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Facing the monster football game on NBC, the finale of Dexter on Showtime drew 2.50 million viewers for the 9 PM telecast. That was down a fraction from last season’s finale (2.57 million), which at the time became the most-watched episode of an original series in Showtime’s history, and up 11% from last week (2.26 million). The series, which was recently renewed for a sixths season, hit a season high two weeks ago with a 2.54 million. Including the 11 PM replay, Dexter averaged 2.9 million viewers last night vs. 3.1 million last year. Overall, Season 5 will rank as the highest-rated season of Dexter to date, averaging more than 5 million viewers per week on TV and on-demand. (Word of caution for those who haven’t seen the finale yet: some comments contain spoilers.)
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I really, really adore this show. One of the best out there, but I think this season proved they’re running out of steam. Too bad it will be dragged out until the bitter end. They should’ve ended with last year’s season…
Completely disagree. Thought this season was better than the last and know I’m not alone in that opinion. It wasn’t perfect and was a little padded in the middle, but was a highly entertaining season.
Sorry, but you are alone in that opinion. Season four will go down as one of the best in TV history.
He is not alone in that opinion, so don’t assume you are right just because you think you are. I actually know someone who did not like last season. I think they were both great seasons.
Season four sucked.
Totally disagree with Annie the show has alot more to offer and as the viewing figures suggest people still are interested on what Dexter Morgan does next – Johnny Lee Miller was delicious as the baddie this season and Julia Stiles as the Victim turned vigilante was beliveable and turned out her best acting to date, bring on the next season…
Agreed. Big fan here but felt like the writing didn’t really “care” so much about the crafting of the big ending of dex almost getting caught. a dirty plastic sheet, really? there were a whole bunch of ways it could have gone here all with basically the same result. it just felt a bit uninspired as compared to other dex finales.
my favorite show and the season was great until the disappointing finale. everything was tied up with a neat little bow. there was an opportunity to really shift the paradigm. instead, quinn gets off, deb doesn’t find anything out, julia stiles leaves… all the complications just go away and we hit the reset button going into season 6. i didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. i felt jobbed by lazy writing. no drama. no cliffhanger where i beg for season 6 to begin. we’re 5 seasons in. shake things up. smartest move breaking bad did to stay relevant was inform the wife in season 3 premiere that cranston makes meth. dexter should have done the same.
I disagree with the neat little bow. Did you listen to the comments between Dexter and Quinn and Dexter and his sister at the party? And then his voice over as they blew out the candle. Some serious ****. Plus in the interview with Stiles she is talking about the character going forward not in the past tense. Door still open for her?? There is a ton of drama still there. I think you need to rewatch that scene.
IMHO – still as fresh as day one. Bring on season 6.
very dissapointing….there is now way quinn doesnt know that dex killed liddy and no way deb would not break thru that plastic to make a big bust….all of a sudden everyone is blinded by love…bad angle..dexter is in love…quinn is in love…deb is in love…la guerta is in love….well i didnt love anything about it…quinn shoulda fessed up and pointed the needle at dex…too perfect for my liking..
unsolved cases….ritas death…trinity whereabouts…kyle butler…the involved men in the barrel girls case…who killed liddy….this department is filled with unsolved crimes and cases…you have got to be kidding me…people just dont go missing and never get blamed…there is always a suspect…
Dexter is the best show on TV. This season has not only been suspenseful, but very moving, emotionally, as well.
And it has turned into an actor’s showcase, thanks to Michael C. Hall. Jennifer Carpenter and guest stars Jimmy Smits, John Lithgow, Julia Stiles– to me, they’ve done their best work on Dexter.
Would’ve been a much better finale if LaGuerta and Angel were both killed. They turn every scene they are in into a pile a steaming shit.
Thought this season was good. FInale was weak and tough to believe for reasons mentioned above me.
Gotta agree with most of the preceding comments. The writing lost it’s authenticity and cleverness this year. Too many plot holes and preposterous situations to mention. Come back, Clyde, come back.
For all those who responded that this seasons finale was not up to par.
This finale was written before the show was green lit for a sixth season. like good writers they leave it off as if it could have been the final episode. I was disappointed in this episode only because deb does not find out that dexter is who he is. That scene where she finds him is supposed to support debs feelings towards the vigilantes, if you actually pay attention to the show she hints that she is okay with these particular vigilantes. This scene made it so that in the future if deb finds out, she will also accept dexter for who he is. An the reason quinn wouldnt point the finger at dexter is because all the evidence was directly pointed at him and him proving that liddey was murdered by dexter would be not easy, look at doakes…….
I just can’t believe that they didn’t pay off the scene of Deb finding Dexter … take the show in a new direction, maybe they work together as two brilliant detectives going forward, who knows. But at some point, someone close to Dexter has to figure him out, right?…right?
agree 100% they had their shot to end with a monster finale, that would’ve had everyone talking about til next season, really challenge the creators of the show to come up w/ a whole new game plan… but instead, they wuss’d out.
Dexter is in a tailspin. Out of control. Storytelling worse than any broadcast network show. Giving the audience no credit for their investment in these characters. So much was asked of us, the audience, and we delivered great numbers. Dexter should have delivered as well. What a horrible disappointment the whole season was. What a banal, trite and worthless endeavor the finale was.
Count me out.
I wish you would have counted yourself out nine sentences ago. That would have saved me from reading your whiny post.
Yes, this was kind of a so, so season. Started off okay, lagged in the middle, and finished relatively strong but one of the more weaker seasons. No way they were going to top S4.
My theory (and desire) is to see the last season with not only Deb finding Dexter out but the entire team. But the twist would be that Dexter doesn’t know. So, they are working this new serial killer case and they figure out that Dexter has been hunting and killing the killers before the cops can get to them. So Deb proposes that they just watch Dexter’s moves to see if they lead to the killer. But then eventually Dex would find out that they know; but wouldn’t let on that he knows. I know, twisted but that’s where it’s headed. And they can’t arrest him because they would look like fools to the Chief if he knew that they had a serial killer under their noses for all this time. So, the ending; let Dexter just keep doing his thing.
I love DEXTER , I think it is the best show on tv !!! I think the finale was great but i was pissed that Lumen left DEXTER !! Hasn’t he been through enough ??? I cannot wait for season 6 , sundays will not be the same without my DEXTER fix !! BEST SHOW ON TV!!!! miss u DEX !!!!!!!!
if anyone is familiar with the books….they are amazing btw..
the show was the first place i heard of dexter and because of the shows edge i was inspired to take a look at the books…they are very very good…and in the books it is said that deb knows…as well as astor and cody as well….this man cannot continue to do this alone…he needs people in his life to talk to other than his dead father…and also…what the hell was the point of the killings this season with the beheadings with the one gang at the night club and all…this seemed as if it was going somewhere and it never did…just ended…in past years it would have tied in nicely…poor poor writing…i need better…we all deserve better…if clyde is the answer as i read above…please bring him back…i beg you…
The beheadings were a brief sub-plot that served three important purposes:
1) Deb shot someone who deserved it and was surprised that she felt so little regret/emotion.
2) Deb got “disciplined” and sent to the file room where she took a second look at the ‘barrel girls’ case.
3) Introduced tension between LaGuerta and Angel which helped re-open the ‘barrel girls’ case.
Wow the people saying they thought this season was terrific are very easily pleased. The ‘lowest common denominator’ is really who this last season appealed to and maybe people who just love the character so much they simply don’t care.
Last season was great but it was continuing a trend in the show where Dexter continues to change into a ‘dumber’ version of the character which was introduced in seasons 1 and 2. The situations, solutions, and dialogue is becoming more ridiculous and forced. The show was so strong because despite it’s ridiculous premise the character felt strong and real.
Basically the character’s behaviour is changing so he makes more dumb decisions and mistakes as the people around him become more inept as time goes. Its almost becoming a parody of the show it started as.
After the fourth season I was hoping season 5 would be that last because the show is running out of a natural direction and stretching out the discovery by his coworkers as long as possible. It’s ridiculous that this wasn’t the season where that took place. Oh well…
Love the character and ultimately the show (despite the bitching) but this last season was weaker than season 3 and it feels like they are continuing just to have more Dexter and not because they have strong captivating ideas about where to go. Season 6 – I’ll be watching.
They COULD HAVE hit a home run w/ this season finale… but they settled for a base hit. I was disappointed. THey had the perfect ending right there, and they wuss’d out on it.
This season wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t terrific. It seemed like it was just suffering a massive hangover from the last season.
Also, is it just me, or is anyone else bugged by how often/how ingenuinely Dexter’s sister says the word “F**K”? It’s just funny because it seems like the writers pepper it into her dialogue to make her seem edgy/more one of the guys, but it just sounds ridiculous whenever she says it. It’s like listening to a female sports commentator – you hear what they’re saying but you’re not really buying it.
Dexter had a terrific first two seasons (it won a Peabody its second season), a who-cares third season, an intermittently terrific fourth season, and now its first disappointing season. To understand why, you’d have to go inside the show.
Showrunner Clyde Phillip’s greatest talent was hiring writers under him and giving them the creative reigns (Phillips wrote one episode a season and tapped his senior writing producers to rewrite staff scripts when necessary). That writer the first two years was Daniel Cerone, now on The Mentalist, who Showtime bumped to EP and co-showrunner for the second year of Dexter to reflect his contributions the first season. Cerone wrote the premiere of season two and the finales of seasons one and two, among other episodes.
That writer the subsequent two years was Melissa Rosenberg, now writing the Twilight movies, who was also bumped to EP, based on her contributions, and took over rewriting services for Cerone during the 3rd and 4th year. I have no idea but I wouldn’t be surprised if Phillips left in the 5th year because those two writers had moved on.
Chip Johannessen, the current showrunner and a good writer, stepped in this year under impossible circumstances. Clearly they tried to reinvent the show to a certain extent — more self-contained storytelling, no season-long uber villain, no build to a climactic finale, etc — and it just wasn’t the same show. With Bob Greenblatt now departed Showtime, hopefully next year the network will allow the writers to let someone in on Dexter’s secret, which has been the writers’ desire for a couple seasons now, and that could buy one or two more terrific seasons of Dexter.
bucky…good point on the beheadings….
they were pretty important i suppose…guess i didnt like how they went about it though…in the book the approach is focused on the hunt of the killers of the beheading and dexters little need to catch bad people…but i understand what you said…i take it back..
would have still been better for deb to find dex out after killing someone herself and feeling compassion for the vigilantes…it was set up perfect and show time and writers just missed…was pretty bad…
I love the show. I was hesitant to watch it at first because it seemed so cliche. I am glad I did. I was hooked from season one. I think season four is the best thus far. I love Dexter’s character; he plays the role perfectly. I agree with some post that season five was not as good as season four, but it was still good. I don’t know if they will be able to top that. I think the way season five ended hints that it will only get better. The way he looks at the camera when he blows out the candle does it for me. I will be subscribing ot Showtime just to watch season six.In every season someone discovers who Dexter really is and they end up dead. I am so looking forward to season six. I do think that eventually they will run out of ideas and the show will have to end. I am hopeful that the writers will come back with something even more creative next season.