Among the many beloved shows that had a weak finale, few landed with the kind of thud SHOWTIME’s “Dexter“ did. From 2006-2013, audiences followed the chronicles of the serial killer with a moral code played by Michael C. Hall as he killed those who “deserved” to be killed. And maybe one or two others. The show’s finale left such a bad taste in people’s mouths, it became one of the motivating factors behind reviving the show as “Dexter: New Blood” in late 2021. While the revival season was successful, there will not be a season 2.
From here on out, there will be spoilers for both the original run of “Dexter” and its continuation series. So if you don’t want to ruin those for yourself, now’s the time to catch up on the series and stay away from the rest of the internet for a few days.
So, the finale of “Dexter” left a lot of people cold with the titular anti-hero escaping from his life to become a lumberjack in the middle of nowhere. The chance for the character and show to actually have a decent ending was one particular draw to the new season.
It was one hell of a draw, as it became the most watched series in the channel’s history. It would almost be comical if it weren’t so frustrating- but the new series also failed to stick the landing. The finale was pretty divisive with mixed critical reviews. It was arguable better than the original only in that it actually killed off Dexter, leaving his son Harrison to live his own life.
There were plans to carry the show forward by focusing on Harrison. It seemed like a good idea considering the ratings; why not carry on the series for another year despite the obvious finality it had?
Turns out SHOWTIME is not entirely willing to kill off its golden goose yet. Instead of a series carrying into Harrison’s future, there are now plans to go into Dexter’s past.
There’s not much to go on aside from reports this new series will look at Dexter’s earlier years. That means before we saw him in season 1 as a bloodsplatter pattern analyst. Given this is a developing story, we’ll report more on it as we hear it. This also comes at a pivotal moment for SHOWTIME as the network has been absorbed fully into Paramount+, on both a streaming and broadcast level. If the last few months have taught us anything about programming content, nothing’s really that safe. So who knows if we’ll actually see more of Dexter, or if his demise truly was final.
