Finally got through all of Season 5. In a lot of ways, it just felt like a big meh.
What happened to the Latino detective after she as promoted? She was being developed as a character and now she's in their department. What about the whole case they were trying to solve? Why were we made to care about these things just to be hand-waved away with no resolution? Okay so Deb got screwed and now she feels bad. And then she makes up with LaGuerta. Why do I care?
Julia Stiles got better and left? Why is this interesting? Honestly, I thought it would have been much more realistic if she had killed herself. But this is really the fundamental problem with the whole thing. Every time they brought up something major in the story, they hit the reset button. Angel and LaGuerta even literally say that's what they're doing. Quinn hunts Dexter? Eh, Dex does him a solid, Dexter kills Liddy, and so they're cool. Rita dies? Eh, his family likes him again, he has a cathartic moment with another attractive blonde chick, and now his life is more normal. He beats the crap out of that girl's dad? He just does exactly what Dexter says.
I don't mind that the season has a resolution, it's more the show's style. But after each season his life was different. This time it feels like as much an attempt as possible to undo the potential changes in his life. Why can't Quinn make the following basic connection: Liddy spies on Dexter. Liddy checked out cameras to spy on Dexter. Liddy told Quinn he wanted him to arrest Dexter. He mysteriously wasn't there in his van because he was murdered. It's more of a reason to look into Dexter than before.
Even worse, the whole thing is predicated on Liddy being stupid enough to not say "I have video recordings of Dexter and his girlfriend talking about killing people." And his plan to get the confession was just retarded. And what was his motivation? He wants his job back that badly? What? I smell a smell that resembles the feces of a male bovine.
The one thing I did like was Deb not arresting them. It actually does make sense. They used the Ice Truck Killer thing well to accomplish that. I enjoy when a series actually uses its own backstory. A lot of times, I feel like writers avoid referencing past events because it's hard to do that without the audience wondering why the characters don't realize their lives are really messed up. So props on that.
From the perspective of the show's behind-the-scenes production, I hate to sound lame, but I'm glad Chip Johannessen isn't the showrunner anymore. The early episodes felt so much like network television. Especially when someone described Dexter going to Masuka's tattoo parlor as "entering his world." That and the club, which felt like an excuse to show everyone being sexy.
The biggest problem with hitting the reset button is that the show can't go on forever. I can't think of any TV show with an ongoing plot line that's been good forever. And when you run out of ideas, you either start doing bad ones or recycling old plot lines.
With season five, they did Dexter trying to kill with someone else again, a detective in the department following Dexter again, and a woman with connection to the main villain who was somehow traumatized by him but loves him again. They're running out of things to do. Wouldn't the show be better off if it was pushing towards a conclusion and thus you didn't have to recycle ideas over and over to keep the pattern going? What if Deb found out about Dexter? What if he was caught? The show would be fundamentally different if those things happened, and the show would have to come up with fundamentally different stories to work to those moments.
There are obviously certain things I'd like shows to do. I would have preferred if Deb went behind the plastic sheet, or if the sheet just wasn't there. It would have been more interesting and less easy. But they didn't, and it was written well, and it had a point, so I can't complain too much. But for godssakes live up to your own premise. Rita dying was great because it made the show fundamentally different, and so they decided to spend a season undoing that? Quinn hunting down Dexter was great because he's a bit wiser about doing it and has more evidence than Doakes, and so he decides to bump uglies with Deb, leave it to an idiot cop, and then give up? What? Angel and LaGuerta's marraige doesn't work because he's honest and she's political, but they decide to make up and start over? What?
And finally, what if Jordan Chase had given Dexter a simple pat down after he captured him? When was the blonde chick's house cleaned up? I accept the existence of some plot hots (Dexter has never left a hair sample to be found, no one checks the history of Dexter's searches, no one can see him following them), but this season it got ridiculous.
All that said, Lumen was executed fairly well, and the season was generally tense and engaging. It wasn't a totally loss. But hopefully Scott Buck can make a better show next season.