Dexter: Why it's good when it's good, and why it's just okay when it's not.

** SPOILER ALERT: If you place a rear spoiler on a Chevy Cavalier by choice, you're probably an idiot **

** SPOILER ALERT II: While I'll mostly be taking broad strokes & speaking generally in this post, the way I'm about to write will probably tell you more about Dexter S07E01 than you'd like to know, and definitely more about some preceding seasons. I'd recommend that you watch it before you read this, or at least be warned that here be dragons **

So, Dexter came back last night for its seventh season. While Breaking Bad is on its way to a blazing crescendo, while Boardwalk Empire is coolly getting more intense and convoluted by the episode, while Mad Men continues to slowly (but ultra-interestingly) pace itself towards an ending that'll rival The Sopranos for how little is actually resolved, and while The Walking Dead continues to be about killing fucking zombies, Dexter has kind of become that forgotten TV show child to me that just hasn't been the best thing on TV anymore for a while now.

I mean, sure. The framework near the end of season 6 has this season set up for things to get real. Again.
And again, to the show's credit, even at its lowest point and most infuriating cop-out (Deb: I'MA LET YOU FINISH. STAY BEHIND THAT SHEET WHILE I LEAVE), or its most predictable trope (Hands up those of you who hadn't figured out that Edward James Olmos plot twist by episode 3 or 4?), the show has never been badly written or poorly executed. But with some of the moments that preceded, and with some of its contemporaries, Dexter has just felt weaker than it used to. It lacked oomph. Even during the suspenseful closing moments of season 6, it was less of an "awwwwwwww shit!" and more of an "oh... shit."

Not so in season 7.

I'll be honest, twenty minutes in I was ready to give up. They made it too easy yet again, almost like the thirteen & a half pointless red herrings that killed The Killing, or the anti-shark repellent that Adam West's Batman used to carry. Deus ex machina again, ho hum. However, I was thankful at how mad the writers made me, because the final scene of the episode had the hair standing up on the back of my neck in a way that even the best dramas can only pull off once or twice a season. I've been saying for weeks that the scene at the end of S05E07 of Breaking Bad is possibly my favorite ever in a show, and that instantly came to mind after finishing this latest of Dexter: in a short scene, the writers have created a sudden & chilling overarching plot shift that at once changes the direction of the show while confirming the traits of the characters that you have come to know and love. Needless to say, to pull that off with a premiere leaves me excited for what's to come.

Then I got to thinking.

I think the problem I've had with the show in recent seasons, and sometimes even in season 3, is that the whole thing is episodic rather than overarching. You could chop pretty much the entirety of season 5, and tell viewers what they need to know with a minute or two scrolling text at the beginning of season 6. There are brief moments of character development, but Lumen has by and large stayed forgotten and Dexter is dealing with Rita's death & single fatherhood in exactly the ways you'd expect after getting to know this character for four seasons. Even season 6, with Deb's promotion, its strange intern, its cliffhanger ending, and its growth of some characters isn't entirely canon. It gets a lot of points for tackling religion and having some really jarring FX & imagery, but still not all that much happened that couldn't be told in a short comic book or in an internet miniseries. Going back to Jimmy Smits in season 3, things there often felt like fluff, and the whole thing was wrapped in a neat little package without characters growing enough between seasons 2 and 4 that they'd be unrecognizable if the whole thing was skipped.

So then, look at the other seasons: in season 1 you meet all the characters & things are really wild the whole time. In season 2, there is a major character death, and the serial killer/person of interest is someone who'll live throughout the show's run (presumably). In season 4, another major character death along with a ton of growth in pretty much every character. These seasons do still tell an episodic story, but they shake up the overarching plot in a way that can't be glossed over, while S3/S5 (and to a lesser extent, S6) are like short spin-off stories of what's happening in Miami in between all these serious events. Again: good TV, but not TV you can't miss.

Season 7 of Dexter has already elevated itself well past the point where you could skip it and not miss much, and it's got me excited again about a show that I've only half cared about since 2009. If it can keep up this momentum for however many episodes/seasons remain and find itself a fitting ending, it'll leave as a can't-miss masterpiece like The Wire, instead of fizzling into mediocrity and having to hire Laurence Fishburne to try and maintain its once enrapt audience.

PS: I was trying to find somewhere to say this in the above, but it sounded better as an afterthought. For reference, here are my favorite seasons of Dexter in descending order: 4 / 1 / 2 / 6 / 3 / 5.