Dexter

Anyone else notice that in the opening credits of Dexter he shaves, eats breakfast and then leaves the house with a face covered in stubble.


How long is he eating for?

The Trans-Atlantic Scheduling Conflict

The other day I was talking about Dexter, and I mentioned the (frankly insane) amount of time that it takes some UK TV channels to show American imports. This was something that was fine in the eighties and nineties, because back then, UK fans didn’t really know what was going on with US television anyway, and regardless, there was no other way for them to watch the show, short of having a friend or relative in America video (yes, how dated is this reference now) the show for them, then air mail it over. Even then, it would only work if you had one of those funky VCRs that played both British and American video tapes.

Then came the internet, to be specific dial up internet, giving us Brits access to amazon.com and playusa.com, where, if you had a multi-regional DVD player, you could buy exorbitantly priced American DVDs of your favourites shows, pay the ridiculous shipping charges, and then be ahead of all of your friends whilst they waited months and months for Channel 4 or the BBC to show episodes that had aired in America up to a year before.

But then came illegal downloading and streaming, which was a game changer for the more forward thinking of TV companies. People were no longer content to be months and months behind their American cousins when it came to their favourite shows, and rather than waiting for TV companies to pull their finger out and air the show, they’d just watch it directly online. Sky found a way around this by showing LOST just days after it was aired in the US, ending with them simulcasting the final episode at the same time that it was shown in America. Now Sky Atlantic airs shows like Game of Thrones and Entourage the day after they’re shown in the states, making downloading them illegally impossible to justify. Paramount has followed suit with South Park, and Sky1 looks to be doing the same with Glee.

Not that I ever would justify it. To make it clear, I’m not condoning people downloading things illegally, I’m saying that I understand why they do it. If they pay for a channel like FX, and FX are showing Dexter in six months, why not just download it now? They would have watched it in six months anyway and they’re still paying for the channel, so in theory there are no losers, right? Wrong. And this is what really annoys me about the channels that are stuck in the nineties when it comes to US scheduling; the more people that watch a show when it’s on television, the better the ratings are, and the better the ratings are, the better the advertising revenue is. The more advertising revenue there is, theoretically, the more that channel can invest in shows. And that’s what I don’t understand about TV schedulers. Love or hate internet streaming/downloading, it’s a fact of modern existence. You can’t just close your eyes and wish it wasn’t there. The quicker they air their US imports, the more viewers that they’ll have, and ergo, the more they can charge for advertising slots.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know anything about the practicalities of scheduling, but surely, even if there’s a greater cost to air a show within a week of it broadcasting in the US, that money can be recouped by increased advertising revenue? Maybe I’m just being too logical about it.

Ultimately though, whilst FX holds the rights to True Blood, Burn Notice and Dexter, UK viewers will remain a season behind their American counterparts. I have no idea what Comedy Central is doing with 30 Rock and The US Office, but their scheduling is so all over the place that perhaps they’ve shown the new series of these but just buried them in a midnight slot. God knows, now they’ve bought the rights to Friends that’s all we can expect from them every evening from 6 until 10. Which is their prerogative. I don’t own Comedy Central or FX, and if their owners think the delay appropriate (or more realistically cost effective), who am I to argue? I’m not a TV executive, and so I’m not qualified to make those decisions. Unfortunately though, whilst they are scheduling in this way, I fear that illegal downloading will only become more prevalent.  And downloading TV shows is a gateway crime, which leads to illegal music and film downloads. And sadly, a lot of it could be avoided by smarter scheduling.

But then again, that’s just my opinion.

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.

Darkly dreaming

The problem with this series of "Dexter" is that it doesn't have John Lithgow. 


Which makes sense as he came to a sticky end in the finale of season 4, but still his character brought a new life to a show that had seriously started flagging in season 3. Having Julia Stiles instead just doesn't have the same punch. 


I've not finished the season yet, so it could still pick up, and to be fair so far it has been better than season 3. Although I'm not sure if I like the direction it's heading in. Chalk it up to intended character development (is Dexter finally devolving) or lazy writing, but Dexter seems to actively be going against his code now, and the code was key to establishing him as a likeable anti-hero. Of course we're going to cheer for the guy who murders child killers. But the code originally dictated that Dexter was only going to kill people who the police knew were guilty but they couldn't put away. Now he seems to be actively stopping the police from arresting the right people so he can kill them himself. I hope this is character development and we're heading in to something special.


Also, if memory serves he killed an innocent person last season - a storyline which seems to be all but forgotten. 


That said, I'm quite enjoying watching the master/apprentice storyline develop...I always said Dexter needed a "Robin". In fact, I never said that, as it somewhat defeats the original concept, however I guess it was a natural evolution from the theme of season 4.


Still loving the Deborah one liners though, the highlight of this season has to be "Shit a brick and fuck me with it". Classy.


Still if I've only learned one thing from this season of Dexter, it's that "Lumin" is a brick shittingly stupid name.