Dexter (season 8) | |
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Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 12 |
Release | |
Original network | Showtime |
Original release | June 30 | – September 22, 2013
Season chronology | |
The eighth and final season of Dexter premiered on June 30, 2013. The season follows Dexter Morgan, who is forced to deal with his past when he comes across Dr. Evelyn Vogel, an expert on psychiatry who returns to Miami. Nicknamed the "Psychopath Whisperer", she claims to have structured the code for him alongside Harry. This season also deals with a new serial killer in Miami that removes pieces of the victims' brains, and with Debra who is trying to deal with what she has done in the past season.
On March 1, 2013, Jennifer Carpenter reported on her Twitter that Michael C. Hall would be directing the second episode of season 8, which was his directing debut.
On April 18, 2013, Showtime officially announced that the eighth season would be the show's last.
On May 9, 2013, the official Dexter Facebook fanpage posted a behind the scenes photo of a clapper showing that episode 6 of season 8 would be directed by John Dahl.
According to Metacritic, the early response to Season 8 was mostly positive, the first two episodes of the season received a score of 71 out of 100. With a few episodes left in the season, Rolling Stone opined that Dexter [is] still "cleverly written and has a core cast of characters we care for", concluding that "everyone's favorite serial killer still has some gas left in his tank". However, as the season went on, reception dropped drastically. The post-season reception was extremely negative. IGN gave the season as a whole a 5.5, citing poor writing and the ending as two of the reasons for its poor quality. The A.V. Club gave the season as a whole a D-.
The series finale met a mixed and polarized response, although the majority opinion was negative. Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times praised Carpenter's performance as worthy of an Emmy nomination and argued that "the parting scenes between Dexter and Deb, possibly the most powerful sibling bond television has ever seen, gave the show the send-off it deserved". Mike Hale of the New York Times said he "bought the ending", and fans "may or may not think that Dexter’s final resting place is the one he deserves. But it works".Entertainment Weekly championed the series finale as "the best Dexter episode in years. ... It was also one of the strangest episodes in the show's history ... It's like watching a different series, one that was more compelling than the show it served to close."