Dexter season 3 (spoilers)

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by stj, Aug 21, 2009.

  1. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Starting a thread for any people with Netflix but not HBO.
    Three big improvements over second season.

    First, having Jimmy Smits instead of that girl who played Lila was way smarter. No insult to her personally. Smits was even better than Hall.

    Second, giving Debra more of a storyline about work instead of just sex gave the character much more life. Worries about Quinn, Yuki. The affair with Anton was a little dreary but tying it into her ambition for a shield helped even that. Having Debra find out something about Harry makes her an actual member of the family.

    Third, they didn't repeat personal jeopardy for loved ones as the motivation for the third break with Someone-Who-Would Accept-and-Love-the-REAL-Dexter. Making the choice because it violates his moral code, such as that is, represents an advance for Dexter.

    But there are also downward steps due to serialization instead of resolution. Though Smits and cutting out rinkydink personal jeopardy improved the Dexter's Big Choice storyline, it is still the third time.

    Further, turning Harry from a memory into a peculiar blend of wish fulfillment Harry/disguised moral self/textbook Freudian superego is stretches patience.

    The increasing adventures of Supercriminal are stretching credulity. The superficial realism is wearing thin. A prudent length would have prevented this. Debra getting a clue about Harry should have started last season at the latest.

    Starting storylines about Angel and Masuka is good, but simpering over the characters because the writers are fond of them isn't. Angel's a true hero and doesn't need fantasy hot cop to keep on trucking. A girl friend for Masuka, well, just writing about it is wrong.

    LaGuerta's overall story arc is progressing nicely in one sense, but shoehorning her into a personal relationship with Smits just didn't work too well. It was to brutal a retcon, where her friendship with Doakes was all too obviously the most important emotional relationship she'd had. It's not like Smits came back into town. He'd been there all along and there wasn't any such intensity there for two seasons and we knew it.

    Incidentally, the groundwork for La Guerta to find out about Dexter, as in the first Dexter novel, seems to be laid. She's being written as more competent, albeit still highly political.

    Easy as Pie is without a doubt the most affecting episode. Dexter is always clever but there was true emotion wrung from the sensationalist premise, for once. Usually, it is the workplace/family comedy that gives Dexter its emotional appeal. Probably it helps to use an experienced character actress. Two actors in a scene always work better than one.

    Last drawback, too little Rita. The first husband retcon doesn't look promising.

    While getting a little long in the tooth, it still has its moments. Easy as Pie should have been Emmy nominated, I think.
     
  2. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yay! Keep this thread going till I've managed to get thru my DVDs! I'm goin' to Barnes & Noble to buy my set tomorrow (Amazon's too slow!!!) and it should take me 24 to 48 hours to watch the whole thing. :rommie:

    See ya soon...
     
  3. PKTrekGirl

    PKTrekGirl Arrogant Niner Thug Admiral

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    Excellent! I just got my DVD set in the mail yesterday from DDD.

    I'll be looking for this thread as a make my way through them!
     
  4. IndyJones

    IndyJones Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm with you 100% here.


    It's been a long time since I saw this, but I agree with you about the retcon.

    But too little Rita? This is where we part ways.


    For my part, there was a lot that I really liked in the 3rd season, but I don't think that any of the highs were as good as the highs in seasons 1 and 2. And I was so disappointed with the conclusion of the skinner arc that I easily peg this season as my least favorite.
     
  5. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Seconded. I just bought the DVDs at Best Buy, and will be tearing through them as soon as I can.
     
  6. tharpdevenport

    tharpdevenport Admiral Admiral

    LOVED Season 1 -- I tried to stay away from spoilers, and it worked.

    Season 2 = I was on the edge of my fucking seat. Each episode left me wondering: "How the fuck he was going to get away with it?!", and it left me plowing threw the episodes quickly.

    Season 3 was lagging and just a little boring when watching it, but about half-way through it started to pick up, and when Dexter figured out what Miguel had done ... it suddenly started getting real good.


    I can't wait for Season 4.
     
  7. Starbreaker

    Starbreaker Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The S4 premiere has been leaked online... not that I would watch it or anything... ;)
     
  8. tharpdevenport

    tharpdevenport Admiral Admiral

    I couldn't help it ... I had to watch the leak.


    Thoughts -- not much here in the way of spoilers, but will still wrap it in code:

    Anyone feel the way they have suddenly decided to "mature" Rita's daughter, is startign a set up? Maybe she'll doll up, sneak out at night, and get herself kidnapped/rapped/killed or something, bringing things home to Dexter in a way not previously done, and might drive him passed the point of cutiousness.

    It always seems interesting, to me, the night/day difference when a comedian takes on the role of an evil person. When Robin Williams did it, it was an interesting contrast. And now. The down side, seeing a 64 year-old man's bare ass. Twice. :wtf:

    Angel and Laguerata ... who knew...

    We've had at least two series that ended early because the creators felt they had reached a natural progression to an ending. I wonder just how long Dexter can go on before things come to a head. Indeed I get the feeling things are building more quickly than I had the feeling about in late season 3. In fact, I think Lundy knows something; the way he spoke, the way he looked at Dexter ... I got a strong feeling something more was going on in Lundy's head than we are aware of.
     
  9. auntiehill

    auntiehill The Blooness Premium Member

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    Same here. Season 3 is more low-key--at first--than the other previous seasons, as it has Dexter on the defensive and dealing with his internal conflicts, just as before---but when Dexter goes on the attack---THAT'S when things go from interesting to RIVETING.

    Smits' character made a good rival for Dexter, because he was so much like him. It's been hard for us to see the other characters as a threat to Dexter, since we, the audience, already know just how GOOD Dexter is at what he does.

    I can not wait for the next season to start.
     
  10. Bob The Skutter

    Bob The Skutter Complete Arse Cleft In Memoriam

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    You know what I hated about it? I have to wait a month to see more now...
     
  11. Jax

    Jax Admiral Admiral

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    Jimmy Smits deserves an Emmy, he was simply amazing in that season :techman: Infact after seeing him on the West Wing this dude is a great great actor.
     
  12. Starbreaker

    Starbreaker Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Season 4 is going to be fantastic if they can keep up the level of writing of the first episode. w00t?!
     
  13. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The skinner arc was pretty crappy on screen from the moment Anton interesected it. Dexter gets up from a the table, kills him, then easily escapes through a window, as if cops won't be trying to see if anyone escapes through a window? Oh yes, the finish is feeble. Something that lame wouldn't gone down in the first instalment. All those convolutions just wear the writers down and they lose their judgment.

    Miguel is exactly like what Dexter thought of himself, an empty shell that is just faking it. The parallel between Miguel stealing Ramon's story and Dexter stealing the crazy stalker girlfriend's lines shows the writers know this too, I think. Dexter killing Miguel is a lot like killing himself.
     
  14. Ryan

    Ryan Commodore Commodore

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    It was a big improvement over the second season though I thought stringing out yet another Debra relationship plot was too much. Do they really have so little to do with the character we keep needing to get this every damn season?

    I liked the Angel/Giana subplot if for no other reason than it broke with the boring-as-dirt boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back cliche that pops up on almost every drama.

    I don't think they ever explained

    the Oscar Prado/Freebo connection. The show seemed to hint Oscar was dirty (no surprise there) but never explicitly explained his connection to Freebo and why Oscar wanted to kill him.

    They also seemed to ignore the fact that Dexter killed the wrong person. Freebo wasn't The Skinner, Jorge Orozco was.
     
  15. T J

    T J Commodore Commodore

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    Having HBO wouldn't really matter seeing as how it's on Showtime...
     
  16. auntiehill

    auntiehill The Blooness Premium Member

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    Actually, I thought that was explained pretty well.
    Dexter killed Freebo because he was the only one who saw him kill Oscar's brother--by mistake. Dexter knew Freebo was bad news, so he really didn't care about bumping him off. Oscar wanted Freebo dead because he believed that he, not Dexter, was the one who murdered his drug addict baby brother
     
  17. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    I've only seen three episodes, but absolutely. He's a huge talent and his character is already demanding my attention.

    That's not serialization instead of resolution--that's syndication instead of resolution (or, at least, Showtime's attempt to stretch out a highly rated series for as long as possible, demonstrated by their two season renewal for years four and five).

    Yeah, it seems like they're just attached to James Remar three episodes in (he wasn't even in the first episode, save for photographs). Since they've wisely dropped the flashbacks (the first two seasons succeeded in telling Dexter's origin story) Harry is, for the first time, superfluous.

    Once again, a prudent length goes against Showtime's bottome line. But that's okay. The season two finale works as a conclusion to the series if these later seasons don't end up working out. But I thought the show stretched it's pretend realism way too far with Dexter's hijinks last season (breaks the refrigeration unit on the portable morgue and nobody notices, deletes the security camera footage of his boat and nobody notices, sneaks out his back window while under heavy FBI guard and nobody notices?) anyway.

    I haven't seen the next 9 episodes, but their relationship so far makes sense. Angel said they were lovers when Smits' character was in college. And their relationship ended while he was in college. LaGuerta didn't meet Doakes until after that, when Doakes got out of the military.

    I do wish we'd hear more about Doakes, though. Perhaps it's been a while since the end of the second season for these characters, but I would think it would be a bigger blow, especially for LaGuerta. Having her fawn over Smits isn't the problem, ignoring the fallout (mostly, Doakes did get referenced as the 'bay harbor butcher' a couple of times) over Doakes while she does it is potentially a problem.

    On another note, It seems each season is going to be a slight variation on the theme of Dexter meets somebody who he can show his true self to. In the first season, the variation was family. He ended up choosing his adopted sister over his biological brother. In the second season, the variation was the girlfriend. He ended up choosing Rita (who is normal, but he lies to) over Lila (who was nuts, but he was honest with). In the third season, I wonder if the variation will be between Smits and Angel, as the best friend. But I could be reading the season wrong. We'll see.
     
  18. Trubinator

    Trubinator Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I loved the first season, and became intrigued by season two. Season three felt like a complete rehash of the "Oh my! Self discovery with a twist!" storyline and it seems like the show is gearing toward soap opera instead of a murder mystery show. Personally, I think they NEED to let at least one main character in on the secret ... maybe Debra.
     
  19. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    Dexter Season Three is the first season I actually saw every episode of rather than just wandering in and out of the room. It was pretty good, the evolving relationship with Jimmy Smits was really interesting. Good show. Can't wait to see the Lithgow season when it comes out on DVD what a year and a half from now? :p
     
  20. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    I've seen three more episodes (that makes six total) of the third season now. Doakes has been mentioned another time, in a more substantial way. But the writers have been busy implying that LaGuerta has been a part of the Prado family for some time, and that's harder to reconcile with previous seasons. If it was a long ago, long over relationship it would work. But the one who got away whose whole family became her close friends? Where were they supposed to be in the first and second seasons.

    Another thing that's starting to strike me is that there's a serial killer on the loose, and it hasn't struck anyone as any sort of big deal (even Dexter's comment that he has experience skinning people didn't catch anyone, including him). The Ice Truck Killer and the Bay Harbor Butcher were media circuses, but this new serial killer doesn't even have a nickname, and the media isn't paying any attention. And Debra even thinks he might be a cop, which seems to pass over everyone when it was a big deal last season. I understand the season wants to deal with other things, but c'mon.

    Lastly, I was sort of right about Miguel Prado and the friend angle. The show's definitely emphasizing that (as well as the brother angle, which was done in the first season, and isn't as fresh). But the show is ignoring Angel, who was Dexter's best friend in the previous two seasons (at least Angel thought so). Now Dexter is running off with Prado and Angel doesn't care?

    On the bright side I love what they've done with C.S. Lee and Masuka (probably spelled that wrong) this season. When he told Ramon off it was the best scene he's had the entire series.