Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Season Finales: Dexter and Homeland

Sunday night Showtime
Had two season finales
"Oh God," but no Boom

Oh Dexer. It hurts me to write that I give this season a mighty thumbs down. I feel bad blaming Colin Hanks, so instead I'll blame the person who cast him in the role of DDK [Dooms Day Killer not Daniel Dae Kim]. His mad face just wasn't mad enough in my opinion.

This baby did it better.

The finale was a mesh of odd things. Dexter is saved by a boat of people immigrating illegally. He kills a guy trying to rob everyone on the boat. He exits the water and immediately asks someone to borrow their phone? Wouldn't they be calling the cops on the group of people who just emerged from the water? The cops find the house of the couple who Travis/DDK killed, but didn't go in because they were waiting for....the blood splatter analyst? What? Oh yeah - there's a giant painting of Dexter on the wall so of course they couldn't stumble upon that. Sigh.

Well isn't that convenient. 

I did love that Dexter's killing clothes also happened to be his Papa Lion outfit. "I guess I'll wear a brown henley."  Why isn't that what Travis changed into when he ransacked Dexter's closet? I'd think that's all Dexter has in there. Harrison was so adorable until they put on the scary lion masks. His wave to Jamie made me really happy. I think I waved back.

Deb tells Dexter she loves him. He tells her, "I love you" back. He's not wearing a shirt (second best moment of the night). She excitedly tells her therapist/incestuous feelings coach that she told him she loved him, he returned the sentiment, but that he didnt realize she meant in love with him. Tiny victories!

Bautista tells Quinn he's having him transferred cause he's a bum. Quinn finds out from the union that as long as he seeks help, he can't be transferred. Homicide is his life, yo. I hope this lame storyline and Quinn finding him love of detective work again ties into next season, cause if not I'll be even more annoyed. What a waste. On the roof, there was a long close up of Quinn and I thought, "I hope DDK kills him!" But alas, that didn't happen.

Speaking of people who did nothing: What was the point of Anderson this season? Poor guy. He was supposed to be this amazing detective and he really didn't do much. Another waste.

So at the climax of the episode, Dexter is talking way too much ("I'm a father. A son. A serial killer!" bwahaha - dumb) as he has Travis saran wrapped down on the altar of the church. In walks Deb. She watches as Dexter takes that final stab to the heart he loves so much. "Oops."  "Oh God." Dexter says as he sees her. Fade to black and now we have to wait.

I am very much so looking forward to next season. Usually they leave things with a good solid end but this time we're left with three hanging chads: 1) Deb loves Dexter in a dirty way, 2) Deb gets to deal with the realization that her new love/non-biological brother, Dexter, is a perfect blend of all her exes: A serial killer who works with the police, and 3) There's a hand just hanging out on Dexter's fridge waiting to be discovered.

I also think little baby Harrison is adorable. I hope he's dressed as the lion all next season.

I think it will be a good season.

Homeland on the other hand was a show I did not want to get invested in. I know this is a terrible reason for wanting to avoid it, but I think both Claire Danes and Damian Lewis have weird mouths. Yes, my mouth is probably weirder than both of theirs but still, I try to find ridiculous reasons to not add new shows (and hang on to dumb things like Gossip Girl [I love you Gossip Girl xoxo]). I ended up catching up on Homeland via Showtime's amazing on demand (they have EVERYTHING on there!). I instantly got hooked on the drama of the show. I freaked out with Carrie intentionally bumped into Brody. Freaked out more when she busted herself by inadvertently revealing she'd been watching him by announcing she didn't have his specific tea after their night at her cabin. I freaked out when she went full on non-medicated and started looking like an extra from The Walking Dead. I was very excited for last night's finale. When I saw the preview that led viewers to believe that Brody was gonna go ka-blooey, I knew there had to be more.

Hey! I looked like a zombie too!

What happened was a super intense hour with Carrie off her rocker and Brody coming to the point of trying to kill everyone (and in his mind it was revenge for the killing of 83 innocent children). Things didn't work out for Brody - faulty electronics, and a heart wrenching call from his daughter, Dana - but his plan has become larger in scope now that he's running for office. "Why kill a man when you can kill an idea?" he asked Nazir. My response was cause that would have been the non-safe route for the tv show to take. I did like that they had Carrie undergo shock treatment. I thought that was ballsy. It will be interesting to see how they continue her story. Will she wake up as Temple Grandin? Probably not. I thought Claire Danes did an excellent job in her scene when she explained that this was her option now. She knew she needed this, and was defeated in that knowledge. It was sad.



So, what did you think of Showtime's night of finales?

3 comments:

  1. -I think the problem with Travis is that he is not quite man enough to have a man mean face and not quite baby enough to have a baby mean face. He's like middle school awkward mean face.
    -Travis SO should have put on a henley, not some random Banana Republic button-down that every third person owns.
    -Deb being in love with Dexter is not okay. Not. Okay. Do you hear me writers????
    -I really thought someone (DDK, Louis, SOMEONE) was going to try to kill Jamie and then Quinn would heroically save her, winning over Batista. That would have been much more excited than, "Hey, I'm going to AA so you can't transfer me."
    -Anderson: Ugh. Why just have him hang around? Boring. I first thought he was going to be a love interest for Deb. They he played the wife card. Then I thought may he'd just be a strong, supportive male influence in her life. Nope. He's just blah.
    -That father-son-serial-killer line was HORRIBLE. And then after the show concluded, the teased the next season with that line. Really? Really?! Lame.
    -But I have to say, if that whole thumbs-down season got us to the last 3-second "Oh God" moment, I think it was probably worth it. Some shows have set-up episodes, I think this was a set-up season. Or at least I hope it was!
    -I still don't know WTF is up with the hand.

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  2. I am firmly opposed to you adding Homeland to your list of shows for no other reason than the sake of your sanity. Also, because there was already a show on tv like that. It was called 24 but I guess tv execs weren't satisfied with Jack Bauer's endless barrage of "dammits" and wanted a juicier curse word that only cable tv allows. So I guess we have to endure yet another "only foreigners are terrorists" show.

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  3. This one the american is the terrorist. SPOILER!

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