The Moth Chase

Dear Natalie,

You know how you bitch and moan about something – like, say, an intensive training class you have to take at work or a really sucky season of Dexter – and then when it is over you actually feel a mellow glow of kindness to the whole experience and linger a little too long at the goodbye cookies and punch? You know it is all nostalgia and retrospect and some cheap sentimental ploy by the speaker, mixed with the euphoria of being done with whatever you were stuck doing, but you can’t quite help it. That is how I feel about the finale to Dexter. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey Kathryn,

Sigh. This is all so disappointing. I was trying to explain how awful this season is to my sister (who tried to quit watching before Trinity and definitively quit after Trinity because the show had gotten so dumb) the other day, and she pointed out that much of what I’m describing as frustrating has been going on for a long time; I’m only just noticing it now. And I had to wonder if she was right.

I don’t know why I’ve always forgiven the outlandish storylines that rely on impossible events and Dexter getting away with things he could never get away with (really, Homeland Security didn’t trace his wormwood tip call?!). I think it’s a combination of the fact that there’s always been enough action and suspense to keep me engaged and the acting has always been so superb that I forgive the clunky writing, even convincing myself that this clunkiness is part of its charm. But with the utter lack of suspense this season (not only with the “is Gellar real?” crapstorm, but also with the total letdown in any and all suspenseful action sequences Read the rest of this entry »

Well, dear readers, it is confession time. Natalie and I both watched this episode much earlier in the day. I even watched it as it aired last night. But as we just discovered via disheartening emails to each other, neither one of us could come up with much to say. So I suppose that is something to say in itself.

In the interest of disciplined procrastanalysis I suppose I should say more than “ugh, how boring and predictable” even though that is pretty much all I felt. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, Natalie, my hunch was right, but I can’t say I am as pleased as I thought I’d be to see it so. I was worried that they’d drag out the “is he or isn’t he real” game for another episode or two, and in that regard I am glad to know once and for all where things stand with Gellar. That said, I kept hoping I might be wrong. Once the idea got in my head it started to seem so obvious, and then when only Travis sees Gellar outside the college and Dexter gets stuck in the elevator (and is freed by an ax-wielding Travis – good weapon to cut off a hand) for just long enough for the next victim to disappear it all seemed a bit embarrassing. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Kathryn,

Ok, this is starting to feel too much like watching The Sixth Sense knowing Bruce Willis is dead (sorry if you haven’t seen it!). But once the idea is in your head, there’s really no ambiguity about it, and the show becomes kinda silly to watch. I guess I thought we would get the reveal on Gellar=Travis’ Dark Passenger this episode, what with all the super obvious things they were doing (really Dexter, you think a portly old guy can fit through a tiny second story window and run away before you see him??). So it feels like we have two options: either Gellar is fake, but the writers didn’t think everyone would figure it out and we’re working our way towards some awkward big reveal of nothing, or Gellar is real and all these hints are going to seem really cheap. Either way, I’m starting to get a bit bored with the fake-outs! More interesting to me now, though, is the question of whether Travis is really interacting Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Natalie,

Well, I can’t wait to hear what you thought of last night. I have to imagine you are a little disappointed. All the promise that Brother Brian was going to send us back into Dexter-nihilism, or at least give us a few episode arc where Dexter goes off the rails… and it all turns out to be an aberration, a momentary departure from the Code. Worse still, the road trip, the spontaneous sex, the spontaneous kill were all part of a moral/spiritual lesson building on the motif of the season. Darkness, Dex muses before he picks up a hitch-hiking Harry, cannot exist without the light.  Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Natalie,

I’m sorry that I never got around to posting on last week’s episode. I was traveling, as you know, and was only just able to catch up on both last week and last night this morning. But the two episodes fit well together and maybe I can respond to your great post from last week a little bit in what follows. This episode took Dexter’s musings on light and darkness out of the hypothetical. Brother Sam’s shooting leaves Dexter feeling overwhelmed and helpless, and also murderously angry. I loved the scene between Dexter and Harry when Dexter realizes that he cares of Brother Sam. “Care” is a term Dexter has come to accept as part of his world, even love, but only when he can see the clear lines of relationship. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Kathryn,

In the past few weeks, we’ve complained some about the heavy handed ways the show is unpacking its religious symbols. Between my own scrambling to remember the various scenes from Revelation and Quinn’s hilarious, drunken, bemused confusion at a student plagiarizing C.S. Lewis (“Who!?” his eyes bluffed), I began to wonder something: have we actually been somewhat unfair in thinking a general populace should be able to recognize these symbols? If the show wants to play with religious imagery, do we live in a culture that can actually recognize that imagery anymore? I’m not quite sure we do. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Natalie,

I’m really liking this season of Dexter! Somehow the pace of the episodes seems a bit slower, but in a good way. I feel like we get more time to watch Dex and other characters develop instead of just racing through multiple interwoven plots. That is not to say that there isn’t plenty of action. Last night’s episode was pretty packed. We start with a baptismal scene. As Brother Sam later tells Dexter, the ritual really isn’t about the dunking in water or even about the belief in a brand new start. It is about surrender. Surrender to something greater than yourself. This becomes a theme of the episode – what do our characters believe in? What are they willing to surrender themselves to? Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Natalie,

This was one of those weeks on Dexter where I felt like I could have been surfing the internet while I watched. I like these episodes – a little slow, mostly about the characters small developments, relationships, etc. – but they don’t really grab me. My favorite part was probably watching Deb try to figure out what it meant to wield her new power. We’ve heard rumors that LaGuerta was a good cop before she took a desk job and got embroiled in politics, but we never got to see that transition. I think it could be fun to watch Deb figure out if being Lieutenant really is just about putting a blazer on over her old clothes. Her show down with Mike Anderson made it clear that Deb’s straight-talking, take-no-prisoners style will survive the transition and might just be what saves her. Read the rest of this entry »