[umbus]

Dexter, one of my favourite series, the second season was the best if you ask me. The third season is getting better but started out poorly.

..

[Sumaleth]

My favorite show at the moment, and a strangely uncomfortable experience.

The second season was definitely the high point, even with the slightly weak finale.

The first episode of the third season was strangely poor, but it had me hooked again from the second. Smits is phenomenal. Third season doesn't have that "right on the edge" feel of the second, so it's not as strong, but I'm still loving it. Just hope they keep the twists coming and ramp up the danger level in the second half of the season.
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[umbus]

yea I second that, smits is phenomenal really good actor.
Feels like he is holding up the show for now, as you I am hoping for some twist soon in the series otherwise it would become boring.

thought there were gonna be more fans in the forum....

[umbus]

btw was gonna discuss the story a little but I'm not sure if you have seen the latest 7th of 3rd? wouldn't wanna reveal something....

[Lunatique]

I was really into it (first 2 seasons), but the first episode of 3rd season really bored me to tears. I couldn't see any potential for the 3rd season at all from that first episode.

[Sumaleth]

[Freebooter]

I really enjoy the series, I watch it every time they air it here in Oslo.

[gLitterbug]

Just watched ep 8 moving to 9. Wonder if I'm right about how things will go down.

[Sumaleth]

I wasn't right in my guess.
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[gLitterbug]

me neither

[umbus]

hm I thought they were onto him and then they made it to yea whatever I'm not sure what, seems like they wanna focus more on that Matsis character...
Not sure yet whether this will be good or not. I think the latest 5 or 6 episodes kind of fumbles in the dark because they know they can never beat what they had in the late first and middle second season.
Most series ends up in fillers. "Lost" series got out of hand if you ask me.

edit - btw if I am gonna continue watching I need something dramatical that happens soon, last 3 episodes was almost the same episode. U guys get that feeling aswell?
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[Mikko K]

[Sumaleth]

They've definitely left it too late in the season for danger to appear. I thought they were building up to Smits doing his own thing (which happened), making a mistake and getting caught, and the pressure that would put on Dexter. Instead they seem to be making Smits more of a super bad guy. On the face of it that seems less interesting, but I still can't wait to see how it plays out.

Even with the lower/zero danger level this season I'm still loving it. It's working great at a deeper, psychological level. I'm into this season as much as I was the second, though I do wish they'd upped the stakes a lot sooner.

--

Re LOST.

The second season of LOST is a keyword for "mess". They did pull it back together for the third season, substantially, which was the best to date.
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[umbus]

I actually thought "smits" was gonna turn Dexter in.... u know like infiltrating the killer behind?
Some things doesn't make sense if you wanna be picky, remember the part where Dexter delete the recordings of him looking for blood on his own boat? Would not that be impossible? is it really possible to delete entries without making a gap in the sequence? experts going through the material would instantly see something wrong.... There are small details like that adds to the whole, wasn't picky about it before but if they are gonna keep stalling the series it really bugs me.

Next episode will be crucial for me, if nothing cool happens I will turn it off.

Did you watch Six feet under Sumaleth? The guy who plays Dexter was in that series, that was also a good series for the first three seasons then you see the same pattern as in most series, however I prefer series to movies, more room for experimenting in manuscipt it seems. Perhaps that is what I like.
What was the name of that early series with Jessica Alba? the same there actually, first season was killer, then you got to see "eyes only" behind who he was and then it all turned corny.
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[Sumaleth]

I didn't watch 6FU, but I know the series.

All TV series tend to change over the run. Sometimes for artistic reasons, sometimes to try and get the ratings up, sometimes because they forget how to do it well, and sometimes because the team changes. They always lose some of the audience when they make changes, but hope to pick up more.

I liked all 11 seasons of MASH, but I know people who hated it once it started getting more serious. I loved the first season of Boston Legal, but can't watch it since they made major changes in seasons 2, though its now getting much higher ratings.

Re deletion of the recordings, yeah there's a lot of that in Dexter. They shortcut plotting pretty often in Dexter, and it's one thing that annoys me. Maybe "simplifying" is more like what they do -- they could fill out every detail and have it all work perfectly, but they prefer to use a throwaway line to solve tricky plotting if they can.

BTW, if you like Dexter I can highly recommend Death Note (the anime series, not the live-action movies).
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[Tzan]

Mmmm Death Note

[umbus]

Appreciate the tip regarding Death Note , gonna look it up for sure.

Interesting how it feels like we interpret the series the same, you are spot on with the shortcut plotting.
I'll wait for the next episode, gonna come back and dicsuss it.

As I said though it really comes down to this next episode for me. If the same as previous episode I will log out of the series.
However it shall be interesting to see what Dexter will do to Matsis now that he knows Matsis has been lying to him regarding the shirt and all...

later
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[umbus]

Episode 10 season 3 - Damn damn damn, much better episode. Seems I will continue watching for now.

Hey Sumaleth u seen it yet?

Showdown with Matsis on the roof, damn good acting from Matsis "Miguel".
More feeling into it.

7/10 this episode.
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[Sumaleth]

Yeah, they finally ramped it up in the last half of that episode. It's now at where I would have liked it to be three or four episodes back. But it's setting up for a strong conclusion.

Easy money is on LaGuerta killing Prado, but I hope they don't go along that easy road.

The sub-plots feel like they're just wasting time. I know they have to give all the actors something to do, but this late in the season it'd be better to be focusing (I guess we did see a bit of that with the last surprise, where two of the plot lines merged).
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[umbus]

yes agreed they are stalling the manuscript and all for the wrong reasons, could have made it better I think but waiting for this particular episode was worth it for now.
Do you also feel like Dexters acting is some times stiff? Fully aware though that he's not supposed to show a lot of emotion but sometimes it gets awkward.
Laguerta scenario could be possible.

The end where they kidnapped Dexter felt a little bit corny because in the end you know he's not gonna die, thus it becomes ridiculous cause we already know the outcome. Unless they are pulling a "Dallas" or something where he gets killed and then later turns up in the shower lol, ten years later.
ohh my humour is so bad.
Later

p.s. when typing this my cord wasn't plugged in and at 4% I realized this and starting to go all freaky looking for the problem, seems I didn't plug it in effectively haha all this shouting damn all the time because I was typing this and didn't feel like typing all the shit again, so the computer went down and then I found the problem plugged it in and kaboom it goes off.
Instantly I pressed the power on button and wham it all came back even the music I was listening to and all.
All in all why I write this is wanna say I like Vista, been pretty smooth so far for me.
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[Sumaleth]

Dexter has been relegated to a supporting role this season, which has given him lots of scenes where he has to look smugly at Prado, and they've all been pretty awkward.

I don't think they're intentionally "stalling", though that is the end result. Really, all they're doing is following the 1-hour television drama convention, of one A-story each week and one or two B-stories. They have a set of lead characters and they need to give each something to do each week.

The reason it doesn't work as well in Dexter, in my read, is because it has such a strong central story. Dexter is really about a single story each series, and once the viewer latches onto that story everything else feels like its getting in the way. Like when you're late in season 1 of LOST and instead of an episode that drives the central story towards its conclusion you get 40 minutes of how two of the characters met 10 years ago. You don't get that problem in series like CSI or House, where each episode is mostly/relatively standalone.

I haven't read the Dexter novels, but I know that the characters around Dexter are a lot more filled out in the tv series. And it's really just because that's the way tv shows are made. You don't want to hire great actors, pay them great wages, and then give them a 1-dimensional role (though House experimented with it in season 3). The actors don't want that either.

They had this problem in season 1 too, though not so much in season 2, I think because all the B-stories were sub-stories of the main storyline. I had expected them to go the same way in season 3, but they didn't. They obviously felt they could make it work with a more traditional approach, but it hasn't worked.

I can sort of understand why they went back to traditional. It would be tough to maintain another season of what we saw in season 2 (though I wish they'd tried), plus as writers I think they want to pursue other types of stories. They want to explore what happens when a cop falls for an informant and what that would do to a career. I mean, all these B-stories are actually quite good, and I think they'd have worked great in something like CSI. It's back to what I said earlier; we only have a problem here because Dexter's central premise is so strong, that we want to know where that's going and everything else just sort of gets in the way.
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[Ragnarok]

[sometimes]

Sumaleth - Started to watch Deathnote as you recommended, cool stuff for sure. Brilliant when he goes berserk in the book in the first episode, putting a lot of names in there. Thanks again, btw if you didn't notice its me umbus.
arrividerci

Just realized there might be another episode on the up...
well, gotta go look.

[sometimes]

11th - nice trick there, thought it was gonna be different hence looking at the ending last episode. Not as good as previous but it worked.
U think he really killed Miguel? I have my doubts....

[Sumaleth]

Yeah, another surprise twist. It's at it's best when it's unpredictable.

I really don't know where the season is going now though. Two big loose ends to make use of with just one more episode to go.
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[sometimes]

wuw the 12th is the season finale? didn't know...

[sometimes]

btw damn Death Note is really good, they are deeper into the investigation now and I am at the 6th episode heading for the 7th. They met up with L and he told them what to do to further the investigation.
the manuscript is genious... a bit hard to follow the subtitles sometimes cause they flash so fast but mostly I can grasp it...watching japanese language with english subtitles.

Dexter - I have a hunch. Miguel is gonna be saved from Dexter and it will turn out that he can't kill him, then they will bond even more. Somehow I get the feeling they don't want "Matsis" to quit yet since in a way he has held this season up... ...could be scenario...?
Miguel saved, Laguerta dies?
Just thinking out loud here sumaleth. What do you think could be a possible scenario?
gotta go

[Sumaleth]

You're watching Death Note with subtitles? I'm watching the English language version, but I suppose it's the same story.

I had been expecting the tree-cutter guy to come in and save Miguel and was surprised when he didn't. But I suppose there's still a chance that'll yet happen.

With only one episode left, I really don't know where it's going. It kinda feels like they're just setting things up for season 4, but I hope that's not the case. I want them find a satisfying conclusion from the collection of unresolved story elements they still have in the air.

If Miguel is saved, it could make the friendship stronger, in a weird sort of serial-killer-friendship way. That would be an interesting way to resolve this season.
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[sometimes]

Death Note, yea I hope it's the same. Now there was a second Kira, a girl. She had the eyes traded with a death god so she can see names and birth numbers. Love it so far.
Did you watch Ninja Scroll?

[Sumaleth]

The Ninja Scroll series? No.

My favorite anime series is Neon Genesis: Evangelion, which is just monstrous, but Death Note is a clear second. I'm very curious to see how well the series wraps up.
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