It's more than just the writers. The writer of seasons 1-4 left and came out with his plan and it was the whole show was a second right before Dexter was going to be executed. However Showtime wouldn't let the current writers kill Dexter, right there is a bad idea. Breaking Bad had a studio (Sony) behind it that backed whatever the writing staff wanted.
So instead of killing Dexter, they had other characters behave obscenely out of character to justify not having Dexter discovered. WTG studio. I've read summaries of the plots in some of the Dexter book series. In it, Dexter notices Cody and Astor, having the same troubled past as him, exhibit some of the traits of serial killers. ...That would have been way better than what we got.
Definitely. I didn't like how Cody and Aster were written out in season five. I loved how tortured Deb was over finding out her brother, but other than that it was all fluff. I thought season seven would lead somewhere interesting, but everything was just swept under the rug. I think Deb being tormented over whether to tell the police about Dexter, and then actually doing it would have been more in tune with what we knew of her. Then he could have been on the run or whatever. And then Dexter could have died, instead of Deb.
Yes it would because Showtime wanted to milk it. However it could be like Supernatural. Have the original creators' ending after season 5 and then still continue the show with new people.
It might have been odd to find that many on the force were killers, and they thought Dexter rather green.
I don't have Showtime, but my son and I have been watching the show on Netflix (we are finished seasons 1 thru 4). I've been reading spoilers on the final 4 seasons and hope it isn't as bad as most folks report. I hope its not like the case where Battlestar Galactica should have ended at the episode where they found the nuked Earth and everyone is standing around depressed and dumbfounded.
Oh, no. It's much, much, much worse than that. And I'm just talking about seasons five and six (which I watched) -- not seasons seven and eight (which I didn't; the bad reviews were enough).
Eh, that would have been a lame ending too. They just needed a more satisfying less rushed final ten episodes. From what I heard of Dexter season 7 and 8, they had characters behaving in ways that are not believable given their established traits in seasons 1-4.
I literally just saw the series finale! I don't think the later seasons were terrible, but I was extremely disappointed with the way that the show ended. Extremely hugely anti-climactic.