Dexter (Season 6)

Given how much I ended up enjoying Season 5, I was pretty excited to start Season 6. Who knows? Maybe I'd end up liking it too? I didn't like it. As a matter of fact, Season 6 lost me in the first episode.

Season 6 starts by completely reseting the status quo after the events of Season 5. Batista and LaGuerta broke up off-screen, Dexter suddenly got a new babysitter, and Dexter faking bloodwork to exonerate Quinn wasn't mentioned at all. Still, maybe a fresh slate isn't all a bad thing. Season 6 does feel like it goes back-to-basics in a lot of ways, mostly focusing around Dexter trying to stop a serial killer with a gimmick. This time, the killer is called The Doomsday Killer, a religious fanatic whose kills resemble religious symbolism. I'll admit that his kills all look genuinely creative, but the actual character kinda falls flat. He lacks a personal connection to Dexter like the Ice Cream Truck and Trinity Killers, and a big twist around the guy was so painfully obvious that it made Dexter look like an idiot for not noticing it. Dexter's central character arc about understanding spirituality was also incredibly dull and clumsily-delivered as well, lacking the same urgency of those arcs about his double life. The whole season is packed with religious symbolism and themes, and while maybe it's just me being a biased atheist, it all just bored me half to death. Maybe the season could have done something interesting with how criminals and murderers can use their faith in an attempt to justify their actions, but all we got was Religious Themes 101 painstakingly laid out for the viewer in Dexter's more-hamfisted-than-usual narration.

Was there any good in this season, though? Yeah, actually. Debra was easily one of the stronger points in Season 6, at least at first. I really liked the concept of her becoming lieutenant and having to deal with being in charge. Unfortunately, her whole therapy subplot in the second half of the season wasn't great, especially when it caused her to believe she had feelings for Dexter, her own brother. Who thought this was a good idea?! Right, positives. I also enjoyed the friend Dexter makes for the first half of the season, Brother Sam, at least to a degree. Their conversations about religion were fairly repetitive, but Mos Def's performance was charming and his chemistry with Dexter was natural enough to keep me somewhat engaged during their scenes together. I liked the Ghost Brian stuff, that was a pretty cool idea that was very underutilized. But outside of that, the only thing that I really loved from this season was Debra finally catching Dexter in the act in the finale. It's a great twist, though I feel like it would have been better at the end of Season 5. Any excuse to skip the rest of this otherwise very lackluster season.

Still, as much as I disliked this season, there were two solid episodes here:

Nebraska: Why wasn't the whole season like this?! I've been wanting Dexter to "evolve" since the end of Season 2, and him having Brian Moser as his Dark Passenger was the perfect way to do that! Imagine a entire season where "Brian" slowly convinces Dexter to leave his father's code, be more ruthless with his kills, and embrace that darkness he waxes poetic about so much. Essentially a dark buddy film between Dexter and his imaginary brother, Nebraska was easily the highlight of the season, and felt like a taste of what could've been. The relation it has to the Trinity Killer definitely helped, even if it ends up reminding me of several better seasons of Dexter.

This Is The Way The World Ends: As an end to the main seasonal arc, this was as bad of an episode as anything else this season. Maybe even worse if you add in the continuation of Debra's incest storyline. As a finale and a set-up for next season, however, it actually works really well. Louis wanting a job at Miami Metro, Batista threatening to transfer Quinn, and of course, Debra catching Dexter in the middle of a kill all makes for fantastic hooks for Season 7, and easily the cliffhangeriest finale of Dexter yet.

Overall, Season 6 was Dexter was my least favorite season of the show by a mile, at least so far. It has its rare good moments, but most of Season 6 is bogged down by a weak villain, predictable twist, uninteresting character arc for Dexter, dull and confused religious theming, and whatever the hell the Debra incest subplot is. It's not obviously or hilariously bad, but Season 6 of Dexter was just a bore throughout, and maybe that's even worse.

1/5 Stars