neg about this season is Dexter's wife, Rita. She's beautiful and sweet...but there's something annoying about her. She seems to judge without actually saying anything, nag without really nagging. It's hard to explain but I know I'm not the only one who found her annoying. In fact, the writers do take care of this problem in the end...

Wow. I don't have Showtime, but wish I did. It's a facinating promo. Not sure who to root for, the bad guy or the worse guys.

I am a Showtime subscriber and Dexter fan. This year, I had to leave the country during the time the last episode came on-- I always leave my tv unplugged for storm safety and I missed it. The problem: This is the only show I watch with my Mom. I got to catch the show while gone but she didn't!!!!! She is really upset with me. I know I can wait till it all goes on sale but I am desperate for a faster solution! Any ideas??? Thanks, Islandgirl

Seriously, the close ups of cars, Apple, Red Bull and Sugar in the Raw of all things ? I will never buy those products , it has the opposite effect on me. If you want a good example of product placement, see The Sopranos. I could never tell if there was product placement in the show or if the items were just in the background. Subtlety is key, don't center your shots around the damn thing.
I watch shows like Dexter to escape the type of stress that comes from having a corporate phallus stuck in my brain, not to fellate it. Showtime obviously doesn't respect you or I; if they did ,their programming wouldn't be rife with shill-jobs. You'd think with all that extra money they could hire writers who could cobble together a show with some semblance of its former self.
I'm still a fan, but I'm holding on by a wire, and considering how frequently they make me pay for their show by putting up with their adverts, I will never again a nickle their way thrust.

TERRIBLE TERRIBLE Show! And yes from cable TV this series was banned for many reasons and both CBS Showtime's sister network would also be reprimanded if this show ever aired prime time on other channels! The main character is so disgusting and despicable its not even worth talking or writing about. You want a good show check out Rescue Me, or House, or heck even old sci-fi series like the Invisible Man and Star Trek are leaps and bounds better than this garbage!