Hello loyal blog readers, fellow members of the Brain Trust, Brainers if you will. Today I give you my thoughts on the fifth season of Dexter, as well as review the latest episodes of How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory. Really random subjects I know, but I like to be economical with my posts.
As usual, there will be spoilers.
Dexter – Season 5
To be honest, I’ve been wondering how Dexter was going to top itself ever since the second season when it was Dexter himself being hunted. And to my delight, each year they’ve come up with a brand new angle for each season that’s managed to keep it interesting.
This season was enjoyable – and I do mean that – but I can’t help but think what it could have been. The way they’d been setting it up all season I really thought someone – either Deb or Quinn – would find out the truth about Dexter. Now the groundwork is certainly there for Quinn to eventually figure it out, if he hasn’t already, but what this show really needed in its finale was for something to up the stakes for the series. We’ve seen all of the elements of this season before, and while it was wonderfully done, this show can’t afford to rest on its laurels.
And there-in lies my slight disappointment with the finale – at times it felt like it was a cop out. Lumen was a great character, and I enjoyed watching her and Dexter together over the course of the season. One of my favourite moments from this season stems from this relationship – the scene where Astor asks Dexter if helping Lumen makes him feel better about Rita. I didn’t like the way they handled her exit though. I have no problem with the reasoning behind her leaving, but it felt too much like they were writing her off because she was a guest star than it did because it was a natural progression in the story.
I had the same issue with Dexter and Lumen’s final confrontation with Deb. Deb letting them go was definitely warranted – it’s the same reason I thought Deb would find out Dexter’s secret at the end of the season – but that plastic sheet was just a little to convenient for me. There’s a fine line between coincidence and ridiculous, and this show flirted dangerously close to it in this scene.
My other gripes are smaller. They never really explained why Chase and Emily (that girl whose blood he wore around his neck) were so weird together. Why did she continue to follow him long after what he did to her? I was also a little taken aback about how quickly they dropped that new cop from the storyline – not that I was a huge fan of her, but they seemed to put in more time than was necessary to develop such a one-note character. And what about the second brother who got away in that club shooting? It was never a very important part of the season I know, but at the same time watching the police department completely forget about a criminal who very publicly embarrassed them took me out of the show a little. If they explained all this already then I apologise, but as I see it now they sort of pushed these questions to the side.
Now I know, you could never tell it with this review, but I did enjoy this season of Dexter – there were certainly some great episodes. Nevertheless, I do think that next season will be an important one for the series. If something doesn’t upset the status quo of this show, or take it somewhere it hasn’t been before, Dexter is really going to fall in quality. It’s been one of the most consistent shows on television over the past few years, but after five seasons even the best shows can grow stale. I hope that doesn’t happen to Dexter.
The Big Bang Theory – “The Alien Parasite Hypothesis” (C)
I have a somewhat love-hate relationship with this show. I really love nerd humour, and you’d be hard pressed to find another show on television that embraces it more than the Big Bang Theory. On the other hand, I really love character development too, and you’d be hard pressed to find another show with more static characters than the Big Bang Theory, the worst offender being Sheldon.
Now pleaseee, don’t take this the wrong way. Sheldon is pretty much the epicenter of the show, Jim Parsons does a great job playing him, and without him this show would only be a shell of what it is. That’s not what I mean. My problem is the show tends to over-rely on his character, which has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of the show. Now that they’re in their fourth season it’s starting to feel like we’re getting hammered with the same jokes over and over again.
And now here was an episode where they could have done something about it. When they ended last season with the promise of Sheldon finally dating I was hoping they would use it to take Sheldon’s character to a new place. They’ve done this to a point, but they’ve never really taken his character too far out of his comfort zone. I would have liked to see Sheldon’s character move it to the next level with Amy Farrah Fowler when she started expressing an interest in another man (after apparently being sexually aroused for the first time in her life). Instead the writers kept him in familiar waters, which I find a little boring. Now I know he acted exactly like Sheldon would have acted, but that’s exactly my point – if we don’t get to see him in different contexts then he gets stale, sitcom or not.That’s just my take on it. I know the Big Bang Theory is a popular show, and I wouldn’t be watching it at all if I didn’t like something about it, so I know I’m bound to find someone out there who disagrees with me. If this sounds like you please let me know why in the comments.
How I Met Your Mother – False Positive (B+)
I liked this episode – a classic How I Met Your Mother non-linear narrative that’s been at the heart of the series since its beginning. Everyone’s storyline here brought something to the table – there was really no weak link – and the ending with Ted talking some sense into the entire gang, capped off with his hilariously short exchange with Punchy (I like Punchy) was really well done.
I particularly enjoyed watching Lilly and Marshall’s freak out. I laughed pretty hard when Marshall seemed to be rationally responding to the situation only to end with an even bigger freak out than before. I could see how there would be some who wouldn’t like this sequence as it’s somewhat gimmicky, but still, how could you not laugh a little at this:
MARSHALL: Lilly we have to relax, there’s no need to panic. True, there’s a lot to do, but we’ve got nine months to prepare. So I say that we just make a list of everything that needs to get done before the baby arrives, and DO EVERYTHING ON THAT LIST TONIGHT!
One last thing – based on the scene at the end of the episode where Robin asks Ted to be her best man if she ever got married, I’d be willing to bet that the wedding shown at the start of the season is hers, and that Punchy’s wedding is probably just a decoy. It was a bit of a throwaway line I know, but it’s also the kind of line that could foreshadow something yet to come. Just a thought...
Alright, I’m done. I’m going to go enjoy a Christmas themed movie snack.
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