The overall conclusion of the fifth season was that it certainly was not as good as some previous "Dexter" highlights, like the very well received second and fourth season. Some people even went as far as saying they absolutely hated it. But as the ratings far from dropped, the show was renewed for a sixth season. A new, more "Dexter"-experienced show-runner (Scott Buck) got appointed, promising interviews were given by the producers and the trailers certainly looked good – needless to say, this caused high expectations for the new "Dexter." And after twelve episodes of the father, the son and the serial killer have been aired once more, I still find myself missing the old days of when I and my television were married when "Dexter" aired. Though, as I have to admit, the new season has a promising ending and is overall a little better than five.
One of the main problems with this season is the overall plot. Once again it is about a serial killer committing a professional kill in Miami in the first episode, once again Dex wants him on his table, once again Dexter succeeds and once again the new killer gets a colourful nickname. It is all starting to follow a formula, which makes it a little too repetitive and predictable. Though this time the season is dipped in a religious sauce, which makes it more distinctive than the empty-feeling fifth season – also the colouring and the lighting of the picture is a lot better than the ugly yellow style they went for in last season.
Anyway, even the killer himself is religious this time, which is why they call him the Doomsday Killer. They are Travis, played by Colin Hanks (yes, the son of Tom), and his companion Professor Gellar (Edward James Olmos) – who turned out to be living in Travis' head the whole time (something many viewers already figured out some time around the third episode, while the 'big reveal' came at the ninth). What bothers me is not that many people already quickly had guessed that Gellar was in Travis' head, it is that Travis lacks real threat because he does not have a real connection with Dexter. If you think back you will conclude that all the bad-guys of the other seasons had some kind of connection to Dexter's private life, which made them a lot more dangerous. The only dangerous thing about the Doomsday Killer is that composer Daniel Licht wrote a suspenseful theme for them. In fact, in the first half of this season, Dexter does not even seems to be really interested in the new killers!
Yes, this makes the first half of the season quite slow, but the first half certainly is the better half of the season. This is mostly because of the character Brother Sam (Mos Def). Mr. Def plays his character in a great way and his religious conversations with Dexter are very interesting and well written. Also, the first half had some great moments where Miami Metro visits Doomsday Killer's crime scenes, which are bloody in a positive way and creatively thought of – they even hearken back to the old days of Dexter. The second half of the season is a little worse. The pace does get a lot higher, but it already starts with the seventh episode "Nebraska". The sixth ended with a brilliant cliffhanger in which the Ice Truck Killer had replaced Harry as Dexter's conscience, something that could be the game changer the show needed. However, at the end of "Nebraska" the Ice Truck Killer disappeared and Harry was back, which made the whole episode completely pointless! And episodes eight to eleven are pretty much more of the same and consist of too explaining writing. Especially Dexter's voice-over. Earlier in the show this was a device for us to let us understand what went through the mind of a serial killer and for some comic relief, now it was merely to explain us things we already understood.
The second half is saved by a nice season finale. The writing is better, it was as if they had time to polish the script again and it ends with a – this time for real – game changing cliffhanger. The start of the episode is fun in which Dexter gets saved by some Spanish people on a boat. In the previous episode had left Dexter for dead in open water. As soon as Dex is back in Miami he spends some nice moments with Harrison until his son is kidnapped by Travis. Of course, Dex comes to rescue, knows how to capture Travis and kills him on his table in Travis' good old church. But then we suddenly realise that Dexter has an unexpected witness near his table... Debra. "Oh god," says Dex fittingly. Well, this certainly makes me want to tune in and watch season seven and it gives me high hopes that the seventh season will be more refreshing and maybe even as good as some of the earlier seasons of Dexter.
My conclusion about the sixth season is that though it is a little better than five I know that this show can still do a lot better. It is a shame they did not go for a more refreshing story but instead safely followed their formula, which overall makes for not a very outstanding season, even being a little predictable. The season will probably be remembered by fans as that mediocre religious season, but mostly it will be remembered by the daring cliffhanger it had, which hopefully brings us a brilliant seventh season next year.
This particular episode gets a 9/10. The season overall, I'd say about a 7.5/10 (and that is not great for Dexter standards in my opinion)
One of the main problems with this season is the overall plot. Once again it is about a serial killer committing a professional kill in Miami in the first episode, once again Dex wants him on his table, once again Dexter succeeds and once again the new killer gets a colourful nickname. It is all starting to follow a formula, which makes it a little too repetitive and predictable. Though this time the season is dipped in a religious sauce, which makes it more distinctive than the empty-feeling fifth season – also the colouring and the lighting of the picture is a lot better than the ugly yellow style they went for in last season.
Anyway, even the killer himself is religious this time, which is why they call him the Doomsday Killer. They are Travis, played by Colin Hanks (yes, the son of Tom), and his companion Professor Gellar (Edward James Olmos) – who turned out to be living in Travis' head the whole time (something many viewers already figured out some time around the third episode, while the 'big reveal' came at the ninth). What bothers me is not that many people already quickly had guessed that Gellar was in Travis' head, it is that Travis lacks real threat because he does not have a real connection with Dexter. If you think back you will conclude that all the bad-guys of the other seasons had some kind of connection to Dexter's private life, which made them a lot more dangerous. The only dangerous thing about the Doomsday Killer is that composer Daniel Licht wrote a suspenseful theme for them. In fact, in the first half of this season, Dexter does not even seems to be really interested in the new killers!
Yes, this makes the first half of the season quite slow, but the first half certainly is the better half of the season. This is mostly because of the character Brother Sam (Mos Def). Mr. Def plays his character in a great way and his religious conversations with Dexter are very interesting and well written. Also, the first half had some great moments where Miami Metro visits Doomsday Killer's crime scenes, which are bloody in a positive way and creatively thought of – they even hearken back to the old days of Dexter. The second half of the season is a little worse. The pace does get a lot higher, but it already starts with the seventh episode "Nebraska". The sixth ended with a brilliant cliffhanger in which the Ice Truck Killer had replaced Harry as Dexter's conscience, something that could be the game changer the show needed. However, at the end of "Nebraska" the Ice Truck Killer disappeared and Harry was back, which made the whole episode completely pointless! And episodes eight to eleven are pretty much more of the same and consist of too explaining writing. Especially Dexter's voice-over. Earlier in the show this was a device for us to let us understand what went through the mind of a serial killer and for some comic relief, now it was merely to explain us things we already understood.
The second half is saved by a nice season finale. The writing is better, it was as if they had time to polish the script again and it ends with a – this time for real – game changing cliffhanger. The start of the episode is fun in which Dexter gets saved by some Spanish people on a boat. In the previous episode had left Dexter for dead in open water. As soon as Dex is back in Miami he spends some nice moments with Harrison until his son is kidnapped by Travis. Of course, Dex comes to rescue, knows how to capture Travis and kills him on his table in Travis' good old church. But then we suddenly realise that Dexter has an unexpected witness near his table... Debra. "Oh god," says Dex fittingly. Well, this certainly makes me want to tune in and watch season seven and it gives me high hopes that the seventh season will be more refreshing and maybe even as good as some of the earlier seasons of Dexter.
My conclusion about the sixth season is that though it is a little better than five I know that this show can still do a lot better. It is a shame they did not go for a more refreshing story but instead safely followed their formula, which overall makes for not a very outstanding season, even being a little predictable. The season will probably be remembered by fans as that mediocre religious season, but mostly it will be remembered by the daring cliffhanger it had, which hopefully brings us a brilliant seventh season next year.
This particular episode gets a 9/10. The season overall, I'd say about a 7.5/10 (and that is not great for Dexter standards in my opinion)