Season 3 does unjustly get lumped in with the good seasons. It was rather dull, and the way the whole "Skinner" story ended was just as stupid as anything that happened in the bad seasons. I'd actually rate Season 5 ahead of it.
It's not great, but I didn't find myself literally laughing at how stupid it was when I was watching it was. It didn't reach cringe levels for me, like the rest of the series did. The only real stupid moments that stuck out for me, was Dexter killing that dude in the gas station stall, and Lumen killing some folks in a warehouse, and Matsuka's explanation as to what went down when he saw one of the dude's wrapped up in plastic. A silly explanation about auto erotic asphyxiation that was used as a reason in the show why Dexter would get away with being caught after a sloppy kill. Like the police department just accepted his ridiculous theory, and didn't investigate any further. Those are the first big stupid moments, where I could tell the quality was slipping.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people call the ending to The Sopranos a copout; it was astonishingly perfect.
No, Dex is a lumberjack.
No, reading between the lines is what is required to understand the brilliance of The Sopranos finale. Meanwhile, the notion that Dexter chose to disappear into obscurity like Batman shows how poorly you read the ending. I thought this was painfully obvious, but it seems that it's escaping quite a few people. Here's the Micknotes:
Dexter isn't alive. He didn't survive the storm and escape to some remote town in Maine. He died in the storm. This final scene is purely metaphorical. Why is he a lumberjack? Think about it. What do lumberjacks use? Chainsaws. It's a metaphor signifying that he never escaped the cycle of blood; he is forever doomed to wield the implement of his making.
The morality tale is that violence yields violence, and even if sometimes it seemed that Dexter offered a measure of justice where the system failed, ultimately, the show is a meditation on why vigilantism is self-defeating. Justice is something that can only truly be achieved in a social dimension; murder outside of this dimension isn't truly justice, and is therein a canker that spreads and corrupts the life of the one who wields it no matter the intent. Any objection to this is firmly contradicted by the events of the show: Rita is murdered in front of Dexter's own son (repeating the cycle), Deb is morally and spiritually compromised, numerous innocents close to Dexter suffer or die, and The Code deteriorates completely to the point that Dexter isn't just getting his own co-workers killed who pursue these murderers, but he ventures to kill one himself (not to mention the dozens he killed who didn't fit it).
That shot of him in the cabin is of Dexter in his own personal purgatory. He never defeated this cycle; he merely perpetuated it. He is doomed to live inside of it.
That was the correct interpretation of the show's entire meaning and Dexter's character, finally (it seemed they forgot it for 4 seasons). The reason it was awful was that it was pulled off so clumsily, and everything leading up to it contradicted it. It completely defeated the purpose of his self-actualization by not killing Oliver. It was sloppy, confused, and unearned. That's all apart from the fact that this entire last season was mostly filler with no ideas or purpose. I've already enumerated those problems.
As bad as the finale season of GOT was....it does not sniff the joke of a final season that Dexter gave us. It fell off greatly after the masterpiece that was the Trinity killer season don't get me wrong but 5-7 were at least bearable for the most part. His sister falling in love with him, him giving his child to a serial killer, the entire miami PD being completely oblivious, etc was just sloppy sloppy sloppy.
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