Well lets see...Dexter's wife is murdered by the main villain of the previous season and it has barely been mentioned so far..No one cares that the trinity killer has not been caught even though he killed a cops wife.
They haven't gone down that road because to do so gets Dexter caught. This is where it has become unrealistic. If you don't see that I don't know what to tell you.
Batman is ****ing ****, who cares.

wat

I agree this season is bad, and I agree they are handling Rita's death horribly (I argued same a few pages back), but the problem *isn't* realism (Also I would disagree that no one cares Trinity is still in the wind, with his family being in protective custody and Quinn investigating Dexter/Kyle Butler and all)

But you're still wrong, the problem isn't realism. If the new eps had the quality/believability of season 1, it would be great for viewers -- the quality of season 1 was very good and the believability was non-existent.

Of course in a believable show investigating Trinity leads to Dexter getting caught, but in a believable world killing dozens of people leads to Dexter being caught or at least investigated but here he's not, because that's the premise of the show, as unbelievable as that might be.

You're like a fan of ALF who liked the first four season and then in season 5 says "you know the problem with this season, not believable."

Can the show be acceptably unrealistic, but have unacceptable plot holes?

Of course. It needs to be consistent. If in one issue Superman is rendered passed out cold by a block of kryptonite and in the next issue he is weakened but able to fight by the same exposure, that sucks and we can complain about it.

It's bad/inconsistent storytelling to have the same exposure to kryptonite affect Superman in different ways depending on what the authors want to happen in the story.

Certainly we can complain about the inconsistency, but you can't complain about the implausibility of a flying man weakened by the meteor to begin with, because that's built in to the premise, you accept that unbelievability as being part and parcel with the story.

Complaining about "how is Dexter not caught?" in season 5, is like deciding to complain about Superman's flight 5 years into the comics.

It's an FBI case. Obv people care but there's nothing they can do about it. The one cop who did try to meddle in the Trinity case got suspended.

Can god make a TV show so realistic that even He can't find plot holes in it?

The Wire

Not a great episode, but not horrible either. People way overreact imo.

But the Sting stuff really was badly written. I mean, La Guerta (pretty high up in Miami Metro) goes undercover with a wire, and the reason she does it, so it somehow saves Anccchhhhel's ass from an assault charge? Where is the logic behind that ?
Also, why wouldn't she tell her COP husband?
That was really stupid, but Dexter was always like it, a coupld sideplots to show the other actors have often been badly written and useless overall, I know that and in general I can just ignore it and enjoy the rest of the show.

i obv agree that the show is unrealistic, but I didn't think he made that many BIG mistakes in season 1 or 2 whereby he "should" have gotten caught. I felt like season 3 and 4 there were a lot more mistakes done by him, but I felt like in the first 2 the writers did a good job of covering every angle up. Maybe I'm misremembering some key events but I doubt it.

I don't recall the first couple seasons of Dexter being completely unrealistic. Sure it's far-fetched but it's well within the realm of possibility for a meticulous serial killer to avoid getting caught by the police. I could easily be forgeting some stuff that was obviously unrealistic but it seems like you're just saying a serial killer not getting caught is unfathomable, in general.

It's also perfectly logical to say the longer the series goes on without Dexter getting caught the more unrealistic it gets, especially as he gets sloppier.

obv she was chosen because she "gives the best BJs in Miami." the dirty cop would have heard about this and she suckered him into getting caught by offering him drugs and a bj. i thought they made this clear. oh wait...they didn't =p

You assume of course this is how it will continue.

Its pretty clear to me one of the key points in this series will be getting caught or almost caught by Quinn or Robocop. He has been making loads of mistakes and this is intentional as character development. Ever since he stopped being the guy from ep 1 season 1 who had a girlfriend as a cover but nothing more he has become sloppier the more "human" he has become.

The Kyle Butler stuff, Lumen knowing his real name, killing the guy in the bathroom as a rage kill, the death of Rita because he didnt kill Trinity straight away, even going back to Miguel and the crazy chick from season 2 - this isnt some accidental series of mistakes and the writers dont care, this is clearly intentional and it is all referenced back to him via ghost-harry. The point is Dexter hasnt re-evaluated everything yet, but getting caught/almost caught by Quinn will be the turning point.

Nits in this thread. I haven't enjoyed the start of the season as much as i'd hoped, but I didn't like 'the baby keeping Dexter sleep deprived' last season either.

I liked the contrast of robot Dexter from his first date with Rita.

We've seen a slow progression through the seasons with Dexter really looking to replace Harry and learn to be human. In season 2 with Lila, season 3 with Miguel, then season 4 with Trinity.

We are seeing the same pattern with Lumen, but this time someone who has been as traumatised as Dexter, so perhaps the first person he can really pass 'the code' on to?

This has by no means been the best season or anything near it but there's some major over-reaction ITT. 'omg worst hour of TV ever!!' come on.

Masuka was the best part of the whole ep imo.

I agree, I was just commenting on the opinion that you can't start saying it's unrealistic now because it's no more unrealistic then it was initially.

Here's what it is, the supporting characters suck, as they have for a few seasons now. Their storylines, we dislike (Quinn/Deb relationship, Angel/LT relationship). The case they are working on, the beheadings, is sloppy and not compelling. There is no foil for Dexter as there has been in the past. And the primary Dexter storyline with Stiles is completely meh so far.

Dexter as a character study is all there is right now, and that's not remotely enough.

Were almost halfway through the season with no real direction or suspense. Also its not like theyve gone deep or dug into the Character Study much at all either.

If there isnt going to be a main villain they need Dexter being chased or tension on him to make it interesting.

edit to say that it looks like theyre going that route with Robocop but halfway through the season seems too long.

i can deal with the "not looking for trinity" angle. but this past episode was brutal

1. the dexter/lumen storyline is boring and Julia Stiles cannot act. i just dont care about her like i did jimmy smits or john lithgow

2. the angel/LT storyline was so lol bad. for one, it's ridic for the LT to be in on a sting, but it's even more ridic they had her acting super ass shady and not telling him whats going on. in real life, she would be like "oh yeah, IA wants to me wear a wire to catch a bad guy"

they just created drama where there was none for the purpose of wasting time, just bad writing, and Dexter is better than that.


3. i don't care about his dumbass kid

so basically there is no story line this year i care about, i just want to watch dexter(the character)

the fact that lumen is still alive is so dumb. That bitch would be in pieces in at the bottom of the ocean in real life.

does jeff lindsay have anything to do with the tv show?

http://jam.canoe.ca/Books/2010/10/29/15879646.html

Dexter's daddy goes his own way
Author Jeff Lindsay appreciates the screen adaptation of his work, but is far happier doing his own thing
By MARK DANIELL, QMI Agency

So has he given any thought to how it will all end for Dexter?

"I fantasize about it," he confesses. "Sometimes I think he'll be caught and get off on a technicality. Maybe he'll be executed. Other times I think," and here he pauses, "I just might kill him myself."

------
Uh, I hope at least the TV series writers have a clue as to where they are taking the show.
Or maybe they'll just introduce another main villain every season and have Dex off the radar until the show gets canceled.

i really hope things start to turn around tonight, i'm almost dreading what will happen

the Masuka scene was awesome.. I could not stop laughing as he explained what happened