Dearly Devoted

Caught the season finale of Dexter at the weekend, which is only big news to people who

a)     Didn’t watch it when it aired the best part of a year ago in  North America

b)     Are in Britain, but didn’t download/stream it online

c)      Are still watching the show five seasons in

But I’m one of those people, so I’ve only just finished.

All-in-all, it was an OK season. Julia Stiles got mildly less annoying throughout the season (before her annoyance factor cranked itself all the way back up to 11 in the final episode). Johnny Lee Millar was an OK antagonist, but suffered for having to follow in the extraordinary large shoes left by the outstanding John Lithgoe in season four. Quinn continued to annoy me. Angel and Masuka didn’t really do anything. The LaGuerta/Deb feud fizzled out too quickly, but Deb did have some hilarious sweary lines (as always). Dexter is uncomfortably too human now, not nearly as psychopathic as he was in season one. I know that’s character development, but he’s far too emotional now.

Much like Johnny Lee Millar, the whole season suffered from the absence of John Lythgoe. Not only did he make season four the best season since the first, but he added a whole other dimension to the series. Without him, the show feels like it’s missing something.

That said, it’s still good enough that I’ll watch season six.

I just hope FX can pull their fingers out and follow in Sky’s footsteps and air the show without leaving such a huge gap between now and it finishing in the US. I’d never advocate downloading shows illegally, but when there’s such a ridiculous gap between it airing in the States and it airing over here, I can understand why people do it.