Dexter: Series review

Dexter Series review. As I was not, as many people are not, a Showtime subscriber, I am woefully behind the curve. If you are planning to watch the series there will be certain spoilers in here but I will try to keep them to a minimum. Dexter is a forensic tech and serial killer. In concept this is perfect even if your hairs or prints were at the scene of a crime they are certainly explainable as contamination occurs at every crime scene there is no way around it, especially if people are doing the work. Keeping things realistic is difficult in fiction, you have to keep the story line moving and the amount of time to process the evidence they are performing does not happen as instantly as they do in show. Not a critical opinion just an observation about all crime shows. Dexter is a very well rounded character and I’ve read a lot of reviews saying he is played too flat or emotionless or something else related to him not being able to connect to the other people. I have to say I think you missed the point. Dexter is supposed to have trouble forming the social bonds and isn’t phased by the things which others have difficulty. Is it completely accurate to a sociopath, yes, no, maybe, the thing is they stay true to the widely held belief by law enforcement and the psychiatric field that serials killers aren’t raving lunatics. They tend to be in the genius range of intelligence and often blend into social settings pretty well, just not with other people so much. Dexter fits the archetype for serial killers pretty well. Methods of killing aside, what ever really gets the job done, if you are having him find people methodically who fit a certain “code” it stands to reason there is a method to how he kills and disposes of bodies. I’m sure there were other ways to dispose of bodies with less actual traces but there has to be an element that our hero or anti hero might be found out and that adds to the tension and drama. Main characters: Men, Women, supporting The men: Batista, Masuka, Quinn, Doakes and Harry The women: LaGuerta, Deb, Rita and Hannah Supporting: Cody and Astor, Harrison, Jamie If a character isn’t on the list it is; one, because they are a spoiler or two, are season plot movers only and don’t really have an overall impact on the show, i.e. FBI Special Agent Lundy. He really only exists to move season two along and then is really essentially gone. Is he a likable character… yes, does he play the part he needs to play,…yes, does he impact the whole series…no. Men All of them are well acted and remain true to who they are through out the whole series or at least as long at they are in the series. Batista is moral with flaws, Quinn is his polar opposite he is flawed but has some morals. They are both good at their jobs. They are both their own worst enemies. Quinn has too much ego and Batista not enough. Masuka ... Love this character. He is what he is and I think typical of people who are good at what they do, but not much else. He adds much needed comedy in what would otherwise be a very dark series. Masuka also shows a coping mechanism that many people in these fields develop in the warped sense of humor in the face of very disturbing things. Harry. I like that they include Harry through out the series and it works for me how they do it but others may not like it. We all have that guiding voice of our teachers, parents and mentors that help us get through things. Harry teaches the code to Dexter and it makes sense as a detached person he relates to it as not part of his own internalized personality but as an external control that he has to follow to survive. Doakes: He is typical of the law enforcement image; tough, the law is black and white no gray areas. It is right or it isn’t. He is frustrated with the system and bad guys getting away with things that they shouldn’t. He relies on the evidence only because he has too and there inlays the tension between him and Dexter. Dexter as the lab person is the ‘necessary evil’ to doing the job by the book and not a “real” cop which frustrates Doakes more. After Doakes leaves the show Quinn and Batista share the load of system frustration, macho-ism and other things. The women First, I have to say for a series as big as it was, the women who are supposed to be in strong leadership roles were depicted horribly. Weak, manipulative, spiteful etc, every negative stereotype about women in the work place is represented in the main characters and supporting women. It is truly shameful. Rita. She is not the love of Dexter’s life and for her role she is one of the only almost respectable female characters in the series at first. Rita is typical of abused women in this country and the flaws in how they try to set their lives to right. Going back again and again to the men who hurt them and the cycle of violence continues. We meet Rita in this role and she tries to grow and then they just make her bitchy. It would have been nicer to see her grow as a person and break the cycle she was in without the transformation into a micromanaging harpy. However she wasn’t intended to be the love of Dexter’s life and she isn’t which makes it easier when she isn’t in the show because I for one didn’t like her character any longer by the end of her role. LaGuerta: Oh dear lord, could you have seriously have made a character any more shallow and self serving as this character. There was not a single redeeming thing about this character. She was out for number one always, more so than Dexter who is the sociopath serial killer. Let’s just say a place for asses sums up her character. However, Why take the female character in an authority position in a profession where women are not respected as much as less qualified male counter parts and make her everything negative that people say about women in these roles. Shame on you series writers, shame on you. Debra Morgan. Her character is another example of this series asking how can we take a strong female role of a truly competent female police officer and investigator and make her pathetic and unlikable. Now I don’t mind all the swearing that was fine, people cuss and swear, women fuck and drink too. I don’t have a problem with any of that. However this train wreck the writers pass off as being an anchor for a serial killer would be laughable if it were not so pathetic. Whining, lack of confidence, coupled with a misplaced bravado, falls in love at the drop of a hat, and on and on. She is a walking, talking cliché. Debra Morgan is a train wreck of hazardous materials next to a water treatment plant in a highly populated area. If her character was going to exit the series how she did it would have been better to do it in season one rather than at the end of the series. Hannah McKay. She at least is not compromising. She is the only strong female character in the series. She fights to survive, moves past bad times in her life and adapts. I like that they kept her character human and vulnerable when it came to shedding light on her past and how she got to where she is in life. We all have those people, vices or things which break us down. You either cope or you die. She fights, to win even if she stumbles here and there. Supporting Characters Astor, Cody, Harrison and Jamie Batista They really had little to do with the show and Jamie only exists to deal with Harrison. However to play them down as not important isn’t the point. They all have a point of grounding the story in some reality. Putting a serial killer in Miami that is a single guy who never dates and is always killing someone or cleaning up after someone else who has killed someone would be a hard series to make last for more than two seasons. These supporting characters give a depth to the characters and the story that otherwise wouldn’t have existed. The Series overall Wow, how to sum up a series without spoilers. Well each season had good points and bad points. It is very clear to see that there wasn’t really a map to the end, which certainly explains a lot of the up and down things in the series. I think if the series writers had taken the time to say okay this is the character and we want to go from here to this other point, how do we do it, and then mapped out some sort of rough path it would have played better in the low points. What happened was shot gun blast story writing with some things hitting targets and some things not hitting anything. The last season. I heard a lot of negative stuff about the last season and it really is a weak one in the series. However the contrast between Dexter and the final villain is a mirror of sorts one side is Dexter’s life and the other is what it may have been, but really the series had already done this in season one so why repeat it. However the whole Elway / US Marshals bullshit was just unnecessary and could have been avoided especially if they had derailed the Debra Morgan express train to hell in season one. The ending or as I saw it… ok here is the ending…just kidding really here is the ending… just kidding again here is the ending… ok serious this time here is the ending. Fuck you he is our character we will end this on our terms not yours. That said it is open which is nice you can think about it however you want. Something that hurt Dexter was Breaking Bad … here was a show that had a map plotted out, the major story points at the beginning and then drove the car from A to B with some side turns but knowing where it was going the story was able to stay pretty close to the trajectory and had an amazing ending in three less seasons. It left people wanting more where as Dexter lost a lot of people because there was no plan for an end point How would I have ended Dexter? Hannah and Dexter are recruited by Isaak Sirko once Dexter pulls his ass out of the fire and they take the murder road show international and are millionaires in the crime world. Seriously why not this is fiction not reality … Isaak is on the outs with his bosses, he seems to be fairly well connected in the international drug world. Isask was not a peon and was well placed he could make a move on his own with the right people to support him. There is a lot of competition and people who just fuck you over in that sort of business. You need problem handlers, Why not a pair of handlers who don’t mind getting their hands dirty and are pretty freaking good at it too. Who would expect Dexter, Hannah and Harrison to be murderers of the crime world’s competition. Law enforcement would be as light about tracking them down as they were with all of Dexter’s previous trash removal enterprises and chalk it all up to internal struggles that don’t cost tax dollars, eat up the courts time or take up space in the prisons. That’s just me Sorry about the few spoilers I tried to keep them to a minimum. What did you think of Dexter? Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow or some other day most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Inspiration v. Intimidation

As the years go by I’m finding there seems to be a fine line between a lot of things in life. Anytime that there are gaps in the issues of my blog it means that I’ve become introspective or started dating someone. Before you get terribly excited about that last bit I’ll put the kibosh on your hopes if you had any I’m not dating anyone that however is a topic for another day. So as you have likely surmised I have been introspective. Which is usually supposed to end with some discovery which pushes you toward some final understanding, and I have found the meaning of life. However, to quote or paraphrase Deep Thought, You’re not going to like the answer. In fact you won’t like the answer so much I’ve decided that it is best that I not tell you the answer. Rather talk about two things I like to do to occupy my time. Writing and drawing. They say that writers should write and artists should do something in what ever medium they practice everyday. Technically I do write everyday for my job. I have to tell stories of people who for what ever reason have become my clients, if you don’t know I am a child abuse investigator and sometimes the non fiction that I have to write for my pay check takes a toll on want to write anything more for the day. Now this doesn’t necessary take an emotional toll on me but sometimes what ever peeve I had planned to blog about seems to be really rather insignificant and petty in comparison. So I don’t write. On those days sometimes I draw. Which I enjoy but I don’t want to share because I look at most of what I put to paper as a drawing and feel rather wanting in my abilities. Inspiration to become motivated to produce something from an experience or encounter Intimidation to become unmotivated to produce something from an experience or encounter Very similar in meaning and I don’t know if those are the definition you’ll find in any dictionary but it is how I perceive the two words and what they mean as to my ability As to writing content I think I do pretty well however grammatically I shudder when I read some of the things I string together and pass off as the written word. I read stories that are mass produced and know that I keep myself entertained with ideas that are at least equally entertaining. It’s just getting them to paper. As to the drawing I start so many drawings and they don’t usually turn into anything recognizable or worth putting out for public critique. I am my own worst critic and as it would seem I’m also a source of inspiration. I had an English professor while I was in college who said don’t toss out what you write that you don’t like. Every writer I’ve read anything about kept notes galore on the works they produced. The professor was talking about writing poetry with the idea that you won’t sit down and write a poem completely in its final draft on the first run. Even Saroyan’s poem “Lighght” was probably written a couple of different ways or at least in different fonts and colors before it was finished. I don’t write a lot of poetry but I have remembered that and will keep the previous attempts of poems all ways with the most recent on top. Looking back you can see where you have made progress toward the intended message or feeling and perhaps where a wrong turn of phrase has gotten things too far off the way. As to the drawing I’ve not really had any formal lessons as such. I’ve taken the required art classes in school which were really more to expose students too all of the mediums rather than to hone a particular skill Which is fine if you under stand the basic skills then mastering them is just a matter of practice. Using the idea from a writing professor I don’t toss out anything I draw. Well unless it was really horrid. To make up for my lack of funding to take a formal drawing class I watch youtube videos, various animation films and films about well known artists. Mostly watching masters at work is intimidating rather than inspirational. Last night though I was looking for something and stumbled upon some sketches I had done a few years ago and put them next to something I’ve been working on currently. Progress and not just oh I prefer this one to that one but actual progress. The thing is watching a person do something they are well practiced, is often times more intimidating than it is inspirational to others. Social expectations are really skewed in our society where anything other than complete success is ridiculed and scorned often times more than those who don’t even try to do something, which is truly the bigger failure. I think it is fine to find inspiration in the great works of others but coloring that inspiration with an admiration that this person worked and practiced their craft to get to a level of skill and adeptness at what ever they are doing. You don’t always see what goes on being the scenes, or the rehearsals, you only see the finished product While I share some of my written thoughts I don’t really share much of my prose works maybe someday. The same with my drawings, I post some of it on my office door at work and occasionally as a handmade card I don’t really put it out there for public consumption. My desire may be to write a novel that sells very well with some illustrations by yours truly. However my expectation is that I’m most likely not going to be the next George RR Martin or JKRowling and certainly it is less than likely that I’m going to have anything hanging in a museum. However these are things which are relaxing for me help keep things in perspective that I have more going on than the work that I do for a paycheck and can entertain myself rather than relying on someone else to entertain me. Look to others for inspiration, admire their accomplishment, practice what you love, expect nothing and not trying are the only true failures in life. So draw, write, skip, hike, build, craft, invent and most importantly don’t listen to the voices in your head saying you can’t or it isn’t good enough. Who knows you may be a person someone else silently watches for inspiration. Well, that is all for now, other stuff on some tomorrow day most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading and please subscribe. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015