I really wanted to be proven wrong, but when I noticed the political feats of the first episode, I was worried about this series’ trajectory. I thought politics would get in the way of competent writing as it so often does these days, and it seems as though it was indirectly linked to its downfall.
After seeing the diversity checklist in the first episode (gay couple, amputee,I really wanted to be proven wrong, but when I noticed the political feats of the first episode, I was worried about this series’ trajectory. I thought politics would get in the way of competent writing as it so often does these days, and it seems as though it was indirectly linked to its downfall.
After seeing the diversity checklist in the first episode (gay couple, amputee, indigenous female chief, competent black officer, moronic white male, climate change, anti-billionaire/capitalism), I figured it was just the virtue signaling that every terrible writer nowadays likes to throw in for pandering, and that it would all be overcome by a decent series. I truly hoped that it would not get worse, but I cannot help but think that it is the reason why the writing went the way it did.
The characters are awful, and the actors are all pretty disappointing. Angela, has almost no flaws outside of being a mediocre adoptive mother, Audrey and Harrison are stereotypical angsty teens with limited emotional range, Logan, again is flawless, Mr. Krabs (Kurt Caldwell) is very dull and wooden, and Molly Park is just incredibly annoying and sums up every leftist influencer stereotype you can think of. None of these characters are particularly interesting, which is why it is sad to see them get more screen time than Dexter does.
The subplot for Audrey and Harrison (melodramatic school issues) is entirely useless, it does not do anything for the actual plot, so why is it even included? Angela’s history again, is entirely irrelevant, it connects for one episode and doesn’t really mean much because you can predict what happens ahead of time. As for Kurt, not too interesting as an antagonist I must say, he’s no Ice Truck Killer, or Trinity, he’s just a generic bad guy to oppose Dexter. None of these subplots add anything to the show and they are the reason for the boredom of filler in the middle episodes.
In the original series, almost every episode (if not advancing the main plot) was either a different potential target for Dexter which usually had a good backstory, or was about the personal/professional lives of the surrounding characters that linked back to the main plot. In New Blood, none of the side stories have anything to do with the plot or have any meaningful exposition to enrich the characters, it just felt like filler.
Now, the reason I mention that politics would potentially ruin the show is because of how the story would have to be manipulated to cast certain characters in a better light. Starting off, every evil or incompetent character in this show is a white male, not surprising for this day and age, but it makes things more predictable.
Angela, who they remind you is of indigenous descent and a single-mother, is absolutely impeccable, she was able to piece together so many vague clues with zero context to put together the whole picture of Dexter’s past, partly because he has suddenly become incompetent in his “trade” he has applied for decades, and made several mistakes, which is way off character, and I honestly think partly because she is a token female minority character in a day and age where they are the best at everything. You can hate my politics all you want, but it just seems really convenient that all of this evidence, including Molly’s monologues on the BHB, seem to get pieced together so easily. Especially when Dexter is so good at covering his tracks and having the foresight to prevent these types of issues, and so Dexter had to be toned down.
The problem with that is you have to literally emasculate and dumb-down the beloved title character to make all of this seem possible and plausible. The Dexter in this show, is not the same Dexter from the original series. This version is boring, weak, and watered down. The version everybody wanted to see was the cold, calculated, dark-humored, intellectual sociopath of old. It made sense that he was “dull” in the first episode, but this a guy who has fooled family, friends, colleagues, and specialized investigators for well over 2 decades, and has fooled this current group for over 2 years. It’s just a shame what they did to him, and how this whole plot played out.
+ Wanted to put Michael C Hall here, but even he doesn’t look like he is enjoying this
- Terrible writing
- Terrible acting
- Terrible casting
- Terrible ending
- Boring antagonist
- Annoying characters
- Horrendously slow pacing
- Ruined Dexter as a character
- Incredibly predictable
- Too many inconsistencies
- Harrison’s entire arc is truly irrelevant
My score is a zero, they ruined Dexter, end of story.… Expand
Dexter: New BloodYour Score0 out of 10User Score
