‘Dexter’ Is Returning For A New Season, Which Is Somehow Among 2020’s Weirdest News
Hopefully that 'Dexter is a lumberjack now' ending was all a dream?
Showtime’s serial killer drama Dexter is returning for an eighth season seven years after the show ended with a whimper. Given how the once appointment-TV show’s quality dipped, reaction can be summed up in one word: “why?”.
As per Deadline, Showtime has ordered ten episodes of the show, with actor Michael C. Hall set to return as the show’s red-headed serial killer Dexter Morgan, a forensic expert who channelled his blood-thirst into killing the bad guys who escape more conventional, legal forms of justice.
We left him in confusing circumstances –at the end of season eight, he’d faked his own death, sent his son and partner to Argentina, dropped his sister’s body in the ocean, and had started a life as a lumberjack in Oregon. It was a lot to take in: at the time, AV Club‘s recapper called it “an affront to the suckers who spent 96 hours watching Dexter.” Ouch.
The show is widely considered to have gone off the rails around season five, when showrunner Clyde Phillips departed, but to have absolutely lost things in the finale. Phillips is returning to the show, and in a statement, Showtime’s co-president of entertainment Gary Levine assured skeptics that the duo were returning to Dexter because they had a great idea.
“Dexter is such a special series, both for its millions of fans and for Showtime, as this breakthrough show helped put our network on the map many years ago,” said Levine.
“We would only revisit this unique character if we could find a creative take that was truly worthy of the brilliant, original series. Well, I am happy to report that Clyde Phillips and Michael C. Hall have found it, and we can’t wait to shoot it and show it to the world.”
The announcement was accompanied with a short video on social media evoking the show’s famous blood-splatter-filled opening credits.
This u? pic.twitter.com/C0nqTsQPpJ
— Paul Blart Antifa Cop (@TheEpicDept) October 14, 2020
The reaction’s been pretty mixed, though people are resignedly hopeful the show could return to its glory days, or even reboot it by side-stepping the last few seasons, or making them all a dream.
I will, however, respect the creators if the entire season is just a very chill, literal portrait of his life as a lumberjack.
— Gremliny Nussboo (@emilynussbaum) October 14, 2020
I knew @SHO_Dexter couldn't end it like this #Dexter #DexterReturns pic.twitter.com/kOxgifnWwR
— Josh Kannenberg (@joshkberg) October 15, 2020
I'm hoping it was a dream sequence and he's really not a random lumberjack in the woods and Deb didn't actually die 🙃
— 🎃||SabrinaAria||✍🏻 (@SabrinaAria_) October 14, 2020
Still haven't watched the last season of Game of Thrones, I take it?
— Matthew Dayton (@oidoglr) October 14, 2020
If Scott Buck is involved, I won't be watching, frankly.
— 👿Archdemon😈 (@arch1o1) October 14, 2020
If you’d like to revisit Dexter, its eight seasons are available to stream on Stan. The returning season will arrive sometime in 2021.