Serial killer drama Dexter was notorious for a distinctly variable quality from one season to the next, and most viewers agree that the eighth and final one was the worst overall, with the finale on the receiving end of much of the fans’ ire. Now, series star Michael C. Hall has conceded that the vocal criticisms were valid, though has said that he thinks it was “justifiable” for his character to do what he did.
Titled “Remember the Monsters?”, the final episode sees Dexter’s life fall apart in an irrecoverable fashion, prompting him to leave his young son in the care of his psychopath girlfriend Hannah, who fled to Argentina, and fake his death by sailing his boat into a hurricane, with it being revealed that he survived and was living in rural seclusion as a lumberjack. Needless to reiterate, fans were not impressed by the denouement, and Hall has conceded they might have had a point.
“A criticism that speaks to someone’s experience is warranted. I certainly thought it was justifiable for Dexter to do what he did. I think some of the criticisms were about that, and some of the criticisms weren’t so much about the “what” as they were about the “how,” and those were valid too. We certainly do live in an era where the bar is very high as far as the simultaneous surprise, satisfaction, and closure that should go along with a series finale.”
He went on to say:
“And let’s be real: people found the way that show left things pretty unsatisfying, and there’s always been a hope that a story would emerge that would be worth telling. I include myself in the group of people that wondered, “What the hell happened to that guy?” So I’m excited to step back into it. I’ve never had that experience of playing a character this many years on.”
Although Hall’s statement has an undeniable “I’m sorry that you didn’t like it” feel to it, at the very least he’s conceding that people have the right to be let down by the unsatisfying and utterly preposterous ending. Hopefully the upcoming revival will go some way to remedying the bitter taste it left, and conclude with something less frustrating.
The new Dexter miniseries will also hopefully address some other issues left lingering. It was one thing for the friendly neighborhood serial killer to take out his urges on the murderous degenerates who prowl the nocturnal streets of Miami, but how he’s been satiating his bloodlust unnoticed while living in the Oregon wilderness was not made clear, alongside, as Hall stated, how exactly he survived his apparently certain demise and why he took such elaborate steps to fake it when there were no witnesses to the performance.